Softening the Nose

[Tripplebeards]

TB, If I could I would, but my description above shares that this rifle won't chamber a FN nor a HP. I've enjoyed reading of you "screwing around" quite a bit over the past few years with different alloys and boolit types to find what you want, and this is my journey to do the same. If it weren't fun then we would all just buy jacketed bullets and be done with it.

Good luck on your journey and keep us posted.

[Chill Wills]

i melt 40-1 in the nose, stir surface of it with piece of warm wire a few seconds before it freezes, freeze over, then fill with base material, freeze over, then set bottom of mold in pot until sprue melts, set flat on bench till solid again.
maybe slow but making 10 hunting bullets speed is the last thing on my priority list. methods pouring liquid in a liquid or hand heating a nose id spend more time worrying about if its perfect than just going the slow way.

The two part bullet worked well for me. I was inspired to hunt deer and elk with the two part cast bullet from a piece written in the CBA in the 1980's. I tried them in many of the medium calibers like 338-06, 35 Whelen, 375 H&H. The first time was in the Model 71 348 Winchester. NEI had a 235 grain bullet (GC) I liked in this rifle. 60 grains of H-4831 powered the bullet.

The CBA referenced 5% tin in the nose as being the toughest to hold up against the higher velocity of bottleneck cartridges. I set up two Lee 10lb bottom pour pots side by side. One with 20-1 alloy and one with WW and cast the bullets with the soft nose. Trial and error, starting with a bump of 20-1 in the nose and timed the remainder with WW. It takes a little timing to get the joint in the right place as well as a good joint, not mixing the two.

Though you get only culls at first, soon enough you are producing good bullets and really, you don't need that many. I did however make a lot (bullets) as I wanted to prove to myself that they would shoot into the same group with good accuracy.

So now you have a two part bullet and the body is WW. I heat treated them in the oven to harden the WW body. The lead tin nose stays soft. Only the WW hardens.

I tested many of these by shooting into four one gallon water jugs lined up with a large box of rags behind it to catch the bullets.

To my great joy, the first hunting season I used these, a large dry cow offered me a 200 yd broadside shot and I put one through the chest. There was no recovery of the bullet as it went in the right side and exited the left making a large hole. That cow did not go more than a few steps.

I liked it so much for the novelty of using cast that I kept going with it for about 10 years in different rifles. The bullets I did recover looked like and acted much Nosler partition bullets. Often loosing the nose half way in the game and the unexpanded base driving on.

I mostly stopped hunting with them when I began using BPCR rifles and black powder with soft cast bullets, 20-1, and softer.

[ChristopherO]

Chill Wills, This is exactly the valuable information I was hoping for when starting this thread. That explains the results of the two pour method that BruceB expounded on. (He was as wealth of information and an enjoyable writer, too) The BPCR game looks like a world of fun. My son and I stopped in at a BPCR shoot in Friendship, Indiana one day last spring while we were out riding our motorcycles. I love muzzleloaders and have loaded a few BP rounds for the Marlin CB for the fun of it. But what you do is serious business. Maybe some day I'll try my hand on the line.
Thank you for your input.

The two part bullet worked well for me. I was inspired to hunt deer and elk with the two part cast bullet from a piece written in the CBA in the 1980's. I tried them in many of the medium calibers like 338-06, 35 Whelen, 375 H&H. The first time was in the Model 71 348 Winchester. NEI had a 235 grain bullet (GC) I liked in this rifle. 60 grains of H-4831 powered the bullet.

The CBA referenced 5% tin in the nose as being the toughest to hold up against the higher velocity of bottleneck cartridges. I set up two Lee 10lb bottom pour pots side by side. One with 20-1 alloy and one with WW and cast the bullets with the soft nose. Trial and error, starting with a bump of 20-1 in the nose and timed the remainder with WW. It takes a little timing to get the joint in the right place as well as a good joint, not mixing the two.

Though you get only culls at first, soon enough you are producing good bullets and really, you don't need that many. I did however make a lot (bullets) as I wanted to prove to myself that they would shoot into the same group with good accuracy.

So now you have a two part bullet and the body is WW. I heat treated them in the oven to harden the WW body. The lead tin nose stays soft. Only the WW hardens.

I tested many of these by shooting into four one gallon water jugs lined up with a large box of rags behind it to catch the bullets.

To my great joy, the first hunting season I used these, a large dry cow offered me a 200 yd broadside shot and I put one through the chest. There was no recovery of the bullet as it went in the right side and exited the left making a large hole. That cow did not go more than a few steps.

I liked it so much for the novelty of using cast that I kept going with it for about 10 years in different rifles. The bullets I did recover looked like and acted much Nosler partition bullets. Often loosing the nose half way in the game and the unexpanded base driving on.

I mostly stopped hunting with them when I began using BPCR rifles and black powder with soft cast bullets, 20-1, and softer.

[Chill Wills]

ChristopherO, Thank you for letting me know I was able to provide some useful information. Please post your results as you go.