Synthetic Bullet Tip Mold

[MikeS]

HollowPoint: I must say I'm not real interested in synthetic tips, but if I was, I still wouldn't send you $2.00 for your info. You did lots of development work picking the brains of many folks here on the forum. Where would this forum be if everyone that had an idea for something after discussing it for over 3 pages decided to sell the info, rather than just posting it openly in the forum? There are so many people here that have done things to promote cast boolit shooting, that just gave away their ideas. What if Beagle said "Send me $2.00 and I'll send you info on making your moulds cast a boolit that's larger in diameter than it's currently casting"? Or if Ken said "You want to post more than 100 postings, then the charge to do that is $5.00 per hundred messages" or any other of the many folks that have made contributions to the cast boolit world? Now if you wanted to actually build tip moulds, and sell those, I would see no problem with that, but what you're basically doing is saying "I had an idea of how to do this, and after bouncing it around with several forum members, I've come up with a way anyone can make a mould for themselves, and for just $2.00 I'll send you a PDF file of how to do it." and I personally think that stinks. If you were to post how to do it here for anyone to see, then said you also had a PDF that explains how to do it in detail that you want to sell, I would again have no problem with that, and I bet you would still sell as many as you have, maybe a few more, or a few less, but it would come across MUCH better that way.

As I said in the beginning, I have no plans on making boolit tips synthetic or otherwise, so what you're doing doesn't matter to me one way or the other, just think of all the good things that have come out of this forum, and where they would be if everyone did as you're doing, selling copies of your idea. (for any amount of money, the amount isn't the issue)

I might be way off base, but I'll bet that there are other forum members that had/have the same thoughts I do, but didn't want to say anything.

[HollowPoint]

Hi Mike:

I'm sorry all of this seems to have rubbed you the wrong way.

I suspect that if Beagle or Ken had done as you've eluded to they'd
have just a few more dollars in their pockets with which to pay bills.

I can't presume to speak for either one of them but, there is a possibility
that after having graciously shared their ideas they may have wondered
to themselves if maybe they didn't deserve some kind of compensation
for their efforts. Personally, I think they do but, I'm bias that way.

I've never dealt with either of these gentlemen but, of the several times
I've come across their post on this forum they've struck me as individuals
similar to myself; in that they like to come up with and promote new ideas.

My internet bill is $49.95 a month. Even with the several sets of instructions that I've sold already,
the sum total of what they've paid still hasn't reached half that amount.

And, after PayPal takes out their cut, and the IRS takes out their cut,
and my tax preparer takes out her cut, that's as close as giving my ideas away
as I can afford.

Thanks for your input.

HollowPoint

[kentuckycajun]

Personally, I think that Hollowpoint has spent quite a few $ (on aluminum blocks, hardware, glue sticks, re-tooling HP molds, etc), not to metion what his TIME is worth (my time is worth about $25/hr) - so at $2 for a tried and proven method, this makes me feel like I would be ripping HIM off. This is something I would like to try in the future, and most of the R&D has been done FOR me by HP. How is this not a good deal?

[MikeS]

My internet bill is $49.95 a month. Even with the several sets of instructions that I've sold already,
the sum total of what they've paid still hasn't reached half that amount.

And, after PayPal takes out their cut, and the IRS takes out their cut,
and my tax preparer takes out her cut, that's as close as giving my ideas away
as I can afford.

Thanks for your input.

HollowPoint

That's exactly my point. As you can see already, you're not going to make much money selling the plans @ $2.00 a pop. But, if you had published them here (given them away) you would probably get back much more in good will. There's an old saying 'What goes around comes around'. If it's more a matter that you just feel like folks that want the info should have to put something into it (in this case money), then you might have been better off offering the plans PDF as a site benefit listing. If that had been the case, I'd probably buy a set, just to support the site, if for no other reason. And if I had been one of those people that DID help you come up with these plans, or should I say helped you refine them, then you offered them to me for half price like you did, I would really be upset. I mean where was it, on the 3rd or 4th page of this thread where you finally came up with the finalized plans, and offered them for sale? Those plans are NOT purely of your design, but only came about after you bounced ideas off several forum members here.

But hey, I'm only one person, and others seem fine with the idea of giving you money for your plans, so more power to ya. Just don't be surprised if/when the karma comes around to bite you on the rear.

[HollowPoint]

Great news for those of you who don't own a Hot-Glue Gun.

I got a chance to try out an idea with these Synthetic Bullet Tips molds. On Monday after noon I tried using some Silicone Calking in place of the Hot Melt Glue that I have been using. The Molds themselves are the same; just a different medium that's all.

When allowed to fully cure this Silicone dries to a hardened rubber consistency that should be a little better suited to mitigating inadvertent detonations in tube-magazine lever guns with high recoil.

An added benefit is that fact that the cured Silicone won't as readily take on permanent deformations like the Hot Melt Glue tips if stored Nose-side-down or if stored with the Tips resting against something that could alter their shape.

There are some down-sides though. For one, Silicone takes a whole lot longer to cure. It's not like the Hot Melt Glue that take less than a minute. We're talking a couple of days here as apposed to 40 or 50 seconds.

Another thing is the cost of a tube of Silicone. It can be pricy depending on where you get it and the colors are more or less limited to black or white.

The viscosity of Silicone seems slightly less that Hot Melt Glue in its melted state so in theory that should mean that for most users you should be able to make Synthetic Tip Molds with slightly smaller injections holes for a more pointed streamlined Tip.

I'm just in the preliminary stages of testing this new medium. I thought I'd mention it for those of you who didn't want to have to buy an expensive Hot Glue Gun.

Once I get a few more samples made up I'll post some pictures.

Trying to bring my cast bullets into the 21st century. The quest continues.

HollowPoint

[Christorbust]

Hollowpoint,

Interesting thread indeed.

I was wondering if you (or anyone who has the design) planned to do any expansion properties testing?

The advantage of the tips is to have the ballistic coefficient of pointed bullets, but the expansion properties of hollow points right?

I know some hp bullets have plugs to keep them from filling with clothing or such, and it would be interesting to see how the differing plug materials affect expansion. When I have a hp mold I think this would be my area of interest/experimenting.

(Subscribed)

[HollowPoint]

Hi Cristorbust:

I see the point of what you're asking. It's something I asked myself while developing these Synthetic Bullet Tips.

My main goal was to get them to fly straight and true from my firearms. (interior and exterior ballistics) Thankfully, I have now confirmed this in all of the guns I've shot my cast hollow points wearing these Synthetic Tips. (the exception of the old Enfield that I'm now in the process of re-barreling)

As time permits, I can now move on to testing the "Terminal Ballistics" of my cast hollow point with and without the Synthetic Tips in place.

The plans and instructions for making these Synthetic Bullets Tips molds are now in the hands of enough other bullet casters that hopefully some of these other guys here will eventually chime in with answers they've found to these same questions.

With enough different guys coming at this from different angles, I have no doubt that some of them will inevitably come up with "Better Mouse Traps;" so to speak.

Stay tuned for coming attractions. Thanks for asking.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

It's been some time since I posted any updates on this thread.

For the most part I think I got everything about this project working out just as I'd hoped.

I have been continuing my experiments using Silicon Calk media as a replacement for the Hot Glue that these Synthetic Tips were originally designed around. My first couple of tests were done using bearing-grease as my mold lubricant.

It did work but the grease was just thick enough that it transfered some uneven spots onto the surface of my bullet tips. Also; it takes a heck of alot of time for the Silicone to setup to the right consistency.

I tested other lubricants but, since they were all petroleum based, they tend to mesh with the Silicone over time and bond with the walls of my mold cavities causing a cleanup chore that necessitates a whole lot of foul language.

In my present test I'm using butter as my lubricant. ("I can't believe It's not butter"-brand) I set it aside for a couple of days then I check to see if the mold releases my cast bullet with a perfectly formed tip on it.

Some may see it as an awful lot of trouble for not alot of gain but, to me it's a good way of negating any potential detonations in my 44 lever action loaded with full power loads. Also; not everyone owns a Hot-Glue-Gun or wants to pay for a new one. If they have the patience, this is just another way to get around having to use Hot-Glue as your Synthetic Bullet Tip media.

When I cast for my 44, I cast up a bunch of them so I don't have to cast anymore for a year. This means that I can set some aside for the same length of time to allow the Silicone to setup. I just need to find the right lubricant that won't degrade or evaporate or bond with the Silicone over time.

I finally re-barreled the old Enfield that was giving me fits during the testing phase of this Synthetic Bullet Tips project.

I'll be taking it out to the desert soon for Proof-Testing the barrel. I'll be taking some of my cast hollow points wearing Synthetic Tips so I can test them to compare any differences in the "Mushrooming" effects they have with and without the Synthetic Tips in place.

That's it for now. I'll be back to let you know how my Terminal Ballistics test went.

HollowPoint