HP mold makers?

[dak109]

I am looking to get into hollow point casting. After a quick search, and a lot of reading, I haven't quite found what I am looking for. So, here we go
1) How many HP mold makers are there?
2) Who are they? I have found 3, Mihec, Noe and one at www.hollowpoint.com Not sure if that is their name or not.
3) Does anybody have experience/comparison of the various makers?
4) is there an advantage to a five sided pin over a round pin? From a casting standpoint? From a ballistic stanpoint?

I am sure I will have more questions from the hopefull discussion. Thank you in advance for your input.

PS. Been reading here for awhile just don't post much.

[btroj]

Any of the 3 source you listed do good work. Hollowpoints.com is a post manufacturing job, he hollowpoints an existing mould.
Pin shape and size is up to you. The round vs 5 sided is again a personal thing.
Pin shape, size, and alloy need to balanced to your desired velocity and expansion type.

[BCall]

It's hollowpointmold.com, and Eric doesn't actually make HP molds, he converts your mold to HP. He does a fantastic job as it too. Another member here- Buckshot, does them as well. Buckshot has done at least 5 conversions for me and does excellent work as well. My 225462 single cavity HP that Buckshot converted for me wold probably be the last mold I would ever sell.

Lyman still lists a few HP pistol molds, and the 457122 HP still, but that is all. I can't really think of anyone else at this time. BRP used to make some, until he closed up shop.

IMO, the Cramer type molds made by Mihec, or the conversions by Eric at hollowpointmolds.com are the easiest to use if you want to make alot of HP's. Mine are mostly the single cavity pull pin type, which work well if you don't need a lot of boolits. The RG molds from NOE are the most finicky for me. They do work and work well, but for me they take more work to get going good.

[dak109]

Guess I should have clarified. I will be casting .44 and .357 for use in a levergun and revolvers. The .357 may pull double duty as I have a RS9c that slugs .357. I am currently using a 125gr rf Lee to cast for it and my revolvers.

Cramer style kind of throughs me. I have seen Mihecs and hollowpointmold.com. they did not appear to be quite the same. Same concept but different way of getting there?

[mold maker]

You'll be happy with either of the two mold makers or Eric's conversion. I have 9 molds from Mihec, and NOE. They all get the job done about equally well. As far as the HP design of round or Penta, its just another choice. I have several of the old LYMAN HP molds which are single cav, and much prefer the new 4 cav designs. I even tried drilling a HP into several cast boolits, but was less than satisfied with the results.
Eric gives the choice of HPing an existing mold, which can be an advantage, to a mold you already enjoy.
If you can't observe the use of someone else's mold, just jump right in, and buy with confidence. NOE and Mihec both produce molds that make well designed boolits.

[fredj338]

I have a Mihec as well & Erik has done several molds for me. If yo uhave a fav bullet & wantit in HP, then Erik is the guy.

[stubert]

Lyman devastator in 44 Mag?

[rintinglen]

For your purpose, (fairly large quantities), the Mihec, multi-cavity,Cramer-style molds are the way to fly. I have a 2 cavity 359-640 that is a joy to cast with--You make boolits almost as fast as if you were casting roundnose plain base boolits. The one cavity Lyman type molds are simply too slow, unless you only plan on shooting a few score boolits, or else are retired and time has no meaning.
I consider the penta point pins a useless affectation that adds to the cost without adding any useful value. I had a harder time using them, they tend to stick to the boolit more, which screws up my casting rate and inceases the reject rate.

[Jack Stanley]

I haven't bought a new hollow point mold from a regular make in twenty-five years or so . I did have Erik convert a double cavity mold to hollow point and he repaired another mold that needed help . I even had him fix the noses of a four cavity mold I inted to use a lot .

I am well pleased with the work he does and don''t think I can say enough good about it ( though I will try ) . He has gone above and beyond in the quality of work he's done for me .

If I decide to get a hollow point again ...... I may just find a mold I like and send it to him . I just love the self ejecting feature he put on my forty-five mold , now I can cast hollow points as fast as round nose :grin:

Jack

[Ozarklongshot]

Just got my first 2 Mihec molds both 4 cav and both awesome!! They do cast very different from the single cav iron molds I'm used to and did have a learning curve. But if you want hollow points fast it seems to be a good choice.