2 pc. Soft Point Mold, Is It My Imagination?

[Alan in Vermont]

Do I correctly remember someone, Lyman, I think, producing a two piece bullet/mold set that let you make a soft nose and back it with a harder body? Seems like I remember it being a SWC design and the nose portion had a tapered section that either was cast into the base or epoxied to the seperately cast base section.

[runfiverun]

they did but there are better ways to get the same results, actually better results...

[MtGun44]

Yes, Lyman made these. You epoxied the parts together. Now we know how to
pour a small, measured amount of pure Pb or 30:1 or so into the nose, then follow with
harder alloy to make the same thing easier with any mold.

As Ross Seyfreid pointed out in his article on this in Rifle (I think) some years back, you only
need to cast maybe 10 or 15 since you can do all the practicing you want with normal boolits,
and only use the two hardness ones for actual game shooting. If you are like most of us
gun cranks, you'll shoot 1500 rounds at paper for every round at game, OR MORE.

Bill

[Jailer]

Why bother with a 2 piece mold when you can cast a soft point with an existing mold. I cast up 20 of these in an hour or so and they should last me quite a while.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b180/Jailer/Gun%20stuff/Softpoints.jpg

[stubshaft]

Two Dropper method?

[MikeS]

Two Dropper method?

2 'droppers' can be used, or a special ladle (for the pure lead nose portion) that holds the exact amount, then follow that with a bottom pour pot of the harder alloy. There's been lots of discussion about way of connecting the 2 lead alloys together. Just this week there was a custom pair of moulds, I don't remember if they were made by NEI, or NOE, but there were 2 separate moulds, one was for the whole boolit, the other was just the nose, and it was sort of interesting in that the nose's bottom wasn't flat, but rather it continued into the boolit, and had what looks like a lube groove, but what it did was to serve as a lock to keep the 2 pieces together. I'm probably not explaining it well, but it looked like it would work to hold the 2 pieces pretty good.

[contender1]

I have seen a caster who "introduced" me to the 2 different allow bullets a few years ago. Two pots of metal. One was pure lead, and the other his main alloy. A dipper, homemade out of a spent .380 or 9mm with a wire handle was used to pour pure lead into a mold, following with the final pour of his chosen alloy. The boolits weren't as "pretty" as most others, but we loaded some into a 44 mag for one of our hunting party. Then we went elk hunting.
There were 4 of us using handguns. A 44 mag, a 41 mag, a 45 Colt, and a 7X30 Waters. All four of us took elk with our handguns. I know the 44 was using the two part bullets. Not sure about the 41 mag. And the guy with the 45 Colt had his own cast slugs. I was using my Contender in 7x30.
While they weren't pretty, (They had a few wrinkles,) the boolits in the 44 did make good wound channels.
Not as hard or as complicated as you'd think.

[GLynn41]

Jailer good job- I used DABS --dual alloy bullets- but have not in a long time -- not that they do not work for they do just content with LWN or cast gc hpsmay go back some time tyr them again

[leadman]

Veral Smith (LBT) used to sell a modified Lee pot that would drop a measured amount of soft lead for the nose. He also made molds that would have a cavity for a nose section and the other the complete boolit. Cast a nose section, move it to the full boolit section, drop in your harder alloy.
I have not heard of him doing this in quite awhile.

I have cast boolits out of pure and then when cool marked tthem and cut off the nose section. Put them in the mold and heated them back up in the alloy until they melted, then poured in the harder lead. Works, just takes awhile.

[DLCTEX]

Do a search here for two alloy boolits and you'll find a method that produces a boolit with no wrinkles and is absolutely bonded together. Found it:http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=11749&highlight=casting+softnose+boolits

[BossHoss]

This site continues to blow my mind..... I love this.

[Jailer]

Sorry for the late reply for those that asked questions. We hosted a family gathering after work and am just sitting down for the day.

The bullets are 2 part. I cast up a bunch of 110gr boolits from pure lead and used those in the nose and used straight wheel weights for the shank. I wanted to try and keep things as consistent as possible from boolit to boolit hence the pre cast nose slugs.

The method I used was the one described by BruceB in the link posted by DLCTEX.

[crazy mark]

I have one of the 311291 nose molds. Lyman/Ideal made these many years ago. The nose looks like a mushroom and you place it in your 311291 mold and then pour in the harder alloy.

[GLynn41]

Lots of ways to do it lead pellets can B melted and used for the nose-- let cool of course and count how many it will take to give you what you want-- dippers- Veral has not made that pot in a long time maybe some one here will- bought round balls for MZLers can be used-- and so it goes-two things the lead does not care and dual alloy boolits will work (DABS)

[rintinglen]

+1 on Glynn41's recommendation for using ML balls for the soft lead. I cast up about a dozen soft-points using a 311-291 single cavity mold and some .30 caliber buck shot. put the buckshot in the mold, rubber band the handles shut and float the mold on top of the melted hard stuff in your pot. When the buckshot melts, fill the mold with the harder alloy, let it freeze, and voila--a DYI soft-point. I used the regular 311-291's to sight in and for practice, while reserving the DABS for actual hunting. I found the DABS boolits to run about 4 grains heavier than my practice boolits.

[OuchHot!]

Another thing to try is heat treating the bullets to the desired body hardness, standing them base down in water covering the bearing section and then holding a hot soldering iron on the tips to anneal them. I've wanted to try to build a little cam to bump a second bottom pour lever to simulate the LBT machine, but haven't gotten to it.