One big lube groove or multiple smaller lube grooves?

[Love Life]

deleted

[stubshaft]

All three of them look like the base will protrude into the case. I am not a big fan of the one big groove except for BP pistol calibers. I am partial to Loverin designs but would probably pick the middle one and do away with the crimp groove. The one on the far right is good looking too but the base looks a little thin, again i would loose the crimp groove and thicken the base band.

[waksupi]

Go with #3. A Loverin type boolit usually shoots well. You will probably end up using lube in the bottom two grooves. Make it a gas check boolit, though. You will thank me later.

Really, I am trying to get time to look to see what I have for molds!

[cajun shooter]

I am a fan of the bullet that has more than one big lube groove as they tend to not work well other than the very close range of cowboy shooting in revolver rounds. That design does not spread out the bearing surface of the bullet and that is found to be the most accurate style.
As has been posted, a bullet that is close to the Loverin design will at most times deliver the best overall accuracy.
The front driving band may also be .001 larger than those that follow it.
Having your lube with four grooves is much better than in one spot.
I agree with the gas check design also. The reason being is that if you wish to shoot slower loads you may do so without the GC and for the faster burning powders you have a place to put one.
The same applies to lube grooves. If you are getting fine results with a certain load that only takes 2 or 3 lube grooves then don't use the extra. If it's a 3 groove design then only use the bottom 2.
It's like the winter time and wearing the correct amount of clothes. If you have them on or at hand and it becomes too hot then you can remove them but if you become cold and you have no others you can't put them on. Something my Dad would say many years ago.

[grouch]

I like as many grooves as possible/functional. Better able to adjust seating depth without exposing lubricant. also, maybe Mountain will cut you a 2 cavity mold with i cavity gas check for small or no extra cost and you can have it both ways. CBE does this.
Grouch

[Blammer]

my opinion is this.

With rifle boolits several smaller shallow lube grooves are better.

with the neck holding the boolit in place at a 'random' known place on the boolit (due to seating depth variance between many rifles) it is better to have smaller lube grooves that will offer more bearing surface on the boolit, and thus more opportunities to seat the boolit at various depths.

[waksupi]

Very good. Hard to tell for sure, but a smaller nose may be needed for smooth feeding in a bolt action. If you have another mold around, do some experimenting with cutting off noses and seeing just how large you can go.

[9.3X62AL]

I share Ric's fondness for this most recent design of yours, LL.

I agree with his caution concerning the wide meplat, also. If there is a flaw on my Mountain Molds 9.3mm mold design, it is my own--that I had Dan cut a 70% meplat on the nose. This will hang up while feeding on occasion. Those wide meplats might be ultra-cool on a revolver boolit, but in a bolt rifle boolit for hunting THAT WILL BE CAST AS A SOFT-POINT I find the feeding hang-ups to be a non-starter, and the wide meplat to be superfluous.

Mi dos centavos solamente.

[felix]

A Keith nose is only 62-63 percent and slightly rounded at the corners, both for good reason: long range. That would be for the rifle's requirement using it's associated velocity to cut through the elements at range. I, too, would like to have a mini-groove for a crimp groove if used in lever guns, otherwise not needed. In fact, I would like it to look exactly like the one on the Cast Boolit's logo boolit design at the very top of this page. It does not need to be deeper than the thickness of the brass used. ... felix