429640 hp

[Ben]

I purchased a Lyman 429640 HP from arcticbreeze.
He had Erik make 3 different HP pins for the mold.
I have a Stainless Model 624 6" , 44 Spec. and a new Ruger 77/44
that I'll be trying this bullet in.

A very nice mold, easy to make very nice looking bullets. It drops
from my alloy at .432", just about perfect for my needs.

Ben

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/015-12.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/013-18.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/014-9.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/018-9.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/019-5.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/023-5.jpg

[Ben]

I weighed a few.....here are the weights :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/024-3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/025-4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/026-3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/028-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/030-5.jpg

[arcticbreeze]

Wow, those boolits look great. I am glad to see the mold get some use.

Enjoy
Marc

[Ben]

Thanks again Marc !

Ben

[Catshooter]

Wow Ben, that is a sweet and versitle mould!

I will be very interested in hearing how the Ruger does with boolits. What does it have for bore size?


Cat

[Ben]

Cat :

Have not slugged the rifle yet ? ?
Hopefully it won't be larger than .432 "

Ben

[gray wolf]

Very nice looking bullets and a fine job of casting.
Not to mention the great work by Eric.
Now that the stroking is all done with--I have a ??
Do you think the nose is going to hold up, or will it blow apart.
Could it be to much of a good thing ?
Just asking so I know.

[45 2.1]

Have not slugged the rifle yet ? ?
Hopefully it won't be larger than .432 " Ben

Don't count on it.......... Thin barrel with a very light stock..... VERY hard to hold if you want 44 Mag performance with accuracy. Keep us informed please.

[Ben]

gray wolf


Do you think the nose is going to hold up, or will it blow apart.


I'm going to give this bullet quite a bit of testing before I aim it at a deer. I'm thinking about taking the " moderate HP pin " that you see below and remove a bit more so as to make a HP opening in the nose of the bullet that has somewhat thicker walls.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/018-9.jpg

What do you think ?

Ben

[GLL]

PRETTY bullets from a nicely HPed mold ! :)

Jerry

[Ben]

Thanks Jerry ! !

Ben

[Ben]

I've completed my work on the HP pin to allow nose wall thicknesses that will be a bit thicker than those cast in the photos below with the " deep HP pin ".

Here is a bullet cast with the deep HP pin. Walls are pretty thin :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/023-5.jpg

The new modified pin will cast bullets with thicker walls on the nose . This should allow for deeper penetration without the nose " blowing off " and I should gain a 2nd advantage of making the reject rate with this mold drop dramatically.



This 2nd photo shows the deep hp pin, notice how thin the nose walls are with
this pin.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/011-17.jpg


Here is a view of the modified HP pin. Should make for a good white
tailed deer hunting bullet.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/014-10.jpg

[Quigley284]

Nice job on the mold and most of all nice photos. What do you use for pictures? Thanks, Mike

[Ben]

Mike :

I use a Minolta ( a 10 yr. old Minolta )
It is like a Timex watch, it takes a licken and keeps on ticking.

Ben

[jmsj]

Ben,
Those look great!
I am looking foward to see your test results on the three different styles.
I have the same mold and have done a removable conversion to make solids a while back that allows me cast solids without using a removable pin in the HP pin cavity. With this conversion it casts like a regular mold. Other things came up and I left the load development undone and went back to using my Ruger 45 Colt instead.
Your thread might be just the encouragment I need to get this started again.
Good luck, jmsj

[Huntducks]

I would use a softer alloy then say WW (12BHN) on the deep HP, In my tests the harder you go the more it frags.

[Ben]

I finally got around to casting with the modified pin. My goal was to produce a HP bullet with walls on the nose that were " a little more beefy ".

I'm happy with the results. The finished product weighs 274.9 grs. without a g/c or lube.

Ben

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/015-13.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/016-10.jpg

Here is a view of the modified HP pin. Should make for a good white
tailed deer hunting bullet.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/014-10.jpg

[Grandpas50AE]

Ben, really nice job on all counts. I planned on doing something very similar with a Miha mold in the 429244 configuration. I've got the large HP pins for the 44 spl. and the smaller HP pins for the 44 mag. My best friend and I, along with several of our hunting buddies have killed a lot of whitetail deer with the standard 429244 boolits, but they always go all the way through and so we never recover the boolit. My current alloy measures 9.0 BHN and with the gas checks I should still be able to push them at 1200. With the HP, they should open up nicely and maybe we'll get one recovered this year.

[41 mag fan]

Mike :

I use a Minolta ( a 10 yr. old Minolta )
It is like a Timex watch, it takes a licken and keeps on ticking.

Ben

HEY!! my wife says that about me!! Except she replaced ticking with talking...I take a licking and keep on talking!! Haven't talked to her in 10 yrs...and that was the day of our wedding (my funeral!!)

Honestly though, nice pics Ben

Looks like a nice boolit to play with

[lead chucker]

I have that mold and have shot a deer with it I used 16/1 lead tin at around 1400 fps with 17.6 gr 2400 out of a CVA scout rifle. Shot right through the neck. Found a couple real small lead fragments

[One Gun Andy]

Ben,
Very nice work. Thanks for sharing. I too have the Ruger 77/44 and have wanted to try a good cast bullet. You may have just what I'm looking for, and I particularly like the looks of the medium HP version.

[Shuz]

Ben--You may wanna consider machining the gas check shank offa that design if you restrict it's use to handgun velocities. I golombed onto one a few years back from one of the "board members" here and I love it.

[Ben]

I bought this one with the intention of using it in my Ruger 77 / 44 bolt action rifle.

I have about 5 other plain based 44 molds for my Special and light mag. loads.

Ben

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/7402.jpg

[Ben]

One Gun Andy

and I particularly like the looks of the medium HP version.

That may be just what I've been looking for ? ? I hope so.

Ben

[MtGun44]

Fire it into very wet phone books or newspapers bundled to see how it will behave
in meat. If you use straight wwts, I think it will blow off the nose at above 1200 or so.

Bill

[Ben]

Bill,

If that is the case, maybe I'm better to shoot this version and be done with it ?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/028-1.jpg

[JesterGrin_1]

How does one reach Erik?

It is Ok I found it in a Search. :) Thank You

[Ben]

You can Email him at erik@hollowpointmold.com
or phone him at (541) 738-2479
M - F 6:30pm - 8:30pm & Sat 9:00am - 8:30pm Pacific Time

[JesterGrin_1]

Ben I know you really like those HP's but for Hunting I feel the Flat Point would serve you better.

But for two legged critters the HP might be a good option.

[Ben]

You got to admit, that 285 gr. flat point , wide meplat, has got BUSINESS written all over it.

Ben

[Catshooter]

That'd be the one I'd use.


Cat

[arcticbreeze]

I didn't ever test that specific boolit when I had the mold however I did test Mihas 44/444 hp boolit in milk jugs filled with water. I tested it with both straight acww and 50/50 ww/pb ac. I will say the softer the better. This test is from a New Model Super Blackhawk in 44mag and at pistol velocities the 50/50 worked great. I suspect at rifle velocities it will break up. The profile and meplate of the two boolits is similar.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=30&pictureid=1609

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=30&pictureid=1322

[Silver Hand]

Ben - What a great piece of work on this post. Thank you for the privilege and the use of your information.
I wonder, if you had a chance to drop the hammer on a few of those Yet?

[Ben]

Ben - What a great piece of work on this post. Thank you for the privilege and the use of your information.
I wonder, if you had a chance to drop the hammer on a few of those Yet?

Thank you for those kind remarks.

It has been so very HOT here, that the heat has kept me away from the range. ( I know , I'm getting soft, right ? ). I'll be shooting them soon however.

Ben

[EDK]

It's been damn hot in Saint Looie too! I bought the MIHEC 434640 PLAIN BASE 4 cavity mould with his small and large pins (very similar to yours) which I used for a short run so I could try the boolit. (Casting in 90+ weather is an invitation for the TINSEL FAIRY to put the the hurt on you!) I've got the penta pins, but have held off on trying them because of various postings. I've got a 2 cavity LYMAN original tucked away...got it from a cast boolits member in France...Merci, mon ami; which about uses up all the francais I know!

I've shot about 200 of these through a couple of 44 Magnum Original Size VAQUEROS and a MARLIN 1894 Cowboy rifle. 7+ grains of TITEGROUP or HP38 worked with RANCH DOG TLC 432 265 and the NOE lube groove clone of the RD, so that's my starting point. (I either go shoot before 11 AM or after 8 PM in this weather. AND my new glasses are on order, so I have plenty of alibis for poor shooting.)

I'm going to stick with the Ben's Modified/small size pins for rifle specific loads. Not only will they hold up better going through the MARLINS' tube magazine, you have an instant visual to identify your loads.

I really, really like this boolit. My BIG QUESTION now is to see if MIHA has another four cavity mould like this one with GAS CHECK bases...or should I jump on the 429244 hollow point version; another excellent design that feeds through my rifles.

It's almost frustrating to have so many great choices in boolit designs compared to when I got started back in the '60s. Kinda embarassing that I didn't get more of some designs that got dropped by LYMAN, etc.

Thanks again for your research, postings and pictures. Guys like you advance our hobby.

:redneck::cbpour::guntootsmiley:

[MakeMineA10mm]

You know it's funny, but with the guys here (whom I look at as Ph.D. to post-doctorate level casting experts), so much is based on curiosity (and the subsequent testing processes), that I think we sometimes forget the simple/original information.

When Lyman designed the original "Devastator" HP pins, they were going for better mushrooming (with less shattering) with the then-common casting alloy of straight wheelweights (which were more brittle than the older common alloy of 1:20 tin-to-lead that the older, narrower & deeper HP pins were designed for).

Of course, even with my unmodified original Lyman, cast of WW as well as 50/50 pure lead/WW, the bullets shattered at 1500-1600 fps out of my carbines fired into mild jugs. Thus, the recommendation of using the solid-nose flat-point, which should be a great killer on it's own, and without the worry of disintegration.

Please let us know how it goes!

[kbstenberg]

The peanut gallery has a question please.
What would the affect be if you were to shorten the modified pin to only half of the modified length but still keeping the modified dia.? Almost to a cup point.
Couldn't that be pushed faster, while still holding together better? Than the modified pin.
I have been considering sending my Brass Mihec 503 to have an cup point pin made. To add to the 3 pins I already have.
Kevin

[MakeMineA10mm]

Buckshot made me a cup-point pin to try this with. With cast it's always a balance between alloy and velocity and HP cavity shape/size. Of course, then we have to take into consideration alloy vs. pressure/velocity that the load develops...

High velocity is going to require a harder alloy (although not what some would call "hard"), and that usually results in fracturing, so we head back towards the original Lyman Devastator design. Myself, I'm working on low-velocity for snub-nosed 38s and 44 Spls, so the big cavities are attractive and softer alloys work better both in the gun and with expansion characteristics.

[Larry Gibson]

The peanut gallery has a question please.
What would the affect be if you were to shorten the modified pin to only half of the modified length but still keeping the modified dia.? Almost to a cup point.
Couldn't that be pushed faster, while still holding together better? Than the modified pin.
I have been considering sending my Brass Mihec 503 to have an cup point pin made. To add to the 3 pins I already have.
Kevin

It works and is the best way to go if pushing the bullets above 1500 fps. However, as Mike says; it is a balancing act. Ao a GC'd bullet cand be much softer than a PB'd cast at higher velocities. This is why I prefer the GC'd style bullet for use at true magnum velocities out of handguns as the alloys can be much softer. I'm finding a 16-1 alloy is much better than any alloy with WWs in it when my standard Devestator is pushed over 1450 fps upwards of 1600+ fps. Accuracy is excelent and expansion is awesome without the bullet breaking up at close range/full velocity impact yet expands very well at 100 yards (my self imposed max range with the .44 Magnum out of a handgun.

Larry Gibson