Anybody cut down an H&G 050 148 wadcutter mold?

[paul h]

As I ended up with more 050 molds than I can possibly use, and I'm trying to stretch my meagre supply of ww's, I got to thinking. Hmm, If I mill off the base of the mold to produce a wadcutter with 2 lube grooves intsead of 3, how much will the resulting bullet weigh? I'm guessing 125 grs +/- but was just curious if anyone else has already answered the question. I played around with mm's software and taking some guestimations of the 148 wc's dimensions figured the shorter bullet will still have a bearing length of the bullet is ~.45" I've enjoyed shooting the little 105 gr swc lee, but I think it just doesn't have enough bearing length for top accuracy and figure a shortened wadcutter just might do the trick.

Should be a dandy little plinker for inside 50yds.

[mtgrs737]

Sounds interesting, but maybe if it were a good idea someone would be making one already? If you do try it, don't forget to post the results here, who knows maybe your on to something.

[paul h]

I've been a firm believer that alot of what goes on with bullet design and "common knowledge" over the years is monkey see, monkey do, especially when it comes to competition. For years and years, lead was dirt cheap if not free, so there was really no benefit in using lighter bullets. A longer bullet has the advantage of self alligning in a revolver will chamber and barrel dimensions that are less than perfect, so while a longer bullet isn't more accurate perse, it can allow generally less accurate revolvers to perform better. I've shot some exceptionally small groups with lighter for caliber bullets in a mechanically sound revolvers, hence my conviction that in a good revolver, a short bullet isn't necessarily a handicap. And I'd rather fix the tollerances if possible in a revolver so that it will shoot all bullets well rather then having to limit myself to bullet designs to accomodate the issues with a given revolver.

It's pretty much a foregone conclusion I will be milling down one of the molds to see how it performs. If I don't like it, I can always punch out the nose and make it a swc design.

[Reg]

If you want to get the weight to length business right on. Go ahead and cast one of the boolets then mill it down. When you get the weight you want-- well-- thats how much to mill off the mold. It might come out in the middle of a land or groove and this way you can play with a compromise before doing the actual cutting on the mold.

:Bright idea:

[Mk42gunner]

I think I would go one step farther than Reg and cut down around a dozen boolits so you can shoot a couple of groups. No sense modifying the mold if the resulting projectiles won't work as planned.

Robert

[NoZombies]

I had a mold that was so cut. The resulting bullets shot just fine. I sold the mold a while ago, and don't have any left to weigh, but I think they were closer to 110 grains, if memory serves.

[Piedmont]

The H&G 41 is a shortened #50 I think. It is rated at 110 grains but mine casts just over 120 grains from the soft stuff. If Ballisticast offers it it will be their #641 so you can see what it looks like.

[paul h]

Hard to tell from balisticasts mold sheet if the 641 (H&G 41) is what I'm thinking about or not. I did cut one down on the lathe, but unfortunately my scale only goes to 110gr. The bullet ended spinning in the 3 jaw chuck hense the distortion to the driving bands. I'd need to get a collet if I was going to cut down bullets without distorting them. For the expense of a specialized 9mm collet, I might as well just cut down the mold.

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/evefiles/photo_albums/3/4/4/344100033/7031047671_98E535D4B9262A30FB8F5660F8F87E51.jpg

105 lee swc, cut down 050, full length 050

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/evefiles/photo_albums/3/4/4/344100033/5031047671_AA77E2AA428C7E1E03ABB97E590B9C34.jpg

105 lee, cut down 050, LBT 160 XFN gc. If I don't like the way the shortened wc shoots, I can always bore out the nose to make it a ~150gr swc or ogival wadcutter.

[MikeS]

Here's another idea. If you have H&G moulds, rather than cutting one down, you'd be better off selling it, then buying a mould custom made to your specs from Accurate Molds. There are a finite number of H&G moulds, so rather than taking a chance of ruining one of them, make somebody else happy by selling them a mould, and make yourself happy by getting a mould exactly the way you want it. If you go this route, spend a little bit more money, and get the mould made from brass, rather than aluminum.

[captaint]

Yeah, what Mike said... I'd hate to see anybody cut a H&G mold for that purpose. Maybe remove a bevel base, but not for your purpose. Buy a Lee mold and cut that up. I'm old, and I cringe when something like an old H&G mold gets modified. Sell it. Keep the change and enjoy... Mike

[Le Loup Solitaire]

I use H&G #503 for the 44 Mag. Just got an idea one day; took some aluminum rod that was 1/2' in diameter and chucked it in my woodlathe. Using a file, micrometer and some fine grit sandpaper I turned a plug to match the nose section of the mold. When placed in one of the mold cavities during casting it generated a flat faced wadcutter weighing 190 grains. Of course picking up the plug and placing it back in the mold slowed things down a bit for each fill, but after 1000 casts I had 250 WC's that when loaded with 5 grains unique shoots one hole off the bench at 25 yards-all day. If I needed more I suppose that I could make another plug, or two, but it was just an experiment. Didn't have to alter anything on the blocks, and no problems with the setup. LLS

[paul h]

I guess in my haste I missed mentioning it's a Ballisticast mold, but the H&G 050 cavity. If it was a pristine H&G mold I probably wouldn't mess with it, but given the 2 cavity H&G's really don't go for a premium, I'd still be $ ahead modifying the mold vs having a custom made. That and balisticast could do exactly what I want with the 050 cherry by not sinking it as deep into the mold blocks.

[NoZombies]

The H&G that I had was cut due to damage to the mold that made more than half of the cavities un-usable as it was. The machine work brought an unusable mold back.

[garandsrus]

We had a group buy 105 gr wc in .38 spec a few years back. The boolets shoot very well.

John

[paul h]

Well, I did the deed with the lathe and cast up a couple hundred of them. Now that I made some empties at the range, I can go back and do some load work. Dandy looking little bullets and it will be nice to save on lead.

[deltaenterprizes]

I just bought a no name 4 cavity wadcutter mold similar to the H&G #50 in the swaping and selling section to cut down for little tiny wadcutters.

[paul h]

If I don't end up selling any of the extra 050 molds I bought, I might end up wacking another one of them down to a single lube groove wadcutter mold.

[Longwood]

Well, I did the deed with the lathe and cast up a couple hundred of them. Now that I made some empties at the range, I can go back and do some load work. Dandy looking little bullets and it will be nice to save on lead.

Excellent.
I don't get it when people say to not modify a mold.
It is not only not difficult, it can be done with very few shop tools.

I have improved many of my molds by replacing bad sprue plate hold down methods with quality bolts properly secured so they do not come loose or screw up the tops of the molds.
Simple and only take a few minutes to make a poorly made mold much better.

You are obviously capable and I bet those bullets will be well worth the effort.:D

[Texasflyboy]

Here are the options:

#50: Full Wadcutter, 146 grains. Three lube grooves.

#41: Same as 50, except 110 grains reduced to only two lube grooves.

#333: Same as 50, no button nose, single lube goove.

Here are the entries from the factory ledger:

#50--.38 S&W Special. 148 grains. (Also .38 Gold Cup and Clark Conversions, which are usually sized smaller, at .356".) Target pistol bullet. Three rounded grease grooves, one crimp groove, small projection on tip, but still considered a "full-wadcutter" bullet. A very popular design. Available in plain and bevel base or gas check base. Entry by TD February 2009: By far the most prolific design of all the Hensley & Gibbs bullet moulds. After observing eBay auctions for over 10 years, #50 moulds appear 2 to 3 times more frequently than any other design. Although indicated as available, I have never seen a gas check design.

#41 - .38 S& W Special. 110 grains. A lightweight bullet primarily for indoor short-range use, similar to configuration of#50, but with only two rounded grease grooves. Available in plain base and bevel base.

#333--.38 caliber. 62 grains Very lightweight bullet. Cartridge case can be loaded with one or more bullets. Plain base, one rounded grease groove. bevel to full wadcutter flat nose. Design by Dean Grennell.

[Hal A Looyah]

We shoot SASS, where accuracy on big steel targets is not a big hurdle. I had two Lyman molds milled down to produce an 80gr bullet from coww. Stretches my lead a LONG WAY. I've never shot them at paper, but they shoot POA. Driven by 3.5gr Clays.

[paul h]

Finally got a chance to cast and shoot some of the bullets from the cut down mold, which is I guess essentially a #41. At first I'd forgot to lap the mold so they were dropping .356", after lapping it drops .359".

It seems to shoot every bit as accurately as the 148gr wadcutter, but I'll have to fiddle with powder charges to dial in a load. Should be an outstanding plinking and small game bullet.