45 auto bevel base question.

[fido]

Hi I hust started casting for a 1911 45 auto. These are addicting:Fire:
I just purchased a lyman 230g. mould, it has a beveled base. I would like to machine the bevel out of the mould. When I run it through the lube/ sizer it makes a mess at the bottom of the bullet.
Is this bevel for ease of putting the bullet in the casing or does it have flight benefits
I also have a lee 220g with a flat bottom and these are going in the empty case AOK.
Just looking for pros and cons of doing this.
Thanks
Stephen

[RangerBob]

Sharp corners make it harder to get complete bullet "fill out". Sharp corners can also make it harder to get a bullet to drop free of the mold. These are not bad problems for the hand caster. But most bevel base molds are designed with a machine caster in mind (Magma Molds).

However, in defiance of all that should work with cast bullets, the most accurate bullet I have ever shot out of my .45ACP is a machine cast, bevel base, magma molds, 230gr RN.

You might want to try it before altering the mold.

[fido]

Thanks RB I have shot it. It does about as good as the Lee 220g I have. I just don't like lube all over the base of the bullet.

Actually this bullet needs a couple of raps with the rubber hamer to get them out. the Lee fall out?? I am thinking about making a new internal piece for the sizing die that conforms to the bottom of the bullet to prvent lube from getting into the bevel.

[MtGun44]

The RCBS and Lyman lubrisizers have this problem with
beveled base bullets, but the Star lubrisizer works differently
and only injects the lube where you want it. They are more
expensive, and a bit more trouble to set up, but once set up they
put the lube exactly where you want it.

The beveled base bullets often aren't quite as accurate as the
square bases, but this is very much an individual thing, YMMV. The
easiest to do may be to remove the bevel from the mold, which I
have been thinking about doing for a Lee 6 holer .357 mold
that causes the same problems for me. I just got a Star, so will see how
it does, should solve the issue, so maybe I'll leave the mold alone.

Bill

[fido]

Thanks Mtn. I think first I will make a new center for my resizing die to see if I can keep the lube out of the bevel. If that don't work i will modify the mould.
fido

[mtgrs737]

I have a pair of old Lyman 450 lubersizer machines and I have found that if you carefully adjust the depth that you push the boolit into the size die you can sometimes limit the amount of lube that gets into the bevel base area. I have also heard that you can plug the lower lube holes in the sizer die with the right sized lead shot so they wont lube the bevel area.

[fido]

Well I just lubed/sized about 100. I took the die out cleaned and checked. I trued an put a small concave on the inside part in the lathe. It seems to work most of the time but every so often it will squirt 1/8 or so lube under the bullet especially if you tighten down the lube too much. It might be an undersized bullet or something.
I cant see any adjustment being out the die only has one ring of holes. The bevel is the first and last to go by the lube ports so it looks like the lube is getting under on the upward movement. It sure slows one down cleaning the lube out of the hole. I may have to get rid of the bevel. If it doesnt have anything to do with the bullet flight its no good to me.
Thanks for the help.

[MtGun44]

"If it doesn't have anything to do with the bullet's flight....."

The bevel has two purposes, one is sorta unmentioned - to
let you get away with somewhat poor mold fillout, esp a commercial
caster that needs high 'good bullet' rates to make a profit.
The other reason, most commonly intended, is to let the
bullet start into the case better without shaving lead or
jamming sideways.

Most experts say that BB bullets are less accurate and more
likely to lead. I have had pretty decent results with them,
but never the absolute max accuracy. I'm no expert, just
have some experience with them, most from commercial casters,
which are always too hard for my taste, too.

Good luck. If you try to remove the bevel, there are a couple
of threads that discuss this, use the search tool to find them.

Bill

[Bret4207]

FWIW- I don't know that a flat base actually makes a booilt more accurate, but it would seem that a bevel would allow more chance of slightly out of round or inaccurate bevel causing problems as the base exits the muzzle. I don't know the term for a bevel thats out of round or otherwise not uniform all the way around in all planes. It's hard enough getting a flat base thats round and uniform even with the sizer hitting it all the way around. Only a tiny fraction of the bevel gets touched by the sizer so you're depending on the mould for the base.

[fido]

Thanks again for the pros and cons guys. It will help me make my final decision.
Stephen