Are Beagled bullets perfectly round in diameter?

[Swagerman]

A friend on the forum is casting up some beagled bullets for me, he says they are not perfectly round, as this is his first attempt at beagling...and I have no experience with it myself.

Will the bullet regain its perfect round diameter after running the bullets through the lube sizer die, even though the bullets are cast a bit oversized at .433 diameter...I'm looking for .432 in a finished sized lubed bullet.

If the bullet does not regain its perfect diameter from being beagled, will it have a defect of some shallow areas throwing the weight balance off???

Can beagled bullets be really accurate?

Jim

[S.R.Custom]

Beagling does nothing to increase bullet diameter at the parting line; oval bullets are the result. I get much better results from lapping out the mould.

[Marlin Junky]

I shim a tiny bit at the top on a couple base-pour molds that need a little more venting for good fill-out and/or a little more diameter at the GC shank. Running them through a sizer rounds 'em up but I usually cast with clip-on WW metal or range scrap thats less than 13 BHN (I pick up the commercial cowboy action boolits at the range).

MJ

[44man]

Round boolits? NOT. But it does not mean a whole lot if the boolit is the right size after. I have never seen a perfectly round boolit from any mold in my life anyway.
If you really check a cast boolit, the largest diameter is always at the parting line. If you Beagle the same amount so the boolit is larger in the other direction it can come out more round then it started at.
Either way it does not have a lot of effect on accuracy.
I wish I could make a round mold! :mrgreen:

[beagle]

As has been pointed out, "beagled" bullets are oval shaped....but....they are balanced and that's what makes them work./beagle

[KevMT]

Can beagled bullets be really accurate?

Jim

Jim,

When I first got the 311407 Mod Loverine group buy the first 2 driving bands were maybe a thou or so undersized. Accuracy was rather ho hum. I Beagled the mold and she is now easily shooting MOAODCTI (Minute of angle or damn close to it) at 100 yards in a 30-06 with 27g of 4759. While the boolits may have come out oval, sizing has brought all but the nose bands back to round.

I have thought about lapping out those first 2 drive bands as Supermag suggests. But I have been riding on the "if it aint broke don't fix it" wagon thus far.

Kev

[Swagerman]

Thank you one and all, for the heads up on the roundness of beagled bullets.

I reckon they's gonna work after all.

Jim

[mooman76]

They are round when they come out of the barrel!

[Springfield]

Mine are always smallest at the parting line. I have beagled a couple 45 Colt moulds that were just too small. They seem to work better now. Even if they are oval the will still balance so they should fly right. Never had any luck at lapping a mould.

[Morgan Astorbilt]

RIGHT ON, mooman!
Morgan

[Calamity Jake]

I have beagled a 7MM 2 cav mould from as cast Ø.285 to Ø.290 just so I could get my
warn out 7MM mauser to shoot. It slugs at Ø.287 then I size to Ø.289. It worked pretty good.
The rifle went from shotgun back to a desent shooting firearm.
When pushed thru the Ø.289 sizer the boolets are almost round again, but then as moon76 said, they will be round when the exit the barrel.

[Swagerman]

I can certainly agree that when the bullet leaves the barrel it is fairly round...but!

When you've got over-sized cylinder throats say .433 to .434 diameter, and your revolver rifling is .429...one needs symmetrical alignment through the forcing cone to properly enter the rifling and obtain good accuracy.

That was my main concern concerning these oblong beagled bullets.

Thanks for all your input.

Jim

[Bret4207]

They are round when they come out of the barrel!

Better re-think that. Drive a lead slug through a barrel and get a mic out. Not many barrels are truely "round", and it doesn't make a bit of difference in the real world. I'm nit picking of course and it means nothing.

[leftiye]

Swagerman....... size them?

[mooman76]

Better re-think that. Drive a lead slug through a barrel and get a mic out. Not many barrels are truely "round", and it doesn't make a bit of difference in the real world. I'm nit picking of course and it means nothing.

I didn't say they were perfect I said they were round! You guys are to sensitive!

[Bret4207]

I didn't say they were perfect I said they were round! You guys are to sensitive!

Read that last line in my post!:-D

[Freightman]

They will be "round" at the muzzel !