AbitNutz
05-02-2014, 11:46 AM
So a while back I was whining that small bullets would spin off the point of the tester and were impossible to get a good reading. I cast a fair amount of .30 cal 115gr NOE for my 300 GNR Ruger Blackhawk. It will easily throw a bullet in excess of 2100 fps so I tend to want hard bullets. To that end, I water drop them. Checking them for hardness is almost impossible.
Not so anymore...I sent the tester to Erik at Hollow Point Mold and asked that he cut off the probe/point and make it swivel. The idea was that once the pressure built up the tip would remain stationary while crank/bolt turned behind it. Erik made a new tip, actually two new tips, and added a ball bearing inside the bolt and inside the tip to rotate on. It works like a champ. It holds a bullet absolutely stationary. I even checked it with a .225 cast bullet I never use and it stayed put.
If you decide to try something like this. Make sure you get some baseline reading with previously tested bullets. They changed a bit so you may have to dial back in the reference chart. The pointed probe seems to be pretty close, the blunt probe is definitely in the weeds. I stupidly failed to send the dial indicator and mount with it so Erik couldn't get a base line.
This modification really took the frustration out of using this tester on small bullets. I think this is the way this tester should be made.
Here are a couple of pictures.
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn94/AbitNutz/tester014.jpg[/URL]
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn94/AbitNutz/tester018.jpg[/URL]
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn94/AbitNutz/tester015.jpg[/URL]
Not so anymore...I sent the tester to Erik at Hollow Point Mold and asked that he cut off the probe/point and make it swivel. The idea was that once the pressure built up the tip would remain stationary while crank/bolt turned behind it. Erik made a new tip, actually two new tips, and added a ball bearing inside the bolt and inside the tip to rotate on. It works like a champ. It holds a bullet absolutely stationary. I even checked it with a .225 cast bullet I never use and it stayed put.
If you decide to try something like this. Make sure you get some baseline reading with previously tested bullets. They changed a bit so you may have to dial back in the reference chart. The pointed probe seems to be pretty close, the blunt probe is definitely in the weeds. I stupidly failed to send the dial indicator and mount with it so Erik couldn't get a base line.
This modification really took the frustration out of using this tester on small bullets. I think this is the way this tester should be made.
Here are a couple of pictures.
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn94/AbitNutz/tester014.jpg[/URL]
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn94/AbitNutz/tester018.jpg[/URL]
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn94/AbitNutz/tester015.jpg[/URL]