Compound model bullets?

[ohland]

Sporting Rifles and Rifle Shooting By John Caswell page 108, 1920

https://books.google.com/books?id=EHQCAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=krag+bullet&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oqqOVdjuNMXSoAT53qqACQ&ved=0CDkQ6AEwBTha#v=onepage&q=krag%20bullet&f=false

"In those days it was rather amusing to see the match shooters, at long range, load their rifles— generally muzzle loaders or Sharp's breech loaders; the bullets, usually of compound model (the core and forward part of hard lead alloy and the bearing portion of softer lead)"

Huh, what?

[runfiverun]

hard to ride the bore, and the base soft to stay slugged up and hold the rifling.

[Nueces]

The soft base, often hollowed, and the hard nose were cast separately, then swaged together in a hammer die. The hard nose better survived use of the short starter and ramrod.

[Blammer]

I'm guessing no one figured out to make a starter rod with the same nose profile as what they were shooting. :)

[ohland]

The soft base, often hollowed, and the hard nose were cast separately, then swaged together in a hammer die. The hard nose better survived use of the short starter and ramrod.

Source? Swaging makes sense compared to the tip bullets, small ladles, and the adhesive compound bullets from Lyman.

How well did they work?

[Nueces]

Ned Roberts tells all about it in "The Muzzleloading Cap Lock Rifle."

[mdi]

I feel left out. I don't have an old/vintage book to quote...

[ohland]

Ned Roberts tells all about it in "The Muzzleloading Cap Lock Rifle."

Did Ned Roberts mention when this was used? Did he mention a source?

[JSnover]

CB member BruceB (now deceased) posted his method of casting soft nosed boolits using two different alloys in the same mold. As I recall, he would cast a round ball of one alloy that fit in the nose portion of the mld and pour the other alloy in to fill. The two would fuse together but the hardness up front would be measurably different from the base.

[JSnover]

The BruceB method: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/archive/index.php/t-53234.html
I stand corrected, he used split shot for the nose.

[country gent]

I have a friend who does this for some bpcr rifles. His mould casts a nose with stem on it that is then inserted into the cavity of the "finish" mould and the harder base poured. He has found that the measured volume dipper into the mould first works better as there is no shifting and the nose is hotter when the base is pourred on top giving a better more solid bonding fused joint. On some of his bullets done with the dipper the only diffrece you see is the slight color variation of the 2 materials. Ive thought about trying it a few times but havent yet. It is an interesting concept and would make a cast bullet that could be much more varied. Imagine a rifle with 18-20 bhn noses to help promote penetration and 10-12 bases to allow obtration. Or in a modern rifle a harder base and pure lead nose to promote expansion. Also the pure lead nose and harder base would help to move wieght center forward on the bullet.