PDA

View Full Version : Lee custom HP moulds?



Blackwater
10-29-2005, 10:11 PM
With all the special order group buys that have been done, have any been for hollow point moulds? Just wondering. I've thought for a long time that Lee had the best HP mould design going. I've shot tons of their .357 150 HP's, and a buddy took two deer with them. That rather large HP did an excellent job. It tends to break off the nose petals when cast of straight ACWW's, but add a little tin in and the petals seem to stay on much better. Never really saw much practical difference between straight or the +tin alloy on the stuff I've shot with it, but tests in all sorts of media showed the tin laced alloy tended to expand and hold together much better.

One reason I ask this question is that I've long thought a heavy for caliber RNFP design with a parabolic HP pin that was larger at the top and tapered inwardly in a curve to a deep HP pocket would be an excellent expanding bullet in .45 ACP, .38/.357, .44, .45 LC or what have you. With a RNFP design, combined with an oppositely radiused HP pin, expansion should start quickly but be slightly abated as the increasing width of metal toward the base limited and maybe even stabilized the "mushrooming." This seems it would give good expansion while at the same time allowing the bullet to retain some shank length to enhance penetration - the eternal compromise and trade-off between the solid and expanding bullet.

Nose, I think, should be near 70% on the flat ojive, and it should be pretty easy to make a curved or parabolic tapered pin, shouldn't it? If Lee made some moulds like this, I think they'd prove to be very popular. Possibly, they could make a HP pin that would accept different HP pins, though that's pretty close machining. Maybe they could be screwed in from the bottom of the HP stud/pin holder that helps align their standard HP moulds? I'm no machinist, so some of you who are may want to chime in here and maybe straighten me out. I can "see" what I'm thinking in my mind, but I know enough to know that there's a lot more to such things than just a visualization in the mind's eye.

For you machinists, would a HP mould be possible with changeable HP pins so one could vary the rate of expansion to the target and preferences of the shooter? I also assume these would be single cavity moulds, too, but I'm willing to be instructed on that as well, again not being a machinist.

Anyone interested in (or maybe already have?) approaching Lee about such a RNFP curved HP pin mould?

Buckshot
10-30-2005, 08:26 AM
..............There haven't ever been any custom HP moulds done by this group. On Lee HP moulds it's very easy to make new cavity pins. I had a muzzle loading shooting partner who was forever cranking out new ones for his Minie' moulds. You just make the new ones with their bases drilled and tapped for a suitable screw for replacement.

If I'm not mistaken, the Lee HP moulds use the cavity pins for vertical alingment as there is no room for the roller bearings they otherwise press in.

http://www.fototime.com/36F87DBAD71E079/standard.jpg

The above is a mould I've hollow pointed. I use a different core pin holder then Lyman which may be drilled through. This allows a long pin to be used. In the photo the pin is at full extension in the handle so you could have a hollow point that extends all the way to the GC :D!

In the normal course of things, most HP core pins do have some manner of draft to them to ease release. The example above would actually be a real puppy mother to pull out of the cast boolit if extended too far up into it.

I'm sure that Lee would be agreeable to producing most any hollowpoint design someone could come up with. I don't know how excited they'd be about making X number of different core pins, or even in drilling and taping them as that is outside their normal methods I think?

..............Buckshot

MT Gianni
10-30-2005, 11:09 AM
In the fall catalogs I've seen Lee HP molds are no longer stocked or offered as an option. I haven't checked their site but as most company's just copy their catalog page I wonder if they are getting out of the HP molds? It would be a shame. gianni.

Blackwater
10-30-2005, 11:33 PM
I agree, Gianni. That little 150 gr. .38 HP was one heck of a bullet for me. I think they list the 158 GC as a HP too, so maybe I need to order a couple before I can't get one any more. Thinking about that Ruger 50th Anniv. .357 Blackhawk now, and those two would DEFINITELY be useful, I think, along with a 6-cav. in some form, probably the 158 RFP. I like the .45, but that .357's mighty hard to argue with, and it comes with that adj. sight, which is a BIG plus.

My experience with the Lee HP mould has been VERY positive. Cast many, many of them and the mould was the first one I ever got, IIRC. I think you've convinced me to go ahead and order the mould while I still can, and probably both the 150 & 158. Would save the GC version for "special occasions," probably, but don't want to miss out, if I haven't already. Where'd I lay my credit card!

DANG! Hanging around you guys can be EXPENSIVE! :wink: At least the Lees are cheap!

I still think Lee's HP moulds are the best design ever, MUCH speedier to use than any other HP mould, and they sure have turned out some good bullets for me. If applied to rifle calibers as well as the handgun calibers, I think they just might make a big splash in the marketplace. Being single cavity, they're not as fast or productive as a two or six, but they're no slouch, especially when compared to any other HP mould design. With that pin permanently in place, all you have to do is open the mould and the bullet falls out. No cavorting around with a removable pin, and like I said, MUCH quicker than anything I've used in HP version, though that admittedly isn't much. There's just no way to make a HP mould any quicker pouring or more productive, and HPs DO have some definite advantages in some applications.

Buckshot, I envisioned some pins you could screw in from the bottom of the fixed base, possibly even being adjustable for depth. I'd think a simple automatic screw machine could turn them out very quickly and economically. I'm no machinist, and have only dabbled around the edges of the endeavor, but maybe you or others can comment on the ability of an automatic screw machine to make radiused or parabolic pins? They'd only really have to be round, and exacting dimensional tolerance, other than at the end that meets the molten lead, shouldn't be critical. Is this feasible and/or practical? I'd pay the price of one of their 6-cav. moulds for a mould like this, and I really think they could make money, and maybe even draw many new folks into casting, if good HP moulds like that were made available. The concave HP core pins could be highly touted, and do likely have application, and the writers in the glossies could write them up and all that stuff that's necessary to make it a commercial success. If anyone could do it, it'd be Lee.

Just another idea, like that 32 ga. SxS BPE rifle that's still just a mediocre shotgun, maybe, but I think the concept has some real commercial potential, and field utility as well. That fixed pin REALLY makes a HP mould sing.