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?
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?