How should I do it?

[mulespurs]

I am planning to cast up a bunch of 45 cal bullets with my Mihec 68 mould. Can make hp or not.
I have 300 lbs of lead and 65# of linotype.
Are the hollowpoints more accurate for you? They don't seem to expand reliably for me. The Mihec mold makes it pretty easy,but maybe I should not worry about it and just make solids. What is your experience?
And how should I alloy my mix? My first inclination is 10 parts lead to 1 part linotype for average 45 acp loads.
What is your opinion?
I don't want to cast a 1000 of these and wish I would have done it different.
Can you make your 68 hollowpoints expand at will ? Or should I just cast the solids?

[Bzcraig]

What is your base lead? WW, pure ?

[RogerDat]

No offense but unless you are hunting why hollow point? If they don't cast easier not a lot of point in my mind. Self defense I would use factory made. You know if the perp has relatives they can always try to accuse you of being too mean with your "evil extra deadly home brewed ammo". From all reports softer is better expanding.

A .45 caliber bullet makes a major impression hollow point or not. Ever see the t-shirt "45 because shooting twice is just silly".

[Sasquatch-1]

Cast up 25 of each, load 'em up and take 'em to the range. Unless the lead you have is dead soft I would save the lino for later. All my shooting is at inanimate targets. I have shot everything from dead soft to 25+ bhn through my revolvers. The only problem I have had is some very mild leading with the dead soft. If shooting from a semi you may need the harder bullets for feeding purposes.

[TexasGrunt]

No offense but unless you are hunting why hollow point? If they don't cast easier not a lot of point in my mind. Self defense I would use factory made. You know if the perp has relatives they can always try to accuse you of being too mean with your "evil extra deadly home brewed ammo". From all reports softer is better expanding.

A .45 caliber bullet makes a major impression hollow point or not. Ever see the t-shirt "45 because shooting twice is just silly".

Here in Texas if it's a clean shoot the relatives are SOL.

[lightman]

Here in Texas if it's a clean shoot the relatives are SOL.

Thats the way it should be everywhere! I agree, if your are not hunting I would not mess with a hollow point. Alloy wise, the alloy calculator on here is a great tool. Your 10 to 1 ratio should work well.

[Bigslug]

What is your objective for these rounds? Knowing that would help the reply a lot.

The HG68 is known far and wide as a match bullet, cast in solid format. It's reputation as an accuracy slug is secure, and if sized to properly fit the gun and cast of an alloy that suits your pressure curve, you should be good to go.

There have been some discussions as to accuracy being helped by either using a full wadcutter that makes center of mass and center of rotation the same (a simple cylinder being easy to make uniform), or by making the center of the bullet lighter with a hollowpoint or with a tapering nose. A hollowpointed HG68 would have very little metal in the center that wasn't back in the rear full wadcutter section. I would tend to think that a WELL CAST HG68 with a hollowpoint might have some excellent accuracy potential.

But here's the rub: you're taking what is already a pretty good match bullet and adding the fussiness and complications inherent to casting HP's. Will you get the same uniformity, and if not, will the gains realized overcome that loss of uniformity?

(Going by our forum's alloy calculator)

If the goal is strictly accuracy, a hard bullet that fits well is the likely ticket - the hollowpoint cavity simply being a means to the end of greater accuracy (if it does in fact give it to you). I'd probably mix your lino 50/50 with your pure lead, and that should give you 2% tin, 6% antimony and a BHN of about 15 - right in there with Lyman #2 or Hardball alloy. Wouldn't count on much expansion at ACP speeds, but it'll hold its shape well.

If you mix your lead at 2-1 with your lino, you'll be at 1% / 3% and 12 BHN - basically wheelweights. Might expand, but probably not the tool for that job. If it shoots as well as the above harder bullet, its a cheaper way to get there.

If you go 3-1, you should be at 10 BHN. That will place you just a little bit harder than the 25/1 - 30/1 lead/tin cores of jacketed pistol bullets. That will probably expand just fine - especially since it'll be a lighter, faster moving pill.

If you specifically want an expander for the sake of putting the whammy on things, there are better bullet profiles to be had. I'd be inclined to cast them as solids out of wheelweight-equivalent and live cozy in the knowledge that even without expansion, it's still a large-diameter hole.

[mulespurs]

My lead is pure lead,pretty soft.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

I would go 2:1 lead/lino, linotype is getting rare, so I would ration it out as much as possible. If you didn't have pure, I would say don't use it for this project . good luck to ya! travis

[Forrest r]

The hp pin that comes with the Mihec #68 clone is not designed for sd/hp expansion. They will expand with soft lead in the p+ load range/1000fps+.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/hpsp1250.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/hpsp1250.jpg.html)

The hp #68's are a more accurate but it takes the 50yd line for any gain in accuracy. Not a cherry/hand picked target. This is the test target I used to test bullseye loads (3.6gr/3.8gr/4.0gr) with the mihec #68 clone.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/38bull50ft_zps126936b2.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/38bull50ft_zps126936b2.jpg.html)

A 10 to 1 ratio would be a good choice for your 45acp needs. I typically use 8bhn/9bhn alloy for 90%+ of my cast bullet needs (range scrap). Then I pc the bullets, the end result is those 8bhn/9bhn bullets can be used in 750fps target loads or 1800fps rifle loads.

I have a Mihec 4-cavity #68 clone and typically cast with it setup to cast 1 hp & 3 standard swc's.

[Sasquatch-1]

You may want to see if anyone is willing to trade a known alloy for your dead soft. A lot of guys use the dead soft for muzzle loading and swaging.


My lead is pure lead,pretty soft.

[BNE]

The hp pin that comes with the Mihec #68 clone is not designed for sd/hp expansion. They will expand with soft lead in the p+ load range/1000fps+.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/hpsp1250.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/hpsp1250.jpg.html)

The hp #68's are a more accurate but it takes the 50yd line for any gain in accuracy. Not a cherry/hand picked target. This is the test target I used to test bullseye loads (3.6gr/3.8gr/4.0gr) with the mihec #68 clone.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/38bull50ft_zps126936b2.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/38bull50ft_zps126936b2.jpg.html)

A 10 to 1 ratio would be a good choice for your 45acp needs. I typically use 8bhn/9bhn alloy for 90%+ of my cast bullet needs (range scrap). Then I pc the bullets, the end result is those 8bhn/9bhn bullets can be used in 750fps target loads or 1800fps rifle loads.

I have a Mihec 4-cavity #68 clone and typically cast with it setup to cast 1 hp & 3 standard swc's.

I agree with this post. That gun does not need super hard alloy.

I've just begun working up some hp loads and it is amazing how a little Antimony will make a Bullet shatter in water.
A tight fit in your barrel is better than hard alloy for preventing leading.