405 gr.hollow base

[Knarley]

Just picked up a LEE 450gr hollow base mould. Going to be shooting out of a Trap door with Black. Is it suggested to use a wad underneath or shoot it without? 20:1 alloy

[indian joe]

Just picked up a LEE 450gr hollow base mould. Going to be shooting out of a Trap door with Black. Is it suggested to use a wad underneath or shoot it without? 20:1 alloy

Thats a good blackpowder mold - nice big lube grooves - I have two of em I modified for my 1876 uberti 45/75 - took the dimple off the base plug to make it a flat base and then shaved a bit off the top face in the mill so the meplat was a safer size (pre doing that the boolit nose would fit inside the primer pocket - I dont like that idea for this big magazine rifle) - so both those mods and it came back right at 405 grains - I reckon if you wanna shoot wads under the boolit the flat base would work better and proly add about ten/fifteen grains weight. LEE will sell ya the bottom plate and base plug assembly outa spare parts quite cheap so ya dont need to worry about stuffing up yr mold.

[curator]

I regularly use a 1/8" card wad (.460) under the Lee .459-405HB boolit with excellent results in my various .45-70 rifles. The small hollow base is actually designed to put the center of gravity slightly forward and has zero expanding capability as would a "minie"-type boolit. This boolit has wide and deep grooves and holds a lot of lube for black powder shooting. I also paper=patch it and shoot in my martini-henry rifles too. Yes, I lube it before paper patching, contrary to common wisdom. This boolit also shoots great in the Danish rolling block 11.7X51R when shoot as cast, usually .462-.463.

[fiatdad]

When you shoot your 405 bullets with a paper patch in your Martini, do you get thin strips pf paper on the ground or the whole patch. If I asked this before forgive me computer issues.

[Big Mak]

I would love it if someone could link or publish data on flat bottom vs hollow-based bullets in a controlled environment, all things equal except the bullet.
This is the kind of stuff I study before jumping to the next level.

[indian joe]

I would love it if someone could link or publish data on flat bottom vs hollow-based bullets in a controlled environment, all things equal except the bullet.
This is the kind of stuff I study before jumping to the next level.

The hollow base on the LEE boolit is not anywhere near enough to expand to fill rifling like a minie - its puzzled me why they designed it the way they did - somebody here recently said so the centre of gravity shifted forward a bit ? maybe ? I like the boolit because of the lube grooves for blackpowder - its what I use in my 76 uberti
219285 with a couple modifications as in the picture - I made it flatbase and milled the top face to widen the flat nose. I did shoot it as original at the start but the rifle was new and its a couple years back - cant make a useful comparison. The mods I did to that mold by coincidence got it right on 405 grains - I also altered another of those molds by making a longer base plug that took off the bottom driving band and lube groove and casts a flat base 335 grain . Both shoot ok, I think my rifle prefers the 405 g - If I try hard I can get five in about two inches at 100 yards (sometimes!) Thats more my limit than the gun or the ammo.

[Tom Herman]

This boolit also shoots great in the Danish rolling block 11.7X51R when shoot as cast, usually .462-.463.

I use it in my Danish Remington as well, but it only casts .459/.460 for me.
I pushed a bullit through from the breech to the muzzle, and it never fully engraved, so I know it's undersize. Will probably order a different mould later, but this is good for the time being.

[Grapeshot]

Just picked up a LEE 450gr hollow base mould. Going to be shooting out of a Trap door with Black. Is it suggested to use a wad underneath or shoot it without? 20:1 alloy

Ok. What will be your powder charge? If you are shooting the .45/70 TD Rifle and using a charge of 65 to 70 grains of BR, Do Not Use wads. They will lodge in your cavity and through the balance of your boolit off. Likewise for the carbine. If you are using the 55 grain load, seat that hollow based slug right on the powder. No Wads. (Ref: Spence Wolf's "Reloading .45/70 cartridges for the Original Trapdoor Rifles and Carbines".)

[missionary5155]

Good morning Indian Joe
Thank you for posting the modified Lee. I like that !
Mike in Peru

[Knarley]

I will be loading up 10 with a wad, 10 with out a wad and a 405 flatbase with the same everything else and see what happens. If it isn't raining tomorrow, nor too windy.


Knarley

[GoodOlBoy]

I like the Lee HB 405, it is actually my preferred bullet for "cowboy" loads in my old H&R single shot. I have yet to shoot them over black, but I know of a fella who did. His solution was to fill the hollow in the bottom of the bullet with the same beeswax based homemade lube that he used to lube them with, then put a wad under them. FYI They WILL flare out or bump up just fine to fill a bore, IF you are using a softer lead. If you are using something like wheel weight, or linotype there can be an issue (or was for me) where you just about have to load them to the point where you are actually "blowing the skirt off of them" before they do anything other than just fly down the bore.

IMHO The Lee 405 HB is a great mold, and very accurate. I've always loaded it "slow and low" and not tried to "push" it and gotten great results with soft lead either pure or alloys.... Makes me wish I could handle lead again. I'd like to have a few hundred of these ready to load right now. :p Great great bullet for big hog and nice sized deer.

YMMV

God Bless, and One Love.

GoodOlBoy

[Knarley]

Finished loading. All slugs are 20:1 alloy, all are lubed with SPG all sized to .457 all have the same veggie wad except for the ones that aren't wadded. All will be using Remington primers and FFG Old Eynsford powder at 70 gr/weight. All have been drop tubed & compressed with die. All brass anealled.
I have heard the hollow base doesn't flair, I have heard it does. I'm not certain how one could tell. No, I didn't fill the hollow base with lube, looks to me the lube grooves on it are plenty, but we will see.