New to Me Boolit Design

[GregLaROCHE]

While looking at moulds for sale I came across this boolit design that I have not seen before. Can someone tell me something about it? What is it meant to be used for?
Thanks
https://www.castbulletengineering.com.au/products/rifle-moulds/458-cal/product/1124-458-520w

[Red River Rick]

"Wasp Waist" design..........better aerodynamics.

RRR

[frkelly74]

That is a big boolit. I assume it might be for a 45/70 or bigger cased cartridge . To state the obvious.

[elmacgyver0]

What is it supposed to do better than other designs?
Better mousetrap or a way to part you with your money?
Might be either one or both, better buy it and let us know how it works.

[coloraydo]

Would/could that design feature lend itself to boolit slump? Just curious.

[DanLee]

That looks like something NEI used to offer. I'll have to dig out my old catalogs and check.

[OldBearHair]

Aerodynamics. circa 1964 I was working on the (memory fog struck) F102 fighter plane and heard stories of it's beginnings. It was supposed to be able to break the sound barrier but on completion of flight tests it would not. Well back to the drawing board. They redesigned the fuselage into a coke bottle shape instead of like a straight wall cartridge. First testing was successful in going faster than the speed of sound. In my devious mind I conjured up and image of a boolit shaped as such years ago, but filed the idea away.

[Rcmaveric]

Also looks like the old rocket designs. It has to do with aerodynamics. Aside from wind friction, shock wave and other are dynamics I don't understand and pulling out of thin air. If the nose portion is heavy enough and the bullet balanced, if you lost rotational stability then you would get a shuttlcock affect for accuracy.

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[charlie b]

It was done to increase stability with a longer bullet.

Supersonic airplanes have a coke bottle shape as a constant area rule. The coke bottle shape is narrow where the wing is, resulting in a more constant cross sectional area at that point. Not the same thing as a narrow waist bullet.

I suspect it went away due to being forced out of round by the pressure spike.

[photomicftn]

Check an old Herter's catalog and you'll find them. Nothing new under the sun.

[Chemoman]

its not new, saw it 30 years ago in a catalog.

[Texas by God]

Check an old Herter's catalog and you'll find them. Nothing new under the sun.
Yes Sir- Herter’s “Wasp Waist” jacketed bullets. According to George- the “World’s Finest”!

[GregLaROCHE]

It looks interesting, even if it’s just different. I wrote the manufacturer and asked for more details. Looks to me as if the front of the boolit is supposed to be a bore rider and the driving bands are larger to engage the grooves. I may have to get one just to give it a try. Unfortunately, I’m in Europe and the price goes up because of shipping and duty costs.

[barrabruce]

I believe the nose is supposed to just ride the top of the lands helping it keep from slumping.
There looks like a ring to even hold a little lube.

I have lee mented a mold so that it had a ring on the end of the nose and would engage The bore and it worked better than being small as it was.
Really made it shoot.
The plus side was I could remove an unfired case and it was easier to seat right out
And feed by hand



Lyman had a wasp waste bullet also not that long ago with lots of small grooves for ALOX by the look of it.

[GregLaROCHE]

Here’s the response I got from the manufacturer.

It is a bore riding design, it was introduced to allow the maximum amount of Blackpowder in a case, with most of the projectile riding the bore of the barrel.

The driving bands can’t be changed, it’s the front nose band that can be altered to suit different bore diameters.

[AndyC]

Seems like it's also a method of reducing the bearing-length so that it stabilizes in whatever the standard twist-rate is of the rifles that fire that behemoth.

[DonHowe]

Someone's idea of a better mousetrap. Does it work? Maybe but I KNOW a 530gr .458 bullet from a mould by Steve Brooks, Paul Jones, et al or a Lyman Postell works. If not it's your rifle or your caster/reloader.

[Bent Ramrod]

I have a .30 caliber NEI mould for one of those “Sonic” boolits. I tried them in my .30-40 on 500 M Ram silhouettes in my occasional recreational activity that I call “Annoying the Animals.” Hit percentage was markedly less than for more conventional cast boolits.

I remember a benchrest competitor wrote that he got a partial box of Herter’s .22 cal jacketed “Sonic” bullets, of the same wasp-waist design. I probably have the exact details wrong but he said he loaded 5 of them ahead of his usual powder charge (“27 Clicks on the Culver” or some such), fired them out of his pet Heavy BR rifle and got a 5-shot 1-1/4” group. He quit right then, as he said he’d never gotten a larger than 3/8” group with any other loading in that rifle.

Another futuristic idea by George L. Herter, alas, relegated to the rubbish heap of shooting history. But he had a million of ‘em!

[OldBearHair]

I have a .30 caliber NEI mould for one of those “Sonic” boolits. I tried them in my .30-40 on 500 M Ram silhouettes in my occasional recreational activity that I call “Annoying the Animals.” Hit percentage was markedly less than for more conventional cast boolits.

I remember a benchrest competitor wrote that he got a partial box of Herter’s .22 cal jacketed “Sonic” bullets, of the same wasp-waist design. I probably have the exact details wrong but he said he loaded 5 of them ahead of his usual powder charge (“27 Clicks on the Culver” or some such), fired them out of his pet Heavy BR rifle and got a 5-shot 1-1/4” group. He quit right then, as he said he’d never gotten a larger than 3/8” group with any other loading in that rifle.

Another futuristic idea by George L. Herter, alas, relegated to the rubbish heap of shooting history. But he had a million of ‘em! And every one of them was the very bestest, greatest. prettiest, and longest lasting product on the market.

[beagle]

Wasp waist. Looks like NEI's work. Has an NEI driving band in front./beagle


That looks like something NEI used to offer. I'll have to dig out my old catalogs and check.

[Maven]

Beagle's right: the old NEI did offer that design years ago (as did Herters and now CBE).

[303Guy]

There is a sort of wasp waist design bullet specifically for suppressor use. The narrowing sections eliminate the mid-body shockwaves produced by subsonic bullets. In short, it makes the bullet quieter in flight. But the one in question is not it. The manufacturers have said what it is for.