drilling HPs in commercial Hard Cast...why not

[HD.375]

i see the thread about the 41 no producing blood trails with the hard cast commercial.... whats no go about drilling some HPs , shallow ish HPs for lower velocity hard cast hunting in aids of producing a bit more wound channel, as im sure penetration would still be 100% with petals breaking off if it got to that, but evenso still 100% with some slightly better expansion than 0

why not?

its something i may get up too at some stage soon! for the slow 375 loads i use

[missionary5155]

Good morning here
Hard cast is more brittle that soft cast lead. Your "shallow' drilled HP may open. Hard lead resists movement / shape change. You will need to experiment how deep and how wide your HP will be.
Brittle is another issue. The HP petals may shear off on movement. Again you will need to experiment.
Speed Again the impact force is what causes expansion. Slow that down and there may not be enough impact force to cause a HP to open.

Just for fun... using a couple of your hard cast bullets... Gently tap one with a 3 pound hammer with it sitting on a peace of steel. Now hit another with about twice the force. Any difference ? Are the Hard Cast cracking, shattering, expanding, pieces breaking off..... If you have any soft lead hit it the same way.
Now tap #1 a second time. Now hit #2 a second time. Check them carefully again for changes....
Do the same with your drilled HP's.....
This is all just to help you think about actual impact forces and not muzzle velocity.
You can repeat all this using a rubber mat under the cast to simulate soft tissue impact.

[Shopdog]

On a std Lyman style top punch;

Forget the numbers(O.L.D.) but have installed several over the last cpl years. IIRC it's a 6-32 cup point set screw. Drill and tap the top punch for one of these. Then play with the depth. Yup,highly dependent on alloy but for "most" anything up,and including Lyman #2...you're gonna have fun producing these perfectly centered little divet HP's. It creates a hemispheric "dot" in the center of a crater.

On rifle bullets.... it get really interesting because you can bump swage a bore rider just a smidge as the set screw depth increases. Just play with the depth to find the balance of upset vs any bump up.

Another approach with top punches;

On a custom TP where the length of the punch cavity can be made long enough... you can semi sharpen the bttm edge of the TP and have that,hit the shoulder of a SWC or bore ride design.... just before the nose hits up inside the punch body. What it does is creates a sharp edge around that leading shoulder. Works very well also for.... semi auto handguns. It allows you to "jam" on OAL without a total failure to go into battery. Obviously you're gonna have to get real picky on the seating op. But it does work peachy on target pistols.


Good luck with your project.

[HD.375]

ill run a few through the drill tomorow and try round up enough newspaper to stop on of these at say 100 meters. report back when i can get around to shooting it (rain lets off)

[HD.375]

Good morning .
howdy mate,
yeah ive wacked them pretty hard and they didnt do anything much, squished a bit but the hytek didnt come off either.... from memory 18-21 bnh / hardness they say...

even if sheers theres alot of gr left from a 245 which loses a bit of the nose :) will see what pans out here..

[HD.375]

meh i went in the shed 1am an drilled 4 to load inthe morning.... they look heaps better LOL

[Dinny]

I had custom HP tools made for several different calibers I shoot. I have tested bullets of differing alloys and hardness at velocities ranging from 900fos to 2000fps. I have found softer alloys at modest velocities worked best. I found drilling bullets to be tedious and boring. A good friend casts a MP 200gr Penta HP and an Accurate 220gr HP for me at 30:1 alloy and they each have accounted for a deer this year and last when fired from my 357 Max rifle at 1160fps.

I had several harder HP bullets penetrate deeply and without expansion.

Thanks, Dinny

[HD.375]

thanks for the reminder.
ive got some of these to load in a few days, ive been working in the quarry of late between rain, an also got a compound bow lol..... isnt that a thing.