Casting hollow points

[delmar]

Is casting hollow points much more of a pain than casting ball ammo? Is it a lot more time consuming?

[fecmech]

It is considerably slower as you are using a single cavity mould and along with the normal fill , cut and dump sequence you remove and reinstall the hollow point pin. Not what you want to do for a lot of ammo but ok because you just use them for hunting so you don't need a lot of bullets.

[docone31]

I looked at hollowpointing.
For mass production, I believe it would be faster and more consistant to cast the boolitts, then drill the hollow point useing a guage and drill set to height.

[beagle]

It's a learning process. After you get it down, it's maybe 40% slower. But, it takes quite a bit of HP making to get it right and turn them out like that.

I'm usally good for about 500 HPs in a 4 hour morning and then I get bored/tired./beagle

[Glen]

The comments above are accurate IF you're talking about casting with a single-acvity traditional style HP mould.

A couple of nights ago, I say down with my new Cramer-style 2-cavity HP mould (an old Ideal 452374 mould converted for me by Erik Ohlen), and I cast 10 pounds of bullets in just under an hour. That HP weighs 202 grains, so that's about 350 bullets, or about 6 HPs a minute!

If I were considering going into production making cast HPs, I would definitely be using a Cramer-style mould (possibly even on a 4-cavity mould). They are MUCH faster.

[mooman76]

If you can find a old Lee hollow point mould, they are a little faster but you don't see them often and they usually cost a bit more. The pin is fit in permanent like their hollow based moulds so that cuts out one part of the proccess.

[JW6108]

Is casting hollow points much more of a pain than casting ball ammo? Is it a lot more time consuming?

Yes to both.


I recently got one of these and it does a very nice job; you can vary the depth of the cavity to experiment, something you can't do with a mould. Just take a little care to get the bit centered and it does a good job. Of course, you need the Forster Case Trimmer to mount it in but that's a necessary job anyway and it is a well built tool. Good luck.


http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=371968

[delmar]

Yes to both.


I recently got one of these and it does a very nice job; you can vary the depth of the cavity to experiment, something you can't do with a mould. Just take a little care to get the bit centered and it does a good job. Of course, you need the Forster Case Trimmer to mount it in but that's a necessary job anyway and it is a well built tool. Good luck.


http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=371968
Now that is what I'm talking about! I knew such a thing existed for .22 (http://www.eabco.com/holoptr.html) but I had not found anything I could drill .45 with before.

[blysmelter]

Have just casted some hundred Lee 457-405HPs. Mould was a leftover in the bottom drawer in a local shop:-). Bullets comes out .458
Speed is OK for a singel cavity but I do get a quite high rate of rejects, most because they are bent???
I cast of WW added 4%tin and dropp the bullets from the mold into water.

Anyway-guess I will get another mold to cast for my Lott, maybe a 500grs round-nose.


edit-could the bent bullets be because they are to hot when dropping them?

[missionary5155]

Good morning
I am a driller. It takes about an hour to make an metal drilling jig for a bullet diamet. With that diameter jig I can hollow point ANY bullet that diameter. And drilling is so easy ! Fast ! And I do not need extra tin in the mix. No HP rejecks. No aggrivation. I have hollow point molds... but I do most my hollow pointing with a drill.
God Bless you

[mooman76]

blysmelter sounds like you are dropping the bullets while they are still not entirely solidified. Let them cool a few seconds more, they should not be bending form water dropping. I had some do that and that was the problem.

[TC66]

I make a hollow point tool that works really well. Here is a previous post about the tool I make.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=41070

[delmar]

Is it possible to tell from looking at a cast hollow point whether it is likely to expand well? Here is a photo of some bullets that a guy who lives somewhat close to me casts. Any opinions? They are 230 grain .45 acp, by the way.

[MT Gianni]

My opinion is no. Expansion is determined a lot by speed, alloy, depth and diameter of cavity and the medium you shoot at. Paper patch those from a Win 458 Mag and you will have different results than @ 650 fps from a 1911.

[fecmech]

Put up a couple plastic gallon jugs of water one behind the other with a piece of cardboard a couple feet behind the second jug. Shoot through the jugs and look at the hole in the cardboard. If it's bigger than .45 it expanded. My guess is they won't, the hollow points don't look big enough for the low speed of a .45 even with a soft alloy. You won't know till you try though.

[delmar]

Put up a couple plastic gallon jugs of water one behind the other with a piece of cardboard a couple feet behind the second jug. Shoot through the jugs and look at the hole in the cardboard. If it's bigger than .45 it expanded. My guess is they won't, the hollow points don't look big enough for the low speed of a .45 even with a soft alloy. You won't know till you try though.

The guy who has the mold told me that he was wondering, also whether the hollow point is too small. Maybe I can get him to sell them to me cheap if I do some experiments with them. perhaps I could put a box of phone books behind the cardboard and actually recover a bullet?

[blysmelter]

blysmelter sounds like you are dropping the bullets while they are still not entirely solidified. Let them cool a few seconds more, they should not be bending form water dropping. I had some do that and that was the problem.

Will try that next casting session!

[pdawg_shooter]

Good morning
I am a driller. It takes about an hour to make an metal drilling jig for a bullet diamet. With that diameter jig I can hollow point ANY bullet that diameter. And drilling is so easy ! Fast ! And I do not need extra tin in the mix. No HP rejecks. No aggrivation. I have hollow point molds... but I do most my hollow pointing with a drill.
God Bless you

I have in the past owned 6 different hollow point moulds and they are all gone now. Talk about a PITA! I made me a jig for my drill press that allows me to drill 90 to 120 bullets, or loaded rounds an hour. Much better!