Anyone ever un-bevel a bevel base mould?

[Lee W]

I have been reading in various places that the bevel base can increase the leading of a barrel. It makes sense to me.
I have been having a problem with leading in my 1911. The barrel is nice and shiny and slugs to .4505. The bullets are Saeco 067 225 grn tcbb .452 air dropped WW + enough tin for 2%, about 10-11 bhn. The lube is Rooster hvr which is a nice semi-soft lube fed through a new model Star. I use 4 grns WST and the oal is 1.2 which runs fine in my gun. I still get some leading, I would like even less.
Has anyone ever machined the bevel out of there mould? I would, but my lathe is pretty beat up and I am novice at machining.
Thanks

[beagle]

No reason the bevel base can't be removed. I've done many GC shanks and it's the same principle.

A mill's probably the best way to go on that. That's what we use on the GC shanks.

The nice part if you get a LITTLE heavy handed, the sizing die will forgive your sins.

Other than for using in automated loading machines, I've never seen the use for BB bullets. PITA!/beagle

[AnthonyB]

Lee, is your 1911 a Kimber? If so try sizing to .451 before you go to the trouble of removing the bevel. I seem to be in the minority when it comes to bevel base boolits - I like them in the 45 ACP because the bevel makes loading easier in my Dillon. It makes a real difference in the time required to crank out a few thousand rounds, and I can't tell a difference in accuracy at 25 yards or less. I don't like bevel bases in the magnums. Tony

[Lee W]

AnthonyB,
My 1911 is a Dan Wesson pointman. The barrel is a Kart easy fit. I used some .451 that came from a Lee six banger and the leading was really bad.
I am still thinking about going to a plain base. I just got a used 550 and I have not used a plain base bullet with it. I normally make sure the bullet is as straight as possible so I don't know If a plain base would slow me down.

[Willbird]

Personally I would try another lube, MrOliver77 and I bought boolits off this weird guy that sells boolits, them boolits would not lead too bad over 4.0 bullseye in my clark bbled 1911, but put in 5.0 grains and they leaded like all get out.

MrOliver leaded his 1917 from the forcing cone to the muzzle with them, other boolits with other lube are just fine in both guns as hard as you want to push them.

You could also try dropping the tin content to more like .5 to .7, tin helps leading form.

Veral Smith also says, and it makes sense that a bevel base boolit is more likely to have a perfect base where the BB joins the body because sprue plate lifting and such doesnt throw that out of square.

Just a few ideas.

Bill

[Buckshot]

.............I have never had leading issues with a BB just because it was a BB. I do NOT like an excessively pronounced one though, and can see no reason for it. My problem is when lube-sizing only. A 'Handloader' author did a multiple thousand round test with 2 bullet designs. A regular FB and a BB firing from a Ransom rest. There was a standard random distribution to prove one was not more accurate then the other.

In the course of testing no leading issues arose. To backup the test a good quantity of each was sent to the Speer ballistics lab to be shot in their underground range. Speer only knew they had 2 boolits but no knowledge as to which was who. Thier results also showed neither boolit as having an edge over the other.

OT, but the same thing was done testing a roll vs taper crimp. Obviously you could see which was which but there was no reason anyone would want to intentionally skew results. Again, no appreciable difference in accuracy. The taper crimp is the choice for auto's headspacing on the casemouth, and that was about the sum difference.

..................Buckshot

[bobthenailer]

hi i have 4 - 45 acp molds 3 bevel base & 1 flate base and i have never experinced any leading except at the leading edge of the forcing cone after firing many rounds with at least 5 different lubes and 8 different 45 acp with factory & custom barrels ,id look at sizing to different dia [larger]or possible fire lapping the barrel ! good luck bob

[bobthenailer]

i forgot to add this i have a mold that was a bevel base and was expertly machined down to a flat base, it makes perfect bullets but they dont start shooting well until they reach the 1200 fps mark ,i can do this with several powders but the velocity is allways in this range anythig below and they shoot terrible ive tried different alloys , air cool ,water drop & 357, 358, 359 sizing dia and checked the bases to make sure they are square, i have shot them out of 5 different 357 mags, revolvers, single shot pistol & rifle and so far i have not found the right combo , i never shot this bullet before this was done as thats the way i bought it however i have 6 other 357 mag moulds from 125 to 200 gr and they all shoot well at all velocties .i posted a few years ago if anyone used this mold a saeco 388 bb or 382 fb 158 gr swc but didnot get a reply

[old benn]

Hello Mr Lee W -- I'm looking at an old post of yours regarding taking the bevel away from a boolit mold. Did you get it done ? and if so, who did it and what were the results. I have a Lee .452 (Aluminum of course) 200 gr mold with a bevel and can not find the (sweet spot) in my old Lyman Lube-sizer to keep the lube off the bevel. Messy to deal with. Want to remove the Bevel.

[old benn]

Hi Mr bobthenailer -- Looking at an old posting of yours regarding machining away the Bevel on a pistol mould. Who did this for you? I need a name to contact so I can get the Bevel out of a Lee (Aluminum or course) .452 - 200gr double cavity mould. Also if you don't mind, where in SW Pa.? I was born and raised in New Florence along the Conemaugh River, West of Johnstown.

[725]

I've taken out a bevel base on a drill press with very judicious placement of the work item. A cross slide vise helps. Just kiss the mold and go slow. Mine came out perfect.

[old benn]

Hi 725 -- I'd be afraid to try that on my "Chinese" drill press.

[MT Gianni]

I have done it on a drill press after verifying minimal run out, absolutely level vise and drill press. As Beagle said your sizing die can make up for a lot.

[lightman]

A friend of mine and a fellow member had Eric @ Hollow Point Molds remove the bevel from a mold for him. He's been so busy working that he has not even been on here recently and had not shot anything from it the last time I talked with him.

I chose to go a different direction. I sold and traded my bevel base molds and bought flat base molds. Weigh the cost difference.

[country gent]

You can remove the bevel base two ways 1) face mould down to remove it. this will slightly lighten the bullet also. 2) set up and bore out the bevel base in lathe and or mill. This will add a few grains and is a much more involved set up. Even in your "beat up " lathe set up the blocks in a 4 jaw chuck and indicate in to .003-.004 for this. face surface back to where just a small amount of bevel base remains. If you decide to tackle boring it yourself its more in the set up than the machining. Here the 4 jaw chuck and now indicate to .0005 or less. grind up a small boring bar by hand High speed steel is fine. A square tool bit or even an old end mill can be used. Ink the cavity and take small light cuts of .002-.003 until the ink just cleans up.

[john.k]

i would think any lathe would be better than a drill press.......i altered every GC mould to PB when gas checks hit 7c each........the first one I did was a Lyman 429215,and I was a little too keen and it ended up casting 434,but after that I developed a lighter touch and all the others are just a slight change of surface texture on the cast.........however ,if I had thought about it ,i would have made all the 45s oversize ,in fact I should have made them 462......not doing it over tho.

[tomme boy]

Try to get a hold of BEN on here. He does this to molds all the time. Usually he is removing the gas check section though. And he shoots some amazing groups after he does it.

[Rich/WIS]

I removed the bevel from a Lee 452-200 SWC with a milling machine, easy to do. After milling set mold on 400 grit and using oil polished the top. Didn't like the ring of lube on the bevel as it was messy to handle. Reduced the weight from 200 to 190 grains. Used the same procedure to mill off the gas check shank on a damaged Lyman mold to make it plain base. I had access to to mill at the time so don't know what it would cost at a machine shop.

[popper]

I FB my Lee 40sw mould with an exacto blade. No biggie, sizer fixes any problems. It shot OK, no better than a BB. RD did a Lee 6x 30/30 mould half PB/GC, not the best job but they shot fine. Sizer fixes a lot of problems.

[gwpercle]

I read a post from another member , he sharpened the small pen blade of his pocket knife an slowly and carefully took light cuts until the bevel part was removed .
I'm sure popper's Exacto knife , post # 19 , worked the same way ...small and sharp , light and careful cuts.

I recently have picked up two bevel base moulds , I have found that with very careful adjustment of H&I dies and the bottom stop , I can get clean bases with both .
In fact I can get clean bases with all my moulds but you have to adjust the sizer die stop for each different boolit. There will be a sweet spot for each boolit...you just have to find it.
Make sure no hole is in line with the boolit base and make sure the lube isn't to warm .
Warm lube likes to flow...I only use lube that doesn't require any heat and lube size when the weather is below 90 degrees .
You can monkey with the lube sizer or you can monkey with the mould... I choose the lube sizer adjustment .
Gary

[Buckshot]

.............The easiest thing to do is (assuming you have a machine shop somewhere around your neck of the woods) is take the mould to them and have them flycut the top of the blocks, as below:

http://www.fototime.com/9343DBFA31116FB/standard.jpg

Measure the width of the BB and tell them that's what you want removed. The setup is quick and is not any kind of headache at all. You will lose the sprue plate stop pin, but since you have a drill press you can replace that yourself. Unless your machine shop is doing some type of production work, the guy at your machine shop should be happy to do it for a decent price, or buy him lunch.

If there is a High School or Junior College around with a manual arts program they might also do it for free too. Just don't get all involved in explaining it's for a gun :-) In todays' climet someone might get all whacked out. For example about 30 years ago I needed the pivit pin for a MkIV Martini. The guy I talked to was the owners son and he had a real issue in making a part for a (God save us) gun!!!! :-(

His dad walked up and asked what was happening. His son held up the part I was needing and asked his dad if they wanted to be making "Gun Parts". His dad was a smart man. He said, "That's not a gun part, that's a split pin" which in truth that's all it really was!.

.............Buckshot

[beemer]

I had the bevel cut off a Lee 45 ACP mould because it left a ring of lube at the base. I did a friends Lee 38-55 with a sharp blade. We were working on one cavity of the mould to try to get the rifle to shoot and finally did. He said the mould was cheep enough to experiment with and we still have another cavity to work with. Working on a mould with a knife can be done but it can make a mess too.