Adjustable Hollow Point Re-Hash

[HollowPoint]

A couple of years ago I bought a Lyman Devestator mold specifically to cast for my Kimber 1911.

It worked marvelously. Using Stick on WW's, these bullets expanded to about the diameter of a quarter. (no Exageration) They flattened out to about the width of 1/4".

With slightly harder alloy, these same bullets would just shed their hollow points with the tail end of the bullet becoming to light weight to travel much farther.

I figured that a "Cup-Point" hollow point might serve me a little bit better if I didn't want the bullet to expand as much or shed the tip on impact.

I didn't want to alter the factory spud; there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. I just wanted options without having to pay alot of money for alterations to my existing mold.

Initially I made a make-shift "Cup-Point" spud that worked OK but, since I threw it together rather quickly, it wasn't exactly anything to write home about.

Occasionally I'd heard or read about "Adjustable Hollow Point" bullet molds but, I never really saw one that looked any better than my "Make-Shift" "Cup-Point" attempt.

I finally quit procrastinating and decided to take a little more time to make one up proper like.
It's still far from perfect but, I'm 99.9 percent sure it will function as I had intended. I'll be casting with it tomorrow just to make sure..

I'm sure I'm not telling many of you anything you may not have heard before. It seems that every few days though, some of the folks that come to this sight and lurk in the back-ground make the decision to register.

I used to be one of those lurkers. Maybe this is the first time they've heard about "Adjustable Hollow Points."

So here it is:
HollowPoint

[briang]

Nice work

[beagle]

Great looking work. That should do the trick. You've hit on the problem with the Lyman Devestator. Too much of a good thing./beagle

[HollowPoint]

I got a chance to test my new "home-made" Adjustable Hollow Point Spud yesterday.

I was very happy with the results.

I've added an additional photo of the casting results. Now it's off to the range to see what kind of bullet performance they give me.

HollowPoint

[GLL]

VERY NICE design and workmanship !

Where is the Order Form ??? ;) ;)

Jerry

[257 Shooter]

+1 on the Order Form. Extremely nice work!

[yondering]

Sweet idea, and great execution too. I like it!

[PatMarlin]

Looks like a winner ..!

[AnthonyB]

I want one too.
Tony

[HollowPoint]

Thank you gentlemen:

Coming from experienced bullet casters like many of you, your compliments are truly flattering.

Recently I got in on one of the MiHec 44/444 group buys and after casting some three or four hundred bullets with it, I thought to myself, "This would be a good candidate for an Adjustable Hollow Point set up as well."

Because it was built as a Cramer-Style mold it would be difficult to use the same design I used on this single cavity Devastator mold.

I'm certain that having this MiHec 44/444 mold set up with "Adjustable Hollow Point Spuds" would add so much more versatility to an already awesome bullet mold.

After thinking about it for a while I believe I've hit on a possible way of getting around the road-blocks that this Cramer-Style bullet mold presents. (without having to alter the mold or its components)

I thought I'd try to tackle this project now while I'm still on the "Confidence-High" of successfully putting together my single cavity "Adjustable Hollow Point Spud."

It may work and it may not. The only way to find out is to try it.

Wish me luck.
HollowPoint

[Morrison Machine Shop]

Nice work, It looks really good, and Good Luck!

[AnthonyB]

I still want one.
Tony

[PatMarlin]

You can probably sell those to the Hollowpoint mod guys as well.

[HollowPoint]

Many thanks for the compliments and the encouragement.

I really didn't plan on selling these gizmos. I just wanted to give myself more options without having to buy more bullet molds or Various Spuds to get those options.

I'm working with my little cheapy Harbor Freight Bench top Mill and Bench Top Lathe. These machines seem to do the trick if I do my part with some semblance of concentration.

They are not really made for production work though.

When I made the "Adjustable Hollow Point" Spud pictured above, it took me all day to do it. I could probably do it a little quicker now that I've proven the concept. I used brass because it's easier for my little machines to handle.

I guess I might consider building these for other folks but, I want to see how well they hold up first. I think an all-steel "Adjustable Hollow Point" Spud would be better and last much longer but, given the machines I have to work with I'm sure it would take a little longer to build one.

Another reason I built this now was because I've been on vacation. I've actually had time to do these things I've been contemplating for a while. This is my last week then it's back to work.

I've been working on home projects on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; and I've been chasing deer on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the weekends. (Arizona Archery Deer Season)

In my previous post I mentioned that I would try to tackle an "Adjustable Hollow Point" Spud for my MiHec 44/444 Cramer-Style bullet mold. Well, I played around with that today. I almost had it finished but I got in a hurry and failed to perfectly align the point of one of the the spuds.

I'll try to finish it on Friday. It actually looks like I knew what I was doing. It's a good thing I'm not a machinist. I doubt that I would have even tried it if I was. Sometimes ignorance IS truly bliss.
Most Cramer-Style Hollow Point Spuds are basically three piece units; four if you count the little half-moon clip.

The "Adjustable Hollow Point" Spuds that I've made up have eight different pieces if you count the little half-moon clip.

I'll post a pic once I get it put together. I think the simplicity will blow some of your minds.

HollowPoint

[Charlie Sometimes]

WOW! Great idea and great workmanship!
I had one of those moulds years ago in 44, and didn't like it.
If it had had your modification, I'd just bet that it would still be on my shelf.
I only load for 45's now.

[PatMarlin]

Yah... hee,hee I can attest on how folks have NO idea how much work it takes to go into production on a simple thing like this.

Your spud has CNC written all over it. I just aquired a Hardinge CNC, but got to learn programing. Life will be SO much easier when that happens ..:mrgreen:

[AnthonyB]

It took just one day to build it? I'll offer $10 as a starting price, but will have to ship you my mould so you can get the fit down to .001. Of course, you will have to ship the mold back, but you should only lose about $5 on each one you sell. I'll make up the $5 loss by trading loob grooves I got in a big deal with Waksupi last year - how many do you need? Tony

[waksupi]

I just aquired a Hardinge CNC, but got to learn programing. Life will be SO much easier when that happens ..:mrgreen:

Brahahahahaaaa! Don't be in a rush, Pat. I had the great pleasure of being associated with Glen Harrison, developer of Nesika Bay/Dakota Arms actions. I consider him a good friend, and a stand up guy who is absolutely dependable.

Glen is a real whiz bang when it comes to setting up CNC machines, and it still took him nearly 7 months to set up a new CNC to do what he needed. 5 Axis machine, so lots of bells and whistles, but as anything computer driven, garbage in, garbage out!
Take your time!

[PatMarlin]

Yea I here ya. It will be a fall-winter project Ric.

I bought one of the highly recommeded author's books on the subject (used) and I'm flipping through it tonite. 5 Axis- holy cow! Good thing about my stuff is 2 axis with relative simplicity as far as CNC goes.

Heck- my first hurdle is getting it to run on my Solar system- adequately. ...:mrgreen:

[HollowPoint]

Well, I didn't have any luck on the deer hunting front today. Last Tuesday morning I spent most of the early morning chasing a bachelor-heard of small white tails around the top of a mountain.

I did that for about three hours but I could never get close enough to get a shot.

Rather than spook them out of the county I left that spot and went to another not far from there and just sat in ambush near a watering hole. No luck there either. I ended up just taking some photos of quail, jackrabbits, cottontail, assorted birds and such.

Seemed that every desert creature came in to get a drink except the deer. They must water at night when it's illegal to hunt them.

Anyhow, I went back to the place where I'd seen that bachelor heard but, I never did cross paths with them again.
I harvested a white tail out of that same spot about five years ago. It's been that long since I've filled an archery deer tag. I think I'm over-due.

Got home around 1:00 PM so I thought I'd finish up my Cramer "Adjustable Hollow Point" Spuds. Took about an hour and a half more of working on them.

Never fails though; once you get something done you wish you'd done it this way or that way instead.

Maybe on my next long weekend I'll make changes. I'm kind of anxious now to try these out. I know they'll work. I just need to run out and get some more LokTite. I had a tube of it in my work room but, it seems to have disappeared.

HollowPoint

[Noxi0uS]

I see a lot of caster's wives hating you in your future lol. That is extremely innovative. Nice work.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Very impressive work, thanks for sharing.

[MiHec]

What can I say........

NICE !!!!!!:D:D:D:D

[yondering]

Nice work. As a simpler alternative (Miha, hint, hint..) you could make the adjustable pin just a free sliding piece in that brass sleeve. It could be held in place by a set screw (make the sleeve stick out the bottom of the mold to give room for a set screw), or use one or both of the horizontal pins (the ones with C-clips on the end) as a set screw.

[HollowPoint]

Greetings Everyone:

And many thanks for the compliments. Yondering; I read your suggestion to MiHec. That's an excellent idea. Wish I'd of thought of it before spending all that time in front of the lathe.

I do have to tell you all that casting was a success but, I found one area that needed improvement.
It was the rounded shape of the Hollow-Point Pin tip. As long as I was casting shallow hollow points and cup-points everything worked beautifully. The deeper I made the hollow point cavities, the stickier it was to extract the bullets from the hollow point pins.
To solve this flaw in my design, I think it's just a matter of giving the tip of the hollow point pin more of a cone shape similar to the shape that MiHec put on the original spuds.

Thanks again everyone.

Before I sign off I just wanted share with you a new idea that I've been working on. It's a dedicated "Soft-Pointing" tool. The simplicity of this tool will blow you away.

Ever since starting with this bullet casting hobby, I've been sort of obsessed with coming up with the perfect soft-pointed hollow point hunting bullet.

I know that there are ways of achieving this very thing by using various bullet casting technics but, of the few that I've seen, the greatest problem has been the amount of time it takes to cast just a few of these soft point.

If this latest idea pans out, I believe I'll be able to cast soft point bullets at the normal casting rate. (I mean my normal casting rate)

I have yet to make up the first prototype but, I'm pretty sure it's going to work out OK. If it doesn't; oh well, it won't be the first time one of my ideas didn't work.

The only way to find out is to try it.

HollowPoint

[HollowPoint]

I did it! [smilie=w:
I finally got around to building my new Dedicated Soft-Pointing tool.

Will it work? I don't know. It looks like it might. I haven't tried it out yet. I just have to polish the lower portions of this tool so that the molten lead doesn't want to cling to its surface so readily.

With any luck it will be ready for presentation this weekend. With a little more luck I might even get the time to cast with it this weekend as well.

I plan on posting a new thread a little later. Look for "NEW SOFT-POINTING TOOL" in the Special Projects section.

This is just more or less a teaser post for now.
I hope it works; I hope it works; I hope it works.[smilie=s:
Over-N-Out

HollowPoint