My 1st attempt at HP boolits.

[Trey45]

This is a borrowed mold, to see if I like Cramer hp style. Erik Ohlsen did the work. The nose was shortened and the Cramer style HP was installed. The guy I'm borrowing the mold from asked for as large of an HP as he could get within reason. The mold according to my friend was casting boolits over weight and with too small of a meplat for his purposes. To rectify this the mold was sent to http://www.hollowpointmold.com/ for work. This is my 1st experience with any kind of HP mold, and I'm sold, I have a Lyman mold in mind to send Erik for the same type of work.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/SimonLegree/RCBSHPMold.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/SimonLegree/RCBSHPPins1.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/SimonLegree/RCBSHPPinsincavities.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/SimonLegree/RCBSHPPins.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/SimonLegree/RCBSHPpile.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/SimonLegree/RCBSHPCloseup.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/SimonLegree/RCBSHPBoolits1.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/SimonLegree/RCBSHPDummy.jpg

Boolits weight 131gr out of ww. I air cooled these. The 2 dummy loads are just made today. The boolits are unsorted, so there's bound to be a few culls in there. Once this mold heats up the casting qualities are amazing. I don't even have to smack the handle hinge to get them to drop off the pins once it's heated up. I'd recommend Erik Ohlsen to anyone looking for a Cramer style hp, this thing is too cool!

[Edubya]

I have one of those from Erick also. I also have a hollow butt mould WC for my .38. After the next time you heat it up, or just heat it on the hot plate, apply a generous amount of Kroil and they work even better. I'm tempted to send him my H&G 10 cavity and have him modify half of them.
EW

[stubshaft]

I have a .502 mould that Erik modified for me. He does great work.

[canebreaker]

They look great.
Is that a .38 spl. along side the 9m?
Did you swag and lube before loading?
Just pondering??? my .357 boolit molds are .358.
My son's 9m 115 gr. rn mold is .357.
Could I get away from swagging?

[Marlin Hunter]

Very nice looking boolits!!

[warf73]

I love that boolit design, would love that in a .460" 450gr. GC version would be a great deer boolit in my rifle.

[Wayne Smith]

I take it you like the mold??!! How good a friend is this?

[armyrat1970]

Of course this may be just me or the lighting for some of the pics but some of the cavities look a little out of round and of different sizes. May still work fine.

[Trey45]

They look great.
Is that a .38 spl. along side the 9m?
Did you swag and lube before loading?
Just pondering??? my .357 boolit molds are .358.
My son's 9m 115 gr. rn mold is .357.
Could I get away from swagging?

It's a 357 next to the 9mm. The boolits are dropping at .3575 to .358. I'm going to try them in 357 magnum for accuracy before loading a bunch. These 2 are just dummy cartridges. I didn't lubrisize either boolit. I'll most likely lubrisize them with a .358 sizing die and try them in both 9mm and 357 mag.

[Trey45]

I take it you like the mold??!! How good a friend is this?

Yes I really do like the mold, and it's a good friend who loaned me the mold. He had sent it off and waited for a while before getting it back, cast with it maybe 2 or 3 times and brought it over for me to use. I may get to keep it another week before giving it back, I hope to have a big pile of boolits cast with it by then.

[Trey45]

Of course this may be just me or the lighting for some of the pics but some of the cavities look a little out of round and of different sizes. May still work fine.

As stated above, these boolits are unsorted, so there may be a few culls in there. I sorted them out this morning though and found a few with malformed noses, not filled out the whole way, and a few with bad bases, where I cut the sprue too soon and got holes in the bases, man I hate that!. The majority of them are keepers though. I'm really happy with the casting qualities of this mold, and can't wait to send my Lyman off to have similar work done. It's taken me a while to get decent boolits, it's a learning process and this forum is an excellent teacher!

[armyrat1970]

As stated above, these boolits are unsorted, so there may be a few culls in there. I sorted them out this morning though and found a few with malformed noses, not filled out the whole way, and a few with bad bases, where I cut the sprue too soon and got holes in the bases, man I hate that!. The majority of them are keepers though. I'm really happy with the casting qualities of this mold, and can't wait to send my Lyman off to have similar work done. It's taken me a while to get decent boolits, it's a learning process and this forum is an excellent teacher!

It is amazing with casting. You think you are doing everything the same from cast to cast and suddenly you have something different. That's what makes it interesting. At least in my experience.

[fredj338]

I had Erik do the same mold for me w/ two pins. The std HP is deep like that & they fragment badly even @ 950fps. The other pin is a 4pt pyrimid, works great! Casts a 135-136gr bullet from 25-1 alloy. Pretty uniform expansion from 1050-1250fps.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/fredj338/136hp-1050.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/fredj338/9mm-136-1200.jpg

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Great kooking Boolits, you can't go wrong with the HP's if you hunt, work your loads up and enjoy...

[armyrat1970]

Wow. That is excellent expansion in those boolits. Beautiful.

[badge176]

I ran a Lyman Devestator .45 HP mold yesterday and found the following...
1) Keeping my alloy temp up rather high helped obtain better nose &base.
2) a much longer pour (I dipper pour from a pan of hot alloy) actually had two distinct stages; a first fill, puddle, and run-off that then suddenly "dropped" followed by a second puddle and run-off. I'm assuming that the first stage filled the nose imperfectly and that the second "drop" marked the melting of the imperfect nose and subsequent perfect fill-out.

[fredj338]

I ran a Lyman Devestator .45 HP mold yesterday and found the following...
1) Keeping my alloy temp up rather high helped obtain better nose &base.
2) a much longer pour (I dipper pour from a pan of hot alloy) actually had two distinct stages; a first fill, puddle, and run-off that then suddenly "dropped" followed by a second puddle and run-off. I'm assuming that the first stage filled the nose imperfectly and that the second "drop" marked the melting of the imperfect nose and subsequent perfect fill-out.
I use a 10# Lee BP pot @ 700-750deg w/ 50/50 or 25-1 alloy. Put the spru plate in contact w/ the spout & pour, then back off to form a spru. This sort of pressurizes the mold & almost always gives good fill out even w/ the complicated pyrimid pins.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Those look great Trey! I am jealous!

[Texasflyboy]

I am sending this one off to Erik this week for the Cramer conversion. After that I am thinking of trying a H&G 4 cavity in either 9mm (should work for either 9mm or .38) or .44.

http://hgmould.gunloads.com/molds/22_3.jpg

The goal with the H&G #22 is to make a good H.P. bullet that will work in my SAA Uberti clones or my 625.

[fredj338]

I am sending this one off to Erik this week for the Cramer conversion. After that I am thinking of trying a H&G 4 cavity in either 9mm (should work for either 9mm or .38) or .44.

The goal with the H&G #22 is to make a good H.P. bullet that will work in my SAA Uberti clones or my 625.
If they come out about 230gr, they would also work well in the 45acp @ 850fps if the HP is large enough. Keep us posted.

[Phat Man Mike]

man that is a nice pile of cast hp's some day I hope to send a set out and get them fixed by Erick!!:lovebooli

[canebreaker]

Ok, with that I could lube my boolits at .358. Swag them at .357, then reswag them to .356 for a 9m.