Many small or one big groove

[robroy]

We've all seen boolits of both designs. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

[fredj338]

I seem to have better luck w/ the large single groove. It seems to hold the lube better than several shallow/small grooves.

[Char-Gar]

Either type of bullet will work fine IF it is a correct fit to the barrel throat, lands and grooves. Start learning about proper bullet fit. Proper bullet temper for the pressure, and the number of lube grooves will become irrelevant.

[Recluse]

Agree with Chargar on boolit fit.

While I generally prefer boolit designs with the traditional lube grooves, it's kinda ironic that my absolute number-one best shooting boolit is a micro-band design, two-cavity boolit from Lee. Go figure. Of my top five boolits, two of them are microband designs.

With them, I use my 45/45/10 blend with stellar results. For the other boolits, I use my own homemade (stick) lube in a lubesizer.

However, I have also experienced situations where I had too much lube in the grooves (traditional lube grooves), and that adversely affected accuracy.

Traded those lube grooves back to Waksupi, though, for some prop wash.

:coffee:

[robroy]

Well If I find I have too many Loob grooves I'll trade them in on a tank streacher

[runfiverun]

i have manipulated the too many grooves by sizing first in a bit larger sizer to increase the bearing surface, then lubed only two grooves of the loverign.
but i like the simple one or two groove designs best, quality lube over quantity seems to work best for me.
if it's a super long boolit like for a 300 gr 38-55 a couple of grooves is more than enough lube and seems to be better accuracy wise than a 4 groove design.
i also find not lubing the gas check ring is usually better.

[cajun shooter]

Even when using BP this is a question that comes up quite regular. With all the different lubes and people like myself who make there own it is a hard answer to come up with. I don't use any of Lee's bullet designs as none of them have ample lube grooves. I have found that the powder used also plays a big part in that answer. I have also found that sometimes the bullets with huge lube grooves might not lead the bore but the accuracy is not that great. In 44-40 and I only know this because of all the hard work done by By John Kort aka W30 WCF or W44WCF. The original bullet 427098 with two lube grooves filled with SPG ahead of 33 grains of Swiss 2F is very accurate. They are better than the Mav Dutchman with it's one big groove that holds more lube. I do like the Dutchman for the close business of SASS . I think that the best answer to this posting is that it is the same as all the other variables that we encounter when casting and reloading. YMMV

[grouch]

Prefer lots of grooves. I agree that the number of grooves does not of itself effect accuracy much, BUT it does effect your ability to seat your bullet to a depth that suits your rifle's throat. as for too much or too little lube, you can lube as many grooves as you want.
Grouch

[BABore]

Take a look at this link to my website rifle design page. Look at the 462-420 GC TBR I & the TBR II right below it.

http://www.brp.castpics.net/R2.html


I turned both of these cherrys back to back. They are identical with the exception of the lube grooves and driving bands. The single lube grooved boolit is a direct desendent of Jae Bok Young's "Crater Lite" which is a Ballisti-Cast mold IIRC. I mainly redesigned the nose so it actually touches something and increased the lube capacity slightly by deepening the groove. The second version, with multiple lube grooves, has the exact same lube capacity and bearing band surface lengths. In otherwords, as identical as possible, but single verses two lube grooves.

I've tested both boolits, side by side, in two different 45-70's and a 450 Marlin. They were cast from the same alloy, sized, and lubed the same. I worked up loads in 1/2 grain increments for both boolits.Two different powders and two different lubes were tried. In all cases, the boolit with multiple lube grooves shot better. Accuracy difference were typically 1/4 to 3/8" for 3 shot groups at 100 yards. Not a great deal of difference for sure, but it carried through on all of the loads in all of the guns.

It was enough to convince me that in the 458 caliber, at 1,500 to 1,800 fps, that multiple grooves do make a difference. Don't know if it applies to all rifle calibers or pistols. Haven't been there yet. I do know that multiple lube grooves do give you the option of how many you want to lube to lube. Lube type and a boolits lube capacity do affect accuracy. A boolit with lots of capacity may need some tweaking for best accuracy. Shoot it at moderate velocity with a really slick lube like LBT and your likely to get purging flyers. You can go to only lubing one groove or go to a simpiler lube (less slickies). Bump the velocity to over 2,400 fps and the LBT may be just the ticket. Lots of options are a good thing.