Nice .38/.357 Mould

[beagle]

Several years back, I picked up a DC RCBS mould. 38-158-CM. I said, "Ho hum, another cowboy mould". I cast a few from it and it cast really nice and shot great from both my .357 Blackkhawks and my .357 Marlin M1894.

I've been stuck on old Elmer's 358439 for so long that I had scads of them already cast and loaded so I shot them more or less exclusively with few problems and life was great.

Several months ago, I was looking for a mould to hollow point and this one came to hand so we hollow pointed it with a .140" diameter pin. It casts right at 151 grains more or less and I've been loading it in .38 Special cases as I have a million of them using loads in the ++P and old .38/44 class.

That's the slickest shooting little bullet in both the Blackhawks and the .357 Mag carbine. I'm getting a little over 1050 FPS out of the Blackhawks and haven't chrony'd the rifle but it's a shooter. The feeding is flawless in the Marlin, especially with .38 cases.

With this combination, who needs to shoot .22s as these are cheaper and better.

If you're looking for a light .38, consider this bullet and one of these days, maybe Buckshot will get caught up on his lathe work and will hollow point one for you.

I highly recommend it in both the Blackhawk and the Marlin carbine./beagle

[Buckshot]

...............Beagle is that a boolit with a radiused ogive to a FP vs the Lee 358-158RF type (below)?

http://www.fototime.com/2D536DBA57B9FA1/standard.jpg

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

[beagle]

Rick...pretty close but the nose diameter isn't as big. /beagle

[Pop Gun]

[QUOTE=beagle;110668]Several months ago, I was looking for a mould to hollow point and this one came to hand so we hollow pointed it with a .140" diameter pin. It casts right at 151 grains more or less and I've been loading it in .38 Special cases as I have a million of them using loads in the ++P and old .38/44 class.
I highly recommend it in both the Blackhawk and the Marlin carbine./beagle /QUOTE]


I think that many people do not understand the benifits of hollow pointing and what effect it "can have" on accuracy.

1. It lightens a bullet so that you maintain bearing length and cut base distorting pressure to the bullet. (Acts like hardening the bullet or improving the lube)

2. It throws the weight on the back of the bullet where it is easier to stabilize if some out balance takes place during firing.

3. It removes unsupported nose weight. That has multiple benifits in both handguns and rifles. Handguns: The nose is then lighter and easier to turn having less momentum. If you have a slight alignment issue, (and no gun is perfect) the hollow point will colapse a little and act as sort of a shock absorber in a forcing cone. This allows alignment to be a smoother action until things line up. Rifles: If you have a lever and are forced to go way over size on your bullets to get accuracy, a hollowpoint can colapse and allow an easier transition while improving alignment in the throat.

4. Then there is the expansion benifits that simply have to be experienced to understand how this aids performance for deer on down.

Yeh, I used to run hollow pointing experiments where I drilled holes that were off center and still watched them shoot as well or better than solids with the same loads. Of coarse, the stronger the bullet design, the less effect it would have, but it can be eye opening on some designs. The 358156 was a real improver because of it's weak front band in a sloppy Charter Arms snubby I used to have. 25 yards without hollow pointing were about 4". Hollow point fairly center and it dropped below and inch with the same load. You thought you had a rifle in your hands which dispelled some false belief about snubbies not shooting for me.

[beagle]

Right on! In the approximately 70 moulds that we've modified for a hollow point in the past 5-6 years, every one has shown signs of improved accuracy......expecially the rifle calibers where you are taking more pain with your shooting technique.

I attribute this to to moving the center of gravity farther to the rear and also in some case, lightening the bullet some. The design of a mould is set and lightening it can only shelp stability.

The design of this bullet was so good in the "solid" form and shot so well that I had to give it a try in the HP version and it came out a winner all around.

I know I'll have a bunch loaded and waiting for whatever tasks I assign to the .357s./beagle




[QUOTE=beagle;110668]Several months ago, I was looking for a mould to hollow point and this one came to hand so we hollow pointed it with a .140" diameter pin. It casts right at 151 grains more or less and I've been loading it in .38 Special cases as I have a million of them using loads in the ++P and old .38/44 class.
I highly recommend it in both the Blackhawk and the Marlin carbine./beagle /QUOTE]


I think that many people do not understand the benifits of hollow pointing and what effect it "can have" on accuracy.

1. It lightens a bullet so that you maintain bearing length and cut base distorting pressure to the bullet. (Acts like hardening the bullet or improving the lube)

2. It throws the weight on the back of the bullet where it is easier to stabilize if some out balance takes place during firing.

3. It removes unsupported nose weight. That has multiple benifits in both handguns and rifles. Handguns: The nose is then lighter and easier to turn having less momentum. If you have a slight alignment issue, (and no gun is perfect) the hollow point will colapse a little and act as sort of a shock absorber in a forcing cone. This allows alignment to be a smoother action until things line up. Rifles: If you have a lever and are forced to go way over size on your bullets to get accuracy, a hollowpoint can colapse and allow an easier transition while improving alignment in the throat.

4. Then there is the expansion benifits that simply have to be experienced to understand how this aids performance for deer on down.

Yeh, I used to run hollow pointing experiments where I drilled holes that were off center and still watched them shoot as well or better than solids with the same loads. Of coarse, the stronger the bullet design, the less effect it would have, but it can be eye opening on some designs. The 358156 was a real improver because of it's weak front band in a sloppy Charter Arms snubby I used to have. 25 yards without hollow pointing were about 4". Hollow point fairly center and it dropped below and inch with the same load. You thought you had a rifle in your hands which dispelled some false belief about snubbies not shooting for me.