Miha 41 GC and PB results

[Blammer]

touch the sprue plate to a damp sponge to help harden sprue sooner and not cool rest of mould.

[hamour]

On the 44-444 300gr hpt the bullets drop right off with no problem, I love mine. It is the reason I am getting the .41 and .44 hpt molds.

[denul]

GLynn 41-


Thank you for your concern, and no offense taken at your inquiry. I should have stated that I do not recommend running molds that hot that long, and I have never before yesterday placed a mold in the melt for that length of time. I don't believe it caused any problems at all with the mold, because the bullets look good, without seams or obvious deformities,and the mold still closes and opens very smoothly and solidly. Might not have been as lucky with aluminum.

My bullet weight is 194.6 as an average of 4 bullets. It tested at BHN less than 10, much softer than I expected, even given the fact that they were air cooled and only cast yesterday. I am sure that they will harden some over time, but my alloy may not be all that different from yours after all.

I intend to wait for new pins, and warmer weather, before trying further with this mold. I do not intend to heat any mold this hot again, because of the risk you mention and because of the general aggravation of this method.

[hamour]

The beauty of the mold style, just turn the pins around and cast some FN until new pins show up.

[GLynn41]

Well said Hamour --about the heat _ I have a Mountain Mold that is brass -- it heats slower than aluminum-- but when it gets hot it is hot- and stays that way/// I do have it seems a a harder time keeping this one hot much less really hot -- so it is different but as long as it casts well do not care

[azrednek]

Sorry I haven't been able to add my two-cents to this thread. I've just been to busy to fire up my lead pot. What little free time I've had recently has been spent at the range. Despite the problems most seem to be satisfied with Miha's quality and workmanship. Hopefully after the mold is returned from Eric @ Hollowpoint we will have a fix for the sticking problem. I'm certainly looking forward to my next mold from Miha.

[JudgeBAC]

Here are some pics of the pins modified by Erik Ohlen at hollowpointmolds.com

[giz189]

Has anyone loaded any of these bullets and shot them yet? I have shot about 50 or so. First ones loaded with 17.5 grs of 2400. These were somewhat hotter than I like. Had hard time pushing empties out of N frame. Have been using 16.5 grs 2400 in a 240 Keith than I got at MM with no problems. So, I loaded the next batch up with 16.0 grs of 2400; still a little sticky extraction but not nearly as much as with 17.5 grs. So, next round is loaded with 14.5 grs. Hope to shoot it tomorrow if it quits raining long enough for me to run out and put up target. Do these bullets have longer bearing surface or what is going on? I havebeen shooting 2400 for 25 years with 16 - 18 grains in a 210 to 240 cast and 170 to 210 J word bullets with no signs of pressure. Could be the global warming I guess. Oh, also lighter loaded rounds were consideably more accurate too.

[JudgeBAC]

giz: The Lyman third edition lists the 215 gr. 410610 (which is a gas check boolit) with a max of 16.2 gr. of 2400.

It also lists the 200 gr. 3/4 jacket Speer at a max of 17.8 gr of 2400. The starting load is 16 gr.

My rule of thumb for using jacketed bullet data for cast is to use the jacketed starting load as the MAX cast load. I reduce the starting jacketed load by 10% and work up from there.

[GLynn41]

I wondered about the bearing surface---my MM mold is great but it too has a lot bearing surfce-- not bad -- should help with accuracy-- but may slow them down-- and it does effect powder charge-- GRIZ189 what was your loaded boolit diameter?

[giz189]

I wondered about the bearing surface---my MM mold is great but it too has a lot bearing surfce-- not bad -- should help with accuracy-- but may slow them down-- and it does effect powder charge-- GRIZ189 what was your loaded boolit diameter?

averages out to about .4105

[giz189]

giz: The Lyman third edition lists the 215 gr. 410610 (which is a gas check boolit) with a max of 16.2 gr. of 2400.

It also lists the 200 gr. 3/4 jacket Speer at a max of 17.8 gr of 2400. The starting load is 16 gr.

My rule of thumb for using jacketed bullet data for cast is to use the jacketed starting load as the MAX cast load. I reduce the starting jacketed load by 10% and work up from there.

Hey JudgeBAC, I too was looking at the Lyman 3rd Edition Cast Boolitt Handbook and it shows on page 274: #410610 Start with 2400 @ 14.2 and max @ 18.8 #410459 Start at 15.7 max @ 20.1 #410426 Start @ 14.0 Max @18.5 These are 215gr 220gr 240gr respectively. They also are Linotype and my alloy is a lot softer. Whatever it was causing it, I have not shot it over the chronograph because of rain every day. But I have definitely reduced powder charge in my loads.

[Groo]

Groo here
We have the "Great White Death" here in Ohio.
I can't even get to my casting shed- but every 41 guy I show this boolitt to
does the "OOOMMMGGG" thing..
I hope we can fix the pin problem [5 sided??]
As A Side-- I have found that if I crimp infront of the front driving band the bullet will fit my
short cylinder [357 NV Ruger] conversions SORRY for the comments...

[denul]

giz189-

Based on your post, I fired 2 cylinders full through a S & W 8-3/8 model 57 with no problems, at 16.5 gr, then worked up to 18 gr. No trouble extracting, primers are still partly rounded with recoil shield impressions.( not flattened). They seem accurate, but haven't braved the wind and snow to set up targets. I did put one through a 5/4 piece of kiln dried white oak, and the destruction is unbelievable. Will try to post pics of that later. This load was very fine in a 6- 1/2 Ruger BH as well. No leading at all with either gun after 30 rounds, with fewer than usual grains of unburned 2400. One last round,of one cylinder full only, in the BH backed out a very small amount; may be a fluke, if not, probably can be cured with tighter crimp.

Details:
BHN 10, weight 194, HP PB sized .410, LBT lube, (slip fit in Smith and Ruger) roll crimped in groove, WW LP primer, 18 GR Hercules 2400; the old stuff, which many say is slower than the current Alliant 2400. My chronograph is a fair weather proposition only; sorry no velocities yet.

Still need better pins ( Miha?) but this is one fabulous mold.

Hope this helps; will post more later.

[Heavy lead]

Got home from vacation late last night and today my plain base was here, did the normal stuff and cast up 50 or so, flat nose, not hollow point. The mould broke in very well and casts .413 on the base and second band, the front band cast at .410 on the nose, and this is all good, anyway I have 50 loaded up and I'm going to the range tomorrow, so I'll let everyone know. Tomorrow I will hit both again with the hollow point pins. I must say this is a very handsome boolit, the design just looks like it will shoot, that may sound stupid, but that's my take on it. Solid point sized and lubed with BAC it weighs in at 220 exactly.

[giz189]

giz189-

Based on your post, I fired 2 cylinders full through a S & W 8-3/8 model 57 with no problems, at 16.5 gr, then worked up to 18 gr. No trouble extracting, primers are still partly rounded with recoil shield impressions.( not flattened). They seem accurate, but haven't braved the wind and snow to set up targets. I did put one through a 5/4 piece of kiln dried white oak, and the destruction is unbelievable. Will try to post pics of that later. This load was very fine in a 6- 1/2 Ruger BH as well. No leading at all with either gun after 30 rounds, with fewer than usual grains of unburned 2400. One last round,of one cylinder full only, in the BH backed out a very small amount; may be a fluke, if not, probably can be cured with tighter crimp.

Details:
BHN 10, weight 194, HP PB sized .410, LBT lube, (slip fit in Smith and Ruger) roll crimped in groove, WW LP primer, 18 GR Hercules 2400; the old stuff, which many say is slower than the current Alliant 2400. My chronograph is a fair weather proposition only; sorry no velocities yet.

Still need better pins ( Miha?) but this is one fabulous mold.

Hope this helps; will post more later.

My primers did not show any flattening or cratering either. Used WW Large Pistol for reg or mag loads. Normally use cci 300 just had some left over a friend had given me. After my first cylinder full, I had to use a set of side cutters with the insulated handles to bump on the extractor pin to eject my empties. Second round of loads I could dump with my hand force, but was still a lot harder than usual. Have not fired my 3rd loading yet as weather has been wet and I want to set up my chrono to check velocity. Also measured case at web and it measured .434 book shows .435at web. I am thinking I might have had to much roll crimp on loaded rounds. I guess time will tell. You are right about this mould and bullet though, I have been blowing the back out of a good size gum tree. I really like it.

[Heavy lead]

Well at 7 degrees (luckily high skies and no wind) I ventured out this morning with the new Mihec plain base in front of my normal plinker of a RP large pistol primer and 8.5 grains of Unique and my 6" 657. These were cast flat nose and weighed 220 grains, I also use this load with the NEI 411-220 Keith. Very accurate 1" to 1.5" groups at 25 yards were normal, it was colder than _____________________ fill in the blank, so I wasn't at my best either. Had a great lube star from the first round fired and absolutely no leading out of 50 rounds fired, with the NEI, I would've had a little, I believe that is caused by the Keith square shoulder and not as good of alignment as this LFN design. The front driving band on mine is .410 and the .4105 sizer doesn't touch it. The boolit, lube and gun all seem to mesh, I will kick it up a notch next weekend and load some 2400 loads up.

Second note: I cast more with the gas check design today after another good cleaning with some Zud, this boolit now is a might fatter (I was experiencing undersized boolits before, I attribute that to the mould not having all the oil out on hindsight) I'm getting a solid .413 plus on the first two bands while the front band is fatter than the plainbase as the sizer hits it in a couple places where it doesn't touch the plainbase, no biggy in either case.
Anyway, I was saddened that I had no checks yet (the .416 Hornady's I have won't work) and I got to thinking (sometimes dangerous) and for the heck of it I tried some Gator 44 checks, I used a Lee push through sizer (reamed out to .415) to seat them and then ran them through the lubesizer (Lyman 450 with a .4105 sizer) and perfection, they work, in fact so well I may not even bother with ordering the Gator 41's. I will load these for next weekend as well over a more load worthy of the 657, and run them in all three that I have.

I haven't worked with the hollow point pins but note one interesting thing, I dipped the gas check mould in the melt to bring it to temperature and after the casting session was all done there was still lead stuck to it after the cool down, and I mean stuck, almost soldered to it, that seems strange to me, just an observation.

[Heavy lead]

Has anyone loaded any of these bullets and shot them yet? I have shot about 50 or so. First ones loaded with 17.5 grs of 2400. These were somewhat hotter than I like. Had hard time pushing empties out of N frame. Have been using 16.5 grs 2400 in a 240 Keith than I got at MM with no problems. So, I loaded the next batch up with 16.0 grs of 2400; still a little sticky extraction but not nearly as much as with 17.5 grs. So, next round is loaded with 14.5 grs. Hope to shoot it tomorrow if it quits raining long enough for me to run out and put up target. Do these bullets have longer bearing surface or what is going on? I havebeen shooting 2400 for 25 years with 16 - 18 grains in a 210 to 240 cast and 170 to 210 J word bullets with no signs of pressure. Could be the global warming I guess. Oh, also lighter loaded rounds were consideably more accurate too.

giz189,
I haven't loaded up any heavy loads, nor have I loaded any hollow points yet, this is a very large hollow point, I'm thinking out loud so to speak here, but do you think it is possible that it is starting to open up in the barrel and the front end is swaging into the rifleing causing a pressure spike?
Like I said, just a question, how hard are your loads?
The bearing length on this boolit seems pretty short to me, it has a fairly long nose.

[giz189]

giz189,
I haven't loaded up any heavy loads, nor have I loaded any hollow points yet, this is a very large hollow point, I'm thinking out loud so to speak here, but do you think it is possible that it is starting to open up in the barrel and the front end is swaging into the rifleing causing a pressure spike?
Like I said, just a question, how hard are your loads?
The bearing length on this boolit seems pretty short to me, it has a fairly long nose.

I have been having the very same thoughts, as my alloy is only BHN of 8. Also, I could not keep my hands off those pins after looking at JudgeBACs', after thinkling about this for a while, I modified my pins almost exactly like JudgeBAC had Eric do his. Now, when I open the mold, the front bullet almost always falls off with no help from me and the rear one only has to have a very light tap compared to what it took for it to fall previously. My bullets now cast at 200grs HP. Previously 192 -193 grs. Looking at it from the front end, it doesn't look like it is much smaller than original. Might not have to run so hot now, but I really do like this bullet. Probably will harden alloy up a couple of points after I test these different boolitts out, if still having trouble.

[45 2.1]

I haven't loaded up any heavy loads, nor have I loaded any hollow points yet, this is a very large hollow point, I'm thinking out loud so to speak here, but do you think it is possible that it is starting to open up in the barrel and the front end is swaging into the rifleing causing a pressure spike? Ya'll need to wait a week or two so that the boolits can cure out before you shoot them. Really soft boolits do what he wrote about.
Like I said, just a question, how hard are your loads?
The bearing length on this boolit seems pretty short to me, it has a fairly long nose. The lands engrave the nose in the barrel a good ways up the nose. There is plenty of bearing length there.

On the hollow point......... These were designed before the cramer type pin was used a lot. They are meant to perform like a Nosler partition in that the nose will blow off within the first 6 inch of penetration and the base will go out the other side. You get the maximum benefit of killing power for small game like that, but they are not ideal if your wanting to punch thru a moose or grizzly. By taking material off the lower part of the pin, you will slow the HP expansion and change the way it performs (which is OK for larger game, but not for varmints... either the two or four legged variety). Brass molds stay HOT........ You might cast at the lowest temperature that you can get good boolits at. The boolit will release off the pin as the boolit cools.......... it does no good to cast hot and expect the boolits to drop off the pin immediately. Ross Seyfried wrote an article on the "magic mold" ie a bronze mold core with a blind parallel hole with no halves...... the boolit creeped out of that hole under its own weight in about 30 seconds. Something to be said for that. For those that want a more tapered pin.... I will send Mihec the particulars that i've learned about that so he can provide it.... at a cost of less performance also.