Ok I am going to ask! do you really need the groves on a boolit if you use powder coat? curious!
Ok I am going to ask! do you really need the groves on a boolit if you use powder coat? curious!
Frank G.
Aussies have been shooting pistol with out grooves, haven't gotten my 30 cal almost grooveless mould yet. Probably a month before I get results. My 9mm almost grooveless works fine. IMHO a grooveless 223 would do fine, add some weight & strength.
Last edited by popper; 02-21-2014 at 02:11 PM.
Whatever!
got an old lee single I think I will try
Frank G.
There's a guy on the Hi Tek part of this thread that had a machinist remove the "lube grooves" on his lee mold, I believe it was 9mm and he shoots a ton of em.
If you use a tumble lube LEE mold, by the time you spray once or DT twice, you have pretty much filled in all the microgrooves anyway. Why bother messing around with a special mold?
All my TL molds fill in until they are almost smooth coming out of the sizing die.
banger
Banger - true but it doesn't add any real load bearing to the boolit. The TL grooves should come out with some 600 paper easily.
Last edited by popper; 02-21-2014 at 02:12 PM.
Whatever!
Attachment 97282
Bullets without the grooves work great! We we're getting the same groupings as the store bought swaged bullets we compared them too.
we shall see what am I going to lose think the mold cost me $10 15 years ago.
Frank G.
If you modify the mold, do it on nothing less than a mill and make sure it's indicated in perfectly. A few tenths of a thousandth is visible on a cast bullet, but being off a little usually covers with the powder coat and sizes out. My mold was made without lube grooves to start with and it hasn't hurt.
Never seen a lube groove on a jacketed bullet. I would consider powder coating more of a polymer jacket than a bullet lube.
Oh oh oh, I just coined a new term! I did a Google search and got: [No results found for "full polymer jacketed bullets".]
From this day forward they will be called FPJ bullets.
If the no groove boolits pan out better than grooved ones, I am sure mold group buys can be easily arranged for. Mold makers would likely be most pleased if they did not have to make cheeries.
I might remove all the grooves and GC shank on my surplus 75gr 223 mold... At least on some cavities.
I thought about this for a while and started to find a group buy on a smooth sided mold only to realize I was just searching for a way to spend money again.
If someone wants to do a side by side comparison, I have a 230 gr. RN .45 mold and 115 gr. RN 9mm mold I'll borrow.
HDS - I'd leave the GC shank on em. The lube & crimp groove are the weak spot, will collapse (slump) before the body. Could mean you can push the same alloy a little harder. Don't see any other advantage to us, maybe they drop easier, less CNC programming & QC work.
Whatever!
What about accuracy if you don't use a gas check but keep the shank?
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |