New mold dilemma...

[5Shot]

I have a 5 Shot 45 Conversion on a Ruger Bisley, which gives me gobs of length to work with. I am going to have a long nose bullet mold made up to take advantage of it (probably from Accurate or Mountain Molds).

Something like a 0.530" nose, which still gives me 0.060" fudge factor, and a 75% meplat...big but not too big (hopefully). I already have 325 LFN and 350 LFNGC molds, so I was thinking along the lines of a 340ish with a GC. I know it won't penetrate like the 350, but should hit really hard, have a bit less recoil than the 350 and less pressure than either the 325 or 350 with their 0.500" noses. Since the mold will likely be from Accurate, I will get a 3 holer and have 2 bored for the 270 Keith and the last for this one. I will use the 270 for 90% of my shooting anyway, as it will work well in my factory Bisley too.

The biggest worries around the woods here are black bears and the occasional moose, and I think it would do just fine on either. Good for backup and table meat.

Thoughts?

[runfiverun]

you just have to watch the balance point with these weight forward boolits.
they have a tendency to work well for short distances, then they don't, much like full wad cutters.

anyway the smaller meplat should penetrate just as far as a heavier larger meplated boolit will.
you have that frontal area slowing things down, and your alloy of course will influence that too.
the design of the boolit can also influence straight line penetration, as can rotational speed.

[5Shot]

This is kind of what I had in mind...

[taco650]

I'll have to agree with r5r on the meplat size. 65% might be wide enough and give a little better flight characteristics. But hey, somebody said something like "its all a **** shoot until you pull the trigger".

[runfiverun]

i think it will be a bit too much weight forward design.

this one definitely has the weight out of the case, I'd try and trade a little off the front [nose length] for a bit more drive band.
you'll be putting more boolit in the case of course, but you'll be talking what?, maybe one grain of powder at the top of the ladder.

[5Shot]

i think it will be a bit too much weight forward design.

this one definitely has the weight out of the case, I'd try and trade a little off the front [nose length] for a bit more drive band.
you'll be putting more boolit in the case of course, but you'll be talking what?, maybe one grain of powder at the top of the ladder.

Are you talking about the Driving Bands INSIDE the case? What makes this situation worse than an equal length bullet that has more lead inside the case - it is just about grip on the bullet? With a long nose, what would you consider max - i.e. 60% Nose?

Thanks

[saidnuff]

I don't know about the 45 Keith. I have a 44 Keith 240gr using 21gr of 2400 it will go through a wet large phone book and 4x4 it was leaning against. Should be plenty of power with the 45 I would think. I got this load from handloader mag.

[runfiverun]

a big meplat is fine over short distances and some of the wfn/lfn styles do great over distance.
the grip on the boolit by the rifling is very important for stabilization, as is the twist rate of barrel, you only have a few inches to make this happen in.
any skidding and your toast, a bore riding section will not help you spin the boolit.
I like to see a flat nose on a hunting boolit and something around 70% is good enough without going too far and killing your distance shooting.
70 ish% will also still allow good penetration and straight line penetration with some nose mushing from a softish alloy.
you have 75% there and I think the shape and such is fine, I'd just shorten the length of the nose and gain a little more drive band strength is all. [mostly on the base band]

[Big Boomer]

5Shot: Like you, I have a 5-shot Bisley (built by Hamilton Bowen) in .45 Colt and I use an LBT 340 gr. WLN gas check boolit. Loading begins a bit low at 24 grs. of H110 which produces 1,400 fps and I have witnessed (as in autographed) targets I've shot at 100 yds. that produced 4-inch groups off sandbags. Once I shot at a NRA rifle target at an unknown distance prior to stepping it off (219 paces) and got a 12-inch group at that distance. Your WLN boolit will do that easily (when you do your part), though it does not have as much boolit outside the case as my WLN. The more boolit outside the case the faster you can push the boolit with less pressure. I wish I could say that I can still do the above, but age has caught up with me and it is very hard to hold steady at almost 75 years of age. But just about any 340 gr. or so LBT-style boolit is a real killer. Getting the same thing from another mould maker should be easy. Best of luck. Big Boomer

[5Shot]

I am not really too worked up about the long range capabilities of this one...it is really intended to be a close range sledge hammer, if needed. I also don't plan on shooting this one as a plinker/target round. I have several other molds that fill that niche as well as the other 2 cavities I have planned for this mold.

As it is, it has more in the case than my 325 LFN, with a 0.500" nose, and if I shrunk the lube groove a tad and added some length to the front driving band, it would have even more band surface. Just thinking...I am NOT a bullet designer.

[runfiverun]

I could pull up my design pro and copy what you have there and find the c.o.g. but I'm pretty sure it's a bit too forward.
all my comments are based on being able to stabilize the boolit in the barrel and keep it flying and penetrating straight afterwards.
like was mentioned, taking some clues from the LFN and WFN designs will help, and something semi-close to the LEE 310 in 44 mag would be close to what you want also.

[5Shot]

Thanks run...

[luvtn]

So how is 0.500 " nose 75% of 0.45? You all have me there! my calculator says the 0.5=111% of .45"
luvtn

[5Shot]

So how is 0.500 " nose 75% of 0.45? You all have me there! my calculator says the 0.5=111% of .45"
luvtn

0.500" Long... Custom 5 Shot cylinders can handle much longer noses, which gives you more room for powder and prevents them from working in factory guns.

[leftiye]

Seems simple, have "drive bands" out in front of the case. Do away with the bore rider section, just ogive into full diameter.

[bigboredad]

5shot
I had Tom at accurate molds cut the .45-340E for my 5.5 inch bisley it is a 6 shot and the nose is a bit shorter than what you are looking for but is a excellent performer out of my guns. I have run up to 25gr of 296 but chickened out there and can't remember what the velocity was. If I remember correctly 28gr touched the bullet in new Star line brass

[RobS]

If it were me, more bearing surface is better so do away with the bore riding and then size to the cylinder throats. I've spent a bunch of time designing boolits and have had many 45 caliber molds cut to my designs and have settled on meplat diameter between 72-75% and of a LFN style resemblance. I typically like to put on a tangent nose profile to squeak out a bit more bearing surface especially on my lighter boolits and this also allows the design to align sooner in the forcing cone vs a secant. Bigboredad's 45-340E is a good one.