all new to me and good stuff here
thanks everyone for posting this
all new to me and good stuff here
thanks everyone for posting this
NRA Life
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That is an extremely bullet-shaped bullet, but on game probably doesn't tend to go club-headed as one with a wide meplat will do. I don't think Lyman #2 alloy would be bad, but agree that less antimony would be a good idea, and quite harmless with a gas check at that velocity.
I like the look of their round-nosed 204gr. gas-check mould even more. Sandwiching a cigarette paper in the mould is an old trick to get something like expansion from a bullet that otherwise wouldn't, and nowadays aluminium foil would probably be even better. It can't harbour moisture which, while unlikely to produce a geyser, might produce a bubble. It could either run all the way to the point or be a narrow strip that leaves the point united.
Bottom line here is that if you want HP performance, you will have to spend a little money. The Lyman No.2 alloy is not famous just for nothing.
The Sn/Sb/Pb ratio of 5-5-90 is great for controlled expansion and weight retention. You get a 15 bh and toughness all in one package.
At one time antimony was cheap and Taracorp came up with "hardball 2-6-92 which is great and basically equal to the No.2 but not for H.P. terminal ballistic performance.
If you are serious, quit pinching the pennies and do what is long been proven to work.
Melting Stuff is FUN!Sent from my PC with a keyboard and camera on it with internet too.
Shooting stuff is even funner
L W Knight
70% meplat (or better) and 1400-1700fps hit speed, cant do better than that with cast!
Check: Veral Smith "Jacketed performance with cast bullets", the bible regarding cast bullet shooting.
That man has forgot more about shooting cast than i have ever learned!
NRA Endowment Member
Armed people don't march into gas chambers.
Very interesting thread. Thanks to all that contributed!!
I may never hunt with a cast bullet but I appreciate the experience and knowledge shared. Just for clarification.....
Adjusting hardness to match terminal velocity for reliable expansion of HP's appears to be important. In practical terms, if expected ranges will be 50-250 yards, do you select an alloy that "works" at 150 yards and deal with too much expansion up close and less expansion at longer ranges?
I like the idea of a wide meplat as that will do its thing at any range. The trade off of a lower BC may be better than dealing with reliability of HP performance.
Larry Gibson mentioned in another thread (on the 7x57 for elk) that he had little success with cast on deer with the 7mm. The .30 calibers worked better. Is that due to the smaller meplat of the smaller bore?
Don Verna
1:30 or 1:40 tin-lead at 1300 fps in a bullet having a meplat 0.7 of bullet diameter does not need to be hollow-pointed to expand. Original .44-40 black powder loads perform well in soft lead, solid, flat-point.
If you want bullets to mushroom at subsonic revolver velocities use the above alloy with a shallow cup point, just enough to help initiate expansion, but not having a sharp corner at the bottom of a deep cavity, which functions as a stress riser for the expanded petals to break off.
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The ENEMY is listening.
HE wants to know what YOU know.
Keep it to yourself.
Thanks for all the shared knowledge guys!
After a quick inventory I’m going to need to acquire some tin. Rotometals has some tin nubbins that are only mildly alarmingly expensive. I figure a couple pounds will make enough alloy to keep me in .44 HP boolits for a while.
You don't get the occasional bargains in tin or tin solder that you do in lead or antimony-rich alloys. Still, when I consider the cost of powder to shoot the stuff, I reflect that it isn't only my wife at sales time that understands spending money to save money.
In the UK we have velocity requirements which come close to ruling out cast bullets on deer, and below them there is a size gap which makes just about any a good replacement for the .22LR hollow-point. But Outpost's results are very much what I would have expected.
Here, though, is my vice or press operated hollow-pointing device which will press a cavity of the size and shape needed, in a non-brittle alloy. It maintains good concentricity of mass if it is a close fit to bullet diameter. IYou could make the plungers with new ones having shoulders to contact the die though, so that you can just squash as far as it will go, and get consistency from one bullet to the next. I just shortened the plungers so that they came flush with the ends of the die, but that doesn't let you do a heavier bullet with a spacing collar in front of the shoulder.
lot of good reading ......... gave me a headache, lol. Need to save this as I get further along in casting
Piggybacking off of Ballistics in Scotland's system, l was able to use a push through sizing die as a drill bushing, in this case the NOE system. The Lee sizers work too, but don't hold the projectile as firmly due to the long taper as compared to the NOE bushings.
1) Push boolit into the die with an over size push rod or piece of flat stock that sets the boolit flush with the die base.
2) Find a cheap drill that is a slip fit in the top of the die with minimal wiggle. In this case, I used a "P" letter size drill bit.
2a) I changed the angle on the bit for a steeper cup point type HP. I free handed the angle on a grinding wheel, the lead is soft enough that it cuts fine even with just one flute in contact.
3) Use a stop collar on the drill to set your depth. I found a pack of them on Amazon for 8 bucks. I at suspect a piece of drill rod turned to the desired profile and sectioned into a "D" reamer would work great.
4) Use a hand drill to cut HP to depth, HOLDING THE DIE IN YOUR HAND, allowing it to float. If you try with the die screwed into the press, it will bind and potentially wallow out or damage the ID of the sizer die/ sleeve.
5) Push boolit out of die with push rod.
I will add that I prefer to cast HP, but the above makes for easy experimenting without having to buy a new mold. All of the below were cut with the same drill bit in the same die body using different bushings.
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 |