Cast Some Hollowpoints Today

[CPJ 2.0]

Okay, thanks. I plan on buying some cheap aluminum molds for some casting, and while I use one mold that was smoked and works well, I'm always game to trying new stuff.

The Lees have a large following. The six cavity molds (which I've never tried) have a better reputation for longevity than the two, which I wouldn't really count on for long.

NOE makes a GREAT you get what you get, pre-set spec mold. Own a lot of them, and have had mostly great success with them. Sometimes you get a gun combo a certain mold doesn't fit well in, but for the most part, Al Nelson makes a fantastic mold for the money. Aluminum or brass.

MP Molds (Miha Prevec) out of Slovenia is very high quality stuff at a very reasonable price. I only own two - MKII and MKIV .455 Webley hollow-base molds, made out of brass. I consider Miha's Cramer-style system a superior way to cast hollow points or bases to NOE's tilting pins, but as you can see from Post #1, the NOE's can work quite well. Here's his MKIV (hollow base wadcutter):




Accurate Molds is FANTASTIC in that they are cut to order and quickly delivered. You want the bullets to drop at a specific diameter with a specific alloy? Tom can do that. Want the driving bands or crimp grooves relocated? Tom can do that do. Completely new design? Yep. Tom's your boy. He uses a little thicker sprue plate than NOE and they cut a NICE base. The insides are well polished and I've almost never had to fight to get the slugs to drop. He does aluminum, brass, or iron.

I'm partial to brass because it's dense and holds heat well, though it is heavier to work with. I'm fine with aluminum for solids, but for hollow points or bases, I like the denser, heat-retaining metals better for keeping the pins hot.

Yeah, about that.... My casting needs are way more pedestrian. Think plinking and maybe shooting to 50 yds. Or fooling around at 100, maybe. For me, plain jane molds are just fine. With the numbers of bullets I'm currently casting, when I wear out a Lee mold, I'll just buy another. I'm not sure I'm casting enough to justify the higher cost of a steel mold when aluminum does what I need.

As far as the other mold types, I find them interesting, but my uses center around 125 and 158 gr. .38/.357, 120ish gr. 9mm, and a 200 gr. LSWC in .45 ACP. My uses are the most vanilla type you can get.

If you wear out a Lee mold, I’ll kiss your ass.

[breamfisher]

What if I abuse it to death?

[CPJ 2.0]

What if I abuse it to death?

A deals a deal.

Don’t you have my old .45 mold?

[breamfisher]

Yes. But I'm not going to kill that one. Too useful.

I mean, I could send one to Zee for product testing....

[N454casull]

Interesting. I am thinking of making some mild 38 snubbie loads using the Matt’s 148 grain HP:
https://www.mattsbullets.com/148-Grain- ... _p_40.html

I’ll probably use Trailboss just because it is so easy to load

Trail Boss is the easiest powder I’ve ever used. Granted, not for rip roaring speed. But, to get cast handgun loads from .38-45cal from target to defense. It’s an easy button.

Agreed also amazing for subsonic loads for suppressors.

[fisheadgib]

What if I abuse it to death?

Are you aware that you can buy repair parts for Lee molds? About the only thing that gets tore up are the sprue plates and they're cheap. As for the different types of Lee molds, the two cavity molds come with handles and the others don't, so for 25 bucks and a bottle of Alox, you're making bullets. I have a couple of their six cavity molds and aluminum cools so fast that it's tough to get consistent pours if you don't keep the mold on a hotplate.

[breamfisher]

But... CPJ's offer....

[fisheadgib]

But... CPJ's offer....

It's not because the sprue plates wear out, it's from getting smacked every time you cut the sprues and open the mold.

[Bigslug]

Yeah, about that.... My casting needs are way more pedestrian. Think plinking and maybe shooting to 50 yds. Or fooling around at 100, maybe. For me, plain jane molds are just fine. With the numbers of bullets I'm currently casting, when I wear out a Lee mold, I'll just buy another. I'm not sure I'm casting enough to justify the higher cost of a steel mold when aluminum does what I need.

As far as the other mold types, I find them interesting, but my uses center around 125 and 158 gr. .38/.357, 120ish gr. 9mm, and a 200 gr. LSWC in .45 ACP. My uses are the most vanilla type you can get.

Unless you're doing hollow points and bases, I think it's less about the material the mold is made of than the internal polish applied to the cavities. Fighting with a mold that won't drop the slugs easily makes for a long day. The thicker sprue plates on the Accurates also seem to help generate sharp-edged bases and clean sprue cuts. I've got a bunch of aluminum molds and like them fine for solid bullets; they are lighter to work with and deliver quality output.

For handguns, I've been gravitating toward tumble-lube groove designs that drop bullets at the desired diameter in the +/- good enough range and don't require a trip through the lube-sizer. Other than the wider variety and (sometimes) custom dimensions, what the sexier molds bring is ease of production. With the pistols, I'm all about quantity. Hold that thought a bit while I collect some more pics.

[Bigslug]

Some of the more recent acquisitions...

Acc 45-230H + LBT.jpeg (280.67 KiB) Viewed 2177 times

Bullet on the right is from one of Veral Smith's (LBT) molds, and it's about the slickest feeding 230 grain .45 Auto bullet you could ever hope for, but. . .conventional lube. After some careful measurements and comparison, I learned that the Accurate 45-230H on the left is samey-same, but with tumble grooves. Ordered it to cast at .452", and one production step omitted.

Acc 36-170C.jpeg (214.33 KiB) Viewed 2177 times

This one's my creation. I asked Tom at Accurate to take one of his pre-existing tumble lube designs and tweak it to have two crimp grooves for working with either .38 Special or .357 Mag brass.

The hollow points are set to fly into jugs tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll have good news in the evening.

[breamfisher]

I'm looking into tumble-lube bullets. But partially because I've heard that they might actually be better for powder coating. (That might make a few heads explode.) I'm going to try some unsized after coating to see how well they do for me. As far as sizing, it's easy enough to do with a Lee sizer die. (More aneurisms.)

[Bigslug]

Accomplished some great science with the HP's today:

357 Ranch Dog Expansion.jpeg (807.62 KiB) Viewed 2145 times

Top to bottom is fastest to slowest, and I got the full range of effects. Average velocity for the load was for five shots we fired over the chrono after I did the jug bust.

Top: 891 fps. Sheared off the nose cavity and went five jugs

Next: 836 fps. 3 jugs with lopsided expansion.

Middle: 760 fps. 4 jugs with perfect 'shroom.

Bottom two: 669 and 572 fps. Started to push the nose back, but not enough speed to start peeling open. Down in the 3-3.5 jug range.

Also shot the solid from my new mold:

Acc 36-170C Penetration.jpeg (381.54 KiB) Viewed 2145 times

597 fps and five jugs. Shoved the nose backwards and rounded the corners off slightly. Went from a WFN to an ogival wadcutter.

These were all shot in an all-steel Smith 640, but there's a scandium 340 coming. Slow solids for comfort may end up being the thing, but some testing with that one will be required.

The big score for the day is we now have a solid read on the expansion threshold for an alloy mix that we are really liking the behavior of for 1100 fps and less loads. Anything but the truly pokey stuff - it looks like it's gonna do well. Keeping the faster ones together will merely need more tin. Happy days!

[Chiro1989]

836 fps, #2, lopsided because a subsequent jug was torqued by a previous jug impact? That is pretty cool hey.

[Bigslug]

836 fps, #2, lopsided because a subsequent jug was torqued by a previous jug impact? That is pretty cool hey.

Negative. One shot. Remove damaged jugs. Anything able to hold water gets moved to the back of the stack to serve as an extra brake. Refresh the head of the line with new jugs. Not sure what went on there.

[bullsi1911]

Looks like you found the right speed. How does it do on accuracy, or hitting point of aim in the little gun?

[Bigslug]

Looks like you found the right speed. How does it do on accuracy, or hitting point of aim in the little gun?

Pretty much on the sights for the little 10-ish yards of screwing around ammo we had left after the jug and chrono work was done. The 640 and GP-100 on hand had no complaints, but how that's going to hold up out of a scandium gun is TBD.

Nice to get there with a pretty cheap alloy. Works out to about four ounces of tin added to 20 pounds of what used to be jacketed bullet cores picked up off various berms to get the mold to fill out.