Casting hollow point bullets

[Slow Hand]

I've been casting hollow points with various Ideal, Lyman, and Lee molds for several years. I recently got my first lathe, and my first real project was to hollow point a mold. I was hoping to find a cheaper single cavity Lyman, but ended up with a 358315; a 215 gr round nosed bullet for the .35 remington.

I read Glen Fryxell's chapter in 'From Ingot to Target' (required reading for any caster!) about modding molds to cast HP bullets. I turned a reasonable facsimile of the bullet out of a piece of 1/2" aluminum. Then I clamped the stripped mold around the dummy and center drilled it. Then I turned out a pin to make the HP cavity 1/8" diameter and about .350" deep. I cast up a handful out of fairly soft lead and have loaded them to about 1950 FPS. I'm going to shoot them tomorrow out of my new/old Remington model 141. If they shoot as well as the JSP's I loaded up earlier, I'm going to load them in some trimmed .35 Remington brass and take them
deer hunting next month. Here's a couple pics of the mold, dummy bullet and some cast from the mold

 

[Leadeye]

Never have hollow pointed a mold, I'll be following this post.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

I said a bad word when I saw 1950fps, but my heart rate returned to normal when I realized it was a rifle round. Been thinking about molding some HPs myself, .45ACP, maybe some 9x19. I do have the molds and machines.

 

[djones]

You did a great job. Let us know how they shoot. I shoot cast out of my 35 rem and 358 win with great accuracy. I will be hitting the woods this fall myself with cast.

Thanks for sharing your project.

 

[Leo]

I said a bad word when I saw 1950fps, but my heart rate returned to normal when I realized it was a rifle round. Been thinking about molding some HPs myself, .45ACP, maybe some 9x19. I do have the molds and machines.

The base of the bullet is designed to hold brass gas checks. Without gas checks the base of the bullet would melt off if you tried to drive a lead bullet that fast.

I think those hollow points should work good. As long as the hole is concentric, it will not cause any accuracy crushing imbalance as it spins to the target.

 

[451_Detonics]

Casting hollowpoints can be a pain in rump but the results are well worth the effort. I use to cast a .458 using a Lyman 457122, this is the 45-330 Gould Express bullet. I used a lead/linotype mix and they weighed an average of 340gr.

I used these primarily in my 450 Alaskan (on the right with a 45/70 on the left) and they proved to be very accurate. I figure my stockpile of 500 bullets will last me and sold the mold to a friend who wanted to cast them for himself.

 

[Slow Hand]

Sorry to not get back and update this. I was able to shoot a few rounds a few weeks back. They shot just as well as the jacketed rounds I had with me. Nothing spectacular, but good enough to kill a deer at the ranges we usually see them at! I'm hoping to try a couple out Sunday. I'll definitely let everyone know how they do!

 

[Anonym]

451 Detonics, that's the same bullet I cast and shoot out of my 50 caliber Encore. Mine weighs about the same as yours and dropped a 10-point opening weekend. I'm trying to work up a good load to shoot out of my Contender Carbine in 45 LC, but it's been challenging to get the accuracy I'd like.

Slow Hand, great job on the mold mod. I have a 0.266 single cavity mold that the cavity was boogered up on and won't cast good bullets from anymore. I've been thinking about seeing if someone would tackle drilling it out for a paper-patched 30-caliber and possibly hollow-pointing it. Keep us posted on your success!