Bullet Mould Idea

[Red Owl]

Okay- if it is for hunting, here is an old thread

ROA and the Kaido Conical Bullet​

 

[maillemaker]

Good question. I use the cap and ball revolvers as often as I can, which is several times a week these days. Just messing around, plinking, shooting at targets, whatever. I find the bullets to be easy loading, hitting with more authority in case the thing I'm shooting at needs to stay hit, and plenty accurate for my purposes.

In the immortal words of Kurt Vonnegut, "I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different." Or, as my granddad would say, "It's a beautiful day. What the hell else are we gonna do?"

I think the Lee Molds still leave somewhat of a sprue. I know the molds from Dixie Gun Works do. I also have a .465" mold I got from a fellow in merry olde England which leaves a sprue.

​

Lee round ball molds do have a very slight sprue; there is no way to get around it with a round ball. But their gate is about the most perfectly tangential cut I have seen on a round ball mold. It's about as good as you can get.

 

[dylan84]

I ordered a Lee 200 Grain 44 mould to mess with. Hopefully be able to do some testing with that this weekend to see how that design works.

 

[Pete453]

I have 2 flat point moulds, cut by Lee. But I'm liking the one Bad Karma posted, I keep trying to convince myself to not buy it. I think I'm losing the battle! These are for the repros and weigh 185 grs. They have 1 big doe and some small game to their credit.
The other mould is a bit longer and weighs 220 grs, it's for the Rugers, and has my 2 longest handgun kills at 65 paces and 75 to 80 paces. The doe was shot at 75 to 80 paces with the old army. These things hit HARD, and will run with most modern hunting handguns that load from the wrong end.
Keep experimenting Dylan, it's a worthy cause!

 

[dylan84]

I have 2 flat point moulds, cut by Lee. But I'm liking the one Bad Karma posted, I keep trying to convince myself to not buy it. I think I'm losing the battle! These are for the repros and weigh 185 grs. They have 1 big doe and some small game to their credit.
The other mould is a bit longer and weighs 220 grs, it's for the Rugers, and has my 2 longest handgun kills at 65 paces and 75 to 80 paces. The doe was shot at 75 to 80 paces with the old army. These things hit HARD, and will run with most modern hunting handguns that load from the wrong end.
Keep experimenting Dylan, it's a worthy cause!

Nice I could have hit my buck with my 44 but I had the Hawken in my grips! Met him face to face over a hill. Thought of getting a Dragoon or Walker at some point to gain some black powder capacity behind some even heavier lead. I wish I would have got a picture of him in the field but I somehow always forget my cell phone when I am running amuck on the prairie....lol

 

[Pete453]

Nice buck!
Strictly my philosophy, but if you want to handgun hunt, you should leave the rifle home, simply because it will always be in your hand and the handgun will be in a holster. It's a commitment for sure, I've been a serious handgun hunter for 35 years, but it's worth it when you score.

 

[Pete453]

I hear you on the Dragoon. Sitting in the stand this morning, mind wandering, I was thinking about maybe building a revolving carbine out of a Dragoon. Probably not very cost effective, but I was running on a couple hours sleep and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Will have to do some research. Maybe snag one of the Remington revolving carbines, it could be the best of both worlds for you?

 

[dylan84]

I hear you on the Dragoon. Sitting in the stand this morning, mind wandering, I was thinking about maybe building a revolving carbine out of a Dragoon. Probably not very cost effective, but I was running on a couple hours sleep and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Will have to do some research. Maybe snag one of the Remington revolving carbines, it could be the best of both worlds for you?

Yeah I more kept it on my side in case something went wrong and I needed a follow up shot. I think if I had a sit and wait spot the revolver would work very well. Especially in some of the bottoms where the woods and brush are dense. Be handy to just have a pistol for sure!

 

[smoothshooter]

http://www.biglube.com/BulletMolds.aspx?ItemID=d3fb4508-70e1-4d9b-87bd-6d9c2d504d33
Look at the print and you will see it is not the same. I was looking at that first. The main thing to me that I don't like about it is the fact it doesn't really have a full ball to fit the loading lever plunger and it also doesn't have a very long straight section to load reliably into the cylinder.

The mould you listed is in stock but that isn't the story for many other interesting ones! One more reason for yet another choice in my opinion. Also I wanted more mass. He was going for basic ball weight.

When I get a new percussion revolver, the first thing I do us fill the cupped end of the loading lever rod with metal set epoxy. I never shoot pointed bullets and the absence of the sharp cup edge is a plus.
Since a ball will always find it’s center in the chamber on it’s own, no cupped rod is needed.

 

[nkbj]

This is an adjustable length made from a .38 round ball mold.
The same thing could be done for a .44. Don't have one for .44's because for long bullets I typically use .45 pistol molds and size the back bands to slide into the chambers, leaving the front band big.

 

[dylan84]

This is an adjustable length made from a .38 round ball mold.
The same thing could be done for a .44. Don't have one for .44's because for long bullets I typically use .45 pistol molds and size the back bands to slide into the chambers, leaving the front band big.

View attachment 180930

That has got me thinking. That looks like it adds a bit of a hollow base which you would alloy you to get lube behind the bullet. That might be my first plan of a attack. Thanks for sharing this!

 

[nkbj]

Yes it do.

 

[Red Owl]

I like those bullets. The velocities are low and I'm not sure whether a grease groove is needed. Getting rid of the groove means more lead, a heavier conical. It would be a good thing to fool around testing. Maybe a very thin wad between the powder and the base, not sure. With revolvers you don't have the lead fouling issues with muzzle loading rifles- you can use one of the lead removal tools to get rid of any fouling.
A lot of these hog hunts available today. Good venue for testing.

 

[dylan84]

I like those bullets. The velocities are low and I'm not sure whether a grease groove is needed. Getting rid of the groove means more lead, a heavier conical. It would be a good thing to fool around testing. Maybe a very thin wad between the powder and the base, not sure. With revolvers you don't have the lead fouling issues with muzzle loading rifles- you can use one of the lead removal tools to get rid of any fouling.
A lot of these hog hunts available today. Good venue for testing.

Yep the more I think about it the more I think the grease groove is not needed. Be better as you said to have a over powder card and hollow base filled with grease. I have some non grease groove coated bullets for some unmentionable pistols. Thought about just machining a hollow base in some of these bullets to see how they shoot.

 

[dylan84]

I also just got another dumb idea so naturally I just tried it! Not my first bullet choice but I had some 200 grain 45 colt looking bullets laying around and were cast out of harder than ideal alloy for this application. My idea was to just load them backwards so the flat point is down towards powder charge. That allows an over powder card to be used with adequate lube and a heavy chunk of lead. I was able to load 30 grains by volume of 2F (what was in my flask at the time), a cork over powder card, adequate grease, and the 200 grain bullet. I have no idea of accuracy but that definitely had more punch out of my Pietta NMA! Anyway thinking of taking a cartridge type bullet mould, cast it out of soft lead, and shoot some upside down to see what kind of accuracy I could get. They loaded nice and square with my modified loading plunger. I turned it flat like @smoothshooter said that he had done with epoxy.

 

[Bad Karma]

There are two reasons for the grease grooves. Fouling control and lubrication which prevents leading if the right lube is used.

 

[Pete453]

NKBJ, that mould is SLICK! I like it, how do they shoot? Those Remington 36s will hold some large charges, I'm thinking you have some room to play with

 

[Pete453]

Yeah I more kept it on my side in case something went wrong and I needed a follow up shot. I think if I had a sit and wait spot the revolver would work very well. Especially in some of the bottoms where the woods and brush are dense. Be handy to just have a pistol for sure!

Once you get used to leaving the rifle home when you're hunting the thick stuff, you'll really start to appreciate the handgun. Luck to you when you do take the revolver!

 

[M. De Land]

What is the purpose of all this? That is, what are you trying to achieve over using round balls? And, the old balls had a sprue on top. I guess the pure round was more accurate but does anyone know of any mold that turns out the old style?

There not, sprued balls are just accurate as swaged round bals if they don't have any voids in them. I've seen test reports in Muzzle Blast Magazine and have shot plenty of both personally in match shooting and my cast balls are fully the equal of any I've tried from Hornady or Speer both in rifle and pistol patched and naked .

 

[dylan84]

There are two reasons for the grease grooves. Fouling control and lubrication which prevents leading if the right lube is used.

If you get grease behind the bullet with a prelubed bore, then it is fine also. Leading shouldn't be a problem with as shallow as the rifling is on these pistols and the velocities we are shooting at. I think the grease groove is more of a cartridge fix for when it is more difficult to get grease behind the bullet. My first step is to bore my cylinders out to .001" over groove diameter. I found mine to be .446" and I slugged the barrels on my piettas at just about .450".

My experience with leading in cartridge guns was almost always due to bore fitment and not necessarily velocities (in rifles sometimes the case). The test bullets that I loaded backwards did make a bit of a mess but they were powder coated. Black powder and powder coat is not a good combination. That also could have been from gas leaking around the bullet coming from a smaller chamber. I got a .451" reamer coming today.....