Casting Softnose Bullets

Elric

Well-Known Member
While everyone has seen the lead dipper made with a cartridge case (spent primer), you might notice the 2" tubing (or whatever) where the seperate soft lead for the nose is.
 

358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
It's not attributed, but the article kind of looks like an early Seyfreid article. Here's a much later Seyfreid article on the same subject, fro Handloader. https://www.docdroid.net/udgc/june-1989.pdf
It's really a neat subject. A friend of mine is trying to buy the plans for the long discontinued LBT Softnose Caster. I hope it works out for him. I want one, even though we could simply reverse engineer them, he wants the original version.
 
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Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
That is a Seyfreid article. It is what got me started on casting softnose bullets. I bought a little 3 or 5 pound Lyman pot for the softnose alloy.
Done properly they work very well.
 

John

Active Member
The second article got me started casting. I finally got in touch with Trammco and they told me their machined dipper had been sold out for years, I cast for 3 years before I met another caster and cringe when I remember my mistakes. Shooters board was a Godsend.
 

Eutectic

Active Member
Has anyone ever cast or used those pair of Lyman molds that cast a hard base section and a soft core that is epoxied together?

Pete
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
Has anyone ever cast or used those pair of Lyman molds that cast a hard base section and a soft core that is epoxied together?

Pete
Sadly yes. They work just as advertised. However, I had a total of 36 hours labor to make 50 bullets. trim, be neat and be prepared to do a lot of clean up. HP's are better.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Dang. That is way too much work for a softnose handgun bullet.
Using the "normal" method of softnose casting is just so much easier.
 

OFFSHORE

New Member
This is a really neat idea! As the article stated. . .this would be the PERFECT bullet! I'm just wondering how precise/repetitive one could be making bullets that performed with on target accuracy. With my .44 and .45 caliber bullets and med./lrg. game I hunt, those size holes in and out work good (bigger could be better going out though), but where I think this would really shine is in my 30/30 Win loads. I may just have to give this a whirl. Thank you for the article, it was an interesting read.
 

Eutectic

Active Member
I pretty much thought the 'labor intensive' would take from any gain? I agree with Ric that HP's are better and will add at handgun velocities. Actually you have to balance the alloy, the speed, and the bullet shape to velocity.

Most cast their hunting bullets too hard. Many would be surprised how fast one can shoot soft. When you cast for hunting you have to balance 'shear'... you want a mushroom not a shed of bullet material in big game. Varmints dance to a different tune! The butter soft nose on a hard alloy body will enhance 'shear'...at rifle velocity impacts. The soft will smear and shear off leaving you a wadcutter to carry on. How do I know? I come off the keyboard and test! I've shot tons (OK hundreds of pounds!) of wet paper tests and followed up on big game. I've done enough to predict the outcome pretty good. If you balance the alloy, the speed, and the bullet shape to velocity perfectly for operating speed you get another phenomena ...... Downrange impact speeds will show a rivet mushroom!. Maybe the ultimate WFN! I've attached a .38-40 bullet test showing full speed, downrange speed and then game. This is the 'balance' of which I speak.

Pete

.38-40 Magma GC solid 1850fps.jpg 1850 fps


.38-40 Magma GC solid 1430fps hammer2.jpg 1430 fps

Heart shot slug.jpg In game........
 

Ian

Notorious member
Exactly, Pete. Got to 'spearment until you get it right, and there's a lot more to it than bhn. For the cartridge in your example, I believe you have achieved perfection.

Above about 2200 fps, bullet shape ceases to matter much unless you want hp varmint grenades. For meat animals, the alloy which will stay together without shattering will generally mushroom nicely no matter if it's a spitzer or flat nose.