Converting to hollow point.

Mitty38

Well-Known Member
I have a steel 2 cavity mould.
I would like to convert 1 cavity to hollow point.
Is it possible to DIY, with a drill press? Or does someone do this I can pay?. Or should I just look for the same mould in hollow point?
 

Spindrift

Well-Known Member
Just a loose idea, that I’ve never properly tried;

In theory, an alternative could be to design a system that allowed you to drill a HP on FN bullets. You could make HP- bullets, without modifications to your mould. And maybe save some bucks, if you already have the relevant tools in your batcave.

I’ve fiddled a little with a Lyman case trimmer. Used a slitted, deprimed case for «bullet holder» and put a drill bit instead of a trim guide. It sort of worked, but the centering capability of the Lyman trimmer was not good enough. I also have a Forster trimmer, which might work better- but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Just throwing it out there, in case it might be an alternative for you.
 

Spindrift

Well-Known Member
MP brass 2-cav HP- mould with steel top punch, and often multiple pin styles is about 82$.
A 4-cav brass HP is (I think) about 120$.

The 4-cav will also provide a good work- out.

The longevity should be better than a Lee& mould.
Just sayin'
 

Jeff H

NW Ohio
Don't try it at home.
Contact Erik.

You'll be glad that you did.

Ben

I will back @Ben 's wisdom with some "well-deserved" experience.

Full-disclosure - I knew better, but wanted to try it anyway.

I bough two 2C LEE C309113 moulds, used from Michael Reamy for cheap.

Somewhere, on this forum, I posted about my solution to the weird screws LEE uses to hold the 2C cavities to the handles. THAT worked out just fine, but I needed to solve THAT problem so I could do some "shade-tree machining" on the blocks.

On one mould, I followed @Ben 's lead and removed the GC shanks and came up with an absolutely wonderful light bullet for my 30/30.

On the second mould, I aimed to make one of the two cavities a HP. I didn't tell anyone I was going to do it, because I knew they'd all tell me not to. Didn't ask because I knew the answer. Now that I did it, I am happy to share the experience.

My idea was to find a bushing slightly larger on the outside than the cavity on the inside, and slightly smaller on the inside than the outside of the drill I intended to use. I turned the OD of the bushing (on a drill-press) to be a snug fit within the cavity and opened the ID with the drill I wanted to use, which also became the donor for my HP pin.

I got everything set up to drill the first hole, which took WAY longer than actually drilling the hole. It LOOKED good and I thought I'd be OK. I made the HP pin and put a handle on it, using the base of the handle as a depth-stop. Cast a fair handful of bullets and they came out nice,... except that the HP hole was off-center - just barely, but it was off enough that you could see it.

Not to be discouraged, I figured I'd try the second cavity and end up with a 1C HP mould. Messed that cavity up too.

I'm not saying it can't be done, and I've pulled off a few feats using pretty basic tools, but the time I put into the project netted me experience I probably didn't need, because everyone here would have been able to tell me the outcome. I don't bemoan the loss of the time or the mould though. I gave it a shot and knew that at best, I'd have a very useful HP mould. I also knew that at worst, I'd be able to share with someone else that it ain't worth it. Not a huge loss for me, at least in my mind, but maybe it will save someone else a bigger loss.

My vote would be to ship it Eric or just buy a HP mould, unless you can afford to lose the mould and the time and your pride isn't easily bruised.
 

Mitty38

Well-Known Member
I really like the idea of those, bar type, Lee conversions, with mould improvements he does. At least from what his sight shows.
Ye the aluminum does not last as long as steel, or iron.
But I can not see myself making more then a few thousand of the particular HP I want in my lifetime anyway.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
I have a Forster Case trimer / neck turner I also have their HP maker attachment! Only used it a few times because it is too labor intensive!!!
It takes a good bit of time to turn one HP hole in a bullet! Lead may be soft but it dosen't drill easy! At least not being turned by hand!
 

Jeff H

NW Ohio
I have a Forster Case trimer / neck turner I also have their HP maker attachment! Only used it a few times because it is too labor intensive!!!
It takes a good bit of time to turn one HP hole in a bullet! Lead may be soft but it dosen't drill easy! At least not being turned by hand!

Similar to what @Spindrift mentions.

My dad was a tool & die maker for over 40 years and was always making neat tools, attachments, etc. for us to enhance our handloading and gun-working endeavors. Our Wilson case trimmers both sit on solid bases, raised off the bench and easily clampable to about any table of bench. He also made a lever system to hold the case holders, because that can wear on you a bit after a new bag of 100 cases.

The tools he made, which I used extensively as a kid, but cannot locate now, is a "hollow-pointer," using a center-drill, which works in the Wilson case trimmer. I HP'd a lot of Speer 110 grain half-jacket RNs with that thing for my 30/30 way back when. His "system" of organization has eluded me, and grew even more mysterious as he got older, so I have no idea where it is.

It did a bang-up job.

The concentricity of the cavity was only affected by the bullet runout with his tooling, and it was not perceptible to the eye and worked well at 100 yards. Still, I've often felt that a more concentric cavity could be made if one were turning the bullet (which in this instance is seated in a complete cartridge) and not the drill. That would probably get expensive and take up a lot more space on the bench.
 
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fiver

Well-Known Member
well i'll tell how i done my 50 hollow point bullets.

i set a drill press up over a reloading press.
run the round up into the seating die until the crimp was applied/or implied as it were, to the round. [after cam over]
left it sitting there.
run the drill down through the die with the seater removed.
screwed a junk seater in that i had drilled straight through, and set the drill in place based on the bit lining everything up.
used a stop on the press.
this gave me a smaller hole straight in the bullet.
if i wanted bigger i simply used hole number-1 as a pilot hole.
i could drill number-1 then a second and even a third and have a stepped hollow.
 

Ian

Notorious member
I did a quick HP test of some 300 BLK bullets a while back, just indicated the true in the 4-Jaw chuck, and center drilled them. The process worked great, would have been much faster with a collet chuck, and while the test was successful, the results were not very good. Wheelweight alloy at 1000 fps doesn't like to expand very much.
 

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
Been there done that. NO THANK YOU!!

Made up sone jigs to hold the bullet and allow centered drilling... Too much. Buying HP molds for whats needed was my answer.

CW
 

358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
I did a quick HP test of some 300 BLK bullets a while back, just indicated the true in the 4-Jaw chuck, and center drilled them. The process worked great, would have been much faster with a collet chuck, and while the test was successful, the results were not very good. Wheelweight alloy at 1000 fps doesn't like to expand very much.
Did you try a bullet puller collet? I built a hollowpoint fixture. A friend gave me a 4 jaw chuck, and I mocked it up on a steel plate, to mount it on my drill press. I centered it by using a piece of drill rod chucked into the drill press spindle, then positioned the plate mounted chuck underneath it, and tightened the chuck. I figured this would be adequately aligned for the purpose. The test bullet was inserted in a Hornady bullet puller collet and tightened down in the 4 jaw. Then I put a drill bit in the press and tried it out. The only real flaws were that setup was a bit tedious, my drill press spindle is far too loose for repeatable semi-precision work, and standard drill bits are a bit too long to do this without a lot of fiddling. I think a newer drill press, and some short spotting drill bits would fix it.