A bit Strange ......... ? ?

[quicksylver]

OK....Here are my comments.
1. Should work fine once or twice.
2. The crimp groove would work with BLL or traditional lube, BUT I would be concerned about it w/
powder coating or any other hard coating.
We all know that bullets like the x-treme copper plated stuff should only be used with a mild taper crimp as
a strong taper or roll crimp can cut the coating and cause it too separate and wedge in the barrel.
3. Paper patch the s-x-x-x-x-r or knurl it.
4. It is a really sub gauge shotgun slug or black powder bullet waiting for a sabot sleeve.

My question , are they commercially cast?

 

[35 shooter]

My prediction is BLL will hold up fine, although i'd be tempted to go with 3 coats or at least 2 since there are no lube grooves for the first trial.
The crimp groove will carry a bit in reserve with extra coats.

I'll be VERY surprised if BLL doesn't do just as well(better) than a pc coating on ANY bullet....grooves or not!

 

[Ben]

OK....Here are my comments.
1. Should work fine once or twice.
2. The crimp groove would work with BLL or traditional lube, BUT I would be concerned about it w/
powder coating or any other hard coating.
We all know that bullets like the x-treme copper plated stuff should only be used with a mild taper crimp as
a strong taper or roll crimp can cut the coating and cause it too separate and wedge in the barrel.
3. Paper patch the s-x-x-x-x-r or knurl it.
4. It is a really sub gauge shotgun slug or black powder bullet waiting for a sabot sleeve.

My question , are they commercially cast?

No, he had a custom mold made for this bullet.

Ben

 

[Ben]

My prediction is BLL will hold up fine, although i'd be tempted to go with 3 coats or at least 2 since there are no lube grooves for the first trial.
The crimp groove will carry a bit in reserve with extra coats.

I'll be VERY surprised if BLL doesn't do just as well(better) than a pc coating on ANY bullet....grooves or not!

This may be the ULTIMATE test of BLL ? ?

Ben

 

[freebullet]

Doesn't seem strange to me. Apparently many folks asked for it because mp, noe, & several others are making them in a plethora of configurations.
I have the aluminum 6 cav mp35-125 no groove, the boolits rain from the mold. It is by far the easiest casting mold I own. In 9mm it works with darn near anything you want to coat/tl them with. Going to try it in 38spcl & then 357mag.
I haven't tried Bll yet but, fully intend to. With 45x2-10tl plain based boolits work pretty well in just about everything I've tried up to around 1200fps. That is very useful for quickly creating a large volume of plinking ammo with the least time input possible. When we push the velocity it seems the traditional methods still outshine all the newfangled stuff. Nothing wrong with either.

 

[35 shooter]

This may be the ULTIMATE test of BLL ? ?

Ben

I really think it's gonna be a walk in the park for handgun length bbls. I'm guessing the major factor will be how many coats for the higher velocities.

I've been wondering about BLL with a smooth sided rifle bullet in the back of my mind, so i'm very interested in the results here.

 

[Ian]

I'll weigh in if you're still soliciting opinions: I think the "slicks" coated in BLL are going to work like a champ, maybe even in longer barrels. Kind of excited to see how they do because I've had the same idea ever since Peter started showing us all the work he did with his homemade slick moulds for .303 British rifles.

 

[Ben]

I guess my comment of " Strange " simply reflects my 45 + year
marriage to conventional moulds using the old time , tested,
and proven lube groove designs.

I'll reiterate.........this thing looks strange to me.
I'm having trouble warming up to this thing........
Will it shoot, " Jury is still out."
Each of you will soon know. I'm planning on a range
trip in about 4 days. I hope to have these loaded up
and with me on that day.
Stay tuned..................

Ben

 

[Ben]

I'll weigh in if you're still soliciting opinions: I think the "slicks" coated in BLL are going to work like a champ, maybe even in longer barrels. Kind of excited to see how they do because I've had the same idea ever since Peter started showing us all the work he did with his homemade slick moulds for .303 British rifles.

Yes, we are still soliciting..................

Ben

 

[35 shooter]

Well i'm certainly set to learn something from this test any way it goes. This should turn out to be interesting and fun for everybody!

I did a search on that other site awhile back on smooth side rifle bullets. It seems like the main drawback(other than how to lube it) was they create more friction in the bore than grooved bullets?

There were some pretty good results reported from knurling them a bit before lubing. I'm interested in results without knurling.

 

[fiver]

I'm sure that Hi-Tek would wok here just fine, it's a good coating that has been looked over by more than few in the P/C group

I think you'll be surprised at the outcome if you keep thing in the 750 fps area.

 

[Brad]

Hi-tek cooks Chinese food?

I almost got in on a buy for a smooth sided 9 mm bullet and decided I just didn't need to.

I bet that works just fine. What would be interesting to see is how hard they can be pushed and maintain accuracy.

 

[Ben]

I'm thinking right now of using my " Gold Standard Load " for my .32 H&R Mag in my scoped T/C single shot pistol to test the accuracy of this cast bullet.

I'll simply substitute the smooth sided truncated cone cast bullet for the NOE, 103 gr. SWC that I KNOW will shoot well out of my scoped T/C Contender with my proven load of Bullseye.( see below )

 

[fiver]

Australian wok cuisine it's probably as good as Asian-mex mix.
ain't no way your gonna go wrong with a wok and a BBQ in the same meal.

 

[Brad]

Just don't take the dog for a wok

 

[Ian]

[Bada-bing]

 

[35 shooter]

Gotta feeling this range test is going to make me want to try a smooth side rifle bullet even more than before.

That's the thing about shooting cast....there's always something "new to me" to try.

 

[fiver]

ain't that the truth.
throw in a little swaging and things get even more out of hand.
a core for a 223 bullet with a large primer cup with the anvil removed swaged to 224 diameter makes some pretty fun shooting and those are slick sided too.
they handle 22 lr to almost 22 mag velocity's with T/L applied and allowed to dry.
just a few grains of pistol powder gets them along right well and will smoke a ground squirrel into a big mess.
those did lead the barrel some though but I think the dead soft alloy and slightly small base had something to do with that.
I just fired a normal 223 cast load every 4-5 shots and it never posed a problem.

 

[smokeywolf]

Looks like it was meant to have a half jacket around it. The truncated cone shape and no lube rings remind me of a 44-40 that my father used to swage into a half jacket for the model '92.

 

[9.3X62AL]

I haven't warmed up to coated bullets yet. One big reason is the relative success I've had for 35 years with loob gruves and greasy kid stuff, adding a gas check to really kick things downrange in a hurry. I don't oppose the R&D/explorations with the coated critters, but haven't pursued the process personally for a couple reasons--

1) The processes I have read about don't appear to save much (if any) time in the bullet-making regimen

2) The "improvements" to performance seem at best incremental and often non-existent compared to my Lyman-esque Old School methods

3) I am DEEPLY invested in the Lyman-esque tooling already, and none too thrilled at having to round up more hardware/materials to gain so little

4) The people most impressed by the bullet coating/painting process seem to be the hobbyists with less experience in the craft

All that said, if I learn credible info with repeatable good results from sources whose skills I trust, I am certainly willing to read and listen. Whether I choose to jump in and play will depend on that source and his or her results. Call me open but cautious, with mild skepticism alloying the outlook. Smooth-sided bullets are a little foreign-appearing to me, even for paper-patching......which I have done with some success.