Lee 440 mold
 

Corey let me borrow that big bad mold of his so i could cast some bullets and try them out in my muzzys. Good lord though! That sucker eats up lead fast. A member made me a huge 50lb lead pipe a year or so back and i had to cut a chunk off it to feed this pig of a mold.

Got a couple dozen casted up today and plan on trying them in the cabelas hawken with 70gr Pyrodex RS and see how that goes.

Thanks again Corey, i cleaned up the mold and got it all lubed, casts beautiful pig bullets!

oh, forgot to tell you that lol

oh my god! They freakin shoot awesome in the 1:48 twist cabelas hawken with 70gr RS and a lubed wad. I had to take 4 shots to make sure because one hole looks a bit odd, kind of egg shaped. Fired one more and clipped my first shot hole LOL. This is awesome! I didn't expect this at all. Next time i will try 80 - 90gr RS.

Thanks again Corey! This was great as i now know which mold i can buy without worrying about throwing $$ away.

Jon. is that mold the .500 S&W? if it is, what bullet diameter is it throwing.

what is the weight too

Yeah im pretty sure its the 500 S&W. The mold with my lead is throwing them at 454 grains. .501 - .502 Kind of an odd bullet shape to get calipers on.

the lee 501-440 2rf

rifle and target, bullet pics. I really love the bullet though. It eats up a lot of lead but as long as i shoot into my sand buckets its not so bad. Recoil doesnt seem bad either but with the leadsled, its hard to judge right now LOL.

Yes it's shape is rather odd. it was meant to be gas checked and it has a wide flat metplate.

i saw that! I was thinking about trying some gas checks on them and see if they'd fit a bit tighter. Darn checks though are expensive.

They're shooting great though at 50 yards. Maybe try 75 yards tomorrow.

i was throwing 455/456 gr and measured the boolit at 501 to 502. I some tested and ron got them I think at 503. it is an odd shape.

just had some lead i bought off flee bay, dead soft. when I get the mold back i cast some up when I get some time.

I was given the specs for a mold that can be bought for $90.00.it's a .460 gr .50 cal bullet that is almost a dead ringer the the NE and bullshop .460 gr .50 cal..and is very accurate in the 1:28 twist 50 cal rifles..

My brother used to shoot 470 gr Maxiballs in his 50 cal T/C Thunderhawk with 100 loose Pyrodex. They sure wilted the deer.

wooooo baby!!! Its a tiny bit high at 100 yards and DEADLY accurate. I surprised the heck out of myself and gave myself a pat on the back for not losing my open sight shooting ability.

I noticed however that if i keep the bore cool between shots, the bullets tend to cut each others hole and stay in real tiny groups. Found this out when i took 2 shots and then was fumbling around with the shooting tabel " sunk into the mud" and when i got back, i reloaded and felt the barrel was cold. On the following shot, it egged out my first shot hole :D

Im going crazy over the accuracy of this bullet!

Corey, you need to ditch that T7 and get either some pyrodex p or RS to play with, especially with this bullet!

Pictures coming up later, i want to cast a bunch of these before i give corey his mold back LOL. Yes.... i will be ordering my own mold after this!

recovered one on the range this evening. Great expansion/ weight retention. Nice deep rifling groves in the bullet as well. Thats good news, its sealing up in the bore when the powder goes off. I will have to chronograph them next time out. Will upload pics as soon as i label everything.

Didn't bother with the 75 yard group pictures, Heres the 100 yard target and recovered bullet.



444.6 grains recovered weight.

Great shooting! the big lead works well on game lol.

yeah i'd love to plow something with that freight train. You should hear the wack! when it hits the dirt berm

Not bad for a 1:48 twist shooting a chunk of lead. I can only imagine how the 1:32 mountain stalker will do. Ughhh. Thats when a 6lb rifle feels ugly.... LOL

That bullet would be an elk hammer. Are you guys sizing those bulets?? You might want to try a 50/50 mix of WW and pure lead for that bullet for elk. If you could size it properly for a good fit(ease of loading) they would work perfectly. Tom.

Tom i dont resize them, I use them as they drop from the mold. Around .501 to .502 depending how you measure them. I probably could mix in a little WW but either way, its going to leave an elk with a serious hole in his side. The flat face of the bullet will really help ensure it mushrooms.

Going to experiment with a concave nose as well once i find something to cut it out with.

That flat part of the bullet is called thye Meplat. They make meplat trimmers for different case trimmers. However I don't think you will like the results of trimming or changing that meplat. The larger and the flatter the better for both accuracy and uniform expansion.

Add a little WW if you want a slightly larger bulet. The harder the alloy the larger the bullet will drop from the mold. Tom.

maybe an small step drill bit (drill to the first step and stopping half way) and an drill press could do the trick but holding it in place would be the next trick. only way I have heard of hollow pointing cast bullets other then an mold for one is to have it mounted on the brass.

but with how it mushroomed, I would not try it myself..

now something taking that design and hollow basing it, that would be something else

Let the meplat work, IMHO, there is no reason to hollow point a perfect big meplat other than to change the cg of the bullet. that is only needed to correct flight characteristics.

Because you are shooting them bare, less a sabot you need soft lead to obterate to fill/seal the bore.

Let the projectile do its job.

Have fun.

It should be self evident that a boolit of over an ounce in weight will lower the level of melt in any size pot very quickly, I have a mold that drops 4, 500 gr .512 WFNs every time I open it. yes almost 5 ounces a throw. :-)