357 hollow point bullets

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Moon Tree
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357 hollow point bullets

Post by Moon Tree »

Has anyone played around with hollow point molds, especially in a .357 caliber?
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Re: 357 hollow point bullets

Post by Maximumbob54 »

Image

That's one of the .357 HP bullets I make. I have a couple more. What are you wanting to know???

That one is coated in red semi gloss epoxy. It's a 150gr SWCHP from NOE.
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Re: 357 hollow point bullets

Post by Moon Tree »

Max, I'm looking a deer hunting bullet. The SWCHP and the RFNHP in a 158 plus grain was what I was think about. Is that a 158gr with the HP? I saw NOE mold that was 150 gr flat nose that was 145 gr as a HP. I see on the NOE site a 168 gr SWC, 360-168G-SWC, which is solid nose or hollow point, but it only lists the 168 gr. I'm guessing that's for the solid nose.

Have you shot deer size animals with this bullet?
What hardness do you cast? I would think it would be somewhat of a balancing act to cast the bullet soft enough to get expansion at a particular fps, but hard enough so leading doesn't become an issue. Is that why you coat the bullet with epoxy? That's an interesting concept that I've not seen before. Do you not have problems with the epoxy melting in the barrel?

I'm a newby to casting bullets. I've only ever cast round balls for my muzzle loaders, years ago. So, I'm still in the research arena, before I chunk down $100+ on a mold.

Thanks for the help.
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Re: 357 hollow point bullets

Post by Maximumbob54 »

I forget the exact weight of that bullet now as I've not cast them in a while. I'm sure once you lube it and check it it adds some but I remember them still being shy of 158gr with the HP.

Anything HP I cast I do from a mostly pure lead with tin added and no antimony. For hunting I'm not worried about leading as I wouldn't think I would run many of them down the bore before I headed home. Sadly, no, I've not seen a single deer in I think three seasons now. I'm the guy that finds turkeys everywhere in deer season and deer everywhere in turkey season and the two do not overlap each other. I keep meaning to try hog hunting as I've gone with friends but not done any myself.

You can also look up http://www.hollowpointmold.com/forsale/ and http://mp-molds.com/index.php?pr=E_-_shop for other HP mold designs. I don't find any HP mold to really be the best design and they can be a pain to cast with. If you are wanting to fill a bucket with HP bullets then these are not the molds to do it with. The steel pins that cast the HP section suck up heat and require you to cast hot and fast. Then they like to stick to the pins. There are tricks to it but I just want to make sure you know ahead of time it can be a headache.

I've only been doing coated bullets for a short time now since reading about it on Castboolits. Bullet coating is something that if done right works fine but one small error and it leaves a mess. I've never had any that ruined a barrel and it was a bit of a learning process. One positive is like you mentioned you can cast a softer bullet and with the coating not lead the bore. But like a plated bullet, you have to test and see how hard you can push the softer alloy and still have accuracy. Sometimes it still leaves me scratching my head. I have a 158gr SWC coated bullet that in a 4" M28-2 with a stout load of AA #9 .357 magnum load is pretty darn accurate. That exact same bullet in a .38 special loading is still all over the paper with any powder combo I have. As powder is short right now I've just called a halt to that testing. You would think pushing the soft alloy harder would be worse for accuracy... I will fully vouch for if the coating is done right it will even hold up to rifle bullet pressure and velocity so no worries in the .357 magnum.

Look around the bullet casting section here and you will see I'm not the only one trying this latest madness. There are threads that explain it. The Lee-Loader Forum as a thread I started that explains what I did in various attempts. I tried to add enough pics to make it interesting instead of my usual rambling.

I guess it's still debatable if a harder cast SWC that punches straight through and leaves a good blood trail will work better or not than a HP made to mushroom and stay in the animal. My thoughts on hog hunting were to try and stay with the SWC for the rougher body of a hog. Deer, I don't know yet. Stupid zoning laws.
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Re: 357 hollow point bullets

Post by Moon Tree »

I'm currently shooting/testing a commercial hard cast 168 g SWC on top of 13 gr. of Acurate #9. I've tested penetration with it on nine 1/2 gal milk cartons filled with water. It shot through all 9 carton, hit the plywood back stop and bounced half way back into the last carton. I'd call that 10+ cartons of penetration, which is over 40 inches. The first 5 cartons were exploded.

I'm of the camp that wants the bullet to pass through the animal leaving a good blood trail. I understand and appreciate the logic of a bullet expanding all of it's energy within the animal. Of the 60+ deer I've taken with a firearm, I've had very few deer drop in its track that were over 100 lbs field dressed, they were not shot in the spine. OK, one could say that's because there was wasted energy of the bullet on the pass through. A few years ago I shot a 110 pound doe slighly quartering to me. My POA was 1 1/2" right of her sternum. I saw the puff of hair through my scope at exactly that spot. I could tell impact, also dislodge that shoulder. The .243 didn't shoot through her lenght-wise. My brood trail was 2 drop and some hair were she stood when I shot her. I looked for her for an hour with no luck. With help from my friend we found her in 6 foot tall grass in 30 more minutes of searching. She gone about less than 40 yards. One lunge was like partially melted jello as was half the our lunge. The liver had a quarter size hole through it. It I had waited for the broadside shot so I'd had an exist hole/blood trail, I'd found her in under 5 minutes.

We're all humans and capable of a mistake. What about a liver shot deer? It will and fairly quickly, but it may cover 100 yards before doing. Without a blood trail, when that deer is out of sight it's most likely a lost deer.
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