New cramer HP 45 acp

[snuffy]

It finally came! Well worth the wait, the precision is amazing.





There's just something about these brass molds, they just look like they WANT to make boolits.







They drop right at 200 gr. measure .4545 with this range scrap lead, size to .4525 in a RCBS .452 die. Lubed with Lars red from white label lubes.

Loaded 100, 50 of each, gotta fill some milk jugs with water to see how they expand. Range report with pics coming soon.

 

[capreppy]

That is a nice looking cast. Read a lot of good things regarding Lars Red

 

[USSR]

snuffy,

Miha sure turns out nice moulds. Mine is on it's way and will hopefully be here by the weekend. My mould handles arrived yesterday. What alloy did you use?

Don

 

[rcmodel]

gotta fill some milk jugs with water

Try wet clay or mud, or wet phone books.

I just about gave up on Speer .38 Spl Gold-Dot's because I couldn't get them to expand in several water jugs placed in row out of a 4" barrel.

But they just about turn themselves inside out in the wet clay target berm behind them, as well as wet catalogs when I shot them!

rc

 

[snuffy]

snuffy,

Miha sure turns out nice moulds. Mine is on it's way and will hopefully be here by the weekend. My mould handles arrived yesterday. What alloy did you use?

Don

This will NOT be my last Miha mold. He does exceptional work.

The alloy is range scrap lead, about 12-14 BHN. I most likely won't expand much at reasonable 45 acp velocities. I made them of this alloy because it was what was in the furnace when it arrived. The pot was warming as I was assembling and cleaning the mold!

I plan on an alloy of pure lead with about 2% tin or around 40-1 lead-tin. I have to go buy some lead-free solder to do that. That alloy should be plenty soft to expand well.

 

[snuffy]

RC, I did some limited expansion work with 45 gold dots in water jugs. It worked quite well.






IIRC these were both 200 grainers. Left is the gold dot, right is the H-XTP. Fired into water filled gallon milk jugs end-to-end. another gold dot went through three jugs into the weeds.

Wet phone books are heavy to transport AND dispose of. The dirt at the range is so full of rocks and other spent bullets that it isn't viable for expansion testing. The milk jugs are consistent, easy to transport, and when they're busted, really light to bring home to re-cycle.

Some day I'll have one of the bullet test tubes. THEN we'll see expansion AND a wound cavity.

http://www.thebullettesttube.com/index.html

 

[USSR]

This will NOT be my last Miha mold. He does exceptional work.

This will be my 3rd Miha mould, and Yes, exceptional work.

The alloy is range scrap lead, about 12-14 BHN. I most likely won't expand much at reasonable 45 acp velocities. I made them of this alloy because it was what was in the furnace when it arrived. The pot was warming as I was assembling and cleaning the mold!

I plan on an alloy of pure lead with about 2% tin or around 40-1 lead-tin. I have to go buy some lead-free solder to do that. That alloy should be plenty soft to expand well.

A little advice, if I may. My first casting of one of Miha's moulds was with his .45-270 HP mould for the .45 Colt. A friend on this site volunteered to do testing for me with his .45 Colt. With my first batch of alloy, I kept the BHN down to about 10, which in my mind should have expanded well at .45 Colt velocities, which are similar to .45 ACP velocities. What we found, however, was that the HP's fractured rather than mushroomed. Now, that particular alloy, while it had a low BHN, had more Sb (antimony) than Sn (tin). So, it was back to the drawing board. Knowing that all this was dealt with by Elmer Keith about 80 years ago, I went back to what he did, which was use a binary alloy of lead (Pb) and tin, and no antimony. The alloy was 25:1, and the reports from my friend Vern indicated that the expansion was excellent. I also produced a similar batch of alloy that contained 1% antimony, and Vern said mushrooming was excellent with that as well. So, the lesson learned here is: keep your antimony content to a minimum (less than 2%), and your tin content well above your antimony content (3 - 4%), and don't fixate exclusively on the BHN. You need mallability for expansion, and you won't get it with antimony. Hope that helps.

Don

 

[snuffy]

Don, I know this range lead is on the wrong side of the equation, that being high in antimony and low in tin. I suspect that it will shear the noses off because it's not very ductile. I just wanted to get some cast, loaded and shot. Cool and windy today, warmer and less wind tomorrow. So tomorrow is range day!

I'm headed for town to get some tin. I'll set up the smelter tonight, the warmth will be appreciated.

 

[Walkalong]

Very nice. Looking forward to the pics of the fired bullets. Don is right, you need a malleable bullet for good "mushrooming".

If you get to feeling really froggy one day you could cast some two part bullets with pure lead up front (or with a little tin) and what you are using in the rear. About 1/3 and 2/3rds. Now that will really make your day getting it just right.

 

[USSR]

Good News. My Miha mould was here when I got home from work. Guess you know what I will be doing this weekend.

Don

 

[snuffy]

They shoot just great! Some targets, all shot at 25 yds. HOWEVER I could not catch an expanded bullet. They kept skipping out the side of the third jug. First jug was destroyed, so the DO expand. I was using the 5 sided penta points.

My hen scratching is hard to read even for me, so I'll write out the chrono data.
Penta point 5.5 ww 231 WLP new Hornady brass.
Av. 993.2
Hi. 1016
lo 977.5
Es 393
Sd 14.7--group 2.17

These are the round HP. Same powder charge.
Av. 987.7
Hi. 1001
Lo. 995.4
Es. 39.8
Sd.15.9--group 3.6

I'm sure the load would shoot better if not for my 65 Y.O. eyes. Either the sights are out of focus, or the target. So I use the tri-focals to see the sights, then just put the fuzzy BE on the top of the front site.

These were shot resting my wrists on the cradle of my rifle tripod, not much movement.

 

[snuffy]

I switched gears to include the bullet test tube system. Maybe a bad move as the company seems to be going broke, their mailbox is full and their phone is disconnected.

Anyway, here a couple of expanded bullets I got on Monday while testing the latest batch of boolits. These were cast of dead-soft lead with around 2% tin. The lead is very ductile, you can bend the sprue double, it does not break.

Left is the round HP, right the penta point.





Penetration was 5 inches, expansion was .850, weight retention was 100%. Below is the normal round HP.



This is the penta point, is curved right at the end of it's penetration. Notice above how lop-sided it is, non-uniform expansion. I had to dig it out of the media with a spoon.



The accuracy is better with the softer alloy, than the range lead I used for the first casting session. Velocity was in the low 900's. I used the standard load I've used for years for 200 grain 45 acp, 5.7 gr. ww 231. Using lars red or AKA carnuba red lube, I got zero leading and a shiny bore.

I plan on doing a load work-up to possibly 1000 plus, but will try power pistol for that. I don't like to push 231 to higher pressures.

 

[USSR]

I plan on doing a load work-up to possibly 1000 plus, but will try power pistol for that. I don't like to push 231 to higher pressures.

snuffy,

AA#5 is another good powder for such applications. I loaded this bullet with 8.2gr of AA#5, and it was a screaming load. Published load data indicates I can load up to 8.7gr for 1025fps.

Don