looking for a custom mold, any recomendations?

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ok im looking for a mold for casting some .458 dia bullets for my 45-70. I want a bullet weight somewhere in the 400gr to 475gr range and for it to have a big hollow point on it. I cant find anyone who make a mold with a boat tail on it... there has to be something out there someone has made for the 458socom or 458winmag... does anyone make a BTHP mold? or can someone suggest a company for me to contact that can make me what I want?
 
You don't see many BTHP 45-70 bullets around. I wonder why? :)

Accurate Molds makes custom molds on a one-off basis but they don't make HP molds. I don't know if they will make BT molds.

You could get Accurate Molds to make the mold without HP, and get these guys: http://www.hollowpointmold.com/ to convert it to hollow point. You would need to email a drawing of the bullet you want with dimensions to Tom at Accurate Molds to get started.

Night Owl Enterprises might do it for you - I don't know if they do BT - but you need to pay for tooling costs up front unless you are ordering 10-15 molds. It's very pricey to go that way. They generally want a drawing before they will take you seriously as well.

You need to think about lube grooves - how wide, how many.

Boat tail doesn't lend itself to using gas checks so the velocity will be reduced to plain base velocity, maybe 1400-1500 fps.
 
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I did a bunch of searching and reading after learning about the Lee .309" 230gr boat tail bullet design and found out that several companies have released them in the past and they perform terribly so everyone stopped. Cast lead bullets just aren't positively effected by a boat tail design. Some theorized that the pressure increases in the gap between the bullets boat tail base and the barrel walls and causes issues. Other say a boat tail design doesn't lend itself well to the bullet obturating (expansion deforming) to fill the bore better. Regardless there are seemingly many people who have said they tried them and they were terrible and next to no-one who has anything good to say about them so I'll just avoid them myself. Even the (relatively new) Lee design has far more complaints than success stories.

Why are you looking for a boat tail design anyway? Just curious. The ballistic coefficient of a .458" bullet, especially one with a great big hollow point, is going to be so terrible a boat tail wont positively effect it much. It would avoid bullet shaving when seating but a properly flared case neck totally eliminates that anyway.

Also keep in mind that cast hollow points only really expand when cast from a relatively soft alloy. Standard "hard cast" alloys with a BHN hardness of 12-15+ don't expand much at all if any. So with a much softer alloy your maximum velocity will be reduced. They sure do look awesome though ;)
 
LUTNIT said:
Also keep in mind that cast hollow points only really expand when cast from a relatively soft alloy. Standard "hard cast" alloys with a BHN hardness of 12-15+ don't expand much at all if any. So with a much softer alloy your maximum velocity will be reduced. They sure do look awesome though ;)
Click to expand...

Yes, they don't expand, the hollow point "walls" shatter off loosing weight.
 
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