This article by Glen E. Fryxell, was published in Fouling Shot #209, Jan/Feb 2011.
Ed Harris recently reported on some of his experiments with cup-point bullets, made using moulds modified by Erik Ohlen at Hollow Point Bullet Mold Service. My fondness for cast HP's is no secret and I have also been working with Erik to get several hollow-point (HP) moulds for designs that I was interested in. This article is focused on a specific subset of that group.
My initial contact with Erik last winter was focused on getting a handful of moulds converted to make traditional style HP mould (i.e. those with a removable pin). During our email conversation setting up these conversions, I asked him if he had considered doing conversions to the Cramer-style of HP moulds.
For those that might not be familiar with the Cramer style of HP moulds, the HP pin is held captive by two transverse pins that go through one of the mould blocks so the caster does not need to remove the pin manually, just invert the mould and let the pin and bullet slide out from the blocks and then the bullet falls free. Then you just close the blocks back up and cast again. It makes for a very fast casting cadence. What's more, the Cramer-style HP pins are compatible with multi-cavity HP moulds, so one can cast up a pile of HPs pretty darned quickly!
Ed Harris recently reported on some of his experiments with cup-point bullets, made using moulds modified by Erik Ohlen at Hollow Point Bullet Mold Service. My fondness for cast HP's is no secret and I have also been working with Erik to get several hollow-point (HP) moulds for designs that I was interested in. This article is focused on a specific subset of that group.
My initial contact with Erik last winter was focused on getting a handful of moulds converted to make traditional style HP mould (i.e. those with a removable pin). During our email conversation setting up these conversions, I asked him if he had considered doing conversions to the Cramer-style of HP moulds.
For those that might not be familiar with the Cramer style of HP moulds, the HP pin is held captive by two transverse pins that go through one of the mould blocks so the caster does not need to remove the pin manually, just invert the mould and let the pin and bullet slide out from the blocks and then the bullet falls free. Then you just close the blocks back up and cast again. It makes for a very fast casting cadence. What's more, the Cramer-style HP pins are compatible with multi-cavity HP moulds, so one can cast up a pile of HPs pretty darned quickly!
Anyway, when I asked Erik about the Cramer-style conversions, he said that he was very interested in the concept, but that he hadn't worked with a Cramer mould yet to get a good close look at the fine details of how; Cramer had executed the concept.
Well, awhile back John Taffin gave me an old Cramer #25A mould (a 165 grain .357 SWC) that had one HP cavity and one standard cavity (it had been made this way at the factory) but as some point over the years the HP pin had been lost. John knew my fondness for HP moulds and figured that I would find a way to make this mould whole again. I described the situation with Erik, and he agreed to make a replacement pin for the Cramer mould, and thereby gain some experience with the design to see if this conversion was something that he might be interested in offering.
Well, awhile back John Taffin gave me an old Cramer #25A mould (a 165 grain .357 SWC) that had one HP cavity and one standard cavity (it had been made this way at the factory) but as some point over the years the HP pin had been lost. John knew my fondness for HP moulds and figured that I would find a way to make this mould whole again. I described the situation with Erik, and he agreed to make a replacement pin for the Cramer mould, and thereby gain some experience with the design to see if this conversion was something that he might be interested in offering.
I sent him the mould and he made a HP pin to fit, with the cavity dimensions made to my specifications (.165 at the cavity mouth, a cavity depth of .275", a 7 degree taper so it would release the bullets easily, and a rounded HP pin). In the original Cramer system, two transverse alignment pins were made from a simple rollpin. If there was an over-flow spill over the side of the mould, then molten alloy would solidify on the pins, sticking steadfastly to the asymmetric roll-pin, forcing the caster to pry it off with a pair of pliers before the casting could resume. Erik upgraded the original Cramer design by replacing these roll-pins with precision-ground hardened steel pins. With their smooth surface any spills just slide right off, meaning that casting proceeds unimpeded. The fit of the new HP pin to the mould blocks is just beautiful, and the pin slides in and out of the mould block effortlessly. Casting with this mould quickly produced a mixed pile of solid SWC's and HP's, so I had SWC's to practice/plink with, and HP's to hunt with, very efficient! When cast up with range scrap (BHN ~9-10), the SWC's weighed 165 grains and the HP's weighed 156 grains. The HP cavities were perfectly centered. Both bullets dropped from the blocks at about .361" diameter, and sized down to .358" very nicely (lubed with my homemade moly-lube, 50/50 beeswax/moly grease).
The first .38 Special load I tested was 6.5 grains of HS-6 over a Winchester Small Pistol primer. This load consistently produced 1 groups at 50 feet with a 6 K-38 Target Masterpiece (915 f.p.s.). Expansion testing revealed that expansion was positive, and weight retention was excellent (~80%), even when stopped with
dry newsprint (which is very hard on cast bullets). This load shot well in other .38 Special revolvers too, most notably my pet 3 heavy-barreled S&W Model 10 (M&P).The solid SWCs shot nicely out of a 5 Model 1899 (First Model M&P) over 3.5 grains of Bullseye. Well, after working with this mould Erik figured that this was a
conversion that he was willing to offer to his customers, which pleased me no end since I very much like the Cramer-style of HP moulds and I was interested getting some other moulds converted. As soon as he told me that he was willing to offer this service, I packaged up an RCBS .44-300-GC 2-cavity SWC mould that I had
for conversion to a 2-cavity Cramer-style HP mould. For this mould I specified that I wanted the cavities to be .150 diameter at the mouth, have a 7-degree taper (so they would release from the pin easily),and have the cavity extend down .250 into the bullet (i.e.about a 1/4 of the length of the bullet), and HP pins with rounded tips. This cavity is a little shallower than you typically see on a cast HP bullet. The reasoning behind that design feature is that this bullet will be used in .44 Magnum hunting loads (i.e. 1350 f.p.s. from a revolver,1650 f.p.s. from a levergun), and while I wanted expansion from the HP, I also wanted to limit weight loss, so the front 1/4 of the bullet was for expansion, and the back 3/4 of the bullet would be a deep penetrating wadcutter in the event that the nose was lost.
The RCBS mould was returned promptly, modified exactly as requested. Once I got everything warmed up and happy, the RCBS .44-300-HP mould was dropping "keepers" every time and I got about 200 bullets cast in less than half an hour. There is no way that I could have done THAT with a traditional HP mould! These bullets were cast to a BHN of about 12 using a mix of range scrap and linotype, and they weighed 297 grains. The parent RCBS SWC had weighed 303 grains when cast with WW alloy (similar hardness), so about 6 grains of bullet metal had been removed to make the HP cavity. Once again, the HP cavities were perfectly centered.
Loaded up over 21.0 grains of Winchester 296, and sparked with a CCI 350 primer, this bullet consistently turned in 5-shot groups at 1 1/4, and velocities in the 1325-1350 f.p.s. range from hunting revolvers. Once again, expansion testing revealed that expansion was positive and that the back 3/4 of the bullet punched on through like a wadcutter. In early March, I used this bullet and an 8 3/8 S&W Model 29-5 to shoot a nice little 175 lb. meat hog, and the bullet performed beautifully it entered just behind the left shoulder, expanded nicely, shredding the front half of both lungs, and punched outright through the middle of the right shoulder. The hog was slapped off his feet at the bullets impact; he kicked a few times, but never regained his feet, and was dead moments later. I was very pleased with the performance of the RCBS .44-300-HP from the Cramer-style 2-cavity HP mould.
Over the course of the winter, Erik and I had been bouncing around various ideas for a HP tailored explicitly for the .45 ACP. I came up with an old Ideal 2-cavity 452374 that I sent off to Erik with instructions to convert it a Cramer-style 2-cavity HP mould, with a .250" meplat, HP cavities that were .180 at the mouth, 7 degree taper, with a cavity that extended .300 down from the meplat, and HP pins with rounded tips. In this case I wanted a HP cavity that went halfway through the bullet since the.45 ACP operates at much lower velocities than the .44 Magnum, so I chose to place more emphasis on getting the bullet to expand, and had less concern about potential mass loss.
The RCBS mould was returned promptly, modified exactly as requested. Once I got everything warmed up and happy, the RCBS .44-300-HP mould was dropping "keepers" every time and I got about 200 bullets cast in less than half an hour. There is no way that I could have done THAT with a traditional HP mould! These bullets were cast to a BHN of about 12 using a mix of range scrap and linotype, and they weighed 297 grains. The parent RCBS SWC had weighed 303 grains when cast with WW alloy (similar hardness), so about 6 grains of bullet metal had been removed to make the HP cavity. Once again, the HP cavities were perfectly centered.
Loaded up over 21.0 grains of Winchester 296, and sparked with a CCI 350 primer, this bullet consistently turned in 5-shot groups at 1 1/4, and velocities in the 1325-1350 f.p.s. range from hunting revolvers. Once again, expansion testing revealed that expansion was positive and that the back 3/4 of the bullet punched on through like a wadcutter. In early March, I used this bullet and an 8 3/8 S&W Model 29-5 to shoot a nice little 175 lb. meat hog, and the bullet performed beautifully it entered just behind the left shoulder, expanded nicely, shredding the front half of both lungs, and punched outright through the middle of the right shoulder. The hog was slapped off his feet at the bullets impact; he kicked a few times, but never regained his feet, and was dead moments later. I was very pleased with the performance of the RCBS .44-300-HP from the Cramer-style 2-cavity HP mould.
Over the course of the winter, Erik and I had been bouncing around various ideas for a HP tailored explicitly for the .45 ACP. I came up with an old Ideal 2-cavity 452374 that I sent off to Erik with instructions to convert it a Cramer-style 2-cavity HP mould, with a .250" meplat, HP cavities that were .180 at the mouth, 7 degree taper, with a cavity that extended .300 down from the meplat, and HP pins with rounded tips. In this case I wanted a HP cavity that went halfway through the bullet since the.45 ACP operates at much lower velocities than the .44 Magnum, so I chose to place more emphasis on getting the bullet to expand, and had less concern about potential mass loss.
Once again, the mould was returned promptly, and modified exactly as requested. In my first casting session with the 2-cavity 452374 HP mould, I emptied a 10 lb. pot of lead in just under an hour - that's about 350 bullets, or almost 6 HPs a minute! The Cramer-style 2-cavity HP moulds are really fun to cast with, and really fast. Once again, the HP cavities were perfectly centered in the bullets.
When cast with 25-1, (lead to tin) alloy, these bullets dropped from the blocks at 210 grains. When loaded to OAL of 1.240" the bullets cycled smoothly in the pair of 1911's (one Kimber and one Colt) that I test-fired them in, A variety of test loads were assembled and a very useful combination of velocity and accuracy was obtained with 7.2 grains of Unique, for 965 fps. Expansion testing in wet newsprint revealed outstanding expansion - expansion to .80-.85", with 100% weight retention - it just doesn't get much better than that folks!
In summary, I have been very pleased, both with the quality of work that Erik has done for me on these moulds, and with the performance of the cast HP's that have come from these moulds. Erik's repair on the old Cramer mould has brought an old mould back into service that should provide a steady supply of quality HP's for my summertime varmint hunting. The conversion of the RCBS .44-300-GC mould to a 2-cavity Cramer-style HP resulted in an excellent hunting bullet that is both accurate and hard-hitting. The conversion of the old Ideal 452374 to a 2-cavity HP mould resulted in a cast HP that feeds reliably and expands beautifully.
The Cramer-style HP moulds allow the caster to establish a fast cadence and make a pile of HP's in a hurry. If you've got some ideas for cast HP bullets that you've always wanted to explore, you might consider a Cramer-style 2-cavity conversion.
When cast with 25-1, (lead to tin) alloy, these bullets dropped from the blocks at 210 grains. When loaded to OAL of 1.240" the bullets cycled smoothly in the pair of 1911's (one Kimber and one Colt) that I test-fired them in, A variety of test loads were assembled and a very useful combination of velocity and accuracy was obtained with 7.2 grains of Unique, for 965 fps. Expansion testing in wet newsprint revealed outstanding expansion - expansion to .80-.85", with 100% weight retention - it just doesn't get much better than that folks!
In summary, I have been very pleased, both with the quality of work that Erik has done for me on these moulds, and with the performance of the cast HP's that have come from these moulds. Erik's repair on the old Cramer mould has brought an old mould back into service that should provide a steady supply of quality HP's for my summertime varmint hunting. The conversion of the RCBS .44-300-GC mould to a 2-cavity Cramer-style HP resulted in an excellent hunting bullet that is both accurate and hard-hitting. The conversion of the old Ideal 452374 to a 2-cavity HP mould resulted in a cast HP that feeds reliably and expands beautifully.
The Cramer-style HP moulds allow the caster to establish a fast cadence and make a pile of HP's in a hurry. If you've got some ideas for cast HP bullets that you've always wanted to explore, you might consider a Cramer-style 2-cavity conversion.