Using BBs in the nose of a cast rifle bullet??

[Dezynco]

I've heard of folks dropping a BB into the nose of a cast "spire point" bullet mold before pouring the lead.  What purpose would this serve?

[jlwilliams]

  They make airgun pellets like that, too.  The theory on them is that they penetrate better, but I don't know.  Never heard of casting bullets like that and I'm interested to hear from someone who knows.

[Reverend Recoil]

How would you keep a BB from floating in th emold while the lead is liquid?

[RB1235]

I load them in a minie balls. I run a soft lead anyhow. But they mushroom better with the bb. Also do it with slugs. It is better on both to drill a hp smaller than the bb and use ca glue to attach to hole. The idea was pretty popular some years back. The idea is on impact the bb is dislodged and forced down the hole with the heavier softer lead forcing itself over the bb. It just starts expansion quicker, then the hydraulic effect completes the mushroom. That is just my take. I am not a ballistician.

[steg]

The only thing that I ever heard about this was one day I was loading shotgun shells and a friend dropped by, when he saw what I was doing, he asked if he could could have a few for one of his friends who drops one in his mold when casting spire point .30 calibers for a 30/06, he didn't know why it was done, but I'm thinking possibly the hardness of the lead shot would help in keeping the tip from deforming, but this was lead shot, not steel BB's..............steg

[Tom W.]

I don't know if it's still done, but at one time Winchester put a small BB like object into the nose of their .25 auto cartridges.

[Larry Gibson]

I've done quite a bit of it.  It works very well for two reasons; to cause much better expansion in soft cast bullets ala a Remington Bronze Point bullet and to use a HP mould to make a solid bullet.  To make the soliid bullet the HP stem is not used and the BB plugs the hole.  The bullet design must be one that the BB centers in the mold and be of sufficient caliber.  I mostly use the BB'd bullets in my Lyman 311041 HP and 323471 moulds with 50/50 WW/lead alloy.  The expansion is better than without the HP but not quite as good as with the HP.  It is a very good technique if one wants some expansion with a lot of penetration.  I mostly just vary the depth of the HP these days and have not had any problems with penetration using HP cast bullets of that alloy.  Harder alloys that expand but allow the expansion petals to shear off can give problems.  The alloy must be right for the bullet/game and velocity used.

I put the BBs in a little tin (top of old Hornady GC can works well) and set it on the rim of the furnace to keep the BBs hot.  A hot BB is then simply dropped into the cavity with tweezers before the sprue plate is closed.  The alloy begins to solidify as soon as it enters the mould (I cast at 725 degrees with most alloys) and the BB staysing in the nose.  I've not found any difference between the copper BB and the steel BB BTW.

Larry Gibson

[Lloyd Smale]

ive seen just bullet lube in the nose stop a hp from expanding so i have to wonder how reliable a bb in there would be. Im sure sometimes it would increase expansion but others it would just act like solid. Hps expand just fine as is if the alloy is right and so do cast soft nose bullets. Even tempering the tip of a bullet with a torch to soften it will allow expansion on a hard bullet.

[Dezynco]

Thanks for all the replies!  I was just wonderin' what happens, and so far......

I may do some 'sperimentin' to see what happens with a RCBS 30-180 cast with wheel weights.

[Dee]

I tried this back in the early 70s on a 170 grain cast gas check for my 3030. They were supposed to enhance some expansion. They won't float to the top as the the lead if having the proper temp and the mold also immediately begins to harden when poured. I was not impressed, and felt that the most that was accomplished was to throw the bullet out of balance.

[jhalcott]

  I tried this also. The BB would NOT stay centered in the nose! It often would float up and to the side leaving a badly unbalanced bullet. I admit that I did NOT preheat them though. I did use a softer alloy with the "pointy" molds and got great results that way. I also found some success with "soft nose" bullets when the weight was close to 200 grains or above. The wheel weight alloy nose would peel back/off and leave a harder alloy body with a blunt nose to plow thru the animal. I assume this because I did NOT recover any in the several animals shot with "soft nose" cast bullets. Wound channels were much larger than non soft nosed bullets from the same mold!