Soft nose cast bullets?

[adam]

Hi
I have a plenty of linotyp alloy and have cast a few 170 gr  from a lee mould and loaded in front of 24 gr norma 202  for my 30-30es. it works like a solid even i shot them in the hard wood they didn't expand.  I wonder if I drill a hole in the tip of them and pouring soft lead in the cavity I can acheive a SOFT NOSE  cast bullet. is there anybody who tried this idea . are there some factory making hollowpoint or soft point moulds ? if you know, then please tell me about it.
cheers
adam

[Castaway]

One technique is to use two pots.  One with lead, the other with your alloy.  Use something to dip a consistent "smidgen" of lead in the mould, pause, then fill with alloy.

[John Traveler1]

Lyman used to offer two-cavity molds for casting a hard alloy base and a soft lead nose.  After casting, you swage the two together into one bullet.

The idea lost favor when jacketed bullets came into common use.

[Lloyd Smale]

I beleive lbt and mountain molds will still do a soft nose mold

[sharps4590]

Ordinarily cast bullets don't expand much, unless one hits bone.  Even my 25-1 cast bullets, which are pretty soft, that I shoot in my Sharps don't expand much.  Of course they're only running 1200-1300 fps. but I've shot coyotes with 30 cal. cast bullets from a 303 Savage a 30-30 Win. and there was no sigh of expansion.  They've always been effective for me the way they come from the mold.

Vic

[anachronism]

Other possibilities:Preheat soft lead buckshot on your mould warming tray to just before the melting point, drop it in the mould cavity then pour your lino over it. When this works, it works well, just make cetrain you have removed any graphite or other coatings from the shot before using. Or ditch the lino, and use magnum shot instead, with 2-3% of tin added. Air cooled, this should give you about 18 bhn, and be ideal for hunting with the 30-30. This can also be heat-treated by water-dropping the bullets from the mould for extra hardness. Then anneal the bullet noses by standing the bullet in a pan of water, with the water level just above the bullet shank. Then take a propane torch and heat the bullet noses once again just until the melting point. You'll have to do some experimenting to get the right amount of time. Then leave the bullet undisturbed until they cool on their own. This should give you soft noses and hard shanks too. I've never tried this with lino, so it may work for it too, but linos so doggone expensive that I've been hoarding what I have left, and have been using magnum shot instead.

Bob

[jhalcott]

the 2 pot method does work. You have to run hot though in both pots. Take a 9mm case and a piece of heavy wire to make a handle. trim the 9mm case till it holds just about the equal amount of lead as the nose of your 170 grain bullet.You will have to try a few casts till you get it right.
 Dip and pour the nose section and follow with the lino.It is better if you dip both parts as you do NOT want to cause the soft lead to move around in the cavity.This will cause the bullet to be off balance and accuracy WILL suffer.I used a hot plate to keep the mold hot. You really don't need a lot of these soft nose bullets and a few dozen should last several deer seasons. I got acceptable (2 1/2") groups with my 358 jdj and 35 whelen off sand bags at 75 yards(scoped). I shot them into wet phone books and got 15+ inches of penetration and the few I recovered showed expansion. Different amounts of soft nose will give different amounts of expansion and penetration. 50/50 bullets gave the least penetration and most expansion,BUT would not always stay on track. Sometimes losing the entire front part. Kind of like the old Noslers.

[Robert]

Here is an old mold that I found at a local gunshow.  You can cast a plinker, or cast a soft nose, then place the soft bullet in the larger cavity and top off with hard alloy.
http://www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/album_pic.php?pic_id=803
I don't know what I am doing wrong with the pics...but you can click on the highlighted link and see the picture.  I am sure that someone is still making similar molds.

[MGySgt]

Moutain Molds makes a soft nose mold.

http://www.mountainmolds.com/

Drew