I am wanting to take my 10mm Magnum on some hunting trips, starting out with a deer. Now of course most of the regular fodder would be more than capable of handling this tasks, but I figure why not design something heavy for the magnum users. I am aware of the 230 hardcast from double tap, the only problem being there it was designed for autos and the price of them. The nose is fairly short (~.260"), meplat is fairly wide (looking at 78% from what I could measure), crimp groove looks to be a .055" long. So starting there, I figure I can lengthen out the nose and maybe narrow up the meplat to 75% and I'll probably ditch the gas check. I think the 230 grn weight is fine and probably wont need heavier, but I need to do more digging.

Thinking something along the lines of:

.350" nose
.055" crimp groove, or maybe a short .045"
75% meplat (.300" wide)
3 body bands, 2 lube grooves. Lube grooves are 55 degrees to get more grease in. Groove to band ratio set to 1.1
Front band is set to .070"
Tangential Ogive profile

This leaves .377" of the bullet in the case, the rest in front. Total length is .729, or .002 over what the double tap hardcast measures in at.

Has anyone else went down this road and had a custom mold cut? Any thoughts or suggestions?

This post has been edited by ctkelly: October 13th 2009 3:50 AM

Somewhere along the lines Ross Seyfried wrote an article about cast bullets.
His complaint was that the meplat on hardcast bullets, for dangerous game anyway, was too narrow.
I don't recall how wide he suggested but he did not like the JD Jones variety because of the narrow meplat. He liked the LRB brand IIRC.
He wanted the widest meplat for chopping the biggest hole. But maybe that thinking has changed. I don't do much cast stuff.

But I own a Ruger Bisley, and I agree with you, a good 230 grain hardcast would be the ticket.

I would tend to agree. Big wide meplat would be what I was after, not a narrow one. I would look at making it longer if I didn't have to worry about magazine feeding, which you won't.

I would think you should be able to duplicate an original keith SWC very accurately in a 230-235 grain .401 bullet. Mountain Mold will make a mold for you.

I have a couple of designs that I have saved from their site, but all were designed around an OAL that would work in my witness with standard 10mm. I was looking for a 210-215 hard cast for when I was on the trail.

Guys, a 75% meplat is .300....and 80% which is generally what a WFN (Think its actually .090" less than caliber is the definition) will fall under is .320 or .310 if you go with the .090" less. The advisable limit is 80%. If it didnt really matter how wide of a meplat you went I think you would see a bunch of full wad cutters for hunting ammo but you dont. The nose length is another problem, dan (mountain molds) does not like long unsupported noses and will not cut the mold if he thinks its too long. His recommendation is less than one caliber length for unsupported nose, he actually favors 1/2 or 2/3 of caliber....350" is still almost an entire .1" over what double tap ammo's 230 is and retains a meplat only .010" smaller (roughly 2%).

My main concern now is the band lengths and if there will be enough grease/lube to make this a good design. If the bands need to be larger and or we need more lube, the only way to increase this is go up in weight or decrease the length of the nose. Right now I am committing to the .045" short crimp groove and a narrow front band which may or may not bite me in the butt. I may increase the weight up to 235 to try and gain a little more lube/band length.

As far as a keith goes, I've never had very good luck with them and from dan's postings and suggestions neither has he. Its a design I'll avoid for now and stick with the good ole LFN or WFN designs.

Thanks for everyone suggestions, but I think some of us are getting too wrapped up in how big the meplat is....The difference between what I have suggested and a WFN isn't that far off, if you need a bigger meplat you better step up a caliber.

Edit:

Looking it over I think in fact I will go with:

235 grains wheel weights
.070" front band length. Groove to band ratio is set to 1.1 and the resulting bands end up being .070", so they are all equal.
Meplat set to 75%, .300"
Nose length set to .345"
55 degree angle for lube grooves. Results in .7 grns of lube
.396" inside the case, bearing length is .55"

I'm pretty confident in this design so I will probably place the order with dan at mountain molds. Unless he finds something glaringly wrong with it I should have it shortly.

This post has been edited by ctkelly: October 14th 2009 12:53 AM

Placed the order for the mold last week. Supposed to take 6-10 weeks according to his website. Well it took more like 10 days. Mold is here in my hands and looks great. I've moved my casting setup to the garage but I'm not quite finished there, still need to hook up the wood stove to the chimney and get that all squared away. Not going to cast in the cold iowa winter in a garage with no heat. ha ha.

Once I get setup and going, if anyone would like to try a few bullets I'd be glad to send some out.

I am going to have LBT make a mould that's similar to the Double tap 230, unless I can figure out who makes their mould. I imagined they didn't get that one off the shelf. My needs for the 230 require them feeding in an autoloader, so yours is ou for me, but nice work. Nice to see people trying out new things.

AKMAN