Jerry’s 45 caliber bullets
The Burple 341 grain Hollow point .452 Bullet.
Jerry sent me some a sampling of slugs to try in the 45 Ranger this week, he sent three different weights and each weight had three different diameters. And each diameter has a different color.
He stressed and I need to relay this to you, these bullets are not run of the mill production bullets, they are 2nds that did not make the selection to be sold. I would expect them to shoot better as production selected bullets, but in reality they would be hard to beat with any quality.
The bullets is a true .452 diameter, is just over .900 inches and has 4 full caliber driving bands, the top band is above what would normaly be the crimping groove but in fact is I think another lube grove and is half the width of the other three, a rough measurment would give .35 inches of bore contact on the .50 inch body. The hollow point is .50 inches deep and roughly .15 acrossed. At .50 the hollowpoint extends down to the beginning of the 2nd driving band. The nose extends .390 above the first dirivng band. It is consistant with what I would call a well designed bullet and shooting bore this assumption out.
I had never shot festive bullets before, and try as I could to come up with the correct color and asking two different women, women are supposed to know these things, the color of the .452 bullet for today will be called Burple, it is not quite blue and it is not quite purple.
For lube, I stuck my finger in a bottle of ATF transmission fluid, wiped it in a sandwich baggie and rolled the 13 bullets inside, the dye on the bullets did not fade or migrate to the sides of the bag or onto my fingers.
I shot them in my rifle tethered to a 44 cuft bottle with a fill pressure of 4400 PSI, it was first time I have tried this.
I had the Burris 2×7 Fullfield set at 7 power. That scope is parallax set at the factory at 100 yards, it is not a bench rest scope and the aiming point was hard to see. Taking into consideration parallax error and that I was shooting at 60 yards, and the fact that this is consistant with the best bullets I have shot at 50 yards, they did pretty darn well.
I shot off a Caldwell bag with no butt support on the hood of my Ford Exploder on the full power setting. A this weight in the Ranger 45 it is a toss up whether to go for full power or mid power.
They were consistant, the bottom group shows a little factor with the wind, but like I say I was ignoring the wind while shooting.
My Chrony said they were traveling at 811 FPS which computes to 500FPE.
Although I would never take the shot, for practical purposes, with a good supported field rest, log , stump or correct height limb, this bullet would shoot minute of elk eye at 60 yards. 🙂
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The Raptors are among my favorite bullets from Jerry. I killed my first airgun hog with them and my DS454 loves them. Boy do they smack things hard all the will whistling through the air…lol
I love that sound
I know which mold I would like to steal from Jerry.
I shot this group today at 75 yards from the top of my Ford Exploder.
How much do you want for those Burple Raptor bullets Jerry?
Regards,
Roachcreek
I’ll be watching for that box Ced! You and Timmy better arrange for a dead drop somewhere! 😆 😆 😆
I checked out the accurate molds site and I’m itching to place an order but the whole wants vs. needs thing is holding me back….for now. (I’ll probably figure out a way to rationalize another couple molds before the night is out! 😳 ) I have a 700gr .62 and a high BC .32 in mind…
Thanx for the HELPFUL TIP RC 😉
I’ll go send out that box right now while Jerry is not on here…..lol
Might have to give Accurate molds a try one of these days. Thanx for all the info.
NOW GO SHOOT THAT GUN DAMN IT!!
Accurate molds has really got my attention with their awesome variety of heavy large meplat offerings in .45 for hunting truly big game. Some of those meplats are frickin’ ENOURMOUS. When it comes to big game and the Ranger, all of Accurate molds’ .45 Casull offerings look really interesting for stuff like larger black bear, and Elk.
Check out the size of that meplat on the #45-360C! Gotta wonder how accurate something like that would be at around 850-900fps?
http://www.accuratemolds.com/catalog.php?page=4
http://www.beartoothbullets.com/rescources/calculators/php/wound.htm?v2=900&v1=.37
Tof,
Yes and no. Yes of course you can size it down, but it never shoots as good. The more you size a slug down the more you increase chances of misalignment as it enters the sizing die.
I tired it with the grandfather of this 408 mold. It was a 430 grn .459 NEI mold that Walt cut for me for a 45/70 when NEI was in Canyon City Oregon. Later when I had a love affair with Casull revolvers and thought a 1200 FPS 430 grain bullet would be just great, I sized some of those bullets down. Recoil was fierce, and accuracy was not good at all. Looking at the slugs you could see why, each one visably looked a little different from the next.
After that experience with the Casulls, I decided if I wanted to warm them up over factory specs, I would leave them laying on the pavement on a sunny day. 😆
You can however get Accurate Molds to build you just about any design you want, let’s say you see a 46 caliber mold that is a 550 grain bullet and it has a gas check, but you want that design without the gas check in .452. When you order the bullet, you specify you want it to be .452 cast of what ever alloy and you do not want the gas check, three weeks later you get a package for Tom delivered to your door with a mold that is just exactly what you ordered.
With me and the game I am after, using .452, I have no desire for a HP. I want penetration and a big wide metplate. I do not have the velocity going for me to afford both expansion and penetration, therfore, I will choose penetration over expansion while realizing that the wide flat nose really does not need to expand to deliver a killing shot.
I bet if you by passed Jerry and send a postage paid box to Timmy he would just give you that mold. Might help to threaten him with an order for 5000 Devastators. 😆
Regards,
Roachcreek
Jerry,
LOL…..oh ok. I was hoping you would just send me that mold…lol. I was trying to make it sound as pitiful as possible…lol. But it didn’t work. Just like my pitiful face i make to the wife and she just laughs at it.
I loosing my touch… 😛
RC and Jerry,
Question for you RC concerning bullet molds/bullets. Hey, can’t you buy a mold in .457-.458-.459″ and size it down to .452″? I was thinking about you and your bullets for the Ranger yesterday and i remember you were looking for heavy bullets in 452 and had a hard time until you bought that custom mold from ACCURATE molds. Maybe i asked you that before. I don’t remember so please forgive me if i did.
But since i’m still kinda new to the casting/sizing thing i was wondering about you buying a big ass bullet (400-500 gr) in .457-.458-.459″ and sizing it down to .452″. Can that be done? Sizing DOWN .005-.007″ without any ill effect on the bullets shape.
I never said it was impossible to get good slugs, just that it is A HUGE PITA!!!! 😆
I’m going to keep the mold. After every other one on the planet is destroyed by a pissed off caster, I’ll have a collector’s item!
Jerry,
Thanx bro. Hey, speaking of the Devastator bullets, didn’t you and the boys send me some GREEN ones in 454 like 2 years ago. I had a pic of them somewhere. Jerry, if thats the same mold, WHAT HAPPENED cause those bullets you sent me were PERFECT in every way. They shot great out of my Dragon Slayer 454. It had to have been you and the boys cause the bullet was GREEN….lol. They were nice though. Also, i wonder if Erik at HP molds can fix the one you have. Would hate to see you trash that mold. I”ll take it…lol
RC,
Thanx sir. Much appreciated. Well, as far as dipping the mold, i usually dip the iron ones for maybe 20-30 seconds if i remember correctly. Somewhere in there. Like you, i read about it somewere and i was like DUHHHH, that’s smart cause at first i would heat them up on my gas stove once i cleaned it. But i hated doing that as i did not like bringing something with lead contaminates around where i cook…LOL. My BLOOD PB levels are waaaaaay UP…..lol. I could possibly see how dipping it could warp it if done too long. Also, let me correct myself too. When i say DIP, i mean just the BASE of the mold sits in the molten lead. Maybe about .5″ deep or so. I don’t want folks to think i actually dip my WHOLE mold in the molten lead……..lol. So far, my molds don’t seem to have warped but i believe that keeping them in the lead for only a short period is the key to the mold not warping. But i could definitely be wrong as i’m no metallurgist.
Nice bullets Ced!
The devastator (like) mold is just a singular PIA. We’ve cast any number of hoolow points that would cast clean and void free but that mold just fights back. The biggest problem is getting the thin nose to fill out all around. Voids in the cavity are the next issue…
Tof,
Your bullets really do look nice, I noticed that a few weeks ago when you first posted pictures of them. Then when I learned that Erik had redone your molds, I wondered if that was the difference.
Another odd thing is that years ago, Lee advised to dip their molds in hot lead, then a few years later mold maker started advising against that, and now there are few that would recommend it.
But it used to work for me also. Supposedly it warps the molds.
Regards,
Roachcreek
RC,
Erik at HOLLOWPOINT molds is the BEST as far as i’m concerned when it comes to modifying a FN or RN mold to a HP configuration. Any flaws in the bullets and i would have to absolutely say, “ITS THE CASTERS FAULT”. I have 5 different molds modded by him and the bullets turn out ULTRA PERFECT if i do my job..
My bullets NEVER wrinkle are crumble around the HP nose of the bullet or anywhere else for that matter. This first time i ever casted a bullet, i was in awe as it looked like i had been doing it for 40 years.
One of the main things i do when it comes to heating my mold is that i dip it in the pot full of MOLTEN lead. When i remove the mold and there is non STICKING to it…..my molds are normally up to temperature. I can also tell by how fast the lead cools if the mold is too hot or too cold. Even with iron or aluminum or steel molds, i throw back very few messed up slugs.
I really don’t understand what happens to Vogels bullets NOSES and CAVITIES. My HP’s come out nicely cast if i say so myself. I don’t understand why his might not be.
As a matter of fact, here are some that i cast and sized just tonight. Too funny:
Here is a close up of the .308 nose cavities that i just took 12 minutes ago:
Erik not only mods a mold to HP config, he can machine, weld, or in general, FIX MOLDS. Its what he does.
I did try the 408’s on medium power, I got 750 FPS.
One thing it will do to go to the 40-1 alloy, is that the bullets will not be as large. The mold was cut to get .452 with pure lead.
Regards,
Roachcreek
I thought they dropped at .452 for you with that 20:1 alloy?
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bumped thread for jerry