Mikeinkaty
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Does anyone make one without the lub grooves? I powder coat.
357 Mag bullet mold
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I believe you will have to go to a custom mold for that. Try Custom Bullet Molds | Accurate Molds I have purchased several molds from Tom. Very satisfied. Not quite as expensive, as you might think.
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I have PCed a lot of 38/9mm caliber bullets with lube grooves, and purchased some w/o lube grooves and I can not tell any difference between no groove/grooved bullets of same basic design and weight (barrel fouling, velocities, accuracy). But some prefer no groove bullets; Bullet molds without lube grove
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max503
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Bruce C
Member
Look at Arsenal Molds they make several without grooves and will make to your spec. They have them in aluminium or brass. I just received 4 new moulds yesterday and they look great.
4barrel
Member
If you have a Lee aluminum mold you can carry it to a machine shop and bore to the crimp groove. You could do it yourself with the correct bit. Here is a 44 mold I removed the gas check and if I drilled another 1/8'' the lube groove would be gone. Before and after on the bullet. This is pretty simple- Just make sure the bit doesn't wobble. I did this with a cheap drill press. Me and my shooting buddy use them in a 44 mag Freedom arms and a SRH. The lube groove was large and if you look at the right bullet you can see I bored and made it shorter. If you do this with the 38 mold you will need a .358 lube sizer. Like <mikld>said in post #3 there will be little difference in the group. <Forrest r> has a lot of powder coat photos and the test info.
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NOE tells you what they have in stock but not what their wait is to get a mold, I believe Arsenal does the same, though they are notoriously poor communicators. Accurate's turn around time has now slowed to 10 days from 5-7 days.
smoothshooter
Member
Why do you not like the lube grooves?
They may be a good thing because they reduce the surface area contact between the bullet and barrel.
More contact equals more potential for leading.
They may be a good thing because they reduce the surface area contact between the bullet and barrel.
More contact equals more potential for leading.
4barrel beat me to it. I am starting to powder coat my bullets and in doing research, I have seen some guys removing all of the groves on the bullet because they don't need them do to the powder coating. The ones I have seen removed were done so with a Dremel tool. Either way I will just leave mine. Not sure I wish to change Elmer's design. He might come back and haunt me.
rockquarry
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I doubt you'll see any appreciable accuracy difference between a cast bullet with lube grooves vs. the same without lube grooves. The advantage to a conventional cast design with lube groove(s) is that the design could be used for standard sizing and lubrication should the need arise. A cast bullet design without a lube groove (and maybe without a crimp groove) will render it useful for a coating process and nothing else.
Also consider the additional bearing surface with a grooveless design. Could be an advantage or may be a drawback dependent on several factors.
Also consider the additional bearing surface with a grooveless design. Could be an advantage or may be a drawback dependent on several factors.
I have some of the zinc washers (somewhere?) but last time I looked I couldn't find the mold. IIRC the washer/bullets worked quite well in some hot 44 Magnum loads...
Yep, I used your method to remove some bevel base "bevels" from a couple molds. Using a drill press and appropriate drill I got some good flat based bullets. Not really critical 'cause the bullets are sized anyway...
rockquarry
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I've used these also; still have a partial cloth bag with .44 cal. washers. These worked to an extent, but as I recall were dependent on actual bore size. Washers were cut to "industrial"-type standard rather than the closer tolerances required for shooting accuracy. Still, a pretty novel idea even if the fad didn't last long.
I have one NOE 9mm mold with no lube grooves. The ONLY benefit is that all the bullets drop from the mold with ease. Powder coating is the exact same process for any and all lead bullets.
The biggest negative I have seen/heard about is that when sizing the bullets that lead has to go somewhere. When a bullet has no lube grooves all the lead that is displaced ends up on the tail end of the bullet as a piece of flashing hanging off. With lube grooves you end up with small amounts of flashing at each lube groove, and none are really discernable.
Pretty much all load data is for bullets with lube grooves.
At this point I'm not against the grooveless bullets but I wouldn't go out of my way to search for one.
The biggest negative I have seen/heard about is that when sizing the bullets that lead has to go somewhere. When a bullet has no lube grooves all the lead that is displaced ends up on the tail end of the bullet as a piece of flashing hanging off. With lube grooves you end up with small amounts of flashing at each lube groove, and none are really discernable.
Pretty much all load data is for bullets with lube grooves.
At this point I'm not against the grooveless bullets but I wouldn't go out of my way to search for one.
M-P Molds makes some very nice "Alternative Coating" molds.
These .452 HP's were dropped from one of mine. They also make similar molds for 9mm and 357.
Alternative coating molds Archives - MP-molds
These .452 HP's were dropped from one of mine. They also make similar molds for 9mm and 357.
Alternative coating molds Archives - MP-molds
