Geo. A. Hensley Cramer 2 Cavity H.P. Conversion

[Texasflyboy]

I started this project to make food for my new Colt Combat Commander:

Link to Colt Photo

I've also had it in mind to load up for my 625 Mountain Gun in .45 Colt.

I've had this old two cavity Geo. A. Hensley bullet mould, which is the original design for the .45 Colt bullet. About 250 grains, flat base, two grease grooves, rounded meplat. But, it had a nick in one of the bases, and it was cut in the 1940's for the then standard SAA diameter of .454", vs. .452" as the norm is today.

So the mould sat on my shelf unused until I started talking to a casting friend who is absolutely bonkers over what Erik Olsen is doing with Hollow Point mould conversions at Hollow Point Mould dot com.

So I sent off the mould to Erik for the Cramer capture pin style conversion and to repair the nick in the base. Here is a cut and past from the Cast Boolits forum on the results:

Had some time this morning to cast with the new Geo. A. Hensley #22 Cramer style hollowpoint conversion. Here is what the mould looked like before the conversion:

Decided pics were called for (even a movie too) as I went along with this (new) mould.

Here is the first cast:

and what they looked like:

After casting a few I realized I wasn't getting fill out in the center band so I let the mould come up to a higher temperature almost to uniform frosting and achieved good results with band fill out:

Didn't take too long to get a nice pile of hollowpoints:

The mould seems to work pretty well. Erik advised that the pins may need to oxidize a bit to work best, and this was borne out through the casting session. The more I cast, the better the mould performed:

The size as cast was right at .454", and after running them through the STAR sizer, they looked usable right at .452":

Here are some as cast before loading in .45ACP, the .45LC cartridge is next in line for loading so it was included for comparison purposes:

Here is a sample weight:

Here are the loaded and ready to go rounds:

Larger photo of above

The ring on the loaded round is caused by the seating die on my 550B. I am polishing it out today to create more of a rounded area in the seating stem to hopefully cure this problem.


And finally, here is a link to a roughly 35MB movie of me using my big casting pot and the mould for those who want to see how the Cramer mod works. I noticed I had to be careful to ensure that the sprue plate was moved out of the way before tapping the hinge to dislodge the as cast bullets, if the sprue plate isn't moved out of the way, the bullets simply drop onto the sprue plate and can get jammed in that area. Moving it out of the way cures the problem:

Link to Movie: [The movie is temporarily unavailable, should be fixed in a few hours)

Click here for Movie

 

[Tell Sackett]

That would be THE bullet (boolit) for the 45ACP! Awesome.

 

[BUFF]

that design looks like it works a lot easier than the removable nose plug on the single cavity Lyman hollowpoint moulds.

Do they drop out of the mould very easy? Or stick some? It appears the tapered pin would help a lot in that regard.

 

[Texasflyboy]

The cramer style pin works way better than the Lyman single pin design. What you see in the photos took about 45 minutes to make. With a Lyman that would have been a 4-5 hour task.

The bullets drop very easily. I just open the blocks, move the sprue plate out of the way and tap the hinge point with a wood mallet. The bullets just walk out of the side of the block and as soon as they clear the side they just drop off the pin head.

Very slick to work with. No complaints. I am sending another two cavity to Erik along with a 4 cavity next week. I may never shoot jacketed bullets again in pistol.

 

[Dale53]

Texasflyboy;
Those are FINE looking bullets.That should be a very useful bullet for both the .45 ACP AND the .45 Colt.

I have cast with the MiHec two cavity brass Cramer style mould for his 200 gr Hollow point. They are a joy to cast compared to the old, removable centerpin, Lyman style. As you state, real production is available with hollow points.

Dale53

 

[BUFF]

Excellent!

I cast up 1,200 Lyman 358156 hollowpoints one time for a project and, one-at-a-time, it took a couple weeks worth of my meager spare time! The plug made them take twice as long to cast as a plain single bullet mould, which was slow enough already!

Any idea about expansion for the .45 bullets? Any tests done by anyone? I am guessing, from the size of the nose cavity, that you would need to cast pretty soft alloy to get much at .45 ACP velocities, but it probably is workable.

 

[Texasflyboy]

Any idea about expansion for the .45 bullets? Any tests done by anyone? I am guessing, from the size of the nose cavity, that you would need to cast pretty soft alloy to get much at .45 ACP velocities, but it probably is workable.

Once the mould is up to temp, I don't have any problems. The bullets drop as fast as you can work the mould. The only issue is making sure the sprue plate is out of the way before opening the blocks. If you don't the bullets just drop off the pin, onto the sprue plate and then you have to move them off the sprue plate. Done correctly, the bullets usually drop off the second the pin moves away from the block.

The best alloy is 20:1. The above bullets are straight wheelweights. I don't expect these to perform as well as 20:1 casts. Over on the CBA forum, Ed Harris is posting some pretty amazing results with hollowpoint loads, from .32ACP all the way up to .45ACP. He provided the pin specifications for this mould. Beautiful, beautiful expansion from 800fps to 1000fps with his moulds. I have a large casting pot that is 1/2 full with wheelweights, and emptying is not an option. A friend has a pot with 20:1 and this weekend I plan to cast up a batch with softer alloy.

 

[nicky4968]

Your link to your movie doesn't work for me.
Send me a link to [email protected]. I would really like to see this.