The DDPP bullet

[Kurt]

I keep looking at these recovered DDPP hard cast bullets I shot in the snow bang this past winter using the .40-65 Browning because the bases were to big for my tight chamber CPA .40-65 and some were shot using the .40-70 Shiloh that has a standard chamber.
These are Arnies cast with his very hard alloy, a mix of WW and Linotype. I did not take a hardness test of these bullets but they are hard.
Looking at the expanded base band they absolutely show no signs of stripping with just the short band that engraves the lands like I see on some of the softer alloyed bullets even patched to groove depth.
There is no evidence of land cuts on the shanks that are patched at bore diameter and the ogives had no setback they look just as good as before fired.
I now can understand why Arnie can shoot a 99 at 800 with just one barely in the 9 ring. I cant remember the X count but all holes were round going through the paper that tells that with that narrow band that is groove diameter is good enough to holed rotation and makes a complete fast gas seal holding the gas back to keep the ES and SD at a low number. This is very important keeping the verticals down.

I just ordered a DDPP mould for the .44's I shoot and I will mix some hard alloy with the WW ingots I have in the shed aged over 20 years but I don't have the lino.
With bullets that look as good below in this picture just have to work well.
Sorry Arnie for letting out your secret


   

[J.B.]

Great photo Kurt. I'm showing my ignorance once again but I had really expected some land impression/ take up in the shank area but your photos clearly show no visible take up at all.. at least to the eye. At 16...or even 10/1 lead-tin I'd imagine there may be more obturation of the alloy.. but how much is affected by shank diameter vs base diameter...and of course, paper thickness ? With my first shoot in six months coming up in two weeks... I'm planning on putting together about 60-70 rounds of paper patch with three different bullets. Two base pour Kal and one nose pour Brooks. The nose pour I can adjust down in length a little but both the Kal moulds are over 1.4" as ordered. Will have nothing concrete to work with as it will be a gong shoot with 'hit or miss' feedback....but at least one of the plates will be a 2' diamond at 4 or 500 yds ...so that should give me some feedback. We'll likely go out to 800 or possibly 900 yds...so given the bullet length..and the 1/19" twist... it may be educational.. if still disappointing. Hopefully my 'eye will be in'... and my 'flinch will be out' for the weekend.

J.B.

[beltfed]

Kurt,
You don't have to be sorry about that. THanks for posting that picture.
The hardness of my 9+1 COWW/Lino is about 15+ or so on the Lee and Saeco testers.
Re. trying harder alloy: That old WW stash you have should have a higher amount of antimony
than the latest WWs. Little or no tin.
I came up with the Lino addition because I could. Have pretty good supply of it.
I have also found that you can make up a pretty hard alloy with the (especially older) WW
by simply adding about 1-1.5% tin to make it cast better.
Meanwhile, I think there is going to be a heavy little care pkg for you at Rapids...
I am always happy to share what I can- info and other stuff to help others
in the shooting sports.
Arnie

[Kurt]

Gavin.

I shot around 18-20 I think with different amounts of powder and they all looked like what you see in the photo. You could have rewrapped them and used them again. The snow this year was not the best if you would use a softer alloy like 1/20 because the snow was wet and heavy and very little this last winter.
1/10 T/L you will get some obturation but not ad deep as 1/16 and if you use a smidge of antimony with the 1/10 mix you better patch it tight or better yet patch to groove diameter.
I have shot many PP patched to groove diameter using straight WW and they shot very well but they took up a lot of powder room in the .40-70.
If I wanted to shoot a reduced load in my .45-2.6 it would be with a groove diameter PP bullet. They are actually easier to work up a good load using a groove diameter patched bullet.

HEY J.B why don't you take back some of this hot oven heat we're getting. I cant even shoot in the shade with out getting the T shirt wet enough to wring out the sweat.

[J.B.]

Sorry to hear you're battling the heat Kurt...as we are in our cooler months now. Mind you today will be 47-61 F... which is cool ..but not cold for us. While I prefer to be putting on another jacket...than stripping off layers.. Australia doesn't have to contend with the low temperatures you guys cop in your winters. The downside currently of course is ..as predicted... as we enter our cooler months... this Covid contagion is getting its second wind. Peoples resistance is down...as it is always this time of year ..and 'hey presto' ... more cases. Mind you...there is a lot more testing too. I battled with loading some flat base dd pp bullets yesterday afternoon...and I definitely got better as I got to my 30th roll... but still missing being able to twist and cut and have the bullet stay wrapped neatly until I'm ready. My Brooks nose pour dd still has the option of a cup base...so I've kept that as is. I'm hoping that the restrictions that are ramping up again over here now dont put a spanner in the works for this months shoot... That would almost bring me to tears.

J.B.