TargetTalk

Has anybody noticed a difference in group size with flat base and beveled base 45 bullets?

In 38 Spl the bevel base bullets are a little easier to start in the case when reloading.... 45 ACP (or any other caliber) would probably be the same.

Casting cognoscenti consider flat base superior in accuracy and it also helps reduce leading caused by the flame being channeled alongside the bullet by the "V" of the bevel base and the case wall.

The bevel base is really only an advantage to custom reloaders producing large quantities of ammunition. It's also a little easier to cast.

A perfect base is the most critical aid to accuracy. A nose-pour mold would help this, but are almost unavailable.

I like swaged .45 bullets, such as Hornady and Speer because they have flat bases.

I cast my own 45's. 200gr SWC flat base from an H&G mould. Those loaded on top of 3.8gr of bullseye are dead on X ring accurate.

I have beveled base 45's from a major manufacturer. I use those only for practice and just to blow off some lead.

For 38's. 148gr HBWC from Roze Distribution on top of 2.1gr of bullseye for revolver and it's an X ring load in the right gun at 25 yards, it's not a 50 yard load.

I took one of my Lee moulds that had the beveled base that shot like garbage, sent it off to my local machine shop, had them shave off the bevel and now those shoot good, not great, but significantly better than with the bevel.

Just wanted to see if anybody ran into the same problem. I too cast my own bullets and wanted to try something besides the 200 gr flat base. I went with a 185 beveled base and can't get it to group at all. Again, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Thanks for your inputs

My friends and I have shot the Saeco #068 which is a bevel based 200 like the H&G for a while and have been very happy with the accuracy. One of the guys shot a 99 slow fire at 50 yards with his self made bullseye gun. Since we shooters somehow can never be happy I bought an 069 mould(flat base) also just to see if it will be better. I recently cast 300 bullets from each of the two moulds alternating between the two so as to not have any unknown variences that could occur from temperature or alloy changes. I will lube all of the bullets myself and the bunch of us will load our best and all go out to shoot them through each persons gun on a ransom rest the same day. 25 shots for each bullet for each person which will give an idea of which is best. The bevel based bullets shot so well that I think that it might wind up being gun specific. All of this said however, I bought some 2000 bevel based cast bullets from a manufacturer that look just like the ones I make from the Saeco mould and they were just plain awful. I finally traded to someone who shoots IDPA. The bullets we have used so far were moulded with a 30-1 mix of tin to lead with no antimony. This next batch is a mix of 1 part wheel weight to 3 parts indoor range lead which gives me a BHN of 10.5 on my LBT tester. I will post the outcome as soon as this experiment is over but we will need a little global warming before we are willing to go outside and do it. ---Later----

Rover wrote:
I like swaged .45 bullets, such as Hornady and Speer because they have flat bases.

Seems like Hornady and Speer have stopped making these lead swaged bullets. At least Midway doesn't list them anymore. I was looking to buy some to try and can not find any. Now Hornady list a 185 grain "Encapsulated" bullet, no more 200 grain SWC.

Not with a great match barrel it will shoot what ever you feed it, I have kart match barrel and it likes all bullets BB swc or Fb swc with no change in group size