The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Just ordered the Lee .459 405 grain HB Mold need some info

snuffy · December 10, 2012, 04:04 PM

The 405 HB bullet is supposed to duplicate the load issued with the original springfield rifles. On top of 70 grains of 2F black in the balloon head cases it worked just fine. At least when they put it in brass cases!

The idea of the hollow base is to have the pressure of the burning powder to "inflate" the base outward to grip the rifling to seal the bore/bullet interface. It also resulted an better accuracy.

For that reason, you MAY be able to get away with smaller boolits, still getting good accuracy.IF you use a soft alloy. 20-1 lead/tin is what's used most of the time. Keeping the velocity down allows the soft lead to work without leading. Stay around or under 1600 fps will work well.

December 10, 2012, 04:04 PM	#5
snuffy Senior Member Join Date: May 20, 2001 Location: Oshkosh wi. Posts: 3,055	The 405 HB bullet is supposed to duplicate the load issued with the original springfield rifles. On top of 70 grains of 2F black in the balloon head cases it worked just fine. At least when they put it in brass cases! The idea of the hollow base is to have the pressure of the burning powder to "inflate" the base outward to grip the rifling to seal the bore/bullet interface. It also resulted an better accuracy. For that reason, you MAY be able to get away with smaller boolits, still getting good accuracy.IF you use a soft alloy. 20-1 lead/tin is what's used most of the time. Keeping the velocity down allows the soft lead to work without leading. Stay around or under 1600 fps will work well. __________________ The more people I meet, the more I love my dog They're going to get their butts kicked over there this election. How come people can't spell and use words correctly?