Finally cast up some Noe Hodgdon bullets

[Maillemaker]

So about the time I had signed up to buy a Noe 4-cavity copy of the RCBS Hodgdon bullet, I had discovered the Moose Wilkinson bullet, which is a compression-style bullet instead of an expanding ball bullet. I have discovered that the only way to get consistent weights and no voids with hollow-cavity bullets is to ladle pour, which is harder to do than bottom pour. The Wilkinson and other flat-bottomed bullets pour beautifully with a bottom pour, so I have switched over to them in competition.

However, I needed to loan out my Richmond carbine at a skirmish next month, and it likes to eat the Hodgdon bullet, so I decided to finally give the Noe mold a whirl.

First, it casts very nicely. Not quite as crisp a drop as the RCBS steel mold, but very good. The bullets drop from the core pins wonderfully from the very first cast. I'm casting pure lead at 800F. Sprue puddle takes a few seconds to solidify as normal, so I feel like I've got a hot enough lead/mold to get as crisp as they are going to get. I pour each hole one at a time, moving on after the sprue solidifies.

My only real disappointment is that with the same sized core pin as on the RCBS Hodgdon, (the NOE short one), the bullet comes out at 461 grains instead of the RCBS Hodgdon at 425. The reason is probably because the base of the nose of the Noe bullet is bigger than the RCBS. I think this is probably my fault because on the drawing I provided early on in the conversation I never dimensioned the base of the ogive:

http://noebulletmolds.com/smf/index....pic,951.0.html

And I didn't pay attention on the final drawings about the weights.

So, I'll either have to do a new load workup with the 466 grain version with the same depth cavity, or try the deeper depth cavity that ends up with about the same weight as before.

So, sadly, it's not an exact copy of the RCBS Hodgdon as I had hoped. But, it seems to be a very good mold and man is it fantastic to be able to drop 4 of these at a time!

I'll have to do some load workups and see how it does.

Noe on the left, RCBS on the right.



Noe with short pin:


RCBS:

[Obi2winky]

looking forward to the results!
would be curious to see how it does in your P58 as well

[RaiderANV]

NOE made the changes to make it more ballistic coefficient. I’ve yet to cast from any the the three different sizes I bought. Just gotta find the time....

[John Holland]

I like the NOE design much better. I never did like the small nose on the Hogdon. Just an observation because I don't shoot either one.

[PoorJack]

To keep this current, has ANYBODY tried this bullet and if so, what were the results? Gun, powder type & charge, lube etc.

[jrexrode]

I sent the original measurements for the base plugs, original and the modfied, when the mold was being designed.

I have tried them out in 2 Whitacre barrels, both of which shoot the RCBS bullet with modified base plug extremely well with 43gr of 3F.

The redesigned Hodgdon this mould produces has yet to provide similar accuracy.

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[Lou Lou Lou]

Can you compare relative group sizes? Two inches versus four inches?

[Smosin]

I don't have this mold, but fwiw, the 2 NOE Pritchett molds I shoot (.550" and .566") also have base plugs that leave the bullets with very thick skirts. To achieve good accuracy and get the skirts to expand, I've had to bump up the powder loads to virtually the original service loads of 60-68 grains, even with of course the correct Enfield paper patching. Other shooters have mentioned the same. Mebbe this NOE Hodgdon re-make will require a bigger powder charge than the original Hodgdon mold, or redesigned base plugs.

[Lou Lou Lou]

It a different base plug?

[jrexrode]

Using the original mould with modified base plugs I get groups that are touching, say 2". With the NOE mould it was closer to 5". I stepped up to 55 gr 3F and didn't see a great improvement and have abandoned it for the time being.

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