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Hensley & Gibbs
Design Number 86
for 30/30 Caliber
Rifles (.30 WCF)
© 2014 –
Thomas C. Dugas
A
recently purchased two cavity Hensley & Gibbs #86 mould.
From
the Hensley & Gibbs factory ledger:
#86 - .30 caliber "standard .30-30"
bullet. 170 grains in linotype at
1.000" length. Also available at .827" length =135grains in
linotype. Gas check base, two round grease grooves, one crimp groove. .155" nose meplat.
As you
can see in the before photo the mould was converted to a round nose sometime
after it left Hensley & Gibbs. I
knew before I bid on the mould that it had been converted, but I asked for
supplemental photos before I bid and decided that the mould could be safely
returned to its original configuration since my intent was to convert the mould
into a combination flat point and hollow point anyway.
Here
are the before photos, pictured just as I received it after the auction closed:
In the
above photo, the nose profile is round nose and it should be a flat point. Close examination of the nose area reveals
the post factory modification.
So, off
the mould went to Erik Ohlen for conversion to Hollow Point. I asked Erik to retain as much of the
original profile and design as possible and completely sacrifice the
"improved" round nose area. He
was successful. Here is the post
conversion photo:
A nice
surprise is the stamping of the pin locations with "A" and "B"
respectively. I ordered two sets of
pins, a hollow point pin and a flat nose pin to recreate the solid nose of the
original design. Here is the pin
stamping:
The pin
stamping is something I've wanted since my early moulds from Erik lack the
stamping. A very
useful addition.
I just
received the mould in the mail tonight.
I will update this thread in a few days after I cast with it and get a chance
to load up some 30-30 loads for my 1946 Winchester 94:
Mould
seems to work just fine. I fired up the pot
today and put one solid point pin and one hollow point pin in the blocks:
I am
going to tumble lube these tonight and load up some loads for the range this
week. Still have a bit of tweaking to do
to the setup, may have to change handles, a few of the boolits
seemed to have finning, the blocks fit perfectly so it may be a slight mismatch
between blocks and handles. Plenty of
spare 2 cavity handles on hand.
Range
Report.
Four
sets of loads. Using Radway
Green 4895 (Pulldown powder from Wideners). Min Load was 32.0 grains, max load was
35.0. All rounds carried gas
checks. Seated to
normal over all length (OAL). I am going to keep trying different
loads. Not happy with this combination.
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