I recently purchased a 577 T-Rex for an unbelievable price and am now in the process of getting 'set up' for it.
I was looking at bullet prices and found that Woodleighs are $2ea and Barnes are $4ea. This is repugnant. I have a .590" 535gr HB bullet mold I cast with (for my 130yr old .577 Snider) and will use some of these for lightweight reduced plinkers. However, I started looking for a better (cheaper) bullet.
I know someone that has a CNC machine and will make some .585" bullets in any design I want. I was thinking of something like Gerards FN bullets but a little different (he doesn't make .585" or I'd probably get them from him).
For OAL I'm thinking of 1.4" with the nose to crimp length of .6"
On the bearing surface, there will be 4 'driveing bands'. The first band will be .577" while the last three will be .585". The .577" band will help center the bullet in the barrel. I use this design with the match bullets I shoot in my 50 BMG and it works well.
The nose of the bullet will be .45" across and have a straight taper to the first driveing band.
The heel of the bullet will have a slight boattail just enough to help bullet seating.
I have no clue as to it's weight, but we'll find that out later when he runs some off. The material he will use is brass.
Basically it is to keep his machine running (thus making money to pay for it) between his other parts runs. I don't know the price, but they will be less than Woodleighs. We'll have to see how many per foot of rod and if there is any interest. I know I'll be ordering some for sure so we'll see how things go.
Any design changes you would do?
ps. I'm also having him run some 'pointy' bullets ;-)