Here's a loaded 20-ga cartridge with a 550-grain hollow point bullet, one with a 720-grain solid bullet and one empty. There is also a .45-70 cartridge for comparison. The bullets are a un-shot, un-lubicated 720-grain bullet of pure lead and and two that were recovered. The nicely mushroomed one was a 720-grain solid dug out of the dirt behind a target. The other one was 550-grain hollow point recovered from a deer. The deer was bedded down facing me and shot more in the chest. The bullet destroyed a bunch of the spine and ended up in the paunch. It lost all the lead up to the bottom of the hollow point. The hollow pointing procedure is to remove 170 grains of lead with a 3/8-inch drill bit.
Here is the seating die and resizing die with the primer punch, neck expander, and shell holder. The smaller die is for a 6mm-06 for comparison. The dies are too large for a regular reloading press so one large enough to reload .50 BMG cartridges is required. These dies were custom made, based on a chamber cast of the gun and a sample brass cartridge. They are not .600 Nitro dies. The cartridges were custom made, also based on a chamber cast from the gun.
Here is the bullet mold along with the pan and "cookie cutter" used for lubricating the bullets. I use a very soft lubricant which I think was intended for muzzle loaders. I think the pressure is fairly low so I don't get leading with the soft lubricant and pure lead bullets.
