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Author Topic: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold  (Read 6090 times)

Offline unfy

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Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« on: November 21, 2012, 11:12:54 PM »
http://www.buckshotmold.com/

$35 for each mold and $5 shipping.  Up to 3 molds can ship for that $5 (so total cost of two is $75).

I ordered the 00buck mold.

I'll post pics, opinions, and say how it works for me when it gets here.

hoppe's #9 is not the end all be all woman catching pheramone people make it out to be ... cause i smell of it 2 or 3 times a week but remain single  >:D

Offline bkoenig

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Re: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« Reply #1 on: November 21, 2012, 11:17:30 PM »
I've been thinking about doing this also.  I'd like to stock up on buckshot.  Pair this with a cheap Lee shotgun loader and you could crank out a bunch of shells for not much money.  I don't shoot enough shotgun to make buying a good quality reloader worthwhile.

Offline unfy

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Re: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« Reply #2 on: November 21, 2012, 11:34:36 PM »
I've got a Mec 600 Jr that I like just fine in 12ga.  Think I caught it on sale for $125 ?

The $50 lee would be hard to beat tho ;).

Buckshot is expensive to source, locally ya gotta stomach the $25/5lb boxes from hornady :(.

They offer a larger 0Buck (.320 instead of .310) that might pack / seat better in 12ga... I'll... ask'em about it etc.
hoppe's #9 is not the end all be all woman catching pheramone people make it out to be ... cause i smell of it 2 or 3 times a week but remain single  >:D

Offline unfy

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Re: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« Reply #3 on: November 24, 2012, 08:02:49 PM »
Should get it this week, went with the 0.320 #0 buck (#00 is 0.330, #0 is usually 0.310).
hoppe's #9 is not the end all be all woman catching pheramone people make it out to be ... cause i smell of it 2 or 3 times a week but remain single  >:D

Offline unfy

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Re: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« Reply #4 on: November 28, 2012, 02:57:01 PM »
It arrived today, so... 3 or 4 days from order to arrival ? something like that.... didn't actually place the order until Friday night or Saturday.

I'll get pictures tonight.

It's a #0 BUCK .320 mold ... 20 pellets per drop (10 per side).  Lots of aluminum.  Bigger than ya might think.  Looks like it was cast then milled.  I'll be asking the guy if that's how he made'em.

Quality of the product is high in my opinion, will be casting tonight to test (with more pictures, naturally).

Does come with the pair of 'flush cutters' mentioned on their page.  Electronics places have them, typically excelite (spelling?) branded for the higher end.  There's also cheaper brands.  Also found them in Menards in the tin snips area with the cheap brand being well... cheap... $2 or so etc.

Comes with some instructions, and he also mentions harbor freight number for the flush cutters heh.
hoppe's #9 is not the end all be all woman catching pheramone people make it out to be ... cause i smell of it 2 or 3 times a week but remain single  >:D

Offline unfy

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Re: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« Reply #5 on: November 29, 2012, 03:03:48 AM »
edit: i originally posted file names and some numbers so i could finish this post at a diff computer

edit #2: sorry about spelling and if i got nomenclature wrong, i'm exhausted.

edit #3: added a note to the 'immediately after casting' picture.

edit #4: conclusion didn't relate how happy / impressed i am with the mold.



As mentioned, the #0 .320 mold came in today.  I WAS going to work on the plating project... but after more than a full day at work and driving home, got a call that someone needed some help... so finished going home, ate, and went back to work for another 3 hours.

Thus, it was time to play with the NEW toy to feel better.

First impressions were really good as I've mentioned.  I did get an answer back concerning how it was made, and they do indeed cast a blank themselves and then do a lot of milling.

It also came with an instruction set that mentioned using soot to lube it instead of Pam (for those that use pam on their molds, don't for this one heh).  Does mention being able to use wood to tap the flatter sides of the mold to help break it open / shot loose.

Dunno if I mentioned it earlier, but you do need to get this mold really hot. And it's (instructions) not really kidding.  You gotta feed lead through the tiny sprue holes... and if the mold aint real hot you aint gonna fill the cavities.

Anyhoo, on to the pics.





^ Here's the mold, with the free flush cutters.  The green shotgun shell is a 3" magnum unfired 12ga for size comparisons.  Pride in the name of the company and USA is obvious :)



^ Flipped mold over, this side you can see the size clearly laid out... #0 buck .320.  Handy.



^ Me holding the mold.  My hands are probably average sized.  I can't touch my fingers to my thumb hehe.



^ The mold left open.  The flash and milling made the holes seem to have a bright ring, they really don't have that. Two good sized screws attach each handle, it's snugly on there.

On the right side, there are two ball bearings on opposite sides of the length of the mold.  On the left side is the matching hole.  This would be the 'surly lined up and closed properly' things or whatever they're called.  With this mold so far, that's not been fully necessary, it's fairly stiff to open.  After it warmed up, it was a bit more loose.



^ One side of the mold. This shows some of the obvious signs of the blank cast.  Doesn't affect mold quality at all though.  Sprue cavity and holes are visible. There's the bigger funnel opening and two small holes on either side for each pellet.  Dunno if it's obvious, but the outer edges of the mold are ground down to be at a slight angle pointing into the funnels.



^ The flip side of the mold.



^ Same side, this time with the flash turned on.  You can see down into the pellet cavities.



^ After my casting session, the immediate results.  Each pair of pellets has a fair amount of sprue on it, and I obviously didn't get perfect results hehehe.  edit: towards the end, most of my breaks were producing great results like the pair in the bottom left.



^ Snipped of pellets in a Berry's box.  I should prolly focus on trying to snip them better.  If you see any dull / frosty looking pellets - those were from the first one or two breaks when the mold was too hot.



The mold was real easy to manipulate with welding gloves. 

It's length means you can't take a head on approach to casting from a bottom poor spout pot, but gotta come at it from an angle.  Not that big of a worry.

I thought I had the mold hot enough, but my first attempt was 2 long pieces of sprue with rods sticking off of it, not a single filling.  So back into the lead it went for 2min.  First break after that was obviously way too hot, waited a bit and tried again... then a third time and it seemed to do okay so i went about my business.

Getting it so that you only just fill the funnel and don't connect the sprues is ideal.

It takes a bit of practice to start at one end of the funnel, fill for a split second, then move to the opposite end of the funnel, fill for a split second... that way you're putting lead directly over the pellet holes and filling the funnel finishes everything off.  Then move to next funnel.

I tried pouring directly into the middle of the large funnel, but that was producing poor results as expected.  Really wanna get it lined up over the holes, and get the pause/move timing right so that overflow from first hole doesn't partially fill second and cause blockage.  Standard fair for multi-cavity molds, but in this case since it's one 'funnel' feeding both cavities....

Knocking the pellets free from the mold was a bit of a pain at times, i'll re-soot-lube it next time.  With the first few really hot ones, the pellets came out kinda pot metalish and stuff.

All in all, it was a pleasure to work with.  My first few breaks had low success rate... maybe 2-5 viable pellets out of 20.  Towards the end once I knew what the mold wanted from me, it was getting closer to 14-18 per break.

While snipping them, I did some counting.

I ended up with 125 "sprue pairs" meaning 13 breaks.  That's kinda confusing given that the mold produces 10 of these at a time.  I suppose I forgot to flip the mold once or tossed an entire early 5-funnel-joined-sprue back in the pot.  I dunno.  Anyhoo, 125 pairs means a total of 250 possible pellets.

Counting the pellets I accepted, I came up with 146 in all.  This includes some from the first couple (6 pellets?) breaks that are prolly lighter / more fragile.  Averaging 11ish pellets per break... and i know i was getting much better breaks at the end.  When I cast more, I'll keep posted with updated numbers.

You're supposed to graphite/moly/allox lube the pellets, but I might skip it heh.



First experience thought - it simply works and appears to do it very well.  Like any new mold, gotta learn it's personality for how it wants to be filled.  I learned what it wanted from me  in about 6-8 breaks ?

I love the design of this over the commercially produced 18 pellet thing, this seems like it'd fill better / easier.  With the mold being apart of the handle, it runs a little hotter and takes a lil longer to get warmed up... but the wood coverings are more than enough with thick leather gloves / welding gloves you should be wearing anyway.  Also, with the mold being apart of the handle, no real problems of "breaking the handles" like commercial molds.  And, this is by a small time guy (who is quite friendly, btw).

$40 shipped, I suggest buying one if you load shotgun at all ... and if you load buck, there's no point in debating the matter heh.

I give it prolly 9/10 ?

Will continue to update this thread a few times more as I do a few more casting sessions.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2012, 05:05:27 AM by unfy »
hoppe's #9 is not the end all be all woman catching pheramone people make it out to be ... cause i smell of it 2 or 3 times a week but remain single  >:D

Offline bkoenig

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Re: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« Reply #6 on: November 29, 2012, 09:57:44 AM »
Thanks for the update.  I really need to look into this.  Now, get some buckshot loaded and test some patterns!

Offline unfy

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Re: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« Reply #7 on: November 29, 2012, 08:46:58 PM »
Didn't wanna load it last night with being already tired... so... will do so tonight and do some shooting tomorrow.

I don't expect them to pattern all that pretty... I'm not using any shot buffer.  Don't plan on any hunting with buckshot either.  It's primarily to keep myself reminded of what a full powered magnum load feels like 'just in case needed at home'.

Down the line I'll pick up some buffer just to do experiments on how to get shot shells to pattern nicely.

The ... Remington Express Mangum 3" 00Buck (15 pellet) 12 gauge patterns really really really pretty.  It comes out looking like a cross with an inner circle if I recall correctly.  I have absolutely zero clue how they manage that... gonna have to prolly very carefully cut one open and look at construction.
hoppe's #9 is not the end all be all woman catching pheramone people make it out to be ... cause i smell of it 2 or 3 times a week but remain single  >:D

Offline unfy

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Re: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« Reply #8 on: November 30, 2012, 02:21:20 AM »
They definitely stack much easier, although using Remington RP12 wad's are still a tight fit requiring some finger / dowel action if ya don't cut off the pedals.

They're a little loose in the hull without the pedals, so this is gonna pattern REAL UGLY.  It's gonna want buffer, for sure.  Don't like the idea of cream of wheat, myself... and too bad styrofoam prolly melts heh.

In a 10 gauge, I wonder if it's possible to layer these 4 at a time...

Also, due to being that .01 inch smaller, cutting out some thin cardboard to place on top of the shot to get an even crimp.
hoppe's #9 is not the end all be all woman catching pheramone people make it out to be ... cause i smell of it 2 or 3 times a week but remain single  >:D

Offline unfy

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Re: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« Reply #9 on: December 01, 2012, 03:19:15 AM »
Just got done with another casting session. went faster and better as would be expected.

12 breaks including the very first filling which wasn't great but it was good enough to know the mold was ready.

240 possible pellets, 197 viable pellets. 16.4 viable pellets per break.  Or if you assume 7 valid out of first (it wasn't that much) and only 11 breaks... 190/11 = 17.1 pellets per break.

loving it.



hoppe's #9 is not the end all be all woman catching pheramone people make it out to be ... cause i smell of it 2 or 3 times a week but remain single  >:D

Offline unfy

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Re: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« Reply #10 on: December 01, 2012, 07:28:41 PM »
Spent the afternoon with hanging out with SFG, was good fun.

Afterwards, went to the bullet hole to see what the shells did.

Chambered a shell in my Stoeger 12ga SXS 20" Coach Gun ... put it to my shoulder... aimed... pulled the trigger.

Winced in pain and whimpered for about 2 min.

Holy SEX a 3" magnum shell with absolutely zero recoil absorption out of a light little coach gun hurts.  ~1 7/8 ounces, 34 grains of blue dot.  Ow.

I tried to convince myself to try another shell... but was too much of a weakling.  My kungfoo is weak :(.

So, the single shell pattern is:



Wad went into the X obviously, pellets were within a 5 inch circle and far from uniform.

Now don't mind me while I nurse my poor shoulder *sniff*


hoppe's #9 is not the end all be all woman catching pheramone people make it out to be ... cause i smell of it 2 or 3 times a week but remain single  >:D

Offline bkoenig

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Re: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« Reply #11 on: December 01, 2012, 08:14:00 PM »
What distance was that? 

Offline unfy

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Re: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« Reply #12 on: December 01, 2012, 09:01:41 PM »
25 or 30 feet IIRC.

I can possibly push it out further the next time I feel brave enough to try it.  Will prolly be out of my pistol grip only mossy with a knox stock on it tho.
hoppe's #9 is not the end all be all woman catching pheramone people make it out to be ... cause i smell of it 2 or 3 times a week but remain single  >:D

Offline unfy

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Re: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« Reply #13 on: December 02, 2012, 07:26:51 PM »
My shoulder still hurts.  Gonna look into a recoil pad for sure.

Not afraid of running it through my mossy pistol grip, just didn't wake up in time.  Maybe tomorrow.

hoppe's #9 is not the end all be all woman catching pheramone people make it out to be ... cause i smell of it 2 or 3 times a week but remain single  >:D

Offline unfy

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Re: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« Reply #14 on: August 30, 2015, 12:06:35 AM »
Been a couple years.  Busted the mold out to tackle some of the lead from shooter.

Still works great.

First pic is everything as cast at bottom of bucket.

Second is after cutting the balls from the sprue.  Prolly a quarter of a coffee can of 00/0-buckshot :D



found the right thread! must be the laquer thinner fumes from powder coat :P
hoppe's #9 is not the end all be all woman catching pheramone people make it out to be ... cause i smell of it 2 or 3 times a week but remain single  >:D

Offline unfy

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Re: Ordered a Sharp Shooter USA 00buck mold
« Reply #15 on: September 28, 2015, 06:43:06 PM »
A follow up / tip for the mold.

Saturday did aluminum.  Saturday evening did some 40s&w casting.

Sunday, continued 40s&w and then shifted to buckshot (just to make sure had enough).

I was hungry and had a tiny bit of the shakes.  Anyway, while filling the buckshot mold, I noticed lead sink down into the sprue hole after I had finished with the pour for that spot.

Viola.

Vibrate / tiny movement shakes while filling the mold improves the fill rate (fewer empty cavities) easier than other methods ... and it lets you have smaller sprue, too.

Mold did well, but it didn't wanna let go of the lead.  But I think that might be because the lead I was using was quite possibly an alloy.  It was some 'unknown lead' from SFG ... and it produced some very shiny 40s&w and buckshot ... and the buckshot (water quenched) was harder to snip with the flush cutters than the 'more pure lead' stuff I was using before.

I almost decided to scrap the whole batch and use the apparent alloy for regular bullets heh.
hoppe's #9 is not the end all be all woman catching pheramone people make it out to be ... cause i smell of it 2 or 3 times a week but remain single  >:D