Ammunition & Hand Loading > Cartridge and Shotshell reloading
Hollowpointmold.com order placed
unfy:
Cast around 5lbs of bullets so far... at least, that's my guess according to how empty the pot got after dumping all the sprue back in. Taking a tiny break before going back at it.
I'm pretty sure it's all me... but a ridge developed where sprue plate was gouging the mold possibly. Maybe the sprue plate was too tight, I dunno. It looks like it might just barely affect base of bullet, I'll know more later. I dunno if this is me or the mold or what. Will take pics later as well.
So far, casting with the mold has been a breeze. Hollow point pins make it far easier to remove bullets from the mold than without them. Due to the bar/pin additions, mold alignment is a lot easier as well (also possibly due to the 'new style' block from lee. I will say, with the bar/pin thing on the bottom, it's easy to tell if ya don't have the mold aligned right ... cause it will definitely V shape on ya (well, inverted V ).
The rods that allow the HP pins to slide away from the mold block a bit do stick a bit sometimes. Nothing terribly evil that requires tools, but just an observation.
I've done a second wax lubing of everything and after some food will get back to it to cast another 5-10lbs of bullets.
unfy:
Done with casting for the day.
I had zero bullets come out finned due to mold misalignment (or even running too hot).
The mold *may* prefer faster casting with a colder mold (so the pins move easier maybe?). I dunno.
The scaring I was talking about, particularly the arc near the sprue plate screw.
DangerousDrummer:
Those look good. Should powder coat nicely too! I don't know if I told you, but the last 2 batches of PC that I did (420s and 285s), I went straight from the oven to a water quench with the whole tray. It did not affect the PC, but I don't know if it hardened the bullets any.
I am looking for a 312 mold that is not quite so round nosed for my Mosin. It will be my next PC project. Those bullets will run about 2700 fps, so if I can make that work with accuracy I will attempt AR 223.
unfy:
--- Quote from: DangerousDrummer on May 11, 2013, 06:37:11 PM ---Those look good. Should powder coat nicely too! I don't know if I told you, but the last 2 batches of PC that I did (420s and 285s), I went straight from the oven to a water quench with the whole tray. It did not affect the PC, but I don't know if it hardened the bullets any.
I am looking for a 312 mold that is not quite so round nosed for my Mosin. It will be my next PC project. Those bullets will run about 2700 fps, so if I can make that work with accuracy I will attempt AR 223.
--- End quote ---
Looking over them, I think my casting was a bit... weird. They're fine, they just seem to have weird blemishes. Not sure if this was due to running the pot a bit hotter than before (was windy out...)... or if I'm just not used to tin/ww alloy or what.
I'm pleased with them and the mold. Inspecting a bunch doesn't look like there's a real issue with the scar pictured above.
As far as 312 -- does it need to be 312 ? Saeco makes some .311 that aren't as round nosed. Depending on how thick ya make the powder coat, does that .001 make a difference ? I honestly dunno.
http://noebulletmolds.com/ has a several 312's listed. They don't appear to have any 'quantity' (all zeros heh)... but doesn't hurt to ask. They're listed in the 308-311 category at the end, as well as one listed in the 314-316 category. Oddly, they don't have 312 in hollow point... very very odd.
bkoenig:
I've had problems with gouging like that before on a Lee mold. I found it was due to a burr on the edge of the sprue plate. I fixed it with about 30 seconds of light filing on the plate. The gouge is still there on the mold but it doesn't seem to hurt anything.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version