The MP 432 Hammer

[Beagle333]

I just got this one on Monday. It was a Group Buy from MiHec and I was really excited for it to arrive.
I put it together this morning and I loaded just the shallow HP pins to begin with. It comes with shallow, deep, penta and solid point pin sets.

Then I ran it through three heat cycles in my makeshift mold oven. The display actually was at 415° but I snapped the pic just as it was changing to another number and it didn't show up in the pic.

Then I loaded up the Pro Melt with a bunch of my HP ingots and set it for 720°.

And after that melted, I fluxed it a little with some sawdust and a chunk of a red candle.

 

[Beagle333]

That left me with a mirror smooth pot of clean lead ready to pour. It actually looked like a mirror, as you can see the white tin and aluminum cross bracing of the shed roof reflecting in it.

Then I lubed up the HP pins and the alignment pins and a dab on the sprue hinge screw.

Then the pouring began! I was making the biggest sprue puddle I could keep up there at first, until the plate got hot and the bases were very square on every drop.

And so I ended up with a few bullets in fairly short time.

These are as-cast, so don't look too closely. I haven't culled yet.

 

[Beagle333]

And here's my basket of them, ready for culling and sorting.

And the final bullets look like this up close. I cast my HP's hot and fast and that gives me just a little bit of frost, which I like.

Now to add the gas checks and run them through the lubrisizer or powdercoat them, depending on the weather.


Here's the weights, because somebody always asks.

.

 

[FrankenMauser]

Man, I'm missing all the good stuff by not checking in on the CB forums any more.

 

[USSR]

Mihec's moulds are all I've been buying in the past 10 years or so. Lost count on how many I have.

Don

 

[Beagle333]

I got out to the casting shed again today and used the MP 432 Hammer for its second casting session, with the same shallow HP pins.
Now to pick out the keepers, apply gas checks and get em ready to load.

 

[Chainsaw.]

Wow. Nice stuff!

 

[Grey_Lion]

Makes me want to get out & do some more casting myself!!! - Pretty!!!

Are you making your own gaschecks for those?

 

[FrankenMauser]

I agree.
The funny thing is... I couldn't do any beneficial casting, even if I wanted to.
Right now, all of my .44/.444 molds (and most of the .30 and .32 cal molds) are three hours away, in my brother's reloading room. ...Along with my casting pot, hot plate, ladles, sizing dies, and more.
He's done more with it in the last year than I did in the previous five, though. (Plus... He gives me bags of as-cast, PC'd, or HTC'd bullets when I visit. )


I have backup tools and a few other molds here. But working with that combination of tools is like rebuilding an engine in a sandstorm. Sure, it'll work. But not for long, and it won't be helpful.

 

[Beagle333]

Are you making your own gaschecks for those?

I still have some Gator checks. But I did recently buy a .44 checkmaker (Freechex III) and I need to stop by the hardware store and get some flashing.

 

[Beagle333]

 

[Beagle333]

Just sitting on the porch today, checking and sizing some of them. It was a very nice day here today. Maybe I'll get out to the pot tomorrow and make a new batch of some bullet. I really should press myself to cast a lot before summer gets here. It's brutal in the casting shed in the summer.

 

[USSR]

It's brutal in the casting shed in the summer.

That's why they make basements.

Don

 

[Chainsaw.]

Beagle you are an inspiration! I need these in my life!

 

[Beagle333]

The final product. The first few for testing are lubed with Carnauba Blue (from White Label Lube)

 

[dahermit]

Does that Blue lube, besides being very pretty, form a Black sludge in your guns like NRA Alox 50/50 does in mine? I am ferreting out the last of my "already loaded" ammo that has the 50/50 lube and shooting them up. I am trying to break the Alox/Black sludge habit in favor of powder coating all my bullets from here on out. It strikes me that your Blue lube is pretty, but then so is Blue Powder Coating...or Red.

 

[Beagle333]

It hasn't yet. But I'm only on my third stick of it. I don't know the ingredients of the C. Blue lubes. I think the BAC was 50/50 with some carnauba added, but I can't say what the C. Blue has in it. Time will tell. It definitely won't shoot as cleanly as PC, but I do my PC'ing outdoors and it's actually raining again today here in the swamp, so the lubers get the action then. Here's my PC setup, so you can see why I use the lubesizers a lot..... the weather has to be nice for the PC to work well.

 

[FrankenMauser]

The first few for testing are lubed with Carnauba Blue

Sexy.
As strange as it sounds, I can't look at those bullets without picturing my wife in her little blue dress....

Does that Blue lube, besides being very pretty, form a Black sludge in your guns like NRA Alox 50/50 does in mine?

I would suspect that it's the Alox causing the filth for you.
Alox, in my opinion, is about as suitable as a bullet lube as Soy Sauce is as an engine lubricant. It's a corrosion protectant. Why someone ever thought it would be good to use as a bullet lubricant is beyond me. ...Especially given the sticky, nasty, stinky experience of working with it in any way.


Carnuba Blue and Carnuba Red don't leave any undesirable residue in my barrels.
As far as ingredients, I believe they're exactly the same. I believe the tag line when Blue was announced was, "It's exactly the same, but blue!"

 

[dahermit]

Alox, in my opinion, is about as suitable as a bullet lube as Soy Sauce is as an engine lubricant. It's a corrosion protectant. Why someone ever thought it would be good to use as a bullet lubricant is beyond me. ...Especially given the sticky, nasty, stinky experience of working with it in any way.

Years ago, cast lead bullet shooters and the NRA thought highly of it. When I belonged to the Cast Lead Bullet association and was shooting cast rifle bullets, I found it to be part of my accurate load for a 30-06. I was getting sub-MOA groups at 100 yards with it. However, the rifle was not subjected to hundreds of rounds as are my revolvers are today (most of my shooting is revolvers now), so the relative few rounds was not nearly the issue is the weekly count of 504 rounds (during shooting season), that my revolver gets.

So, "dirty" and "sludge" are mainly a high volume-count revolver thing rather than a rifle thing. But the mag wells (and the nooks and crannies also), of my autos get pretty dirty using Alox NRA formula 50/50 too. But, if I had never heard of, or tried Powder Coating, I would still be happily pulling on the pressurizing lever of my Lyman lube/sizer because as a bullet lubricant, it has worked.

 

[dahermit]

"Sticky", Nra 50/50 dusted with motor mica, and the sticky goes away. "Stinky" is something I never experienced with NRA Alox (not the Lee Liquid stuff...of that, I do not have enough experience to comment).