What's cookin' in the pot today?

[Beagle333]

It's my newest bullets! I just got the mold back from the machinist yesterday. It's a 358665 DC with a pin in one side. And it just spews forth nice silver bullets.

This is the pan I did before lunch.... and I did another like it after lunch. I figger there's probably 600± total, just by weight. But I didn't count yet.

And here's a close up of it. I love the profile of this bullet. And with the one groove, it's going to be a snap to dip lube, or just tumble and shoot. It has 3 bearing surfaces so it should get a good grip on the rifling. And it drops at just a hair under .359 so it will size up nice and shiny in my .358 sizer. I'm not a fan of bevel base bullets, but that's the way this one comes.

 

[TXGunNut]

I like! Nice job. Who makes that mould?

 

[Beagle333]

It's a Lyman. I picked up a used one and had it drilled on one side. That's why it's not exactly mirror smooth.... it had just a little bit of rust at one time in it.

 

[deerslayer303]

Nice Beagle, What alloy do you use? One of these day's I'm gonna venture out and try loading these new fangled center fire cartridges with some cast boolits.

 

[salvadore]

Here's some of the accurate mold stuff I did two days ago, I have mostly lead in the pot now so I think I'll try some soft cast 454190 hollowpoints to use in my SAA Colt next.

The other pics are what a bench looks like when an organized guy sets it up. I can work on it for two days cleaning and have it look like this in one day or reloading.

 

[Beagle333]

Nice Beagle, What alloy do you use?

These are isotope cores. 95-2.5-2.5 lead. Isotope is great stuff.... no alloying necessary.
Where do ya get it? Now that is the hard part. The guy I was getting it from passed away recently.


Nice work area, Salvadore! I'd take a picture of mine, but it is so messy that it isn't even recognizable as a work area.

 

[TXGunNut]

I'd take a picture of mine but last place I saw my camera was....you guessed it!

 

[LAH]

I also like the 358665. It's a great bullet. As for the BB I thought of having my mold surface ground enough to take the bevel out. My mold was dropping them at 165 grains so I would mind loosing a little weight.

 

[Beagle333]

got too much time.... stop the rain!

It's raining here today, so I'm just sizing a bunch of stuff that I have cast.
But I really like the bearing surface on these 358665s, just look at how much bore riding area is smoothed out when they are sized.
The solids come out 165gr (as LAH said), and the HPs are 150gr.

But..... I got this idea, and it's a good example of what not to do....
I had lots of time, just sitting around while it was raining, and I size with a Lee hand press, so it's much easier if I lube em lightly before sizing, and so I figured I would save lots of Alox if I only painted it lightly on the bearing areas, so it didn't get wasted down in the grooves and in the hollow points. So I painted one side, then moved the popsicle sticks a little bit and rolled em over and painted the other half. Well....I kept it out of the hollow points, but I used much more Alox than regular tumbling. Anyway, it was an experiment and I just wanted to share. I'm going back to the old way of Alox tumble lightly, size, then dip lube with TAC#1.

 

[LAH]

Good lookin' boolits Beagle.

 

[GP100man]

Details Man !!!

Mold preheated ??? alloy temp ??? Casting pace ???

Did ya burn ya fingers lookin at the first few ???

We gotta know !!!!

 

[Beagle333]

Mold preheated ???

Always. I even preheat my round ball molds now. I like getting keepers on the first pour.
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alloy temp ???

That's a guess...... I had the Lee pot set on 8-1/4 on the dial. But since it has worked nicely for everything I have cast so far, I haven't bothered taking my nice shiny new Rotometals thermometer out there and actually measuring it yet. I do know it's pretty hot though, because I do sometimes have to back off when using my Mihec molds to keep the frosting down to a minimum.
It seems like when they get overly frosted, they actually get smaller and I lose some definition of the edges. I like em best when they are just starting to show any frost.
-------------------------

Casting pace ???

I was really aiming for one pour every 14 seconds. I read that a lot on castboolits as recommended as the perfect pace and I was using that as my guide. It's not as easy when casting with a ladle and also using a double cavity manual pin-style mold, but I kept it close. With this alloy, I can also tell when I'm getting too fast and the mold is getting too hot, because the sprue starts shattering like glass instead of just falling off when I cut it.
--------------------------

Did ya burn ya fingers lookin at the first few ???

Nope!
I only cull when I'm finished, unless I just happen to see a really bad one or two while I'm waiting for a fresh ingot to melt and refill the pot.

 

[Rangefinder]

Man-oh-man... Such a pretty sight! NOW we gotta see what they look like when ya HIT something!! Where's your water jugs!!??

 

[Beagle333]

I got the document shredder and the Sunday paper, and I'm stuffing jugs as we speak.

 

[GP100man]

That's a guess...... I had the Lee pot set on 8-1/4 on the dial. But since it has worked nicely for everything I have cast so far, I haven't bothered taking my nice shiny new Rotometals thermometer out there and actually measuring it yet. I do know it's pretty hot though, because I do sometimes have to back off when using my Mihec molds to keep the frosting down to a minimum.
It seems like when they get overly frosted, they actually get smaller and I lose some definition of the edges. I like em best when they are just starting to show any frost.

Beagle

This tells me the mold is TOO HOT probably close to 500f & "cookin the tin" in your alloy & the alloy is over 800f to support the over temp of the mold .

Bad thing , aparrently not as you`ve kept a good pace to keep it all rite at the verge of the "cook" temp & to cast sharply filled bullets with HP pins ya gotta keep the pin hot !!

At some point most ( I certainly did) casters used this process in their technique & has cast many tons of useable bullets!!

Here`s a pic of a 314299 mold that`ll keep the heat & cook tin qwikly even with the alloy at 650f , I have to pace myself down to let the heat disperse a bit.

These 2 bullets were cast within seconds of each other & I do alternate which cavity I fill first.

 

[m&p45acp10+1]

I started with theese 200 grain semi wad cutters. (.452)

Next will be .358 TL SWC as soon as the pot heats back up.

 

[Beagle333]

Them's purdy! Let's shoot somethin'!

 

[m&p45acp10+1]

I will be shooting lots of things when the wind warms up a bit. Due to sinus problems I am stuck inside today. If it were not for sinus meds my eyes would be swolen shut today.

I am waiting on the pot to heat back up now. I just cast a few of theese. Will be casting a few hundred more when the pot gets back up to temp. (Wife is working now so I have the time.)

.358 158 grain SWC they drop at about 156 with standar clip on WW.

 

[Beagle333]

Fresh from the range.. 358665

NOW we gotta see what they look like when ya HIT something!! Where's your water jugs!!??

This isotope isn't the best for HPs. They are fun to shoot, but they shatter on impact. I think they'd make an awesome SD bullet though. What a wound on a BG! But not so great for hunting. Fortunately, I don't hunt with the .357, only paper and cans. (unless you count turtles, but that's another bullet.) But it will completely blow apart two milk jugs of paper slush. I was using 6.2gr of Unique. (I like a big splash!)

 

[m&p45acp10+1]

Here are some ya' might like beagle.

.459 HBRNFP 405 grain. They drop at about 395 to 398 with COWW alloy. They shoot like laser beams from my Marlin with 16 inch barrel going at just a tad over 1100 FPS.

Nice and shiney too.