Normally I get some good hot coals going in my fire pit and use my 2 cup cast iron pot to cast.  However, the weather was crappy so I ended up using my camping stove/propane on my lower deck.  

First up was the 5-bullet 55gr mold for the .223 bullets.  I fluxed the mold with candle wax and heated it up in the lead.  However, throughout the hour I was casting most of the rounds ended up with a ton of sprue on them.  Out of the 300-400 I made, only 95 were usable.  Not sure what caused so much sprue/flashing but it was really annoying and a big waste of time!  

Then came the 9mm casting.  It is the Lee 5-bullet 124gr mold.  Went really well!! In an hour I made almost 400 bullets!!!  Had maybe 10-20 that were not good.  I'm really happy with how they turned out!! Filled a pint mason jar with them!! A few more hours and I could have cast enough rounds to last me years.  

Next is to throw them in my new Rockford tumbler and powder coat them.  Then I'll size them and load them into shells.  

Any thoughts on what caused the excess lead on the .223 bullets??  How can I fix it?

Thanks

-Emt1581

Fluxed the mold??? would you clarify this please?

Is the excess sprue at the end of the bullet or are you talking about flash on the mold seem?

Fluxing the mold with candle wax?

Contaminating the mold with wax or oil will make your bullets unusable.

Excess sprue?

Are you getting finning maybe?

Please clarify.

I'm probably using the wrong terms.  Fluxing the lead is putting wax or saw dust in while stirring to get the crap to float to the top right?

What I was talking about was rubbing wax into my molds.  And no, I didn't mean sprue near the sprue plate....it's moreso flash on the nose of the bullet and along the seam.  

Thanks

-Emt1581

Finning...sure.  

As for contaminating, I just do that once and I recycle the bullets.

-Emt1581

Maybe your molds are not closing all the way / not squeezing the handles hard enough.
Maybe you lead is too hot, or the molds are too hot as well.
Could be the composition of the alloy.

But the same allow made perfect 9mm bullets.

I thought about that...squeezing the handles harder so I did.  No change.  I did notice some bits of lead between the two halves of the mold (not in the bullet area).  I picked them off when I saw them.  Not sure what'd cause them to be there in the first place but it just kept happening...the fins.

Thanks

-Emt1581

I use synthetic 2 cycle oil to lubricate my mold pivot points and pins very sparingly, best stuff I found that works better than none other IMO.

Check your mold to the light for full closing.

You may have something binding or something on the mold half preventing full closure.

First, stop waxing the mold. It's plugging up vent lines at best, keeping the mold slightly open at worst.

Clean the mold with hot soapy water, get all that wax off the cavity and faces. Use a little synthetic 2 cycle oil to lube the sprue plate screw, the alignment pins/sockets and wipe just a touch along the V grove that's created when the mold is closed. NO oil in the cavity or mold face!

Once this is done give it another shot, should drop better bullets. If not,  post back.

Any chance of a picture of the bad bullets and offending mold?