Armory Sponsor
Posted: 12/14/2008 10:27:24 PM EDT
|
Just placed my order from Midway and I'm going to be cranking out my own boolits!
Lee Mold for 155Gr .312 (going to be for Mosins, Enfields, and PSL, maybe AK in the future) Lee Sizer for .311 (No .312? Close enough I suppose) Lee 20# electric pot w/ bottom pour Lee dipper (for skimming) Box of .30 cal Lyman Gas checks (Hornady was cheaper, but out) 1Lb of Frankford Arsenal Fluxing compound Anything I'm missing? Anything to know before I start liquidating wheel weights? I've read enough to get the basics - cast, quench, lube, size, lube, and let sit - so we'll see how this turns out. Pics will, of course, be provided once the boolits are in production. 
|
|
good ventilation - don't want to breathe the fumes, I used to set up a window fan onthe back side of the pot to suck the fumes away and keep them out of my face.
eye protection - I never had a pot "pop" on me but folks say it can happen. A lot of folks say if you drop the hot bullets into a bucket of cold water it will harden them over bullets just dropped out on a folded up towel (no experience with this myself - all I ever cast was pistol bullets). There's a guy on e-bay selling a tool that makes gas checks out of empty soda cans (aluminum) but if it works it's got to be cheaper, and more sure of having them in bad times, than store bought gas checks. Let us know how the rifle bullets shoot/work out. I've considered casting for my old bolt action rifles, just never done it yet. |
| "Close enough" with cast bullets usually only applies if they are over, not under. See what your bullets drop at. Slug your bores and then you know what you need to size at. You can take a couple of thousandths out of the Lee sizer pretty easily with a sandpaper flapper on a drill motor. |
|
Add - regular bullet lube for flux or Brownells Marvelflux - I suggest a roll of lead free solder to add just a bit of tin to the lead mix - kitchen matches to blacken the mold cavities - get a piece of plywood and coat it with aluminum foil for your casting surface - old cookie tin or coffee can to put the stuff you skim off of into like - a propane torch to speed up melting of the lead or heating the mold is nice - a brick wrapped in foil to use as a rest for your mold when it's hot - another tin to catch sprues |
|
Quoted:
Add - regular bullet lube for flux or Brownells Marvelflux - I suggest a roll of lead free solder to add just a bit of tin to the lead mix - kitchen matches to blacken the mold cavities - get a piece of plywood and coat it with aluminum foil for your casting surface - old cookie tin or coffee can to put the stuff you skim off of into like - a propane torch to speed up melting of the lead or heating the mold is nice - a brick wrapped in foil to use as a rest for your mold when it's hot - another tin to catch sprues Sir, FWIW I would add flux to the list. I normally use bacon grease for the purpose but there are commercial equivalents available for the purpose if you don't have any grease. HTH, 7zero1. ETA, my bad I failed to read the entire first line! |
|
http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm
This is also a valuable website. 
|
|
Got my stuff in the mail Friday, got a box of weights on Monday, and was casting boolits on Tuesday.
They came out nicely, for the most part, though some of them seen to be dropping at .310-311 rather than .312. They just slide right through the sizer with little to no resistance. I "beagled" the mold with some aluminum tape and they started dropping .313-314 ish, but the flash was pretty bad. I think I'm going to get a .314 mold and ream the sizer out to .312 to get the right diameter. They do look pretty though. 
|
|
Try this for beagleing.
Caste 2 or 3 bullets from the mold you want to enlarge. Insert a screw or other attachment to allow you to spin the bullets easily. Coat the bullets with a fine valve grinding paste. Insert bullets into mold and spin. Remember you can always take metal away, but adding metal is impossible. |
|
Do you have a thermometer? It seems that if the temperature is too high the bullets cast about the size of the mold.
When I first started casting with my lyman 311-410 mold the bullets came out at .310". Looking around the cast boolits website I noticed that many people had the same mold and were dropping them at .314". When I asked about it I was told that if the temperature was too high the bullets would not drop "over sized" Try reducing your temperature to a little more than is required to melt your lead alloy. |
|
What alloy are you using? The alloy also affects the cast diam. Linotype will cast about .001 larger than wheel weights in a 30 cal mold. Lee will also custom make a sizer die for a nominal fee. Have you slugged your bores yet to determine the actual diameters? I would do that before I tried beagling and lapping out sizing dies. The real question is "How do they shoot?" If they shoot good don't worry about playing with the sizing or alloys. Another thing that affects accuracy is bullet lube, what lube are you using?
G |
|
I'm using plain wheel weights for my alloy, water quenched, and the lube is Lee Alox. The bore of the rifle slugged to .313.
I haven't fired them yet, but I got some loaded up to test tomorrow. If they work fine and don't lead up badly, I'll probably leave well enough alone and just shoot them as-is. |
| .310 diameter bullets, even with checks, are going to be somewhat less than optimal in a .313 bore. A few strands from copper "Chore Boy" brand scouring pads wrapped on an old bore brush will help in removing any leading. Make sure to use genuine "Chore Boy." There are copper plated steel imitations out there and you don't want to be scrubbing your bore with those. |
| Be aware that cast bullet shooting is as much art as science. .001 over bore diameter is the accepted minimum to assure good seal and minimal leading. My experience is that many rifles will shoot better with bullets well over bore diameter. For instance, my Marlin 30AS has a measured .308 bore and does best with bullets sized at .312. When shooting over sized bullets, make sure there is chamber neck clearance so the case can release the bullet on firing. |
Armory Sponsor