Just shot my first "test batch"
After dealing with some Lee molds and a second hand 265gr RD clone by NOE, I finally broke down and purchased a 432-240-WFN-CF5 a 3 cavity gas checked mold from NOE. If I'm remembering correctly, this mold is a clone of a LBT design.
I decided to go with a gas check because I plan to run these hard, both out of a rifle and my 7.5" SBH. I am PCing these boolits, but I plan on using softer alloys for hunting and my accuracy falls apart over 1300fps with a softer alloy (50/50+2) when using my current plan based mold.
Anyway, apon receiving my new mold, I did the cleaning with a slurry of Dawn and baking soda, hit all the edges with a toothpick, lube, thermal cycled and smoked the mold.
Now all of my prep work is done it's time to cast my 1st boolits. I opted for a hard alloy thhis round, one that I know cast and shoots very well. This alloy is 50/50 COWW and Lino, a waste for handgun applications I know but I wanted to start with what I know works well. I got my pot to 750° (my thermometer reads hot so I was probably closer to 700-725) and got to work. After just 3 wrinkled drops I started making good boolits.
I have to say, this mold is an absolute pleasure to cast with. Simply cut the sprue, open the mold, flip it over, tap the handle nut 1 time and the boolits jump out of the mold in their water bath. In only about an hour and a half I had surpassed my goal of 500 boolits and began sorting. To my surprise, I only had the original 9 boolits plus 6 others that were rejected.
I then PCed the boolits and crimped on the gas checks with half of the run, and put on the gas checks before PCing the other half. I'm going to have to put on the checks 1st from here out because the gator checks are extremely difficult to get on after PCing.
Now that everything is completen I weighed the finished product. 247gr +/- 1 grain. So I used 250gr data from my Lyman book and chose 22.5gr of H-110. (I knew this was a safe load in my gun because I've used more powder with heavier/longer boolits in the past. You should always work un from minimum though) I loaded 25 round up with this load.
Well, I got to the range yesterday and fired one round at the berm to check for pressure signs. All was good, so I went for a group test. Well, at 60 yards I was able to place the remaining 24 rounds into a 3" group. That's as good as the load I have using XTPs and is likely as good as I can shoot with open sights. Time to run this load through the chrono to see where I'm at.
