What did you cast today?

[Sprue]

about 10 lbs RCBS 358-150-swc's. Now its time to retire my 2 cav molds. The Lyman 4-cav is in the cards

[44fanatic]

Did between 20-25lbs each of 9mm (Lee TL 356-124R 6cav) and 30Carbine (NOE-311-115) on Friday and Saturday. Guessing that there are around 1500 boolits of each.

Today I loaded up 550 rounds of 9mm. Gotta take advantage of the storms, but I did not get the lawn mowed today...Sunny, breezy and mid 70's, was a great day in the garage with the door open and the kids playing out front.

[quack1]

Did over three lbs 257464 DC Saturday morning. It was a rainy day, and for some reason, casting seems to go better on damp, rainy days. Don't know why. I brought them to work today and weighed them on the electronic balance to cull out any light ones-only had 3. All the others had a spread of .4 grains. Let the hardness stabilize for a few weeks and I'll be set for this summer for the 25-06.

[VenomBallistics]

I just cast a handful through a 200 grain HP mold for 45 auto I just finished before my lathes motor latched while turning another point pin.
wasnt happy about the lathe issue which will cost me several hundred to repair but at least I was done enough to put the result to work.

[a.squibload]

Is "latched" like "seized", or is it an electrical problem?

Welcome to the forum!

[Ausglock]

G'day All.
Last weekend, I cast and lubed a few 1000 Lee 150gr RN .358 from a 6cav mold.
Lyman 450 with white label lube BAC.

Also did a few 100 105gr SWC .358 pills as well.
I just got a new to me S&W 586. So I need ammo loaded.

[That'll Do]

My most recent effort, about 500 of the RCBS 45-230-RN, which has been a great boolit in all of my 1911s.

[justingrosche]

yesterday afternoon efforts. 15 # Lyman 41032 and 15# 410610

[VenomBallistics]

Is "latched" like "seized", or is it an electrical problem?

Welcome to the forum!

Motors like this are capacitive start ... piles of current are drawn in the start up cycle till its at speed. when I say latched in this case. it went to this start cycle and stayed there. lights went dim and within the couple of seconds it took to hit the kill switch, the motor performed a great deal of copper to carbon conversion

[durant7]

I'm a newbie and lurk mostly. Use the search function and many of my questions have at least 5 opinions

Last night I had a second go with my second, new to me, mould. First was a nice old Ideal/Lyman single cavity 31141. Casts great bullets. So, I figured when I picked up a 44 Mag Lever it was only appropriate to get a mould for it. Reading, talking and experimenting with on the shelf bullets, I decided I wanted a 429215. There are not many GC'd, SWC options for use in a lever gun. It was that or a 429244. I opted for less recoil for the CLA game.

I new mould is a 2 cavity, used. Came coated in Marvel Mystery Oil, better than rust but required cleaning as outlined in this forum. Mould would not close 100%. As per the forum played with the pins, filed to ensure a flat face with a very very very fine file. The "long" pin had kinda roughed up it's hole. What is done is done and it now closes and drops two bullets. Yea!

Temp mgt. Phew. I did not have this hard a time with the single cavity. The double gets hot in the base area so your nose is great but the driving bands are frosty. Cool pot too much and nose can have some odd issues but the driving bands are non frosty. A post here suggests working harder on managing the temp of the mould and maybe just slow down so it does not get too hot. All things to try again.

Here is my pick after about 3 hours. 400+ bullets. What is not perfect will be shot in a buddies pistol. Perfect will be used for rams at 200y. With any luck I can avoid GCs and keep the pressure down. So why did I buy a GC mould? Guess that is part of the learning process. I am just going to size them with Blue Angel in a Saeco .430 sizer and do some testing.

Comments welcome.

[357shooter]

Cast 10 lbs of Lyman 358-429 with WW. This batch of WW ingot seemed pretty hard, last time, the day after they were 10.4 BHN. For many of my loads I like the soft stuff. So when they cooled, they were annealed. I put them in the oven at 450 for 30 min and let cool for 7 hours (still in the oven). They are now in freezer. I tested on at 6.8 BHN. Will test one in a week or two and see how hard / soft they are.

Pretty cool, pretty sweet. Looking forward to seeing how they shoot. The hardness is perfect as I have been shooting 50/1 lead/tin and that was just as soft, and love how is shoots in a 357 magnum.

See you later!

[Silent]

55 pounds of pure lead into ingots, my supply was running very low

[a.squibload]

...I decided I wanted a 429215.

Welcome to THE forum!

Hey, they look good.
I have the same in an RCBS 2C mold.
Figured slow for 44 spl rounds, or fast with GCs for flatter shooting mag rounds.
They seem to work fine.

[ihmsakiwi]

245 Gem Ingots of 40/40/10 for my winter stash of reloading stock, plus 400 or so RCBS 145gr boolits for my 32 H&R Magnum T/C pistol.

[gvanzeggelaar]

Cast up about 5-600 rcbs .22, 55gr. and about 150 lee bators. Cast them out of pure lino. I am going to try 1 part lino to 1 part pure lead next.

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[a.squibload]

110 260gn NOE 44 SWCs, and 87 350gn Hoch 44 WFNs (they're about 15/16" long,
meplat is about .364).
I know that's not a lot, but felt good to have them come out so good,
mostly non-wrinkled and pretty good fillout.
These molds started working good and I hated to stop!
Preheated on the hotplate with a circular saw blade on it, pretty hot.
Also tried dipping the sprue plate tab to preheat it, I think that helped a lot
(thanks whoever suggested that, can't remember, can't find that post).

Had a little trouble adjusting the sprue pivot on the steel Hoch mold.
Got some lead smear, and the sprues didn't want to fall out of the holes.
It seemed to keep the heat up even though I had to poke the sprue out
almost every time. Was better when I made bigger sprue puddles on the plate.

Next time I'll try the HP pins in the NOE, it's an RG2.
I don't think "break-in" was as important as preheating and keeping the mold hot.

[Dale53]

a.squibload;
Regarding the lead smear and sprues failing to drop - get some of Bullshop's "Bullplate" Sprueplate lube. It will totally solve those problems. Used sparingly, it is a MUST on my casting station!

http://bullshop.gunloads.com/tbs_lube.htm

Dale53

[a.squibload]

Have some, afraid to use too much. It did seem to clear up the smear problem.
To help sprue drop, should I put some on the top of the sprue plate, in the holes?
First time I tried it the q-tip melted.
Technique is everything I guess!

[ihmsakiwi]

245 Gem Ingots of 40/40/10 for my winter stash of reloading stock, plus 400 or so RCBS 145gr boolits for my 32 H&R Magnum T/C pistol.

My 32Mag stash RCBS 308 165gr.

[a.squibload]

Cores for swaging. All stickon WWs with a bit of pewter.
Found (as per advice from CB site!) that too slow is bad, and too fast is also bad.
Mold temp is important, have to find a speed for each mold, running pot around 710º.
Getting good fillout but having some problems with fins, especially at the base.
Wondering if the sprue plate is flat.

Lee 9mm comes out 110gn.


Lee 9mm 122gn.


Lee 40 190gn.


They're coming out smooth and shiny.
I might even cast a few of the 40s with more clipon WWs in the mix and try 'em,
these are all soft for squishability.
If I get leading I can discontinue using cast in the polygon barrel, that's why I got the swage dies.