Ohio Rusty
02-01-2011, 03:05 PM
We have a saying here in Ohio ... if you don't like the weather ..wait 5 minutes and it will change. It changed big time over night and dumped freezing rain and ice over central Ohio, closing all the schools and activities. Since I had a snow day, I wanted to take advantage of my free time today.
I went to the garage and fired up the wood burner to make it comfortable in there. I have been anxious to make boolits from the two moulds I recently acquired. One was an Ideal 358429 SWC, the other was the Ideal 358439 HP, the same mould, but has the HP pin.
I fired up the lead pot and pulled out some moulds I wanted to cast in, including the two Ideal moulds. I'm always after good boolits to shoot from the wifes and my contenders. I was also interested in the HP boolit for my Ruger LCR if it will work.
Those ideal moulds threw great boolits once they got up to temperature. This was my first casting experience with a mould with a removable HP pin. The first boolits on the pin refused to come off without help of a tool to twist them loose.
Once hot, the pin came right out of the boolit. I learned quickly to twist and pull the pin first. If I cut the sprue, sometimes turning the pin turned the boolit in the mould if the handles weren't held tight. The sprue on top prevented that issue.
Once I got in the groove, it was pretty fast to make HP boolits from the single cavity mould. When it seemed to start frosting, I would switch to the solid mould for a bit and let the HP mould cool down some. I think these will be great to shoot. I sized some at .358 and they weren't undersize. the Solid version weighs 170 grains, and the HP version weighs 155 grains. Just right for 158 grain load data for both Unique and 2400 powders. I really like these boolits and I look forward to making more and playing with softer alloys in that boolit style.
There are a couple of mistake boolits pictured on the right ... that is what they look like when you forget to put the HP pin back in .... DUH !!!!!!
Ohio Rusty ><>
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v372/OhioRusty/Idealboolits.jpg
Now I just need spring to get here so we can throw the boolits down range.
I went to the garage and fired up the wood burner to make it comfortable in there. I have been anxious to make boolits from the two moulds I recently acquired. One was an Ideal 358429 SWC, the other was the Ideal 358439 HP, the same mould, but has the HP pin.
I fired up the lead pot and pulled out some moulds I wanted to cast in, including the two Ideal moulds. I'm always after good boolits to shoot from the wifes and my contenders. I was also interested in the HP boolit for my Ruger LCR if it will work.
Those ideal moulds threw great boolits once they got up to temperature. This was my first casting experience with a mould with a removable HP pin. The first boolits on the pin refused to come off without help of a tool to twist them loose.
Once hot, the pin came right out of the boolit. I learned quickly to twist and pull the pin first. If I cut the sprue, sometimes turning the pin turned the boolit in the mould if the handles weren't held tight. The sprue on top prevented that issue.
Once I got in the groove, it was pretty fast to make HP boolits from the single cavity mould. When it seemed to start frosting, I would switch to the solid mould for a bit and let the HP mould cool down some. I think these will be great to shoot. I sized some at .358 and they weren't undersize. the Solid version weighs 170 grains, and the HP version weighs 155 grains. Just right for 158 grain load data for both Unique and 2400 powders. I really like these boolits and I look forward to making more and playing with softer alloys in that boolit style.
There are a couple of mistake boolits pictured on the right ... that is what they look like when you forget to put the HP pin back in .... DUH !!!!!!
Ohio Rusty ><>
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v372/OhioRusty/Idealboolits.jpg
Now I just need spring to get here so we can throw the boolits down range.