New Accurate Mold Came Today

[ColColt]

Did I evermore good a good surprise today! The 44 mold I ordered from Accurate came today and I wish it was cool enough to cast as this is a beauty. My product photography is not as good as I do with other subjects but this will give a good idea as to what it looks like. It's the 43-260B and I've already got the handles on it ready to run.

I put some JB Weld on an old seat stem so perhaps it will work good. I ordered the wrong top punch from Tom, of course, as I was thinking 357 for some reason but I can use that too. I'll have to make up another or maybe just use one I currently have and hopefully it won't leave a wring around the top of the boolit. At any rate, happy with this mold but it IS heavy. I'm use to aluminum and iron and there is a big difference between those and brass.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x220/ColColt/Misc%20Stuff/_DEF4151a.jpg

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x220/ColColt/Misc%20Stuff/_DEF4155a.jpg

[para45lda]

That's one good looking mold. They do good work.

Wes

[EDK]

Good looking mould in a good looking design. The round nose flat point has become my favorite general purpose boolit and the 260 grain area seems to be the "sweet spot." Only thing I'd change is make it a four cavity.

We have a great selection of moulds and makers now....at reasonable prices.

:Fire::cbpour::redneck:

[ColColt]

A two cavity is plenty heavy enough for me.:). I was only able to knock out about 200 of these last night and load enough to try at the range this morning. It did a marvelous job giving me about an inch group. Boolits averaged 258.5 gr using ww's. I think I'm going to like this boolit real well and the mold-well, it goes without saying it is superb.

The load was 10.5 gr of HS-6 in Starline cases and CCI primers

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x220/ColColt/Misc%20Stuff/_DEF4160a.jpg

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x220/ColColt/Misc%20Stuff/_DEF4156a.jpg

[Swede44mag]

That is one sweet looking mold.
Did you design the nose profile or is it one that someone else came up with?
I like a bullet with a decent size meplat.

I may have him make one for my Ruger Vaquero .45 Colt but I think the 3 cavity will be the way I go but
I haven't decided for sure.

[ColColt]

I can't take credit for the design but would like to.:) I think that was Heavy lead's design and it's turned out to shoot superbly with my M29. I think that load is going to be a keeper.

One thing I discovered is that brass is heavy! These old 65 year old hands and wrists can only handle about 2-300 boolits in one session but, I can live with that.

[MikeS]

If you think your product photography isn't good, I would love to see some of your other photos! Your pictures are as nice as your subject matter! I don't have a really nice digital camera, and haven't had a darkroom for a few years, so haven't used my analog photographic equipment much. I actually like my camera equipment to be as old or older than I am, just like my selection of firearms, only with firearms, I only want the design to be that old, not the actual guns themselves. I only have 2 modern design firearms, a Jericho 941 in 45ACP (it's basically a copy of a CZ model, so I don't know how old the actual design is), and a Mini-30 (although it's kind of a scaled down M14 sort of, so might not really qualify as a modern design)

When it comes to photography, my primary camera (although I haven't used it in ages) is a Linhof Technika IV that was made in the same year I was, 1959! I never would have spent the money it cost if it wasn't for a dishonest buyer, and PayPal's screwy policies, but in the end it worked out for the best. When they finally come out with 4x5 digital backs that are full sized, & affordable, I would love to get one to be able to use the camera digitally!

[44man]

WOW, super pictures and a SUPER mold all at once! :holysheep
I make my molds from scrap and when done still look like a scrap pile! [smilie=l:
I envy those that make such beautiful products.
ColColt, wonderful group.

[Mauser Rat]

I bought the 43-260B from Tom about a month and a half ago and it had the same effect on me that it did on Col Colt. I got a three banger in brass and it IS a handful but it casts such pretty, perfect boolits that throw themselves out of the mold when you open the handles that it feels like it is lighter than air while I am casting. So maybe I notice it a little later but.....then I get to go and put those babies down range and you can see what they do!!! This has become my new "carry in the woods in the Redhawk and maybe the Rossi" load. Let that big brownie get a load of that little baby when I am trying to fish darn it!!!

If that design comes out of CB it does not surprise me but I am thankful to both Heavy Lead if he designed it and Tom for executing it so well. It makes me do that little shiny boolit happy dance when I let them run through my fingers....but I am not sick.....I swear that I am not sick when I go out to the shop just to let them run through my fingers until I can get some powder under them and send them on their way!

[white eagle]

Tom sure does an
EXCELLENT work
maybe thats why the name
ACCURATE !
great mold and boolit

[ColColt]

When it comes to photography, my primary camera (although I haven't used it in ages) is a Linhof Technika IV that was made in the same year I was, 1959!

MikeS-Ansel Adams would surely be proud of you for our choice of Linhof. I always wanted a Sinar but couldn't afford one. The largest format I got into was with a Pentax 6x7 which yielded a 2 1/4x2 3/4 inch negative. I had two bodies and use to do weddings with them-what a chore changing out 220 film in the midst of a wedding! I used Westcott light modifiers and 600 ws(watt-seconds) lights inside the two modifiers, one for main, one for fill both triggered by radio slaves and used these at weddings rather than harsh on camera flash. You maintained studio quality at a fast moving wedding and the results were superb.

My digitals are two Nikon D200's with a sundry of lens from micro to an 80-200 f2.8 lens as long as your forearm.

44Man-I still think the pics are mediocre but we're our own worse critics. I've seen product photography on this forum that made me say inside, "Wow! What pics!" They still put mine to shame.

Mauser-You're not sick. If you are, then I'm right behind you. The evening I cast those first couple hundred, I even took one of the boolits to bed with me to mull over the beauty of my labor and set it on the nightstand like a mini treasure!!(teasing of course)

It is a fine looking and producing mold and one I will cherish. Now, if I can build up my wist and forum to be able to produce 300 in a casting session I'll be content. Big difference, guys, in being 35 and 65. Then, I could handle that.

[gefiltephish]

I've never had a rail camera but I did have a Zone VI 4x5 field camera for a few years. What a sweet device! I had designed a whole new darkroom that would have cost 10 grand plus, but I decided to scrap the idea and now have nothing but a digital slr. I used to use two RZ's for weddings. I had stronger arms back then! It was great to be able to switch film backs on demand, even to different formats if I wanted. Mostly I stuck to 6x6 so I wouldn't have to bother rotating the back. All gone now except for a dilapidated Speed Graphic on the shelf behind me.

The specular highlights on the mold photos suggest use of a light box, or maybe northern light? Perhaps inside a greenhouse or something similar?

I also have one of Tom's molds. It's a 3 cav .30 cal. I like it. I seldom get nice crisp edges like your bullet. I have this issue with all molds, not just Tom's, so it's something I'm doing wrong. Even adding tin hasn't helped much. I'll keep working at it and figure it out some day. For now, high heat and pressure casting seems to work best for me. Next plan is to spend some serious time at ladle casting - can't hurt.

[ColColt]

That RZ was(is) a behemoth. I liked it due to the revolving back but I was so use to SLR's, I chose the 6x7 due to it looking like an old F2 on steroids. With a normal(90mm) lens it weighed about 5 pounds. Try carrying that around your neck awhile! I took lots of great photos with it at the 1982 Worlds's Fair both in daylight and with the aid of a heavy tripod, night shots with Ektachrome gave some beautiful shots as well. I made a lot of Cibachrome prints from Ektachrome that still today look as they did then.

Those shots of the mold were actually taken outside with it sitting on top of my gas grill! Light is everything-it's direction and quality can make or break any photo be it a product or of a human nature. No reflectors or light boxes-just natural open light filtered though a few clouds in the shade.

I haven't as yet, and don't anticipate, any problems with this mold. From the onset it cast great boolits and I didn't go over 675 degrees with the alloy. Preheating the mold aided in less culls and I think that's a mandatory operation if you want to start casting good ones early. Even with ww's it cast good looking boolits. Just for the heck of it, I tested a few and they had a bhn of 11.5.

[gefiltephish]

Good overcast and northern light can produce very similar effects. The long soft unbroken highlights were my first clue to a large soft light source. Hard to beat natural light under the right circumstances.

With my various molds I've tried low to high heat and many points in between. I always wind up returning to the higher settings. During the last casting session, I was trying to get complete fill out from a new NOE 45-70 mold and I gradually turned the pot up to 800* and still was not 100% successful but finally got nice bullets (without nose wrinkles) from Tom's mold at that temp. I preheat on a hotplate and I've varied that temp up and down as well. I have it in my head that I want to use the minimum amount of heat that will produce acceptable and repeatable results, but all my efforts always point to high heat. Varying alloy hasn't made significant differences either.

[Heavy lead]

I really can't take credit for designing that boolit. I used one of Tom's existing designs for a heavier, asked him to lop the gas check off it an shorten the nose to the ..375, and that's what it ended up at.
They look goood, and great shooting.