Cast a few.. learned a little.

[piwo]

Cast some .54 TC maxis last night just for mental release. Been really stressful on the job and needed to do a little lead therapy! :Fire:


I've been fairly inconsistent with my large cast boolits and it's been a bit frustrating, but finished on a good note. I found that if I didn't let the overflow set up solid, and kept dropping a little on it to keep it liquid for a few extra seconds beyond when it wanted to "set", the finished product looked quite superior overall. Excellent fill out around the grooves and base and quite consistent. I confirmed the last handful by weighing them (they were the last 6 I cast and I separated them) and they ranged between 413.5 - 413.9 grains. A handful from the "pile at large" ranged from 407.3 - 411.8 grains, but with distinct groups or clusters very close in weight within the range.

I'm sure it's consistency of pour and technique that is causing the gaps, so I decided I'll melt them all back and recast again using the method on the last 6 and see how they come out. I'd read someone recommended that on roundball moulds with their ladle pour, but I hadn't tried that on my bottom pour conical mould. So now I will!

[dubber123]

Interested in how you fare with the .54 maxi's. The factory Maxi-balls are the most accurate in my .54 carbine (21" barrel), but the ones cast from my Lyman Maxi mold do nowheres near as good, despite casting extremely round. I think the secrets in the alloy, pure lead seems a little softer than what T/C casts theirs out of. I will have to try a slightly harder alloy to see if groups tighten up. The factory T/C's AVERAGED 3/4" at 50 yds.

[piwo]

I've got two .54 TC moulds (both very old stock, but brand new), but have never fired from the factory Maxis. I'm casting pure lead, and getting better results each time casting. Shooting wise it's been a mixed bag, but I truly believe that's mostly me. Gonna slow down the boolit to 1400fps or slightly lower: maybe pushing the pure lead too fast/bumping it too hard.....

[piwo]

Cast some Maxi's from the TC mould a few weeks ago, but never got to shoot them. I'm on vacation this week and managed a little "honey do" free time. T/C mould casts at 413 grain pure lead, and is .543 at it's widest. Used lube 80% crisco, 17% beeswax and 3% parafin, soft lubed wad between boolit and powder. Dipping your hand into the plastic boolit container was like putting your hand into a box of warm night crawlers. They was slippery in the heat. Charge was 90 grains FFFg and Chrony at 1265 fps.
Here's 50 yards from the bench (utilizing the not world famous piwo peep :wink:). Nothing to write home about, but I'll take it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v426/jsquaredjcubed/6_25_0750ydssticks.jpg

Next was 100yards off the bench, same setup. Kinda all over the place, but within the 8 inch circle. I'll work on this one some more...........
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v426/jsquaredjcubed/6_25_07100ydsbench.jpg

Lastly, 50 yards again, this time on the hunting stool with shooting sticks. It's how I set myself up at my buddy’s farm and shows some promise. Just wish my eyes were better with these iron sights!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v426/jsquaredjcubed/6_25_0750ydssticks-1.jpg

It was hot, breezy, but alot of fun. Mayhaps I'll get one more outing this week!:drinks:

[piwo]

So I cast some boolits on Wednesday with pure lead, then with dental lead last night. I cast from the same TC Maxi and Lyman Minnie moulds in .54Cal. I cast at VERY high heat since its pure lead and I get my best boolits between 875 - 925 degrees. A few observations:

Plumbing lead boolits averaged: 420 grains for the Minnie and 413.6 grains for the Maxi.

Dental lead averaged: 414 for the Minnie, 408 for the maxi.

With plumbers lead, the sprue plate took a judicious whack with my wooden handle to get the opened (I leave a generous puddle on top).The boolits and discarded "sprue puddles" were shiny like mirrors.

Dental lead you could knock the sprue plate open with the flick of your thumb, and both boolits and sprue pieces were quite frosty.

Sure wish I had a hardness tester: would be interesting to see how that dental lead hardens since it's definitely got some other metals in it. Should of asked for one for Fathers day.. DOH.

[Dale53]

piwo;
One of the most difficutl bullets that I have found to cast was the Lyman 58 caliber Minie Ball (very large hollow base. Had a real difficult time getting them to fill out the skirts. This is MANY years ago. I was using a Lyman 11 lb bottom pour pot. I opened up the spout. This helped significantly. Then I learned that if I ran the lead hot (850 degrees) and heated the hollow base "pin" in between casts by holding it for a few seconds in the flame of a propane torch, I got perfect fill out. You have already discovered that it is important to keep a VERY hot sprue plate (by keeping as much molten lead on the plate as possible) so that the sprue is the last thing to harder. This leads to better bases.

So, make sure that your bottom pour spout is delivering enough lead fast enough (most modern pots will do this without modification), have it hot (850 should be enough) and use just a bit of tin (1/100 to 1/50 tin/lead) for better casting and you should get really excellent bullets (the old timers called this "tempering the ball"). I keep my lead feed screw loose and adjust as the pot empties so that I have a constant "head pressure" when bottom casting. I mostly cast holding the sprue plate under the spout instead of in contact with the spout. The RCBS mould rest works well to keep the mould at a consistent distance from the spout. Some moulds require contact with the spout to fill out properly (Why is that? Derned if I know. A bullet mould is kind of like a woman, they are all different and sometimes require a bit different treatment (and this is NOT constant[smilie=1:.

Cast a little, learn a little. Cast a lot, learn a LOT.:mrgreen:

It appears to me that you are on your way to being a successful big bullet caster (much more difficult than pistol bullets).

Dale53

[piwo]

Dale,
Thanks for the input. I have that big 58 minnie mould and will also try casting with it soon: maybe to day if I can. I pray I don't need the torch to "get em right"! :Fire:

I also never tried working two different moulds at the same time, and found I cast MUCH better in this manner. Once I get the moulds heated up, the process keeps me hopping, but allows a nice "set time" for the lead in the moulds, and whereas I needed to whack the handle to get the big maxi's to fall, a high percentage of them need no such encouragement when I cast in this manner. For whatever reason, the spread between high and low weights per projectile cast is smaller. Problem is, I need another large Lyman handle as I only have one, and I have several moulds that need them. I've gotten over two hundred maxi's done, and can't see casting hundreds more just because I can put that mould into play along with the TC Maxi mould. Oh well, why not.:drinks: