1st Boolits - Heavy Boolits

[Ido356]

I am now offically a caster of my own boolits,lol.

Thanks to all the ones that came before me and filled this forum with loads of info, I had no problems getting started and had very few rejects in my fist batch.

I do have 1 quesition; my lee 2 cav. 356-120 tc mold is producing 127/128 grain boolits, is this normal for lee molds or is this the PB (range scrap),(the size is also slightly oval .3565 to .3585)?

[Pepe Ray]

Ido356;
There are several possible reasons. First check for complete closure of the mold. The problem will be very TINY.
ALSO any and all molds rarely produce exactly the advertised weight. IT ALL DEPENDS!!
Pepe Ray

[zuke]

Welcome to the "hobby"!
It all depend's on the alloy you use.
WW and pure lead have different specific gravity's so there will be a slight differance

[MT Chambers]

Bullets should not be oval!!! Most molds are given a weight amount based on Lyman #2 alloy, softer alloys such as yours will be heavier, harder alloys will be lighter, it's normal, try your mold with pure lino or other hard mix.

[Harter66]

1st question.
Is the long oval side on the mould or the parting line?

If its on the parting line its equipment, if on the mould side it is likely to be mould closure. Lee-menting might fix it for you.

[Shiloh]

My boolits all run a bit heavy. It is the alloy. Lyman says there molds are a lot closer using Lyman #2 alloy.

Shiloh

[Ido356]

1st question.
Is the long oval side on the mould or the parting line?

The long side is the mould depth not the parting line lee-menting was already on my mind,lol.

I was thinking that mould weights were general data and will vary with each mould and pb makeup, doesn't bother me because I am working loads up from scratch.

[Wolfer]

I shoot a pretty soft alloy so all my molds drop heavy. Some of my molds sometimes drop slightly out of round. My worst is a lee 452-255RF, it's 452 on the parting line and 457 across the mold. This is the most accurate boolit or bullet I've fired from my 45 new Vaq. I size to 452 now but didn't always and they worked fine then. I also have the 452-252 SWC which throws a perfect boolit but it's not as accurate as my out of round mold. I know lee would take it back but if it ain't broke I'm not gonna fix it.

[runfiverun]

lapping will definatly help.
especially when you find out your 9m wants a 358 boolit.

[mdi]

The mold manufacturers cut their molds to produce a given weight with the alloy they use. Not necessarily the same alloy you'll be using, so weights will vary. I would just make sure the mold mating faces are clean and cast away, a few grains heavier/lighter won't make a lot of difference...