Brushed my molds teeth today

[Swamprat1052]

I bought a Lee 309-113 Soup Can mold a while back for my old Win. 94 30-30. That mold caused me more headaches than my ex-wife. I couldnt get the boolits out of the dang thing. I tried smoking it, no good. I bought some mold release, no good. And when I finally beat it enough to get em out I didnt get good fill out. I put it in a drawer and left it. The bullets I did get made didnt shoot good in my rifle either.

I kept reading about how good this bullet was so today I got it back out. I have read the posts on how to fix these molds and decided to try it. I cleaned all the old mold release out and drilled out a couple of good bullets I had made with it and did the toothpaste lapping on it. Then I heated it up and poured a few. Man what a difference. The boolits fell out of it!!! So after I heated it up I applied Bull Plate Lube as per Bull Shops instructions and I love that mold. Its the easiest, best pouring mold I've got. I know there are more Lee molds in my future now for sure.

I've looked up more loads on here and am gonna try some more powders. I sized the bullets down to .309 before. I dont have anything to slug the bore with, I am gonna order some from LBT. But what do you guys size your boolits for a Model 94 Winchester? I have a .310 die for my Star that came with it, I may try that if I dont get better accuracy this time. I know, I know I need to slug the bore and check it. Whats the best way to do that with a lever gun?

I know I've got lots of questions but you guys always have lots of answers and this old dawg is trying to learn new tricks.

Thanks,
Swamprat

[hotwheelz]

Could you direct me to the post or fill me in on this" toothpaste lapping" sounds intersting?? Thanks

[35remington]

I'd try the .310" sizer as this is certainly not too large. Many here go in the range of .310-.311", depending upon the throating of the rifle. With loads that use light charges of pistol/shotgun powders, the Soup Can is very accurate. I would suggest not shooting it too fast. A velocity of 1200-1600 fps will be most useful as it provides low recoil and good killing effect on small game.

There are so many users of this mould that report good accuracy that I predict it will shoot very well for you with just a little experimentation. You might want to try in the vicinity of 6.0 grains of W231, Red Dot, 700X or similar.

Relatively cheap to shoot and effective.

[IcerUSA]

Hotwheelz's , look in the stickies up in Classics and Stickies for Leementing , good info there for ya to read , and a lot of ways to polish your moulds , deburr and alot of other stuff , just remember to go slow and easy , cast a few to check and if you have to lap again with the new cast boolits and repeat .

When you get it to where it drops good you also increase out put somewhat as a benifit . :)

Keith

[Swamprat1052]

What Icer said, thats where I found it. I dont remember exactly, I read it a while back and just got around to trying it. Basically I just put 2 good cast boolits back in the mold and drilled a small hole about 1/2" to 3/4" deep in the boolits. Just be careful and dont drill into the mold. Then I screwed a sheet metal screw into the hole. Then put toothpaste in the cavity and on the bullet and used a drill and a phillips bit and turned the screw pretty slowly and polished the inside of the cavity. Thats it.

Swamprat

[stocker]

I'm not sure if anything is more important than starting with a really clean mould. I 've been using brake cleaner the last few years with so-so results. Sometimes a mould drops freely, sometimes it doesn't. My current procedure is to flush a mould twice with brake cleaner and then go at it with 99.5% denatured alcohol on a Q-tip. Perhaps it's the alcohol, perhaps the cotton polishing the mould surface but I am finding moulds cleaned this way, followed by a much lighter sooting than I previously used work much better. I rarely have to give a mould handle a rap to drop boolits. They usually fall free as the mould is opened. Don't really know what is the key difference only that I'm a happy caster by really being sure the mould is as clean as I can get it.

[EMC45]

Lapped a Lee mold a few weeks ago with Flitz metal polish and the darn works great now!

[EDK]

I used fine valve grinding compound while at work. The pipe fitters recommended it..and it worked great. USE A VERY LITTLE BIT...AND THEN WIPE MOST OF THAT OFF BEFORE YOU START. You want so little of whatever you lap with that you can barely feel it on the boolit you're lapping with.

I have lapped the full wadcutter 200 grain 44 mould from GLL (Thanks again Pal! I love this one!) once and the boolits fall out almost instantly and have improved in filling out, etc. also. The SLIM 44 was re-lapped this week, but I have to work overtime today and won't get to cast until tomorrow with it (and my Ranch Dog 432 265 delivered monday.) I've had some issues with getting the top band to fill out properly...and a 160 grain boolit hits about 4 inches low in my VAQUEROS. Both these 6 cavity group buy moulds are accurate in a variety of BLACK HAWKS and VAQUEROS.

:redneck: :cbpour: