Two or three things I know for sure

[Boolseye]

I've been coming around long enough that I am starting to see some of the same issues repeat frequently. I belong to another forum where there's a section called, "they all do that, sir". No need to re-invent the wheel.

–If you have a Lee 9mm TL mold that's key-holing, try another mold.

-If your bullets are wrinkled, heat the mold up more.

Others?

[TexasGrunt]

I have some molds that no matter how hot they are the bullets will be wrinkled. A light coating of smoke and the problem is solved. Also make sure there's no oil in the cavities as this will also cause wrinkles.

[runfiverun]

for a while my sig line was your mold is too cold.
mold temperature is the key to all of this lead stuff.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

one of them is covered in FAQ.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?208-Frequently-Asked-Questions
maybe we gotta find a good thread about 9mm TL to add to FAQ

[bluejay75]

I keep a small bottle of dish soap with about a quarter simple green. An electric toothbrush and a few scrubbings before my molds hit the hotplate for the first two or three castings have cut down wrinkled bullets tremendously.

[centershot]

I keep a small bottle of dish soap with about a quarter simple green. An electric toothbrush and a few scrubbings before my molds hit the hotplate for the first two or three castings have cut down wrinkled bullets tremendously.

I agree 100%! Scrub that sucker with a toothbrush, some Dawn and hot water BEFORE you ever pour lead into it!

[Whitespider]

No matter how much you think you know... well.......
*

[44MAG#1]

The internet has caused many to become lazy. They don't want to do any thinking or testing. Just get on a shooting forum and ask questions.
When I started one had to dig for themselves for information and do a lot of testing. No internet and not many one could ask for help.
Log on and lay back and wait for the answers.

[runfiverun]

I read Dennis Marshal's article on antimonial dendrites forming on the surface of a cast object so many times one afternoon, trying to understand what he was saying, I gave myself a 3 day Migraine.

even reference books on casting were few and far between and you had to make the most of the information in them.
it was a godsend when I seen 2 little 3/4" by 1.5" advertisements in a reloading magazine and could make a [long distance] phone call and speak to someone [Art Green/Bill Ferguson] about casting alloys.

[RogerDat]

This internet thingy makes it so you can get lots and lots of opinions, and a few more opinions after that. More than one way to skin a cat or cast a certain bullet or solve a problem. I know you have to examine online information and opinions but then do some of your own work to figure out what applies best to your situation.

I know for a fact that if I Google a reloading or casting question at least some of the first page of possible answers will lead here.

Tinsel fairy is not a good fairy.

[upnorthwis]

Too many casters are scrapping boolits due to things they think are a problem. Frosted, insignificant wrinkles, weight is not the same as it says on the box, weight varies by .1 gr, 1 gr, 2 gr, BHN is off, too big, .001 out of round. And they're shooting cans with a 9MM pistol at 10 yds. I always use the same answer, Shoot'em first.

[WickedColt]

No matter how much you think you know... well.......
*
Seriously!!

[sutherpride59]

I'm one of the younger fellows here on this forum and I think what a lot of people forget is that most of us are in a place where we either A. don't have a range in close proximity or B. can't afford to go shoot every week because the range charges too much.

so why not ask questions and make sure everything is as it should be before you drive 45 minutes to your local range and pay $25 to fine out that your 9mm is leading like crazy cuz someone said just out out and try it. Now you wasted a quarters of a hundred dollars to find out your lead is too soft and you still have to drive 45minutes home with your head down angry that you wasted all that time.

i know most of my questions are derived from searching this forum and finding no real good answers to my question. Heck just yesterday I was toying around with the idea of using a soft 200 grain hollow point in my 45lc and using cream of wheat as a filler/ gas check hoping that this might be a good way to go about it. Well there are a ton of threads on using cream of wheat, heck there was a thread from 2012 asking how to use it as a filler. I read the whole thread and no one Once said this is how to use it in a bootle neck and this is how to do it in a straight walled cartridge, they told him their success with it but never addressed just how compressed it should be or how much case to fill for a straight walled casing. I finally after reading enough just assume you have to measure how far your boolit is going to seat and add enough to go slightly past that point so that the load is lightly compressed.

It's hard to research something out there when no one gives a good answers. Look through the thread and tell me where it was well explained.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?157382-Cream-of-Wheat-Basics

i think there are a lot of people who just miss the question all together but like to brag about how well it works for them. Remember though if someone post a "stupid question" like why are my boolits wrinkled, you don't have to post an answer. No one is paying anyone on here for answers so just ignor it and read the next thread or answer it.

[44MAG#1]

You know, you are exactly right. It costs money to do those things. But, and one not so young, when I was doing a lot of experimenting I was making a lot less money too. Had a small daughter, and had house payment, car payment etc..
Sometimes one will have to bite the bullet at times. I have done it many times.
While some will do some experimenting before asking some just want to be spoon fed. If you aren't a spoon-fed type more power to you.

[Blackwater]

What a lot of wisdom and practicality this OP has produced! Only thing I can add, is that no matter how much you learn by reading, you've STILL go to learn to put it all to use, and that means actual casting. As an old Judge I knew once was fond of quoting, "Even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then if he just keeps rooting." And that's pretty much how I taught myself to cast, early on - by simply casting, and trying all sorts of variations to SEE what worked and what didn't with the lead I was using (WW's) and the molds I had (Lee). And nothing works like experience! I was dogged, and determined to cast better bullets so I could get better accuracy. I was learning to shoot fairly well, and knew I needed the best bullets I could produce to get better. So .... I just kept experimenting. It's amazing how quickly you can learn to cast good bullets if you just don't keep trying to make the same old way work when it doesn't want to.

Read all the stuff I could find on casting, but sure wish I'd had the benefit of all the knowledge that we have here on this board! It would have shortened my learning time considerably. But .... lessons you learn yourself, and can SEE the results of, are always the best teachers. I still don't claim to be an "expert." After all, an "ex" is a "has-been" and a "spurt" is a "big drip," and I keep learning all the time. I suspect the wisest among us do the same?

And like Run, I sometimes have trouble "getting" the more technical stuff, but ... I keep trying anyway. We have a LOT of folks here with specific technical knowledge, who can explain even more than we really WANT to know sometimes, but I for one am thankful for these sages! Even if I can't "get" all that they tell us, I still keep TRYING to learn. It's the only way, really, that we CAN progress and get better and better, and thus, produce better and better (and more and more effective) bullets and loads. And that matters, and it matters more than some of us really suspect.

One can only shoot as well as our ammo will let us, and accuracy will always be the point of shooting any single-projectile firearm. BPCR was a real test for me, but I got pretty passable at that, once I learned a few critical things about casting those big, heavy bullets. The learning never ends in any endeavor. We just keep raising our standards so we keep striving to reach the new goals. That's how all progress works, I think.

[Harter66]

I remember my first pass here the grief I caught , among other things there's no such thing as an 06' with an 8.5 twist .........Unless it was a special order or something ..... Read the stickies ....... Lordy how I wished for a read thread counter to go with the post counter .......... Turns out I had a swollen bbl where the powder curve hit over a long history of shooting heavies before I got it .

Just for the record key holing TL bullets can be helped by harder alloy , it worked in an XD40 I had .

Throw the new guy a bone , sometimes it takes the same answer 3 different ways for one to stick and make sense .

Size bigger it'll stop the leading
I'm 316 in a 312 throat and the lead starts 4" in front of the chamber
It's your lube
Full star at the muzzle and the last 3" are lead free also
Your wrong read the stickies
312 at the end of the case 300x 309 slug in from the breach end 6" , .299x306 at the muzzle why is the now knurled to hold more lube 316 bullet doing this ?

Eventually someone read something that clicked and suggested lapping .
Sure enough , 6 maybe 8 fire laps and the squish from the unswollen part at the chamber end was gone and .312 shot well until I got to the next bug .

Was all of the berating​ necessary , no I think not . Did it frustrate me , hell yes it did . You read 200 threads about 30-06 leading and try 10 solutions 2 of which make it worse , describe every detail and get sent to the stickies.....

[runfiverun]

the sticky's IMO are great for building a good base knowledge of problems and possible cures.

i'll tell a little story about how a couple of fairly experienced casters can be flummoxed by things until the micrometer comes out and things really get measured and weighed.

Btroj and Myself bought a CZ-75 about a month apart.
it was one of the 6 different pistols I measured when I designed the HM-2 9mm mold.
Brad knew about it and snagged a mold too.
we both go to casting with a fairly similar alloy, are using the same secret lube recipe, sizing to the same diameter, and using the same powder,primers, and cases.
the only actual differences between the two loads is.
1. 1 point in alloy bhn.
2. he was using .3grs more powder than I was.
he had continuous leading.
he even matched my alloy exactly and dropped down to my exact load.
he still had leading.
hmm start measuring the brass throughout the load development.

he is also using a Dillon 550, a LEE carbide die, the 38 smith powder funnel, Dillon seat and separate taper die.
exact same die set-up I'm using also.
still he has leading
harder alloy.
still leading.
slug the barrel.
same.

finally he pulls the Barrel and takes a picture down the chamber end of the barrel into the throat after Gear mentions maybe it's his throat.
possible... but why?
anyway.
as soon as he posted the pictures it was very simple to see what his problem was.
one week later, his barrel is back, installed and the basic load is tried.
nomo problem and his function and accuracy are now on par with my pistol.

[RogerDat]

Some people need to feel like they really understand something before proceeding. Some need some encouragement. Don't see any harm in providing it by answering a question if I can offer a potential answer or encouragement. I can after all ignore them if the question somehow offends my sensitivities.

Lot of different levels of experience and knowledge. Lot of that is way over my level or ability to easily understand. Some with less whom Maybe I can support or encourage. For my part my hats off to the folks that make those YouTube videos that have helped me understand a tool or technique. Or those that have given an attaboy or link to a topic I didn't know I needed to understand. Or just a "looks like you need to...." that pointed me in the right direction. I figure at least some of my posts need to be a pay it forward of those.

[44MAG#1]

There is nothing wrong asking for help or giving help. It just seems to me that many, to me that is, may just want to know without doing any, or much, leg work themselves.

[RogerDat]

There is nothing wrong asking for help or giving help. It just seems to me that many, to me that is, may just want to know without doing any, or much, leg work themselves. Casting is for most of us a fairly isolated activity. Not a whole lot of us around. Locally outside of this forum I know of two. One casts and reloads a few 30-06 for hunting and I don't know him so much as see him a few times a year at dog agility events. A second one I never met but who has a long standing arrangement to collect wheel weights from a local shop.

I think this forum for many takes the place of that experienced person who is there in person walking them through the process and teaching them enough to get started. The mentor that shows them how and explains why until they understand it.

Some of us really like doing the research to know more about it but I also think a lot just want to know how to do it. Some want to be carpenters, others just want to learn enough to follow the directions and make a decent shed to meet a practical need.

I think the forum is richer for having the people who want to master the subject as well as the people just getting started or who are more casual casters and reloaders. The range of knowledge and experience can at times be sort of difficult to work through.

[44MAG#1]

MR. Dat,

You are correct in what you say. When I started casting I didn't know anyone that did currently cast and only one that in the past cast. I worked at it on my own. Learned to cast good quality bullets that worked and shot plenty of them. Also bought cast too. Still cast bullets occasionally but buy some too. It really isn't hard to cast good bullets. Started reloading in 1970 and had almost no help. Experimented along the way, learned, read, and forged ahead. Learned a lot too.
I guess it made me feel like I accomplished something that I did probably with maybe ten percent help if that much.

[robg]

The more I learn the more I realise I know nothing .

[6622729]

Exactly what I do with new molds. Then smoke them, bring them up to temp and start casting. The other night a needed a drop of oil on the sprue plate. It migrated into the cavity and of course the wrinkles began so I started over. Scrubbed with Dawn, lightly smoked, heated it up and first cast was perfect.


I agree 100%! Scrub that sucker with a toothbrush, some Dawn and hot water BEFORE you ever pour lead into it!

[rmark]

'The other night a needed a drop of oil on the sprue plate. It migrated into the cavity and of course the wrinkles began so I started over'

I know how you feel.

[Harter66]

I for one can honestly say I approached casting from 180° out the wrong angle .
I read the Lyman 48th manual about 3 times and it still sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher with a few clear words that were mostly this is an expensive facet of reloading .........

I stumbled around for about yr and then I read some passing phrase like you have to think of it as pouring heat , that unlocked the casting closet and pouring got much easier .

Not long after I got that door open and got past what I thought I wanted to do I realized that the shear volume of knowledge was building on itself and growing very fast . Now there is a level of skills here for the casual Saturday plinker that wants to kill the 7-10 yd bull and for the 1000 yd competition master . There's a level for the gallery load pop can guy and 3000 fps moose slayer . Who'd have thought that a cast bullet would consistently out run and out shoot a good jacketed​ ?

Point being that for the average Joe that jump from a standard 38 Special to a full bore 35 Whelen is a long jump if you don't have a 35 Remington to perfect in between. All the basics apply but how much does a does a 32 H&R have in common with a 308 ? Challenges can result from switching from an SAA to a carbine in the same cartridge .
Those with the experience often are way over the beginners head and sometimes they get too detailed and frustrate the guy that is somewhere in between .

[dverna]

I find people here are very helpful. Occasionally I will PM someone on a particular subject I believe they can help me with.

One negative, is the search feature is a bit frustrating....but it is likely me. Another is those stickies that are much too long for a reasonable person to wade through.

[Boolseye]

I will run a couple searches, if I come up dry I'll ask a question. The search engine does not always get you there, it's true. There are no stupid questions, only unasked ones. An attempt to find the info first in old threads seems wise before throwing out a question that has been answered 50 times before, however.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mold maker]

I started casting sinkers in "58 and reloading in "62. Both led to boolits in "63. There was only one other reloader that I knew of, and had to learn from what little I could find in print and the mistakes I made. There wasn't a LGS and I had to mail order everything I needed from those tiny magazine ads.
Fast forward 20 years and I'm still floundering with a massive lack of knowledge. Then a local guy I had known most of my life, opened a bate shop with a few shooting supplies. Turns out I was among many others that were learning to reload but didn't talk about it.
The bate shop quickly added shooting and reloading supplies. Suddenly there were dozens of like minded folks eager to swap info and experiences and the counter became standing room only.
Still the manuals and gun rags were our only source of info and we were asking questions that weren't being answered. Forward another 15 years and as an "experienced" caster and hand loader with many years of making all the mistakes, I thought I was fairly well knowledgeable. Then I discovered the PC and an internet connection in the next town. I had to wait my turn to set in the coveted seat and find info that I had no idea existed.
Now I can sit in my recliner and scan the net on my big flat screen. One of the first things I found was the beginnings of the forums where like minded folks gathered to discuss their interests just like the gun counter at "Charlies Bate Shop". I quickly discovered I had led a sheltered life and had just scratched the surface of Boolit Casting and hand loading.
I've learned much more here from the interaction, and reading of others experiences, than in my whole previous lifetime of floundering on my own. To all of those that have explained and freely given me the benefit of their knowledge, I am truly indebted. For all those that had to endure my "dumb" questions and statements, I apologize.
Yes there is some misinformation, but there are others that quickly dispel it. Yep just like any other group there is BS to wade through, but that's life. No where else is there
this wealth of knowledge to be found, at one place, and it's free.

[Boolseye]

I think another primary point is to avoid getting cocky or complacent.
Whenever I feel like I've really got it together, that's the time to return to the fundamentals and get humble. Be it a matter of feeling overly confident in my abilities or my beliefs, I am always close to trouble when my pride starts taking over.

Re. Searches, the google search engine is extremely advanced, and will often get you there where the Cast Boolits search fails. It will generally point you back to cast boolits for the threads or posts you're searching for (assuming you're comfortable throwing that search out to google. I don't really care, they already know everything about me anyway).

[EDG]

On another forum a guy posted that he had just rechambered his .220 Swift to the AI version.

His question was "Can I use the existing seating die to seat bullets in the .220 Swift AI case?" I asked if he had done any planning when he started the project. He said no he just rechambered the rifle. He said he would not know if the die would work until he knew. I asked if he ever considered drawing the 2 cartridges at 10X scale and then laying one on top of the other.
He complained that the seating die would cost an extra $51 if he could not use the old seater. I am not sure he even deserved help or the answer.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

regarding 220 Swift AI...

I see lots of questions/threads like this on facebook gun/reloading groups. Much of the social media crowd expect instant and simple answers to questions that can't be answered that way. I can only assume this person had a gunsmith (or other?) do the rechamber work, because I would suspect anyone who is up to trying to rechamber a rifle is sure up to trying to mod a seat die...whether they are capable or not, LOL.

on a similar note, I really like Bonanza or Forster benchrest seat dies. I wanted one for a 257Rx6.5 jap custom, but didn't want to pay the price of a custom made die. I found a 7mm STW seater for cheap and did a couple mods, shorting the sleeve to account for shorter cartridge and made a brass insert for the neck/shoulder area from a scrap 7mm case.