Just Cast First Bullets

[Copperhead]

Hello folks. I just cast my first batch of bullets. I got 25 good ones out of 50 tries. I'll work on that! I used a Lee 10lb pot.

I'm casting for an 1895 Nagant revolver. The barrel slugs at .313. I used a Lee .311 mold. The bullets came out at .312-.313. I think these will be good as I've been buying .312 bullets and they shoot well.

My question is what is the best size bullet for a barrel, when they're exactly the same size? Thanks.

[madcaster]

Sir,
No opinion on the size,but preheat your mould,you will have a much better percentage of good bullets!

[lwknight]

The consensus is that a soft-medium boolit should be about 0.001 larger than the groove dia.
I have not had luck with undersized boolits at all.
I know that different alloys come out different in the slug size and the sizer die as well.
I believe that you should slug with soft lead to be most accurate. Alloy with antimony will for a fact spring back slightly.

[ghh3rd]

Welcome to the forum.

[SciFiJim]

Copperhead, do a search for "beagling a lee mold". With that process you might be able to get another .001 to .002 out of your mold. If the boolit is exactly bore size you will get leading, if exactly groove size, maybe maybe not. Try to shoot for at least .001 over groove diameter.

[Crash_Corrigan]

Welcome to insanity central. If you add more tin/antimony etc to the alloy you will get a fatter boolit. Keeping your alloy at an even temperature will keep your boolits the same weight and size. Do you lube with LLA?

[WILCO]

Welcome to the forum.

Ditto for me.

[Greg in Malad]

In a revolver, size the bullets to fit the cylinder throats. If the barrel is bigger than the cylinder throats you can ream the throats to match the barrel. Or do like me,
load some ammo and shoot it, if it shoots good, go with it and don't change anything.

[RP]

dont forget to save your first boolits kind of like the first dollar made in a new business. just kidding good luck to you

[jdgabbard]

What kind of brass and dies are you using for the Nagant? Are you tapering the neck down after you seat the boolit to seal the throat? Or are you using h&r brass, etc...

[Copperhead]

Thanks for all the info guys. I value it. I used Alox to lube the bullets.

I'm using Starline 32-20 brass. In that this brass's head rim is .010 thicker than Nagant brass, I shaved .010 off the revolver's abuttment piece.

I'm using Lee Nagant dies. I haven't done anything to the case neck after seating the bullet. I'm going to look at crimping once I get everything else down.

How, and for how long, do you all heat your moulds? Thanks again.

[Tazman1602]

Copperhead get a small $10 hot plate and run it a bit better than low and put your mold on it while the lead gets hot. I usually take mine to around 300 degrees and no waiting, no squiggly bullets.

OR, you can dip a corner of your Lee mold in the molten lead for 10-15 seconds to heat it up, if the bullets come out frosty you've got it too hot just let it cool a bit.

Welcome to the forum!

[462]

Copperhead,

Once you know the throat and bore dimensions, load a dummy round, pull the boolit and measure it. I had three sets of Lee dies, in three different calibers, in which the seating dies were downsizing the boolit to jacketed dimensions. You may cast the correct size boolit, but as it's loaded the die may be making it smaller. You want the loaded boolit to be at least .001" larger than the largest throat.

The Lee dies have been replaced with Lyman. No more downsizing problems.

[Copperhead]

Okay guys, thanks for the help. I haven't had time to work on this until recently. As it turns out, I was simply putting too much powder in the case. My cast bullet was only 5 gr heavier than the bullet I initially used; however, I had to from 3.5 gr of Trail Boss down to 2.7! The loads are now consistent in speed.

[Tazman1602]

Welcome to the forum man! If you had 50% sucess rate you're doing better than I the first time I cast. Preheat your mold and slug your barrel to find exactly what it is. General consensus it about .001 over barrel size is good so if you can get good fill out and get to that they'll shoot better.

....regardless cast some, load some, see what happens you might be surprised.........

WELCOME!

Art