To Lap or Beagle?

[ghh3rd]

I have a Lee 310 gr .44 mold that's dropping boolits at .429 - my cylinder throats are .432. The barrel is .430.

Is .003+ too much to beagle? Beagled boolits are actually out of round, but I've heard that they are still accurate , is that true?

Is .003+ too much to lap?

Thanks

[462]

Start with one layer of tape on each mould block, and add more if needed. Don't worry about out-of -round -- the boolits willl leave the throats round.

Lots of time involved, but you should be able to lap .003". Just leave the mould beagled, as long as you are able to get satisfactory results.

[jmsj]

ghh3rd,
In a previous post I told of how I had a 452460 mold that was dropping .452 x .447, first I lapped the mold and then beagled the mold w/ two layers of .002 aluminum tape. Believe it or not the boollits now drop .452 x .452 with the smallest measurment I can find is .4515.
Casting a little hotter (mold and alloy) and or adding more tin might help dropping a little bigger boolit. jmsj

[rhead]

Which to do? I would try the one that I could undo first. Sometimes my solutions do not work and I have to go back and try again.

[pdawg_shooter]

If you take that out of round bullet, force it through a round throat, then through a round bore with thousands of pounds of pressure,how out of round can it be?

[RayinNH]

I'm with rhead on this. Beagling doesn't alter the mold in any way. Should you acquire a different firearm in the future that takes a different size boolit,you have options...Ray

[Edubya]

If you beagle a mould that is producing good boolits that are accurate, you will hate yourself later. If you use the tape to make it larger, will the gas checks still fit and hold?
EW

[ghh3rd]

will the gas checks still fit and hold Now, that's a good question that I haven't considered.

These boolits are from my 6 cavity mold -- I received a 2 cavity that I will try (tonight?) to see if it's better.

[MtGun44]

Why will you 'hate your self ' if you beagle a mold??? It is easily reversed without any
permenant damage. I think that this is the primary advantage of beagling compared
to the difficult, time consuming and possibly damaging lapping process which is
irreversible.

Bill

[686]

how do you get the tape from around the cav. do you just cut it ?

[462]

686,
I've beagled and de-beagled 3 different moulds. Acetone will disolve the adheseve.

[mooman76]

how do you get the tape from around the cav. do you just cut it ?

The tape is placed between the two cavity halves to keep them from closing all the way. It is not cut to the shape of the mould. It is very thin and works well and you only start getting the fins with multiple layers which are easily removed.

[462]

Oops, wrong answer...can't read.

[a.squibload]

Mould adjustment, who woulda thunk it?
I love this site...

[missionary5155]

Good morning
1st do a Beagling Search HERE in this board...
But the tape is cut into THIN strips (Iuse 1/16 ) and placed around the cavity... NOT one large piece...
Lapping.. I have lapped numerous molds and so far the only ugly I saw was the grease grooves got a bit rounded. I have lapped GC slots, noses, and whole boolits with GREAT happiness. I did research first to learn the better ways but it just comes down to gowing slow. A drill press is a huge help but my first 5 lapped molds were down by hand or using a hand held drill with mold safely secured in a bench vise. Plain old valve lapping compound or metal polish. They seem to shoot as good as I can and far better than the undersized ones ever did.