A new Boolit on the scene, and Bullshops stuff

[Buckshot]

.............One of the board members here apparently on his own had Lee cut a 6 cavity mould. I don't know how many were done, nor how much they'll cost, but he forwarded one for me to try out.

http://www.fototime.com/D49EC2C6B162431/standard.jpg

Once again my poor ole ancient digital camera did a crappy job. Anyway, 3 slugs from his mould are on the left. Next to them is the 'Fat 30' group buy and then on the bitter end is a Lyman 314299.

The pot was full of 21 BHN alloy so the mould was tried with that. It was a joy to use, with the slugs falling like rain out of the smoked cavities. These new boolits weighed 189.3 to 190.2 grains for the double handfull I scaled. The noses miked .306" and the drive bands were right at .318". I don't know if he'd Leemented it before sending it or not. All I did was to flush it with carb cleaner, smoke the cavities and do the Bullshop sprueplate coating thingie.

Due to circumstances, I won't be able to shoot any until next Tuesday. Need to put my lathe back together and off vacation Friday :-(. I plan on trying them in a M91-30 at least to start. Then a difficult M1909 Argie Cav carb and a M44.

I'll have to buy this mould. It ain't going back!

This was also my first attempt at using Bullshop's sprueplate lube. IT WORKS!! :-). I thought I recalled reading how to use it so I lightly swabbed some on the top and bottom of the sprueplate, and also on top of the blocks.

Then I waited. I thought I was supposed to wait. Why I don't know. So it could suck into the metal? :-) After waiting one beer, I wiped the 3 surfaces off, heated the blocks and began to cast. I had the pot on warp factor 10 and the temp for the almost full pot was mid 800's.

I cast as fast as I could with a rag in a saucer of water, cooling the sprue on the way to dump, and the bottom of the blocks on the way back to re-fill. About mid-point I checked the temp and it said 925 so I dumped a handfull of the fat sprues back in and continued.

When I was done, the top and underside of the sprueplate looked like new. Ditto the tops of the blocks. Not one scratch, gall or piece of stuck lead! The bottom of the bloks had that faint brownish stain I always see cooling this way, but none on the sprueplate, a-tall. This is good stuff Maynard! You need to getchersef some, for sure!

...............Buckshot

[Bullshop]

Buckshot
You know I love you brother caster so please take no offence when I say,
another old dog learns a new trick. Ya see it can be done!!!
BIC/BS

[klausg]

Buckshot-
I too am a believer in Bullshop's product. I recently purchased my first Lee mould, something I did with a little trepidation having read many threads/stickies on Lee-menting etc. Well either I was really lucky and no one at Lee was hungover that day or Bullshop's product works miracles. More than likely it was a combination of the two. I followed a combination of Lee's & Bullshop's instructions, and in my first session with it I did around 600 boolits without a hiccup. I have since cast around another 800 still no problems. The alignment "vees", (something that looked very hokey to my eye), just kinda slide together w/out a hitch. That mould, 358-158-RF, is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Great stuff & cheap too!

-Klaus

[9.3X62AL]

.306" nose and .318" drive bands? I'll need one, too--and add a .316" sizer die plus .314" M-die spud to my wish list as well. This might be THE MOLD for the Fat Brit. To whoever developed this--I can have certified funds enroute in a heartbeat.

Does the GC shank use 30 or 32/8mm checks at .316"?

[Dale53]

I am also a believer in Bullshop's sprueplate lube. I won't be without it in the future. It is now a permanent fixture in my "tool box".

Dale53

[45 2.1]

Since I know who did this, is there any problem with posting the specs? I'm interested in whether this was cut for an alloy or had cut cavity dimensions along with nose and band diameters. The 375 GB is casting at 0.385" with a spec'd cavity cut of 0.384". I don't know about the rest of you, but I consider sizing down 0.006" a little excessive with the smaller crimp grooves that are on it. It would be nice to track LEEs compliance to print on this to see if it works better than what has been done.

[ron brooks]

I ordered some yesterday. I'll let you know how i does for me. I have some Saeco 4 cavity molds.

Ron

[Buckshot]

Since I know who did this, is there any problem with posting the specs? I'm interested in whether this was cut for an alloy or had cut cavity dimensions along with nose and band diameters. The 375 GB is casting at 0.385" with a spec'd cavity cut of 0.384". I don't know about the rest of you, but I consider sizing down 0.006" a little excessive with the smaller crimp grooves that are on it. It would be nice to track LEEs compliance to print on this to see if it works better than what has been done.

...............I don't have the spec's / print so that will have to come from the owner.

Re: the 375 GB. The design sheet was sent as Tom produced it with the exception that I deleted the GC shank measurement and inserted "Cut for Hornady GC".

Tom's original drawing showed a .382" drive band which was subsequently upped to .384" due to the number of folks wanting a 'Throat filler', or mentioning grooves of .382". This was NOT a mould for folks having a nice .377"/.378" groove.

Lee says their tolerance is a Minus Nothing (-.000) to a Plus of +.003". As I related in the 375 GB original thread, the 6.5 Kurtz was spec'd at .270" + .001" , and cast of lino I (my mould) had them dropping at .2714".

So did Lee take advantage of the +.001" AND did a bit more? That .2714" WOULD seem to indicate close to another thou in cavity ID, or did they shoot for the .270" and merely safely land within thier stated +.003" tolerance, which is probably the case?

...............Buckshot

[45 2.1]

I don't have the spec's / print so that will have to come from the owner.

I know the guy who did it and have reserved one myself, but don't have any more information on it.

Re: the 375 GB. The design sheet was sent as Tom produced it with the exception that I deleted the GC shank measurement and inserted "Cut for Hornady GC".

So did Lee take advantage of the +.001" AND did a bit more? That .2714" WOULD seem to indicate close to another thou in cavity ID, or did they shoot for the .270" and merely safely land within thier stated +.003" tolerance, which is probably the case?

The quandry here is that the mold was spec'd for a cavity diameter which has, at that time, little relevance to what its casting at. It would be nice to find whether it is the same as the cavity, smaller or larger and to what degree even with LEEs penchant of f*****g things up.

[Hip's Ax]

.306" nose and .318" drive bands? I'll need one, too--and add a .316" sizer die plus .314" M-die spud to my wish list as well. This might be THE MOLD for the Fat Brit. To whoever developed this--I can have certified funds enroute in a heartbeat.

Does the GC shank use 30 or 32/8mm checks at .316"?


Sounds Like I need one too. Looks like it might be just the ticket for my Mosin's, Argie, Enfield's and Arisaka's. If theres a buy I'm in. :-D

[Buckshot]

...............I'm gonna be lube-sizing up about 50 of'em today to shoot from a M91-30. One problem is that I only have a .314" size die, bummer. The lathe is still apart so I can't whip up a .316" die. I also have a M1909 Argie Cav carbine with a .302" bore X .314 groove that might benefit form these. It shot fairly well with Lyman 323470's sqooshed down to .314".

...............Buckshot

[sundog]

Buckshot, funny you should mention a .314 sizer. Yesterday afternoon it was just too hot, so like Saturday afternoon, I spent some time at the bench. I had cast some WQd beagled 314299 last winter and finally got around to prepping them with a honed out .314. They are .315+ and quite round and never touched the sizer. I came up with almost 50 of them worth keeping. Nose is ~.305. Should work real good in a No 4, eh? If this works good, I'll certainly be casting more just like them. sundog

[Buckshot]

...............I loaded up 50 of these slugs and decided to shoot them from one of the recent Big 5 Sporting Goods $79 M91/30 I'd bought. I loaded 10 rounds each over 10.0/Unique, 16.0/2400, 20.0/SR4759, 23.0/4198 + dacron and 30.0/3031 + dacron. It was about 100 degrees last Tuesday, so 10 round through required a bit of a wait for the next 10.

I sized'em .314" and loobed'em with a hi temp green stuff and Hornady 30 cal GC's. Alloy was 21 bhn. Even with a .306" nose they couldn't plumb the depths of the leade on this M-N. I had the GC and one drive band in the caseneck. The hotter the loads got, the tighter the rifle shot. The 30.0grs of 3031 was noticeably more 'bangy' then the Unique I started with, and it printed a smidge over a 1" group. The Unique made a round group but it was 1.75"

This was the 2nd outing for this rifle and it did shoot better with these slugs then the last time, but no one holers. I probably chose the wrong rifle to use as I have no history with this one. A better choice probably would have been the M1909 Argie I mentioned in a previous post to this thread.

Before I try that rifle I really should have a .316" size die for these slugs. What this slug is at .306"x.318" (21 bhn alloy) is a "Fatter, Fatter 30" :-).

..............Buckshot