My first casts! Some Q's

[zombie480]

Hello all, first time newbie caster here have some q's! I casted my very first set of bullets today, .475 400gr using a Lee 2 cavity mold 476-400 RF and wheel weights. I don't think I turned out one pristine looking bullet, most turned out pretty ugly looking. Some questions:

1) It's the first time I reloaded brand new brass, seating my bullets the fit was very tight, you could practically see groove bands through the brass in pics! Is this normal?

2) I'm using a Lee 3 piece die set. I couldn't find a Lee Factory Crimp Die for .480 but found a Redding Profile Crimp Die for 480/475, it's the first time I used this. Does the crimp look sufficient enough or should I've just used the combo seating/crimp Lee die?

3) I used Johnson's Paste Wax as my lube. I wiped on a generous amount and let it dry. Good to go?

My load is 15.5g 2400. Are these fine for plinking/range ammo? I usually reloaded 44 mag using store bought bullets, this would be my first time shooting the 480 and using bullets I casted myself, just want to make sure I did ok. Thanks for any info!

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4crfm/cast1.jpg

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4crfm/cast2.jpg

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4crfm/cast3.jpg

[462]

Zombie480,
Welcome.

The wrinkles indicate a mould that is not hot enough. Pre-heat the mould prior to casting. One method is to set the mould on top of the pot as the lead is melting.

The matter of the boolit being a tight fit may be due to the case mouth not being expanded enough. Load a dummy round, pull it and check for shaved lead, and measure the boolit...it should be the same size as it was prior to loading. If it's smaller, you'll have to reassess your setup.

I got rid of all my Lee handgun dies because the seater die was swaging down the boolits, regardless of the amount of mouth expansion. Now, I have Lyman dies and no problems.

Also, seating and crimping in one step may cause lead shaving and swaging.

Can't help with the lube and the load, though.

[happy7]

Zombie, Congradulations on your first bullets. 462 gave you good advice. Particularly, your mold is too cold. If the sprue is not taking a few seconds to solidify, it is too cold. Also, it must be clean. Crimp looks ok. You know it is not enough if you get bullet jump under recoil. But it is hard to tell by eyeballing it. As far as the bullet appearing tight, that is not unusual. 462 gave you good advice, but if you are not shaving lead, then practically speaking, if you can chamber the round ok, which appears to be the case from the photo, and if you are satisfied with the accuracy, then I wouldn't sweat it.

[sisiphunter]

agreed on cold mold and try smoking those cavities. just use a lighter, I find a bbq lighter the easiest or a match works too. just hold the flame in that cavity and get a nice lite coating of black soot in the cavity. I found lots of wrinkles like yours in the boolit, but once smoked, it turned out great boolits. I think the flame burns off any left over oils, etc and leaves the cavity nice and clean of minut voids. Dont worry about wiping out the soot, I leave my cavities black and they turn out great boolits, consistent too.

Matt

[Three44s]

Your crimps look good. The casing on the left looks a little short. If you trim your casings to a uniform length, it helps to make your crimps more uniform since your boolits will be seated more uniform to the crimp groove.

What others have said about the cast boolits themselves. Just add one item: I add a bit of tin for better fill out along with more heat.

Welcome to the world of casting!!!

Three 44s

[Bret4207]

Do NOT smoke the mould . That's a last resort fix. You need to cast faster, stop eyeballing the dropped boolits and fill the mould with hot lead. Every second that mould is empty it's cooling. Make sure the mould is CLEAN. The wrinkles will disappear when the mould is clean and hot enough for good fillout.

[cbrick]

zombie, what I see is some pretty good looking bullets for a first time caster, great start. In your first photo I also see what appears to be 8 different case lengths thus 8 different crimps. A different crimp on each round will certainly effect groups and could be putting a crush on some bullets while barely touching others. Didn't you trim the brass? Any round that gets a crimp needs uniform brass length for a uniform crimp.

Rick

[docone31]

The wrinkles are not enough heat on the mold.
I put Kitty Litter on my melt, then when I cast, I preheat the mold on the Litter. I set it there for a while.
Clean the mold with Mineral Spirits. Do not smoke. With a clean mold, you will not have to.
Six second rule on the sprue freezing! Less and the mold is too cool, slower and the mold is too hot.
I let new molds sit for two days in Mineral Spirits, then cast away.
That is a large mold, and it should come to heat pretty fast. If it is too cool when you start, let the castings sit in the cavities longer than you would. The heat will transfer to the mold.
I do not crimp. With new cases, I "deprime/size" then load. Once they are chamber fired it will be different.
Lookin good though.

[onondaga]

If the Lee Charging Die included in your set is one designed for also case mouth expanding, that is a good feature. However, that feature varies by caliber and I'm not sure what you have in your caliber. You can take it apart and check the bevel of the expander and see or call Lee and ask. The Lee charging die should be adjusted to expand case mouth if it will do this for cast bullets. I measure case mouth outside diameter after sizing and then set the charging die to expand the outside diameter .005 to .010" or what ever it takes for the bullet to be able to just sit in the mouth inside the edge by hand placing it there. You can give up fiddling with the charging die and use their universal expanding die--I actually like that better and my press has enough stations to accommodate it. The brass bulging marks you don't like are really a problem only when you can't chamber a round easily. That is just aesthetics and not a practical worry if function is fine--remember, you are using used brass and reloading it, you are not the new ammunition manufacturer's manager responsible for "pretty"!

Your castings are cool and wrinkled. more than one thing can cause this. Cold mould as mentioned can be caused by not preheating for the first few bullets but beyond that too long between casting one to the next mould filling will cause cooling wrinkles also. Increase casting cycle speed. Slow pouring speed from your ladle or spout will cause cause wrinkles that look like cold casting wrinkles. Seldom mentioned as cause for cold casting is alloy stream length from your ladle or spout to the mould sprue gate. A long stream will deliver colder alloy to the mould. Try to keep your stream length constant from 1/8 to 1/4 inch long at most. Alloy temp of your pot may need to be increased higher. The balance of mould temp, alloy temp and casting cycle is important. Bullet diameter is also affected by thermo-dynamics. What your pictures show is cold bullets that have the largest diameter that your mould will produce. You can raise temp and quicken your cycle all the way to hot bullets that appear frosted and they will be smaller in diameter by as much as .003 inches. The higher heat and then cooling shrinks the casting. Lower heat gives a larger casting. You can use this to advantage as necessary in casting your own bullets. I have a .458 mould that will only cast .458 bullets when I cold cast, hot casting with that mould produces .456 bullets. So I adjusted my cycle and temp to get the bigger bullets that I desired.

I recommend changing to a hot casting cycle and getting frosted bullets deliberately and see how they load and shoot for you. There is an advantage to the frosted look-- your bullet lube will stick much better to the frosted surface and they will bulge your brass less.

I am a retired casting analyst from a precious metal alloy manufacturer and hope my old skills can help you. You are welcome to personal message me here on the forum to exchange phone numbers and discuss this if you desire.

[badbob454]

they look good enough for plinking , if thats what a big bore does he he likewise a great first try i thing also too cool a mold , (waiting too long before pours )or not hot enough lead also make sure you have no zinc ww's in the mix , this will give bad results ..

[mpmarty]

Do not smoke the mold. Doing so will plug vent lines and reduce the size of the boolit as well as cause fill out problems from inadequate venting.

[fryboy]

i cant disagree with a thing written above but i will add that not getting all the oil off of the mold can also cause the wrinkles ( smoking is the misaligned fix for this btw ..meaning it does often work but it as said just mask the problem) part of why i say all that is the mold blocks themself's ... aluminum , is a very open pored metal that oxidizes very quickly ( by way ) as they are cutting it it opens fresh pores that instantly get filled with the cutting lubricant and it often does take a bit to clean them ( hence docones soak and various other's comments about well cleaned ) it could just be a cold mold or alloy or all three combined , but yes they look great for ur first attempt , i cant comment on ur load as i dont load for this caliber but the first crimp on the left is a lil severe the rest look decent , i also know some of what appears to be height difference is optical and at least one case is a lil canted ..... umm mite be too late but has some one told u this is and can be addicting ? ( just want to make sure u were warned of that ;) ) now go shoot those puppies and let us know how they did ( and umm repeat !! )