NOE - What alloy used for advertised weight?

Just bought a 453-198 SWC, NOE copy of H&G 68. Typical of NOE, quality is superb, sprue cuts easily, bullets almost jump out when the mold is opened. Problem is bullets are dropping about 217 grains using range lead. My old Lee 6 cavity was only about 2 grains heavier than advertised when using range lead. Noticed the base band on the NOE mold is quite thick, was wondering if I should send it back and have the mold milled down to reduce the base band height (and weight) or if this much variation is normal. No idea as to the composition of my alloy, bullets recovered are mostly jacketed, maybe 25% are alloy (mine or commercial hard cast). Could alloy a bit if needed but prefer to use the readily available, and free, range lead.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. If you want them lighter you could add some more tin & antimony, but at added cost. Just load them and shoot them. Several of my NOE mold cast a little heavier than advertised, they shoot just fine.

Expect they will be fine as is, but wanted a little lighter to minimize recoil. Have arthritis and need to keep recoil as mild as possible. Going to try some this week, it may prove to be a non issue.

Most mold listed weights are with Lyman #2 alloy. Range lead almost always has more lead in it, so will weight more per bullet.

If it shoots good, don't mess with it.

NOE molds are typically made for COWW alloy. If you look at the NOE bullet drawings, at the bottom, it's listed along with the weight.

Lyman molds typically use Lyman #2

RCBS molds typically use linotype

Lee molds typically use COWW alloy.

Did you mean the NOE 453-198 H&G 130 clone?

http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/product...roducts_id=663

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yodogsandman

NOE molds are typically made for COWW alloy. If you look at the NOE bullet drawings, at the bottom, it's listed along with the weight.

Lyman molds typically use Lyman #2

RCBS molds typically use linotype

Lee molds typically use COWW alloy.

---

This.

That's the one.

If you have no idea what your alloy is, it's hard to tell where the problen is.

Indoor ranges are mostly jacketed pistol w/pure lead cores. That will increase weight and reduce diameter, a little. If the mold casts larger than .453 or longer than .560, that will be where the rest of the weight came from.

The program that draws the bullets, is pretty accurate but, the alloy, size and length has to be right.

Frank

I use COWW and the weight is dead nuts as advertised....
Denny

COWW as previously stated.
PJ

I have a stash of COWW and next time I cast will try them and check the weight. Apparently my range lead is much softer than I realized. If they work okay with range lead will probably go with it as I tend to be a bit on the frugal side. Hell, who am I kidding, I tend to be a LOT on the cheap side if I can get away with it. I knew these would be heavier, was just surprised at how much heavier.

My alloy is 50/50 COWW/SOWW and my mold NOE mold casts at 215gr. I assumed the extra weight was from using the SOWW.

I have a Saeco 357 SWC that cast with Linotype it drops at 155, if I use soft range scrap they drop at 167. With light loads they all shoot great.

Load and shoot.

Carl

Call them and ask

To further cloud the issue, the mold is the 453-200 SWC copy of the H&G 68. Just realized this when I looked at the box it came in, much more reliable than my memory. Consulting the stickies in the Lead Alloy section the difference between WW and pure lead is about 4% in weight, so definitely casting too heavy. Before doing anything else will size and shoot a few, if they work fine (expect they will) think I will not mess with success.

UPDATE: Loaded and shot it, only difference was need to back seater stem out to get correct OAL. Shot as good as the Lee copy. It may be heavier than I wanted but it casts and shoot so nice decided not to mess with success. Was going to cast some from COWW to see difference but decided it didn't matter. Of the over 2K I cast so far only rejects were my fault, let mold cool down too much waiting for the pot to come up to temp after adding alloy to the melt. NOE makes a really nice mold.

Attachment 143895
It's the second line of text below the drawings.

Just for reference, I generally cast with my own version of Taracorp Magnum (Hardball) alloy, approximately 92% Pb, 6% Sb and 2% Sn or as close as I can get to these proportions. With this alloy, I find that the majority of my boolits weigh just a few grains less that the weight listed with COWW. As an example, I just finished casting 500+ NOE 350gr RF boolits, ~250 PB and ~250 GC plus 500+ NOE 405gr RF boolits, ~250 PB and ~250 GC. In each case the average of 5 randomly selected boolits was consistently about 4-10gr less than the weight listed for boolits cast with COWW, depending, of course, on boolit size (350gr vs 405gr) and base configuration (PB vs GC). This is about what I expected but I thought this might answer some questions for those using other than COWW for their casting, especially the harder alloys.

sleeper1428