Beagled my Bator mould

I decided to size and lube some 22 Bator boolits today that I cast about a year ago. I've been busy with other projects and haven't really wrangled the good out of these. I discovered that something had accidentally Beagled the mould and the boolits were .227+. They sized down OK, but the gas checks were a pain and wouldn't go on many of them. The mould also had misaligned on most of them. That is a drawback to water dropping, you can't inspect them as they drop and catch the problems. I should have caught it when I bagged them, but probably was in a hurry. I sorted out 60 + that were pretty good and sized and lubed them and loaded 25 in 222 with 8 gr. of Herco and 25 in 22-259 with 8 gr. Red Dot. There was light rain and windy conditions, but I had to go shoot some from the truck window at some cans on the berm at 50 yds. The loads show promise so I'm anxious to bench them and see what they can do. The forecast for tomorrow is gust to 50 MPH, so it won't be tomorrow. I sized them to ,225 and used 50/50 + Carnuba and there was no trace of leading from the 10 I fired in each gun.

DLCtex, I ordered my Bator 12/7/09 and still waiting, are you going to try it in your Hornet? If my Savage will stablize it, I would like to try them on Pdogs.

Side note: 11.2 grs of 4198 was my best load with Lyman 438's in my gun. If not raining Monday I will test them on the self erecting targets (Pdogs).

I will try them in the Hornet, but right now I'm enjoying the 225-438 boolit with 8 gr. 2400 so much it's hard to want to try something else. I need to try them in the Tarus Raging Hornet, but I swiped the scope and mount off it to put on the Raging Bull in 480 Ruger and won't be taking it off any time soon. My eyes won't let me shoot irons too well anymore. I will be checking into eye surgery when Medicare kicks in July 1. I will have to get some more 22 gas checks soon. I didn't realize I had used so many in the past year, or maybe I have misplaced a box. There you go with that tempting me with 4198 again, LOL, I'll have to pick up a can. Thought I'd found a can today, but it was my Ed's Red in a 4198 can. Guess I'd better lable it.

the Bator won't stabalize in my Hornets, to long, to heavy. Shoots great in 222,223,22-250 however.
1Shirt!:coffee:

TEX,I have not tried Ed's Red in my Hornet, What bullit you using?!?:holysheep

Tex. One question. What accidentally beagled your mold?

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Originally Posted by armyrat1970

Tex. One question. What accidentally beagled your mold?

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And I want to know how it managed .257 without massive fins!!:???:

I haven't examined the mould yet to see if something is keeping it from closing, but the initial run of boolits when I got it didn't give the problems with the checks. I think the mould casts at .225 normally, so it's only .002 of beagling.

Ding, a light goes on. .227!

And I thought I found a .257 mold I could snatch up for the cheap! ;)

I lucked out recently and got a .257 mold that cast .269 from a friend of mine in a trade for my 6.5 Jap rifles (thanks TwoTrees) but a 55gr mold would have been interesting in my 257 Roberts.

The BATOR works great in my 223 and 22-250 rifles. I don't have a Hornet (yet) to try it on.

Bruce

Calamity Jake: Even after you asked I didn't catch my typo until I reread just now. Corrected it. Thanks! It takes a team effort to keep me straight.

I found the problem with the mould tonight. It's the gray matter between my ears. I examined the mould and could find nothing to have caused the problem, so I heated it up and cast some boolits. I applied Bullplate lube and after getting it up to temp it was casting well. Boolit miked .225 and .2255 on the seams so I began casting and water dropping, but checking a pair every 25 drops. At 50 drops I had some misalignment so I applied Bullplate again and the problem went away for a while. That's when the light came on. I am accustomed to applying the lube once and casting a couple hundred 38's, 45's and 476's. This is a new mould and may take less after seasoning. I had cast the problem boolits with only the initial lubing. This time I was paying attention to the mould alignment. These small rascals will look terrible with an alignment flaw that I wouldn't give a second look to on a larger boolit. The bases were much better but still tended to fin if I didn't watch it. Two things helped with that. I cut the sprue with a gloved hand and catch the sprue and dump it right back into the pot. The sprue is ten times bigger than the two boolits, so I can cast longer without refilling the pot. I cast over 500 and still had two thirds of a pot left (Lee 10 lb.). By applying downward pressure on the sprueplate the fins were less. Also I was casting fast and cutting the sprue as soon as it flashed, so I gave them a couple extra seconds to cool and the fins went away. I thought maybe I wouldn't have to push down on the plate, but got some fins. The extra pressure does require more frequent lubing of the plate to prevent smearing. I ran the pot cooler this time, set the dial on 8+ a little, last time I had it on 9 . Any cooler and the spout wanted to freeze. The boolits are beautifully shiny and I weighed 20 of them on my beam scale. 18 were 52.8, one 52.7, and one 52.9. The 52.7 had a small wrinkle on the driving band. The 52.9 had a slight fin. Maybe tomorrow I will get some sized and lubed and loaded. I water dropped as I want to push them to see how fast I can push them, the alloy is straight WW. I air cooled all the boolits for checking condition, plus a few more for a total of about 75 to test AC with. I will push them as hard as possible in the Hornet to see if they will stabilize. I like this Bator mould!

One reason I haven't started casting for my Mini 14 is because those little suckers seem they would be hard to get right. I'm still shooting jacketed in it, but have an itch to start trying. I know I will sooner or later.
I've had similar problems with some of my Lee molds. It seems the lube does burn off after awhile and will cause them to stick a little, or cause mis-alignment. I just always cleaned them and relubed. Probably a big waste of time on my part. Gonna start applying a little more lube as soon as I notice the problem, just starting to stick a little. But as you say, when water dropping you only catch them every so often to notice finning. One good thing about casting though, if you get a reject, it can always go back into the pot.
All I use for lubing my molds is Lee Alox Beeswax. Is Bullplate really that much better?
Good point about hitting downward on the sprue plate when cutting the sprue. I have noticed better boolit base with this method. Cleaner sprue cut, flatter base.

One thing I did that I forgot to mention was to set the mould on a flat surface as I closed it. This helps greatly with alignment. Bullplate lube is much better IMHO as it doesn't leave the carbon buildup on the mould. It's also a great case lube.

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Originally Posted by DLCTEX

One thing I did that I forgot to mention was to set the mould on a flat surface as I closed it. This helps greatly with alignment. Bullplate lube is much better IMHO as it doesn't leave the carbon buildup on the mould. It's also a great case lube.

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I always set my mold on a flat surface to close also.
Bullplate as a case lube? Okay.

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Originally Posted by Calamity Jake

And I want to know how it managed .257 without massive fins!!:???:

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I want to know where he got the brass for the .22-259.

Regards,

Stew

Why I just create them out of the thin air.Doesn't everybody?[smilie=l:

"I will push them as hard as possible in the Hornet to see if they will stabilize. I like this Bator mould!" DLCTEX

Let us know how that works out with pushing the Bator/Hornet combo. I am at 6 mo and waiting for my Bator form Midsouth. Martin

I loaded some Bator boolits in 22 hornet Win. brass today and gave them a try. I couldn't bench them due to rain last night that made it too muddy to get to it. I drove to a slush pit (think oil well) and fired from the truck at small rocks at about 70 yds. They were shooting about 5 inches higher than the 225-438 boolit with the same load (8 gr, 2400). I then drove to a small prairie dog town and fired a few shots at them at 75 to 100 yds. Most of the dumb ones were very young and small, tougher targets, but did manage to get an adult at 125 yds. by holding at it's feet.The boolit hit the head just above the eyes and I was surprised at how it exploded the top of it's head since the boolits were water dropped. There was definitely some expansion happening. I had only loaded 10 rounds to test with, so only had 5 for the PD's. I did hit another center of mass, but it fell down hole and was lost. It looks as if they are going to stabilize in the Ruger 77/22 and accuracy appears to be close, so further testing is in order. It's raining again, maybe tomorrow. The Lee seat die will not seat the boolits to the crimp groove, needs almost 1/8" more. I will have to adapt the seat die or get another brand, but they chamber ok where they are, just engrave the nose pretty good. It may be as simple as drilling from the top with a bit large enough to allow the seating stem to go 1/8" deeper, if there are enough threads to allow the adjustment to go a little deeper. I will be seeing how accurate they can be made to shoot in 222, 223, and 22-250 as time permits. I've still got to get some more 22 gas checks, running low.

Solved the seating problem, just flipped the seating stem over and used the flat end on the flat nose. Gained too much and had to back off a turn. Some of the primer pockets were a little loose, so I backed of to 7.5 gr. and loaded 25 rounds. I hope to shoot them tomorrow, but the forecast is for rain for next six days. They often get it wrong predicting rain here in the Texas panhandle, hope so.