Lymann 358477 dropping 5 grains less

[peerlesscowboy]

Thank you for naming that sucker. So do you measure the seam or not when determining the diameter of a fresh cast boolit?

The "seam", that'll work for me ...no you wouldn't measure the seam. Altho' it's possible you'd find the bullets are slightly out of round if you compared measurements right beside the seam to 90 degrees from the seam. Also when mik'ing a bullet I try to avoid the edge of the base by placing the caliper jaws slightly diagnal in case there's a hint of a fin right at the base.

John C. Saubak

[gtivan]

You broke a sprue plate screw? You may be waiting too long before cutting your sprue. You also may need to sharpen up the cutting edge at the base of your sprue hole.

Your variation in weight is not gigantic, but it is there. If you look at the low weight boolits, do they have nice sharp base corners on them? Or are the corners rounded a bit?

Can you post some pictures of the boolits?

Yep, I broke the screw. My own damn fault. I had sprayed it with break cleaner the night before, and didn't relube the screw. Then when i heated up the mould before casting, the screw appeared way loose, si I tightened it up again. It started out okay but then started to seize as the session went on. At around 100 bullets the damn thing snapped off on me.

Very hard learned lesson on that one I suppose.

I would say I waited 5 seconds on average after the pour to open it up. Maybe a hair longer. Enough time for the lead to have the inital glaze come off, atleast for the stuff on top of the sprue.

I looked close at the bases as I opened up the mould. I threw back 10% or so when I saw it wasn't a good fill out. I didn't look that close at the difference in the last batch i did when weighing to see if the bases were exactly square or not. I assume that they aren't all great, 300 cast in life will not equal precision. Will check into it, i assume that will be the most likely reason.

I will see if my son can take pics and upload. It is a skill I have purposely not learned, otherwise the wife would be bugging me all the time to do it for her.

Time to go play in the snow and brake out a couple of recent purchases. S&W 4566 and a Remington 1917 are begging to be fired.

[gtivan]

The "seam", that'll work for me ...no you wouldn't measure the seam. Altho' it's possible you'd find the bullets are slightly out of round if you compared measurements right beside the seam to 90 degrees from the seam. Also when mik'ing a bullet I try to avoid the edge of the base by placing the caliper jaws slightly diagnal in case there's a hint of a fin right at the base.

John C. Saubak

Thanks, and to the others who mentioned the "seam".

[higgins]

Since 358477 is a "typical grease groove" design rather than microgroove, don't forget to add the weight of the lube. I have a note in my notebook that 5 bullets cast of wheelweights, sized, with full grease grooves, averaged 150.2. I have two 358477 molds. I didn't note whether that was from the old SC or the newer DC. Since I didn't note which one, I suspect it's from the 60s-vintage SC.

[JIMinPHX]

...

Time to go play in the snow and brake out a couple of recent purchases. S&W 4566 ...

That whole series of .45s is a favorite of mine. They are hard to find & usually pricey when you do find them, but that's where my list of complaints ends.