MiHec 311410 Cramer

[longbow]

Okay then, I cast and got 80 perfect or at least near perfect boolits using the reworked long pins. Photos to come.

I did my usual mould treatment which is about nothing. I simply wiped the mould down with a paper towel, found nothing so used a bit of sprue plate lube on the sprue plate. alignment pins and HP pins, pre-heated to "spit sizzle" temp and started casting. My lead was still coming up to temperature so I started a bit early but figured I might as well be pouring lead and getting things worked in. The first few pours were wrinkly then I started getting near perfect boolits. A few of the edges around the HP pin are very slightly "wavy" but not much. I kept a few of those for milk jug tests. I will use "perfect" boolits for accuracy testing. Then I ran out of propane... DOH! So. I have to refill so I can carry on but I have enough to lube and load anyway. I might get out shooting tomorrow. If not then I will get propane and cast more.

Boolit diameters are about perfect! I am mic'ing 0.314"+ at the full nose diameter and 0.315"+ on the driving bands. I do not think I will have to size! If they chamber as is then hot tumble lubing it is, then into the brass they go.

I am happy and excited! I can't wait to launch a few.

Longbow

[Captain_Howdy]

My hollowpoint pins are bad too. The long pins have excessively oversized shoulders. The short pins are oversized but not as much. I may be able to get the short ones to work but the long ones are gonna be tango uniform. The flat nose pins are right.

on second thought I am not gonna try and force the short pins. steel is always stronger than brass and over a period of time those pins will just wallow out the shoulder sockets in the mold.

I'll just use the flat nose pins until we come up with a fix. I don't have access to a lathe.

[Captain_Howdy]

By the time you start looking, USPS could have delivered your order.
PM me your address and I'll mail you a hundred Sierra GCs.

Thanks for the offer...Midway has some in stock...gives me a reason to use my birthday discount!

[xacex]

Uh oh. My large pins were over sized at the base of the taper as well. I have been casting with them already. I hope it didn't cause any damage to the blocks. I wasn't getting any fining, and they seem to close all the way (or so I thought) so I didn't think anything of it. .1305 vs .1327 with my long pins. Thanks for the heads up on this one before I could have ruined the mold, that is if I haven't already.

[longbow]

Yes, the best thing is to find out what Miha is going to do about it before making any significant "adjustments". I didn't mind honing my pins down but I have a lathe so not a big deal for me. Mine are fixed and good.

It seems odd that the pins vary. Both my FP and short HP pins are fine, only the long pins were oversized at the "shoulder". I figured it was a lot thing and maybe only the long pins were oversize but it looks like from reports that it is more random so maybe a tolerance error from whoever made the pins.

I agree, do not force the mould to close as the brass will yield before steel. You could swage the mould blocks oversize pretty easily by closing hard on oversize pins.

I haven't had a response from Miha yet. Will post when I get one... or maybe he will respond here. I am sure Miha will make it right.

I will be shooting shortly. I hope they shoot as good as they look!

Longbow

[B.C.Jay]

Just for information: my long pins were oversized as well, a 5 min fix on the lathe, however I did have one shoulder that was off center. That may cause more of a problem than just oversize. I chucked it twice just to be sure.

For those of you not as equiped as some of us, the drill and file should get you going.
I'm glad Miha runs as tight tolerences as he does when a 1/2 thousands error shows up like this as a problem.

Jason

[longbow]

Okay then, as promised a photo of the first casting. These were cast with long (modified) HP pins. The standing boolits were simply grabbed from the bunch with no posing or selecting.



These were all the good ones and a few that maybe should have been tossed back but they will do for milk jug extermination and sighting in.

I had very few rejects and no sticking to pins until I started losing heat due to propane running low. A few of these have some minor wrinkles and you can see some that have slightly angled HP edges due to incomplete fill out but most are good... or good enough for me anyway.

No problems casting and the mould worked just fine.

I haven't weighed any yet so have to check consistency.

Size as reported above is very slightly undersize for 0.316" with my alloy (range scrap in this case ~ no tin added) which suits me just fine as they should slide right into the throat of the old .303.

Field report to come.

Longbow

[xacex]

Longbow, That was about what I was getting. I found I had a lot less of the nose rejects with the short pin. Used a temp gun to judge where my temps were with the mold on the hot plate vs melt, and found my alloy was cool, and my mold was to hot. The last run I did was much better. I have a couple of friend over here that have memberships to the local gun club that are going to take me over this week. The memberships are full so I cant even join right now. Problematic if you cant shoot on public land because of fire restrictions, and the local ranges are all clubs that are full. I would have to drive nearly 50 miles to go to a public range.

[cbrick]

In the "waiting for delivery" thread Miha has just posted the following . . .

New long pins are on the machine.....
When they will be finished I will let you know..... Counting on 14 days.

Thanks Miha, you the man.

Rick

[YunGun]

Thanks Miha, you the man.

Ditto! Despite the minor setback with the long pins, I'm very pleased with the quality & workmanship of this mold. The attention to detail is impressive & I'll never look at Lee molds the same again! Can't wait to send some of these downrange; hopefully the rain will let up enough to do so this weekend. I'll post some pics shortly.

[longbow]

Cast a bunch more with mine tonight. Most came out pretty well but I started to lose heat with my propane stove. That's a first!

I ran out of propane on the first casting session and now had to shut this one down early due to lack of heat. It is an old burner and maybe time for rebuild or replacement.

The mould worked very well again when I had heat and I got stickers on the pins as heat dropped. A few have slopey noses again but that is mostly when the pot was dropping in temperature. I had pretty consistent fillout when I had enough heat.

I will fix the burner and cast a bunch more with short pins and FP pins. So far I have a couple hundred with long pins. These are air cooled range scrap so will be a little brittle for good expansion but should be explosive if pushed a bit. They should work just fine on milk jugs full of water.

I will use the perfect boolits for accuracy testing and flawed ones for milk jugs. I have some of my Ness Safety Bullet clones too so will compare explosive effect. The Ness will probably win there but we will see.

I hope to be shooting this weekend.

Longbow

[cbrick]

Last week I cast up 60 of the PB short pin, yesterday I loaded a 50 round box of 30 Carbine for the Ruger with wimp loads at about 900 fps. Went out to shoot some of them this morning with the express purpose in mind of murdering a 1 gallon milk jug filled with water. Click . . . Click . . . Click. Hhmmm, thinking maybe I had brain fade & crimped them I looked, nope, no crimp. What the hey? Primers are just very barely dented.

Back in the loading room I broke some down. This was virgin WW 30 Carbine brass. I sized, expanded/belled & loaded them. No trimming at all and when measured they are .020"+ short. Brand new brass that headspaces on the mouth and they were too short to even fire. Bummer.

Ok, I size & bell some virgin 32-20 brass but I only have a few bullets left. The inertia puller really does a number on the HP nose. I loaded up 4 rounds with the 32-20 brass & head to the back yard. That viscous, hard charging & extremely dangerous milk jug is gonna get it's due now.

Didn't need four of them, first shot off-hand at 30 yards completely destroyed it, it won't even hold air now. So just to shoot the other 3 rounds I put them into the jug's dead shredded body. I didn't want it to suffer ya know.

On the bright side, tomorrow it's back to the pot & cast up a bunch of these. Then I'll prep the 100 round box of the 32-20 and turn them into rimmed 30 Carbine. No groups yet, I only got 4 four rounds down range but I'll get to it. No boolits to recover, all four are inside the trunk of the oak tree that cowardly milk jug was trying to hide behind.

Rick

[crawfobj]

Rick,

Put a couple of foam ear plugs in your inertia puller - it will help with the damaged noses.

[cbrick]

Thanks for the tip, I have a bit of foam in the puller but these HP noses are razor thin, takes nothing to smash'em down. No problem though, they will melt just fine and I get to cast with this mold again. A bright side to everything.

Rick

[crawfobj]

Darn! Now you have to fire up the pot and make more! Rough, isn't it?

[longbow]

I don't quite know why but I guess it is because this is just such a nice little boolit... and beautiful mould... and the Cramer pins work so very well that I really enjoy casting them. Cute little guys!

Of course now I have to fix my propane burner before I can cast again. No matter, I have a couple hundred cast now so can do some shooting.

If nothing gets in my way, tomorrow is the day!

I also have seen cowardly, sneaky milk jugs lurking around the house so will dispatch a few of them!

Longbow

[Diegokid]

Well the mold arrived, thats good but there is a problem. Two of the shallow or short pins for the hollow points will not let the mold close all the way, it will pivot, worse none of the long or deep pins will let the mold close. I measured the tips that are in the mold. Those reading from .1295 to 130 work. The six that don't work run from .1305 to 132.

Need different pins for these.

Before I cast a few to have a lube die made do I need to "smoke" these dies like I do the alum. molds I have?

[longbow]

No, you should not need to smoke the mould. In my view, smoking does little or nothing anyway. If boolits are sticking then there is an issue with burrs or something. A light lapping (known here as Lee-menting) or gentle de-burring will take care of that.

A quality mould like Mihec's are about as perfect as you can get and all mine drop boolits very easily... except sometimes the Cramer style where boolits can stick on the pins. Heat helps there ~ cast fast and steady and maybe with slightly hotter alloy. A wipe of sprue plate lube on the pins helps too.

Miha is aware of the oversize pin issue and is working on it but it wouldn't hurt to PM or e-mail him to let him know your specific problem. For most so far it is only the long pins that have been oversize. He said he was getting new long pins made but I am not sure about the others. Best to let him know directly.

Longbow

[cbrick]

No, you should not need to smoke the mould. In my view, smoking does little or nothing anyway. longbow

Smoking molds has but one purpose . . . To carry on a useless old wives tale.

Think of the time you just spent making sure your new mold is clean, so the first thing you do with it is gunk it up with soot (or worse). The very best casting mold is a perfectly clean mold. The very best smoking a mold could possibly do, if it does anything and that's a big if, is attempt to cover up a problem. If there is a problem (doubtful with a Miha mold) it is far, far better to find and fix the problem as opposed to trying to cover it up.

The very best casting mold is a perfectly clean mold.

Rick

[cbrick]

I also have seen cowardly, sneaky milk jugs lurking around the house so will dispatch a few of them! Longbow

Use caution, those jugs are extremely dangerous especially when they are roaming in packs.

Rick