A.C.E. 12 Ga 740 Gr HB slug

[dverna]

.338

I wish it was lighter, I am not a hunter so my "big game" is two legged varmint or a bear in the garbage that gets too "friendly" - but I need something my 125 lb girlfriend can fire and practice with.

You have done a fine job. Do not rush anything out until you are sure it is right. No one will remember if you are 2-3 weeks late if the mold is perfect. They will remember if there are any glitches.

I really wish you luck on the project and hope we can get more stuff done.

I know a few of us might be interested in a .680 (or so) three cavity ball mold. jmortimer is getting a mold from Sharpshooter but I am not thrilled with his mold designs. We shall see how it works.

Again, good job and good luck!

Don Verna

[338RemUltraMag]

Don,

This mold with the hollow base will weigh in at 740 gr or less with the "turbo bell" which comes out to 1 3/4 oz not too bad for a 12 ga slug. Thanks for the kind words, I have delayed this mold for some time, now I hope to get this done and offer buys that cycle every 30 days and have lead times of 6 weeks or less.

Thanks again!

[turbo1889]

I put loose tolerances on the "Turbo bell" hollow base pin shape (I always try to be as generous as I can with tolerances and state them as limits, machinists seem to like me more when I do that, or dislike me less might be more like it.) If you run all the tolerances towards the end which increases the physical volume of that pin shape (upper limit on everything but the taper angle and the lower limit on that) and the displacement by my calculations is just a little bit more then the original round hollow base pin making the resulting slug slightly lighter weight, but not by much. If you run the tolerances all the way to the other end making the physical volume of the pin and its displacement as low as possible (lower limit on everything but the angle and the upper limit on that) then it swings the other way and the displacement by my calculations is just a little bit less then the original round hollow base pin making the resulting slug a little heavier weight.

The whole idea and reason behind me "Turbo bell" pin shape is to keep the wall thickness of the skirt at least 0.10" thick at all points and thus a very strong skirt that will distort little if any upon firing which in my experience allows for better accuracy. In order to accomplish this while at the same time keeping the weight down and keeping the balance correct it is important to only put just barely enough taper and rounding on the pin to make it release smoothly. My experience so far has shown me that 3-degrees of taper is the minimum amount of taper for a clean smooth release on a hollow base or hollow point pin unless the pin is very short and/or only soft lead alloys that shrink while hardening instead of stay the same or expand (like type-metal does). Anything less and you can get sticky pin release problems, since I know there are always tolerances and getting too tight with tolerances tends to make people mad at me I almost always specify a "3-degrees to 5-degrees" taper on my pins, but as close as possible to only 3-degrees of taper makes for less total weight of the slug while still keeping the skirt walls thick. Reason for the curving of the top lip edges is because that is needed to not get voids around the top of the pin during casting, just leaving the tip of the pin with them sharp edges can cause that problem, know that from experience too.

If it's too much of a hassle, not a problem I understand, and I can always have someone else make a pin for me if I'm the only one interested. It's a lot easier to find someone to make a custom pin then a custom mold. Especially a good high quality custom mold for a very reasonable price !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Edit: Of potential note, if you run the "Turbo bell" pin shape as I said with all the tolerances except the angle towards their upper end and use a minimum 3-degree angle you only have to lengthen it by a small smidgen, hardly a noticeable amount to get the total weight of the slug down to 710-grains even if cast from pure lead which is also known as a 1-5/8oz. or lighter load regardless of casting allow which there is a lot of lead shot donor load data for that payload weight in 3" 12ga. shells, more load data then what is readily available for a 1-3/4oz. weight payload. Just a thought. If you want me to calculate and draw that out I can do so, just have to use a lot narrow tolerances to hit a specific mark.

[338RemUltraMag]

The TURBO BELL is a go.

[338RemUltraMag]

Round pins are finished! What do yall think?

[jmort]

Awesome. Thank you for doing something no one else has done for us slug shooters.

[RED333]

O YEA!
Can you update pricing for the new bottom plug?
Heck, I will take both bottom plugs.

[jason f]

How does pin come out to drop slug without opening mold first.

[338RemUltraMag]

With such a heavy slug once the mold is opened the slug will pop right off of the pin

[Springfield]

I'll take mine with the Turbo bell plug, please. Don't know if it is better but turbo is so convincing!

[338RemUltraMag]

Got it, do you want a flat or round also?

[AZBrian]

Great - I'm not quite clear on all the pin options now but I'll likely be getting all of them for both molds. I like the drawing on post #116 very much. The "turbo bell" looks great.

[338RemUltraMag]

Great - I'm not quite clear on all the pin options now but I'll likely be getting all of them for both molds. I like the drawing on post #116 very much. The "turbo bell" looks great.

Turbo bell is post #116
Round is pictured above
Flat just casts a solid slug

[AZBrian]

Turbo bell is post #116
Round is pictured above
Flat just casts a solid slug

Thank you for the clarification. Please update me to add on "all pins" for each then. I'll be happy to have them all.

[turbo1889]

I'm in for a set of all three pins with my mold: $110 + 2 x $20 (two extra pins) + USPS priority flat rate S&H = very reasonable price for a good mold like this with all three pins in my opinion. Best price I can get for a custom pin made to fit by someone else after the fact is about twice that so I'm all in - full set of pins for me.

[Teddy (punchie)]

338 Joshua Nice looking mold. If i had a 12 R/B I be on this.

What are you looking at in recoil from this Slug.

Say an 8 pound gun.

I shot some Lyman 525 Sabots , well that mold sit in the draw. Recoil was just not friendly. Like being punched. I shooting any rifle is Okay, some hit hard, but that load in the sabot was just too much. We even took them, apart to see and weight everything, it was all right on.

[turbo1889]

Also, I really like the "solid capture" pin style you have chosen to use and have used custom and conversion hollow base molds with that style of pin before. Works really well in my experience once you get used to casting with it. It basically goes like this:

----- Fill Mold with good sprue puddle.
----- Wait till the sprue just frosts over.
----- Give pin handle about a 1/4 twist with the blocks still being held closed.
----- Cut the sprue.
----- Turn mold sideways and open it, finished casting with plug in its base will be sitting in the open sideways cavity of the lower block half.
----- Grab the pin handle and pick it up and holding it sideways or even at a slight up angle and move it over your towel if air-cooled casting or water bucket if water dropping.
----- Gently tip the pin down and let the slug slide off the pin and gently come to rest on the towel or drop into the water bucket.

Absolutely not rejects do to dents or dings due to the slug knocking against the blocks when they are opened or as a result of the impact of falling out of the mold into the collection area !!! Most normal molds including many hollow base pin molds the boolit/slugs release from the mold can be a rather violent drop but with a captured pin like this it pushes you towards using the methodology of turning the mold sideways so when you open it the one block half swings up and away leaving the other block half level on its side or at a slight down angle with the finished boolit/slug laying in the half cavity all nice and pretty and snug as a bug in a rug and just gently lift it out by the pin and then gently tip the pin down and let it slide off of the pin gently onto the towel or into the water drop bucket. NO REJECTS DUE TO DENTS AND DINGS !!! If your good enough caster using that kind of set-up you can get almost a perfect 100% production with absolutely no rejects or culls once the mold is warmed up and your casting at a smooth easy pace. Yes, sometimes with certain pin shapes and alloy combinations the boolit will want to stick to the pin and not just slide off nice and easy, this is why you give the pin a slight 1/4 twist or so before opening the blocks. Often once the mold is fully warmed up, especially if you are casting with a softer alloy and/or have a high quality beautifully smooth pin surface (such as pictured above) you can omit that step and the slug will slide off the pin without it with zero fuss or or it only takes giving the pin handle a tap on the top with your index finger while holding it between your thumb and middle finger when you tip the pin down to let the slug gently slide off the tip of the pin into your collection area.

Yes, some molds with a Lyman style hollow base pin that is not a captured pin can also be cast using this same kind of methodology of using the pin to gently lift the casting out of the mold and gently slide it off the pin into the collection area but without a hard captured pin most people wouldn't even think of doing that and just pull the pin out of the blocks and then open them up and let the finished casting violently drop out of the mold possibly banging against the inside faces of the blocks and sharp cavity edges in the process and then clunking down in the collection area possibly on top of another finished casting already there. Which of course results in culls due to dents and dings. Captured pin encourages you to do it right.

[Springfield]

Just the Turbo, please. Can't see me ever needing this as a solid.

[338RemUltraMag]

338 Joshua Nice looking mold. If i had a 12 R/B I be on this.

What are you looking at in recoil from this Slug.

Say an 8 pound gun.

I shot some Lyman 525 Sabots , well that mold sit in the draw. Recoil was just not friendly. Like being punched. I shooting any rifle is Okay, some hit hard, but that load in the sabot was just too much. We even took them, apart to see and weight everything, it was all right on.

I figure about 36 ft-lb with this slug an 8 lb rifle and 1200 fps

[turbo1889]

How recoil "feels" is also different. A heavy slug propelled to lower velocities doesn't "feel" the same as a lighter weight slug propelled to high velocities even if the recoil is mathematically the same. Big slug at lower velocities recoil feels like a hard shove, ligher slug at higher velocities has more of a "slap" to it. Obviously big slug at high velocities is the worst possible recoil and some of the hotter Lyman 525 loads can get into that kind of territory pushing that slug which I wouldn't classify as a total light weight pretty fast. Some of my IMR-4759 loads pushing slugs in the weight range of this group buy are ***** cats for recoil compared to some of my STEEL powder loads for the Lyman 525 as far as how the recoil "feels" the big boys at lower velocity with that gentle slow burn powder just shove you around a little, where as those 525 screamer loads try to slap you silly.