Rounded bands ok?

[Char-Gar]

Rounded bands not OK. Rounded bands bad. Mold or metal to cold. Try again.

[KVO]

Most of my new NOE molds have the same problem with rounded bands and poor fill out for the first few sessions as described above. Curiosity got the better of me, I tried some with rounded bands but with well filled out bases as you describe. NOE 432432, deep hollow point, powder coated, 6.0gr Unique. Shot at 25yd from sitting with a sandbag rest. Not going to take home any trophies, but better accuracy than I would have thought. My loading and shooting time is so limited I prefer to only use perfect boolits, but the rejects work fine for close range plinking and function testing in self loading pistols.

[KVO]

A thought about the above, the rounded bands may not be as detrimental to accuracy with a full wadcutter as I used due to the greater length of bearing surface. I'd emphasize that six shots does NOT constitute sufficient evidence to prove much beyond that it might not be an absolute failure. Tiny sample size and very low velocity load!

Point being, they'll work for non-critical applications, but we should strive for perfection.

[williamwaco]

I agree with "re-melt" them. The problem is probably that the mold is too cold. A sprue puddle the size of a nickle should take three seconds to cool enough to look frosty. If it cools faster the mold is too cold.

To remedy this, pour a larger sprue puddle, or cast faster ( but not faster than 4 pours per minute). With a Lee two cavity mold, it takes 8 to 10 pours to get the mold hot.

Note. This precludes inspecting the bullets as you cast. If you pick them up to inspect them, you will not be able to cast fast enough to keep the mold hot.

CAUTION. Never cast so fast you might make a mistake.

[gwpercle]

Thanks for all the help. I'm gonna go through what I have and do a do over after keeping only the near perfect ones.


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Two or three short casting sessions will get the mould seasoned and broken in , it's to be expected. Cast again , get it hot , you will get more keepers....the third session they will be even more keepers and once the metal and mould are hot there will be few rejects. At this point my rejects happen when I don't pour enough sprue puddle ....but that's my fault .
I heat my NOE moulds by laying them on top of the pot as it heats. For break ins I let the mould cool while lying on top of the pot...slow cooling seems to help the break in/ seasoning.
Gary

[saalfelder]

Put all the boolits back in the pot and started over. I cleaned the mold again, backed off the sprue plate screw about 1/8 turn and got the same rejects.

Bumped up the pot temp a hair and they all came out beautiful.

Also paid more attention to my pours.

So I've learned a lot already.


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[lightman]

Good Deal! Every mold has a "personality". Sometimes its easy to get one up and running while other times you have to juggle temp and casting speed. Its a challenge for even an experienced caster sometimes. Once you cast a perfect bullet you're ruined!

[pjames32]

Glad your next casting session went better! Sometimes you just need to walk away for a day, then hit it again. Welcome to the addiction.