sharps 74 vs 75

[Gunlaker]

Ah Val now I understand. BACO does cut their own molds. Each one is signed by a guy named "Jim". Someone told me who he is but I don't remember. I'd say that the BACO molds are really high quality. Comparable to Paul Jones IMO. I have some Brooks ones that are pretty nice too.

I have never tried the cheaper molds. In my mind, if I'm going to shoot a $3000+ rifle I'm not going to try and scrimp on a mold. The only cheaper molds I use are Saeco ones, and to be honest, although the bullets aren't as perfectly round as the ones my BACO molds cast, they are very accurate.

Chris.

[country gent]

have a Baco 40 cal 422pp mould, a Brooks 45 can adjustable cup point PP with the vented sprue plate, Several Old West Brass moulds by Bernie Rowles 40 cal 45 cal and 38 cal. All are very good moulds to cast with . Buying a quality mould saves a lot of headaches, and a custom mould will be just what you need dia wise. This can help if you want to shoot as cast or pan lube. Hoch is supposed to be very good also but Ive never worked with one

[Don McDowell]

Update, the bore is .376 with a grove of.368. I took it to the range yesterday and it about drove me crazy with the ammo that came with it. I couldn't hit the side of a barn from inside it was that bad. Out of 100 rounds I had about 30 on target at 100 yards and heard a couple of them buzzing as they went down range. Nothing is loose except for the front sight insert and I was using my normal sandbags. I'm really hoping it is a ammo problem. I pulled down one of the cartridges and the bullet was.3765 diameter but the powder charge was 26.4grs of ? and it's supposed to be 21.0 grs of imr 4198. WTH???

Before you do any more shooting with that , I'ld suggest doing some serious lead mining. If you had bullets tumbling chances are awfully good they left you plenty of little shiny slivers in the lands and maybe even the throat. Also think I'ld pull all the bullets and dump the powder and start fresh.

[sharpsguy]

THAT is good advice.

[1Hawkeye]

Don, I already scrubbed out the bore and was surprised to find it wasn't leaded up. As for the ammo Iv'e got 200 rounds left of the 500 and I'm thinking about pulling them down. I hope what is going on is poor quality bullets and too much powder. I found one spent bullet on the berm when I was done yesterday not only did it have a large void in the side of it. The bullet looked like it had barely engaged the rifling miking out at around .365". The bullet from the pulled round measured .3765" and looks like a Lyman #375449 it weighed 262 grs which is very close to the 264 grs Lyman gives for the bullets weight and it was so hard you can't scratch it with your thumb nail. I'm tempted to put a few of them over the crony to see what the actual velocity is. I'm also going to compare the powder to see if it looks like IMR 4198.

[rfd]

Update, the bore is .376 with a grove of.368. ....

the groove can't be smaller than the bore.

[Don McDowell]

If you haven't done so already run a flannel patch soaked in pure gum spirits of turpentine on a jag thru the barrel, that'll let you know for sure there's no lead in there.
Sounds like those bullets may be of questionable quality.

[1Hawkeye]

Sorry rfd swap the numbers around and Don I will give that a try and questionable quality is a understatement. Do the patches come out black like with Hoppies or does it cause any leading to release?

[Don McDowell]

You'll feel the patch hanging up on the lead, and will bring it out on the patch.

[marlinman93]

Ah Val now I understand. BACO does cut their own molds. Each one is signed by a guy named "Jim". Someone told me who he is but I don't remember. I'd say that the BACO molds are really high quality. Comparable to Paul Jones IMO. I have some Brooks ones that are pretty nice too.

I have never tried the cheaper molds. In my mind, if I'm going to shoot a $3000+ rifle I'm not going to try and scrimp on a mold. The only cheaper molds I use are Saeco ones, and to be honest, although the bullets aren't as perfectly round as the ones my BACO molds cast, they are very accurate.

Chris.

Thanks for elaborating on the BACO molds Chris!

I've had very good results with both Ideal and Lyman molds. I've also got some Saeco molds and they drop bullets so cleanly I've never had to tap them with my mallet to make them drop. I use the Ideal Doc Hudson molds in .38 and .32 caliber often, and the bullets are as good as anything I've ever seen. I have no problem shooting bullets from a mold under $100 in a gun worth over $3,000. If a mold works I don't care if it was free. If it doesn't I don't care how expensive it was.