Happy days are here again

[chuck40219]

See: Still learning & lead/tin Posts in Cast Boolits Forum.

Got new mold Lyman 457125, was waiting on this mold before I did any more casting. Came in yesterday, cleaned it up yesterday afternoon. Yesterday afternoon I made some boolits with Rotometals 30 to 1 lead. Used my bottom pour lee pot. Great boolits. Then I said to my self lets do some ladle pours, even better.

Today I melted up some of my roofing lead (refer to lead/tin post), had problems with fill out before. It is dirty, cleaned and fluxed over and over. After the 6th time I said good enough, seeing as I was getting very little dirt. Ladle pour only today, was having poor fill out with bottom fill boolits. No use repeating a failed casting session.

I would say that all the boolits cast over the last 2 days are usable. The big surprise was the ladle pour roofing lead boolits. They were the best of the bunch. Must have everything I need in the mix to make great boolits.

If I get the photos in the right order.
photos:

On the left we have the bottom pour 10 boolits, next to them are the 10 ladle pour roofing boolits, then we have 7 of the ladle pour Rotometal 1 to 30 lead, last are the 10 ladle pour Rotometal 1 to 30 lead. The groups of 10 each will be my test shots. The group of 7, one will be used to set up the loading measurements in the dummy cartage, the rest will be the fouling shots.


Here is a closeup of one of my roofing lead boolits. I a proud pappy.

Tomorrow will lube and load. Hopefully I will be able to shoot Monday or Wednesday range is close on Tuesday.

Forgot they all measure .460

chuck40219

[Hossfly]

Those are some good looking boolits!!

[Taterhead]

Great job. They look beautiful!

[wmitty]

What’s your as cast diameter and what rifle will you be shooting them with. Have you checked land/groove diameter on that rifle? I have a 457124 that is casting too small for my Marlin ‘95 and way way too small for the 1884 trapdoor. Hope your mould works out for you.

[megasupermagnum]

I don't see it mentioned a lot, but I've found the same thing. On really big bullets like that, a bottom pour is usually too slow to fill the cavity. On the giant stuff like 50/54 caliber muzzleloader, or shotgun slugs, I'll even put the ladle right on the sprue plate and pressure pour. That's the only way I can get perfectly filled out pure lead bullets. Especially on bullets like those with sharp, small driving bands. Mold heat control is #1, but I firmly believe you need a quick fill to force lead into those angles to beat the surface tension of the alloy.

[country gent]

Good looking bullets there. How are they for size driving bands and nose dia both matter with this bullet as it does best as a bore rider. How is the weight consistency on them. The 457125 is a good shooting bullet.

[white eagle]

thats the only way I make boolits
ladle pour
dip,fill ladle,pour into mold,break sprue dump boolits and repeat

[brewer12345]

I don't see it mentioned a lot, but I've found the same thing. On really big bullets like that, a bottom pour is usually too slow to fill the cavity. On the giant stuff like 50/54 caliber muzzleloader, or shotgun slugs, I'll even put the ladle right on the sprue plate and pressure pour. That's the only way I can get perfectly filled out pure lead bullets. Especially on bullets like those with sharp, small driving bands. Mold heat control is #1, but I firmly believe you need a quick fill to force lead into those angles to beat the surface tension of the alloy.

Amazing. I have cast a significant pile of 370 grain 50 cal TC maxi balls and 380 grain 54 cal Lee REAL boolits out of SOWW lead and had no problems with fill out. Pre heat the mold and crank up the pot temp to 800F and it isn't a big deal.

[megasupermagnum]

The LEE REAL is one of the hardest bullets to cast. With stick on wheel weight, I have to crank to 820, and pressure pour at as fast a pace as possible. The best I could do with a bottom pour left the bands appearing sharp, but lost about .002" diameter on the top band with much less consistency between bullets. Between both 50 calibers molds, the bigger 54 caliber, and 4 guns, none have ever shot even acceptably, so I no longer bother with them. Maxi balls seem to be much easier to cast.

[Walks]

I have single cavity molds for .50cal & .54cal Maxi-Balls, one is a iron Lyman and the other an aluminium T/C. I disremember which is which.
But I ladle pour using a lyman egg shaped ladle from pure lead melted in a RCBS Cast Iron 10lb Pot, heated over a Coleman OLD-Style single burner propane stove.
Got no problem with fill-out. Keep temp at about 650-700 degrees.
Rejection rate is about 8%, I cast so fast, that I have to throw in a couple of 1cav iron RB molds to keep from overheating that one aluminium mold. Just can't seem to slow down. If I do, My rejection rate will hit about 20%.

[bikerbeans]

I had to open up the nozzle with a drill bit on my bottom pour so I could cast large boolits and slugs. The flow is a bit much for 90g 380 acp boolits.

BB

[chuck40219]

Some answers are due. What's the use in posting if no one answers the questions the post generates?

First off thanks for the kind words about how good my boolits look, I am quite proud of the fact I cast some great looking boolits.

wmitty asks: What’s your as cast diameter and what rifle will you be shooting them with. Have you checked land/groove diameter on that rifle? I have a 457124 that is casting too small for my Marlin ‘95 and way way too small for the 1884 trapdoor. Hope your mould works out for you.
They cast out to .460. I assume what you are asking is what the overall largest diameter is. The rifle is a Uberti 1885 High Wall in 45-70. Land/groove, my gunsmith said .458" so go to .460" for the boolit.

megasupermagnum said: I don't see it mentioned a lot, but I've found the same thing. On really big bullets like that, a bottom pour is usually too slow to fill the cavity. On the giant stuff like 50/54 caliber muzzleloader, or shotgun slugs, I'll even put the ladle right on the sprue plate and pressure pour. That's the only way I can get perfectly filled out pure lead bullets. Especially on bullets like those with sharp, small driving bands. Mold heat control is #1, but I firmly believe you need a quick fill to force lead into those angles to beat the surface tension of the alloy.
The remarks marked in blue, I am starting to think this way.

country gent asks: Good looking bullets there. How are they for size driving bands and nose dia both matter with this bullet as it does best as a bore rider. How is the weight consistency on them. The 457125 is a good shooting bullet.
Driving bands are the large bands that the lube sits between? They be .460". Now the nose dia not quite sure where to measure that at. Measured right after the last band .4500".

white eagle states: thats the only way I make boolits
ladle pour
dip,fill ladle,pour into mold,break sprue dump boolits and repeat
I do believe this will be my way in the future.

bikerbeans Said: I had to open up the nozzle with a drill bit on my bottom pour so I could cast large boolits and slugs. The flow is a bit much for 90g 380 acp boolits.
Don't think I will do this. I tried some pressure pours with my bottom pour and got, I think they were called angle hair.

The rest of the post dealt with muzzle loading boolits.

I told my wife yesterday I was thinking selling off my bottom pour pot and some molds and getting a 20lb non bottom pour pot.

Going out tomorrow to try out my new boolits. Gona rain, after I think the weatherman said 43 days without any rain. We need it. So I might get a little wet. Range report in a day or two.

chuck40219

[megasupermagnum]

I ladle pour with my Lee bottom pour 20 pounder. I turn the valve in so you can't accidentally bump it. It offers plenty of room for me to work, and I'm clumsy. I do like a bottom pour, I find it easier to control, so I like that I can cast both ways with the same pot.

[chuck40219]

I ladle pour with my Lee bottom pour 20 pounder. I turn the valve in so you can't accidentally bump it. It offers plenty of room for me to work, and I'm clumsy. I do like a bottom pour, I find it easier to control, so I like that I can cast both ways with the same pot.

I might try this

Said I might go shoot today, got up with the lower leg and feet pain. Can hardly make it around the house.

chuck40219

[glicerin]

When we used this mold with lead-tin in a Quigley sharps /BP(45-110), we had barrel leading. WW +2% tin solved problem. Always used bottom pour, preheat mold by dipping corner in melt for 30 sec., keep mold close to pour spout.