30 cal Adjustable Mold

[iomskp]

Does anybody know of a mold maker that makes a 30 cal adjustable, I need to play with some different weights 90 gr up to 150 gr, for my little double rifle, doubles are fussy animals to feed and I don't want to buy half a dozen different molds, normally I would beg and borrow from casters in the area but for 30 cal I think I am the only one here.

[longbow]

Are you looking for moulds with lube grooves or smooth for paper patching?

I ask because making what I call push out moulds similar to the old Ideal Cylindrical Moulds is very easy and allows for adjustable nose form so boolit weight is easy to change.

If you have a lathe or have access to a lathe these are very easy to make. I have several in different calibers and gauges. I use 1 1/2" round bar so much more substantial than the Ideal design.

These types of moulds produce smooth sided boolits for paper patching but they can be tumble lubed as is or stepped for nose/bore rider and tumble lubed. I started out with one for paper patching for my .44 mag. 1894 Marlin then made one for my .308 again for paper patching and both worked well. Then I made one to duplicate the Lyman 314299 for my .303's though of course no lube grooves. Tumble lubed it worked fine. Since then I have made them to cast undersize boolits that I knurl to bring diameter up and to hold lube. Those work well too.

If you are looking for a lube groove boolit mould I don't think anyone currently makes one except for again paper patch boolits. if you went with a nose pour style Accurate moulds would cut the mould but you would have to make or have made the adjustable core. Similar to:

Ideal Perfection Adjustable Mould.pdf

Hah! That's upside down. Oh well.

Other than that you are likely into an expensive custom mould.

You could check with Cast Bullet Engineering in Australia. They might make you an adjustable mould.

If paper patching is in the works I'd go with the Ideal Cylindrical mould. Even if you have to have it made it is pretty simple and depending on bore diameter you may get away with a simple chucking reamer to finish the cavity. An N reamer is 0.302" diameter so pretty much perfect for standard .30 cal.

Just some thoughts.

Longbow

[Conditor22]

go on this thread, lots of down under folks there. maybe one of them can help. I'd start with Ausglock
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...oating/page631

[Ford SD]

Does anybody know of a mold maker that makes a 30 cal adjustable, I need to play with some different weights 90 gr up to 150 gr, for my little double rifle, doubles are fussy animals to feed and I don't want to buy half a dozen different molds, normally I would beg and borrow from casters in the area but for 30 cal I think I am the only one here.

Double Rifle sounds interesting ... what caliber ? ... what twist ? what distance ?

what do you want to do with it ? Hunt ?

if you want to hunt with it I would be using a heavy bullet 180- 190- or heaver.. more energy at the slower velocity

the most heavy 30 cal I know of is also shot in one of the smaller cases 300 aac blackout 247g cast lead

[barrabruce]

Got some 308466 luverin rn 150’s
mihec 308 hunter hp 150’s
170-180 gr
Prolly just ac ww +dash Lino or tin.

[iomskp]

Thank you longbow for the ideal drawing I think that will be the way to go, I checked with Dave from Cast Bullet Engineering he said no.

[iomskp]

Ford SD 300 sherwood, I would have too get it out and check it I can't remember, 50 yards, paper and 150 gr max.

[longbow]

I have a couple of .30 cal push out moulds that might work for you depending on groove diameter of your .300 Sherwood. I could mail you a few... though shipping lead to Australia wouldn't be inexpensive.

I just looked up .300 Sherwood and Wikipedia says they use a 0.300" diameter boolit. I have a paper patch mould (first one I made) reamed with an N reamer that casts at 0.302". I have cast as light as 100 grs. and as heavy as 180 gr. with it. An N reamer is a standard and readily available reamer.

One of your fellow countrymen Heathydee made a few push out moulds and D bits to ream the shapes he wanted:

http://www.homegunsmith.com/cgi-bin/...ST;f=3;t=24090

http://www.homegunsmith.com/cgi-bin/...ST;f=3;t=24990

http://www.homegunsmith.com/cgi-bin/...;t=24090;st=30

D-bits can be made in about any diameter you want quite easily.

My usual method of making push out moulds is to drill then bore/ream straight through a piece of 1 1/2" diameter steel bar (though aluminum and brass are also good and easier to machine) then drill and tap the bottom to put a "cap" on ~ this stops the nose form from dropping out, then make a sprue plate and simple handle like Heathydee's. I make a D-bit to form the nose shape in a fitted piece of brass or steel for the sliding nose form. This has to be a very close fit to the reamed bore.

The sliding nose form is attached to a threaded rod that allows for position adjustment in the mould so giving variable weight. I use a piece of steel drilled through or a stack of washers as a weight on the bottom of the nose form rod to ensure the nose form drops back to position for consistent weight.

If you want a 0.302" boolit a D reamer will do it but the boolit will be smooth so tumble lubing and or using a grease cookie under are your lube options. If you want to knurl or paper patch then you need to make the mould bore about 0.003" small for knurling or about land diameter if you want to paper patch.

I could 3D model a push out mould for you and make prints if you want. I am sure a machinist could make the bore and nose form for you pretty inexpensively if you can drill and tap for the rest. The only other "critical" part is the sprue plate and it just has to be flat with good contact with the top of the mould (not quite as easy as it sounds).

In any case, if you pick your boolit diameter for use as smooth cast, knurled or paper patched you should just need one mould to get sorted out. Not sure if you are a paper patcher or wanting to but that gives even more latitude in that the paper type and thickness can be changed to suit the guns liking for fit. Paper patching light boolits of around 100 grs. is tedious in my experience though.

I don't usually bother modeling or making drawings for my own moulds but I did model a couple up for a couple of guys on this forum so may have something close I could alter for you if you want. Let me know.

Longbow

[barrabruce]

Long bow.
You are making me want to buy a lathe again.

So you can use a groove less Bullet with just a lube cookie for lube.
How fast we talking about?
Have been trying to find some info recently but my search foo doesn’t work too well.
Do you need a paper disk underneath the lube wad.

Sorry for the high jack

Bruce

[longbow]

barrabruce:

My first push out mould was actually a crude(ish) HB slug mould for my 20 ga. made with nothing but my Dad's home made drill press when I was about 18 (a very long time ago!). It was a flat nose wadcutter and worked not badly at all.

Fast forward to the late 80's and I asked a machinist at the company I worked for to bore a piece of round ball to 0.421" and face it for me then I made the rest to produce a TC adjustable weight boolit for paper patching for my 1894 Marlin .44. That worked well too but my goal was 300+ gr. boolits and with the 1:38" twist that wasn't going to happen. Oh well. I made lighter boolits and did pretty well but paper patching is a bit tedious so I decided to try a smooth boolit with grease cookie.

So, I made a RNFP nose form and a bored and lapped body to produce a 0.434" boolit. The nose was fairly short and not a lot of room for tumble lube so I got a bit of leading. Not much but some. So I tried a grease cookie using wheel bearing grease. I used a cardboard wad under the grease and that worked well with 165 gr. boolits... I never left them loaded for very long though and I suspect the grease would soak through the card wad and contaminate powder. A more conventional lube should work fine of rolled thin and disks cut and put under boolits.

In fact I got some of the best accuracy I had seen out of my Marlin with that 165 gr. RNFP. I made a few more nose forms for options and all worked quite well.

Next was a paper patch mould for my .308 reamed with an N reamer and that worked well but same boolit patched a bit thicker didn't work in my .303's so I knurled then then they worked. A bit undersize I guess.

I'm lazy though and paper patching is work and especially for just plinking or informal blasting.

So I decided to make a Lyman 314299 clone for my .303's... except no lube grooves or gas check shank. It turned out quite well and tumble lubed shot very well. With the long bore riding nose there was quite a bit of lube.

Next I decided to make a mould to produce undersize boolits intended for "knurling" with disks to produce a tumble lube like body. That worked out well too. Knurling raises diameter about 0.003" depending on type and depth. The disks tended to slip now and again which ruined a boolit so I reworked the knurler and now use diamond knurl which never slips and seems to work well.

As for velocity, the .44 mags. are run usually with top end "J" bullet load data under PB boolits with no problems. In the .303's I find I get gas cutting if I push velocity much past moderate cast boolit loads but I also use COW+graphite filler and can then increase powder charge and velocity with no gas cutting... likely not approaching max. GC boolit velocities but they work well enough for me.

So far the most accurate boolit I have shot in my No. 5 Lee Enfield... or at least recorded accuracy with, is a two diameter smooth boolit (no knurling. no paper patching) similar in profile to the Lyman 314299 but weighing 215 grs. Those I "hot" tumble lube using a home made lube recipe melted in an old frying pan and roll the boolits around in it. No more work than regular tumble lubing but no drying time! As soon as the boolits cool they are good to go. It works for me.

A bit of thread wander but mostly about .30 cal. and cast boolit velocities and using moulds that are suitable for the OP's uses ~ smooth, knurled, paper patched, all work.

Longbow

[Ford SD]

Ford SD 300 sherwood, I would have too get it out and check it I can't remember, 50 yards, paper and 150 gr max.

Had to look it up ...with the small case and a older gun...

All i can think to compair it to is a 30 carbine

A flat nose will punch better holes in paper

[longbow]

I did a bit of searching but didn't find a lot. Not sure if the .300 Sherwood is considered a rookbrifle or not. Most of the rook rifle cartridges seem to be smaller and lower powered than the .300 Sherwood. Its parent was the .300 Rook.

I found a bit of reloading data and a few comments that boolits of 140 gr. Seemed common.

Is brass still available? Looks like and interesting little cartridge and I'll bet a nice gun.

https://www.300sherwood.net/reloading.html

Longbow

[barrabruce]

Attachment 252442

Found these you can have.
Lyman 300136

Cast measure 0.301" drive bands 0.288" nose.
0.981" long.
Roughly only,cast with it too see dimensions.

Pm you address and you can play with them if you like.

Some have been patched for 30 cal but the nose does’nt shuck the paper well being way under bore.

Cheers
Merry Xmas
Ho ho ho

Who wouldn’t like 3 little ho’s for Xmas

[wnc435]

I like this. this could be a fun project to play with. Won't be very fast casting but should be fun and I am thinking a pine cone shaped carbide burr bit will speed the process up some for the nose. have altered and made many seating stems with them.

[longbow]

I usually use a narrow pointed single point tool bit or make a D-bit to correct shape using an old grade 8 bolt or tool steel. If you can find a "correct' shaped carbide burr it should work fine as long as it doesn't chatter.

I have made boolit cavity shaped D-bits then used an HP pin or small shaped nose pin to eject the boolit but generally I make a full diameter "cavity" then a shaped nose form that is a close sliding fit so it is nose form and ejector.

Yes, a bit slow but easy to make and they work amazingly well. I've made several .30/.303 cal. and .44 cal. moulds plus 20 ga. and 12 ga. slug moulds. All in solid, HP and HB. The HB moulds require a separate nose form to fit under the sprue plate so it is a loose piece but I handle it with a magnet. No worse than a traditional Lyman HP or HB mould to use.

I've thought about multi cavity moulds to but not made one yet.

Longbow

[wnc435]

I make my core dies for swaging bullets with my Lee 6 cavity molds I tip them over make my own sprue plate with bar stock using the bolts handle hardware drill my sprue plate then mount on upside down mold drill to depth needed not getting into cavities from the top side then use a chamfer bit to make sprue plate trough able to cut my 311-93 mold has 14 cavities on the bottom for 22 and lighter 6mm cores

[iomskp]

Thanks everybody for all your help, I have swagged all sort of 308 jacked projectiles down to 300 and had mixed results, doubles being what they are, but I am going to use powder coated cast and cast only in the future, thanks again

[barrabruce]

You never said what the twist rate is.