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Thread: First Try

  1. #21
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    North West Ohio
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    688
    Welcome to the addiction.Your bullets look great you are off to a great start.I see you are trying some differnt things and learning all ready.Ladleing makes some real nice bullets.Country Gent is the one who get me going with the ladle on big 45 bullets.It will not be long and you will be getting perfect bullets all the time.a few more casting sessions and your molds will be broke in.

  2. #22
    Boolit Grand Master

    gwpercle's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    Baton Rouge, Louisiana
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    9,251
    Quote Originally Posted by rtyler8140 View Post
    Thanks again for all the feedback. I'd say it went slightly better this evening. About halfway through I switched up the way I was pouring and saw a marked improvement. Tilting the mould and pouring while rotating the mold gave me more consistent results. Green Frog said he had a Lyman ladle that he would gift me! I can see where that will make a big difference over the Lee spoon.
    Casting with a Lyman Ladle ...or any side spouted ladle...lets you pressure cast ...doing it this way yields me my best results... I'm picky and if I'm going to cast I want perfectly filled out flawless boolits and the Lyman dipper does that ... so work with it and you'll be a happy caster .
    Gary
    Certified Cajun
    Proud Member of The Basket of Deplorables
    " Let's Go Brandon !"

  3. #23
    Boolit Master kmw1954's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    SE Wisconsin
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    1,448
    I have been casting for only about 8 months and I admit I'm still learning and improving. I have been using much smaller molds in the 100-225gr range and all one or two cavity. With the Lee molds I place the mold on my pot while it's heating and melting alloy. Once it's full I place an end of the mold into the molten metal until it will come out clean like your spoon will once hot. Then when I start I pour very large sprue puddles to start and many times let the alloy run over the sides. It really helps bring the heat up and doesn't hurt anything as when I ladle pour I pour over the top of the pot.

    Also I melt up a full pot and drop the cut sprue and rejects right back in the pot because these small pcs. do not change my temp enough to make a difference. From there I pour until I am down to 1/2 a pot and then I stop to add more metal. This also gives me time to clean up messes and quickly look at the dropped bullets for really frosted or wrinkled that need to be culled.

    Your bullets do look terrific!

  4. #24
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Mar 2020
    Location
    Central Virginia
    Posts
    146
    Quote Originally Posted by kmw1954 View Post
    I have been casting for only about 8 months and I admit I'm still learning and improving. I have been using much smaller molds in the 100-225gr range and all one or two cavity. With the Lee molds I place the mold on my pot while it's heating and melting alloy. Once it's full I place an end of the mold into the molten metal until it will come out clean like your spoon will once hot. Then when I start I pour very large sprue puddles to start and many times let the alloy run over the sides. It really helps bring the heat up and doesn't hurt anything as when I ladle pour I pour over the top of the pot.

    Also I melt up a full pot and drop the cut sprue and rejects right back in the pot because these small pcs. do not change my temp enough to make a difference. From there I pour until I am down to 1/2 a pot and then I stop to add more metal. This also gives me time to clean up messes and quickly look at the dropped bullets for really frosted or wrinkled that need to be culled.

    Your bullets do look terrific!
    Putting the mold down in the pot to ensure its up to temp is a good idea. I got down to about 25% rejects last night and again I think mold temp was my issue (probably goes back to that patience thing). I installed gas checks on 25 of both the 150g and 170g. Have some powder coat coming in today. Hopefully I will be loading some of these up to try here pretty soon.

  5. #25
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Mar 2020
    Location
    Central Virginia
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    146
    Got a new mold yesterday (Lee 457-340-f). Cleaned it up and took it through a few heat cycles. Used it tonight and got pretty good results. May drill and tap the mold for a set screw. Seems like it likes to be run hot and the sprue plate screw comes loose every so often. I also took my Lee ladle and drilled a 3/32 hole in the bottom. That has given me more consistent pours by letting gravity do the work. Here are the ones from tonight powder coated.


  6. #26
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Posts
    248
    Those look really good. For better fill out on rifle bullets add some small % of tin to your mix. Scrap pewter or Silver solder is 95% tin. uncle mike

  7. #27
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Las Cruces, NM
    Posts
    4,535
    On my Lee dies I found that they really need lube on the sprue plate to keep from backing out the screw. I use three little 'dots' of beeswax on the screw and washer. It should move freely when hot.

    If the screw has come loose then go ahead and remove it and flatten the sprue plate. Use a flat surface and some fine sandpaper. Reinstall and lube.

  8. #28
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Mar 2020
    Location
    Central Virginia
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    146
    Quote Originally Posted by charlie b View Post
    On my Lee dies I found that they really need lube on the sprue plate to keep from backing out the screw. I use three little 'dots' of beeswax on the screw and washer. It should move freely when hot.

    If the screw has come loose then go ahead and remove it and flatten the sprue plate. Use a flat surface and some fine sandpaper. Reinstall and lube.
    Yeah, that is probably my issue. I forgot to lube that pivot point. I have flattened the sprue plate and added some lube. Unfortunately, it looks like i did a little damage to the mold at the pivot point where the steel gouged the aluminum a little. Hopefully this wont cause too many issues.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check