MP 432-640 pointers?

[Slayer_mn1]

Hey all! I’m fairly new to casting, but have done a bit of it in the past for plinking bullets out of WW’s. Now I’m looking to get serious about it and start casting for my 44 magnum, and eventually some others.

I ordered an MP 432-640 4 cavity plain base mold a few days ago, and am just wondering if any of you have experience with this one, particularly using these bullets on deer sized game.

I plan to do my own testing, but figured I’d see if you have a favorite alloy/hardness so that I have some things to reference when I get started. I’ll be powder coating these, and currently have access to clean lead in the 10-12 bhn range. I only have about 30lbs or so, is the range scrap that I see for sale here any good for an expanding bullet?

Thanks for any and all replies!

Steve

[Tripplebeards]

Here is my testing with the Lyman devastator which is basically the same boolit. I’d tell you to cast them up in 16:1 pewter and pure lead. My mix in this has a BH of 7.8 and holds together really well. Using a GC and PC I can run them to max jacked loading with zero loading and good accuracy. I shot a few deer with 80/20 COWW and pure mixed with 15%pewter added. It had a BH of 15.4. It never expanded on deer at 1750 FPS out of my rifle. I have a couple hundred loaded in 16:1 alloy ready to go for deer season loaded at 1600 FPS. You can see in my posts how alloys did on water testing...which is way to hard of a test vs a deer. In my last post with the deer I shot I posted a picture of a 16:1 pewter and pure bullet shot at 1600 FPS and recovered from a dirt back stop that weighed 180 grain and expanded to 3/4”. It looks a lot different than the same alloyed boolit in the water test. I’m sure it will put a good size hole in a deer’s lungs and heart even if bone is not hit. There is a poster from Australia here that uses straight wheels weights on hogs with really good success. They have a lot thicker bones and extremely tuff hides vs deer. I’d like to try my 80/20 alloy on some pigs.

I would tell you to hit the thrift stores in your area and scout for pewter. Easily found my area. Or I would tell you to at least cut your alloy with 50% pure lead if you can find some. I’m sure your current alloy will work just fine but if you want some good expansion and energy transfer for deer hunting you’ll want it softer imo.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...my-ruger-77-44

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...man-devastator

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...my-devastators!!!

[white eagle]

I like binary alloy's for hp just for the hunting I do
I prefer to use tin and pewter is tin but would buy it from rotometals
or some such place
I like the mp 640 you can cast a lot of boolits in short order
the devastator is a single cavity mold and takes awhile to make boolits
your alloy will serve you just fine but when you want to know exactly
what you have its nice to start with known components

[Slayer_mn1]

I appreciate the replies! I think I will look into buying some “known” alloy to hunt with, and use what I already have for practice loads. I’ll just powder coat them different colors to differentiate.

I actually bought a single cavity Lyman devastator mold first, before I knew about MP and interchangeable pins for different tip profiles. I had planned on making some of my own pins to try if I wasn’t happy with the factory one.

When I saw the MP, and that it didn’t cost much more for their four cavity than the single Lyman it was a no brainer. The Lyman is getting sent back!

[Minerat]

If you get the brass one be sure to season it by thoroughly cleaning with Dawn dish soap and cycling it by heating it to 400 degrees and let cool 4 times. This will add the patina so the boolits don't stick. If it has pins then you need to keep your alloy at between 725 and 750 degrees and will get wrinkled noses until the hp pins get hot. This may take 10 fillings unless you pre heat using a hot plate.

If you are getting wrinkles then you need to speed up to keep the mould at temperature, if you are getting excessive frosting you need to slow down and let the mould cool a little.

Good luck and welcome. Once you have it figured out and start working with it you will have questions. Just ask them as there are no dumb questions on here. It may take some time to get it right but when you figure it out you will be pleased on your choice.

[Tripplebeards]

I love my MP .358 brass mold but hate the “tinning”. I just like to cast hot for good fill outs and will end up tinning my mold every time. I don’t have that issue with my Lyman mold. Pros and cons. I just have to scrub my mold with a bronze cleaning brush and a lot of heat with a butane torch to remove my build up while making sure I don’t warp my mold. Cleaned it several times this way with great success. It’s just an all afternoon project. Never had luck with scraping tinning off with a wood pick. No matter how many times I hear my mold up to treat it imo it doesn’t patina enough. I patinaed some brass buckles using the fumes of a salt and vinegar mix. I’m going to try it on my mold. I polish my HP pins before casting as well. I did r know I had to season my mold when got my first brass mold. I had tons of tinning because of it. I still get close to the same amount when I cast hot it’s my seasoned molds. Just the nature of brass molds imo when trying to get good fill out.

[white eagle]

I have never prepped a mold in any way other than using it
the same with cleaning ,I guess I must be neat

[fatnhappy]

My experience with brass moulds is cast fast and keep it as hot as possible. I have the Mihec 432640 cramer mould and I had the devil of the time with the HP pins until it was really hot. My 180 .30 hunter is exactly the same.

[Tripplebeards]

Another tip...my OCD...no matter what HP mold I use I also have some finning around the HP hole. I put a piece of cardboard on a flat surface and rub each HP cavity very gently across the cardboard. Sometimes in circles, just to knock or rub off the finning. The cardboard looks like I drew on it with a pencil after a few hundred are done. I’m sure it doesn’t need to be done but I like my boolits to look and fly perfect. I also made a flat seater/pusher for my 44 mag die so it evenly flattens the HP surface when seating my boolits. I also use a lee collet factory crimp die because these boolits need to be seated shorter in my 77/44. I shrunk my groups from a couple inches to sub MOA at 100 yards just by changing crimp style.