Hi, I'm relatively new to casting 300 blackout and I only have one mold. It's the Lee 309-230-5R mold. The bullet is powder coated and looked good after molding. I keep a good watch on the pot temp (730 to 750) and I learned to preheat the mold to above 600 to get a good bullet without wrinkles. All good so far.
My question is the diameter of the bullet. This is a very long bullet and I've been told it's pretty difficult to mold (as a beginner). I put the bullet (lubricated with One Shot) through the Lee mold sizing die .309" and measured it with calipers. When measuring across the 5 ribs and a little bit above that, the bullet sure enough, measures .309".
But when I measured closer to the bullet tip, but way below the start of the Ogive angle, the diameter of that whole, long section of bullet measures .300". Is this normal? I guess I would have expected the bullet to measure .309 the whole length of the bullet up to the ogive rounded taper by the nose. Of course, the back of the bullet is tapered small, that much I know.
Thanks!
Sorry, upload photo failed - I don't know why, but you should know what's going on without a photo. Thanks again.