40sw no sharp edge

[dearslayer]

What's the tin content of your pour? I've OCCASIONALLY been able to pour decent bullets with 1.6-1.8% tin mix, but I've never NOT been able to pour melts with 2% tin content, or more. Melts with 2.1 or 2.2% would fill out all exclusions on the lube grooves, but would also make the "sharp shoulders" reappear with good result. It could be the way that your mould was cut, but I would try melts with tin content up to 2.5% before I gave up on the way that the one cavity casts. Even at 2.5%, a cast bullet alloy is soft enough to do what it is supposed to do, inside and outside the barrel.
If, at 2.5-3.0% tin, you do not get sharp shoulders in every cavity, inquire of the vendor. At that point, I believe it is reasonable that they did not get it right.

Honestly I've never weighted the lead out. My alloy is usually 50% CO wheel weights and 50% SO wheel weights. When adding pewter I usually add about half of a 1 lb ingot to the 20 lb mixture of
lead. I find doing it this way has never presented a problem before. Sometimes I have to add a little more pewter and sometimes I had to add a little less depending on how things are going.

[dearslayer]

Yeah the 2 stroke oil works really well to lube the Sprue Plate Pivot, I wouldn't coat the whole mould with it as that is just making a mess. Clean the whole thing with Brake Cleaner and Alcohol and put a drop on the pivot and pre-heat the mould until the boolits come out frosted. Then back off a little on the mould temp.

As far as getting a perfectly sharp edge on the trailing edge of every boolit I wouldn't worry too much about that. You need to understand that these will be primarily used as Practice Ammo and a few not totally perfect boolits aren't going to affect your shooting one Iota. Nothing wrong with going for 100% perfection, I do it every day. Only problem,,, 100% Perfection isn't obtainable, so you've got to figure out what is good enough for your intended use.

Hope this helps

Randy

I've always used the two-stroke synthetic oil just as you suggested. I don't usually overdo it. I cast a bunch more bullets the day after I posted this thread and I did as you suggested as far as heating the mold up until the bullets frosted and then I slowed down until they came out just right. I found that keeping the same cadence was important to the outcome. In any event they did come out much better. Note: I had also taken the mold apart and cleaned everything up and removed any tiny specks of lead anywhere near the cavities and vent lines.

[W.R.Buchanan]

So you have success now! great ! Now make a bunch load 'em up and go shooting. Randy

[dearslayer]

So you have success now! great ! Now make a bunch load 'em up and go shooting. Randy

That is the plan once powder coated and sized. Thanks for all the help and suggestions folks.