boomer's 454640 pb peliminary results

[38-55]

Hey Ya'll,
Was out of town last week and when I got home I was surprised to find boomer's 454640 pb on the table.. Got around to casting some up today. Mold really worked well.. Lee's QC seems to have gotten alot better.. Boolits weigh in at around 265 with my wheel weight ingots.. Size as cast is in the .455 range.. Spent some time in the shop making a top punch for them and then sized up some ( .454 )and loaded them with me favorite gutless wonder 45 lc load of 5.5 of trail boss with a cci 300 igniter in star line brass.. Seated them to the top of the crimp groove.. Just ran out back and shot a bunch.. All in about a tennis ball size group at 20 yards off hand.. I'm happy ! My blackhawk is some what ammo sensitive.. The cylinder mouth is .454-.455 ( depending on which one you measure ). The throat ( where the barrel is screwed into the frame ) is .450 and the barrel is .451.. so the critter can be a bit temperamental about ammo..
Thanks again Boomer for a great design !
Stay safe
Calvin

[targetshootr]

Thanks Boomer. Looks good. I'd like to check out the original thread but I can't seem to find it. Hep.

[38-55]

Hey Ya'll,
The experimenting continues... this time with the acp...
I really like the concept of having a bullet for both the LC and the acp...
So I sized up a batch for the 45 acp this morning.. sized to .452.. loaded them over 3 gns of unique to 1.250... Why only 3 grains you ask ? WELL I did some experimenting with the lyman 454424 and had some serious pressure issues.. so I decided to 'start light' this time around.. Just as expected they would not function the gun at all... hardly even moved the slide ( I'm using a 21 lbs reciol spring not the standard 16 lbs one be warned ! ) So I bumped it up and finally settled on my standard load of 5.5 gns of unique.. no real pressure signs and quite accurate..
A note on the over all length.. 1.250 was too long I had to shorten the round to an over all length of 1.230..
Couldn't be more pleased ! Thanks for a good one Boomer !
Stay safe
Calvin
PS the pic is of a lc and a acp.....

[Frozone]

At first I was getting good boolits, all holes were dropping at ~ .4545 +-.0005 , but the mould was sticky to open. It didn't like to release the front alignment pin. I found a very small burr on the female part of the pin and removed it.

The next pour I couldn't get a good boolit from 5 of the 6 cavities! All the holes closest to the front pin were now at .450 - .451!!! I guess the burr was "Beagleing" the mould by ~ .004. I called LEE, they said they use a Go/Nogo gauge on these moulds so I can only guess they missed it too.

I'm sending it back to LEE for warranty replacement. They assure me it won't take over a year to get it this time.

[Boomer Mikey]

Hey Ya'll,
The experimenting continues... this time with the acp...
I really like the concept of having a bullet for both the LC and the acp...
So I sized up a batch for the 45 acp this morning.. sized to .452.. loaded them over 3 gns of unique to 1.250... Why only 3 grains you ask ? WELL I did some experimenting with the lyman 454424 and had some serious pressure issues.. so I decided to 'start light' this time around.. Just as expected they would not function the gun at all... hardly even moved the slide ( I'm using a 21 lbs reciol spring not the standard 16 lbs one be warned ! ) So I bumped it up and finally settled on my standard load of 5.5 gns of unique.. no real pressure signs and quite accurate..
A note on the over all length.. 1.250 was too long I had to shorten the round to an over all length of 1.230..
Couldn't be more pleased ! Thanks for a good one Boomer !
Stay safe
Calvin
PS the pic is of a lc and a acp.....

Wow! What an extravagant photo table... a cast iron surface plate! Your handloads must be exceptionally consistent if you take the time and trouble to layout and inspect everything on that precision plate.

I'm using 5 grains of Red Dot or Universal in my "heavy" ACP loads, they hit like a ton of bricks and feed fine... 750 fps.

Nice report; thanks,

Boomer

[Boomer Mikey]

Thanks Boomer. Looks good. I'd like to check out the original thread but I can't seem to find it. Hep.

Here it is:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=32013

Boomer

[Frozone]

So Boomer Mikey, You answer the Good reports but can't even return PMs about the problem moulds?? I'd like the GB Order Number as a reference to the return to LEE if you would be so Kind. At least some reference so they can make a replacement would be Nice.

[38-55]

Hey Boomer,
The saga continues.. I got a chance to goof around with the gutless wonder LC load.. Does good out to about 75 yds.. I was able to take some clay birds off the 75 yd berm with the 5.5 trail boss load.. Shot it out to 200 meters and it had pretty much fallen apart by then... still was able to hit a propane cylinder a couple of time per cylinder though... I'll have to try my 'long range' 45 lc load next.. I've used 8.5 of unique and in the past I've been able to go way out with that load using lyman's 454424...
As fer the purty surface plate... it was a 'rescue'... a neighbor dug it out of his scrap pile and thought of me.. he was going to scrap it. It had been used as a bench anvil and was a wreck.
I had a machine shop take .62 or so off the face but the guy didn't lock the knee and the plate came out with real nice .007 steps in it.. So I've been hand scraping it on and off for about a year... Got one side down to .001 and the other down to about .0005 which is plenty good enough for my 'measure with a micrometer,mark with chalk, cut with an ax' shop..
Thanks again for a good design!
Stay safe
Calvin

[kooz]

Finally got to try this one out today in my USFA and my old beater Rossi .45 lever. I had excellent results with 10gr/Unique and sized to .453.

[targetshootr]

Mine came back from Lee today and it looks very good. The first one dropped them around .450 but I have the feeling this one is going to be my go-to 45 mold.

[targetshootr]

I got to cast some last night. They dropped easy at the right size with no fins or seams and the sprue didn't smear at all which is unusual. Lee can make a great mold when they want. The turn around time was short probably because I sent a copy of the original spec drawing with it.