Smokin' hot 32/327 bullet woes.....

[square butte]

Al, What about producing pin#3 with a little more meat around the outside diameter of the nose - similar to what you've done with #2, but just a shallow cone shaped dimple in the nose. (depth just as you have shown, but a ring of meat around outside edge of nose). I'd be interested in a set of both #2 and #3. Could also use pins like this in the 314-129. Gives us lots more options. This is a crowd that loves options.

[Shooter6br]

I would like to have the smaller pins Swede when they are made. I will cast the solids. These litlle bullets are difficult to make for sure. ,but it is the nature of the beast i beleive thanks Rick

[Shooter6br]

"At first if you dont suck seed, suck until you do suck seed" Churley Howard (Three Stogies) to the point. I heated the mold to about 300 degrees. Set my Lee Drip- o Matic to 9 and went to town. Both HP and solids cast great out of 25-1 alloy. The mold actually smoked !pics to follow

[Shooter6br]

Loaded some HP's I feel due to the thin area around the HP cavity the HP's actually " collapse" when very light seating pressure is used. The HP cavity is reduced in actual size. i use Lee dies with 16-1 alloy. Smaller pins would help but the weight of the bullet would increase to at least 110 grains( guess) Still a workable HP for the 32mag. Harder alloy would of course prevent the collapse.This small bullet does present challenges

[frankenfab]

I was concerned about the hollowpoint when I saw the pics Swede posted.

I like the Mihec style lubrisizer punch with the point in the end. I uniforms out small defects and swages out the very small flash that is occasionally present on the nose.

A custom seating stem could also be made to put the pressure on the hollow point cavity when seating, even better a stem that supported both the outside and inside of the nose. Very complicated, but if made in 2 pieces it wouldn't require a form tool to make.

All this being said, I AM THRILLED WITH THIS MOLD, I WOULD GLADLY PAY FOR A SET OF SMALLER HP PINS, AND I WILL BUY MANY MORE MOLDS FROM SWEDE AND MIHA.

I hope my feedback is not in any way viewed as a complaint!

[Shooter6br]

i agree The mold is top grade. i never casted small HP before. it is a learned technique. I did cast some nice HP's You get more "rejects" then solids. Much easier to cast larger HP's ( 45 cal etc).99 % of my casting is solids for target use. i like the big HP's (41 mag , 45 ACP) for self defence /hunting. smaller pins i would like also

[19112TAP]

I would be interested in a smaller set of pins also, like #2 style.

Tom

[Newtire]

I agree on the fact that Al is definitely "on it". I had some troubles getting a previous mould of Al's to fill out and it turned out to be the Lee pot and not the mould.

I too am not getting the noses to fill out at all after smoking, heating washing, Brake Kleening, smoking the pins and burning my fingers off. I am using an RCBS bottom pour now too. 5-casting sessions. Tried to cover all the bases.

I got real good fillout after setting the base of the mould into the melt but that's not possible to do after the pot gets a little bit lower than full. Maybe the hotplate is the ticket.

I am also having troubles getting the mould halves to separate. Possibly because of too much heat?

I am in for a smaller set of pins too when they become available.

[45 2.1]

These are small cavity molds.......... get your melt to 750 degrees, use the smallest rowell ladle and have the mold very hot to start. The smaller ladles and bottom pour pots do not put out enough pressure and volume at the time its needed to fill cavities out in an all hollow point mold. Pour each cavity seperately as you would a single cavity and allow no bleed over till the cavity is poured.

[Hickory]

These are small cavity molds.......... get your melt to 750 degrees, use the smallest rowell ladle and have the mold very hot to start. The smaller ladles and bottom pour pots do not put out enough pressure and volume at the time its needed to fill cavities out in an all hollow point mold. Pour each cavity seperately as you would a single cavity and allow no bleed over till the cavity is poured.

I agree with you to some extent.
These small cavity moulds need to run hot and at a steady speed to keep the temp' up and to be consistant.
I feel that these small cavity moulds should not be no more than 2 cavities, because 4 cavity moulds loose their heat too fast and it's hard to maintain the steady and consistant heat needed for a good cast.
My feelings are that moulds made in brass or iron would serve the caster better than aluminum when casting boolit in the 30 caliber or less range.
NOE moulds cast very good when you find the sweet spot when casting, I'd not give-up any of mine.

And that folks, is how I see it.

[WARD O]

My opinion on the HP pins--- the bullets I've been throwing weigh in at 107 grains. I don't really want a marked heavier bullet for he 32 Mag. Perhaps the best modification would be to reduce the size of the HP opening. That would put a little more space around the pin for melt to fill and warm the pin tip before the melt solidifies. This appears to be what pin #2 is doing.
This would also strengthen the point for reloading purposes. Keep the HP cavity as deep as is practical.

Pressure pouring with a ladle???? I use an RCBS ladel which I've opened up the spout with a drill so the hole is bigger. I fill the ladel every time and try to match the spout up to the spru plate hole, I start in the horizontal position and turn both hands to verticle to pour, then do it again for the next cavity - is that pressure pouring? This is the technique I've used to pour BIG boolits for my BPCR shooting.

Next time I will apply more heat.

I would be happy to pay for additionaly pins.

I have not tried to reload any of these boolits yet. I did not have any trouble running my few good boolits through my Star - no nose deformation!

Perhaps we should consider revisiting the 32 Keith bullet scheduled for February - after we work out the details here????

Ward

[Blammer]

Ward O, yes that is pressure pouring perfectly proclaimed.

[w30wcf]

heat them with a torch prior to casting.

Large pins have a larger thermal capacity and once hot enough they will allow your mold to cast wonderful bullets.

A friend was having trouble getting a good fillout with a Lyman .44 Devastator mold and asked me to give it a try.

I preheated the mold in my toaster oven and when it was ready to go, I applied heat to the hollow point pin with a torch for 10-15 seconds or so. I drop poured the alloy (ww +2%tin) at 800F.
Result: beautifully filled out bullets.

And..... it kept making great bullets since the larger pin retained the heat nicely due to its higher thermal capacity.

w30wcf

[Hickory]

These boolits were cast with my pot cranked all the way up and pressure pouring technique used by WARD-O

[WARD O]

Hickory,

Those are looking pretty good! What are you using for alloy? Have you loaded any of your bullets? Any trouble with nose collapse during bullet seating?

I hope to give it another try this weekend - don't seem to find any other time to play with this project. Hopefully, higher temps will do the job as I don't want to change the HP pin too much - meaning I don't want to go much higher with bullet weight.

Ward

[Hickory]

Alloy is about 85% lead, 14% tin and around 1% antimomy.
I have not loaded any yet, but hope to tomorrow. I'll see if I
can scroung up some milk jugs for an expansion test.
I've been trying different things to get the boolits to release
from the hollow point pin and found that Midwat's Drop-out Mould Release (which I think is called something else now) sprayed on the cold pins really does the trick.
Be sure that you don't get any in or on the mould. I tried this in moulds and didn't care for it at all, and forgot I even had it until just the other day.

[EchoSixMike]

That's a heckavalot of tin! S/F......Ken M

[Hickory]

That's a heckavalot of tin! S/F......Ken M

Yea, I got thinking about that last night in bed and I'm wrong.
It's only half that, I added 50-50 instead of a bar of tin.
My mistake folks.

[WARD O]

So if it's 92-7-1 that would put you somewhere around a BHN of 11-12 and that should be a reasonable alloy for expansion with HP's.

I am trying to work with 50/50 - clip on wheel weights to lead and add a very small amount of tin. This should be a little softer.

Ward

[Hickory]

I got a few loaded up, but found that in this gun the boolit should have been set back to the next crimp ring. I have to force them into the cylinder, but not much.
I'll check my other guns to see if I get a better fit.
Not shot any yet, maybe tomorrow.