What bullet for 40 s&w

[jbremount]

Gentlemen i am very new to casting boolits, i have purchased a lee 6 cavity 401-175 for my 40 to shoot ipda with. I am having trouble getting the mold to fill out. The only way i can get a good looking boolit is to run the temp up past 800. Is this normal for a lee mold. I have been helped along the way by my uncle who has been casting for years but he has never used a lee 6 cavity of any sort. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated i do not want to damaged the mold doing something wrong.

Did you clean the mold and then use smoke/smoot in the cavities. The instructions went in more details about this.......Straight wheel weight work well as long as they are not the ones with zinc in them......

[finattic]

Thanks for the replys, yes i cleaned the mold and smoked it, i thought the mold temp was up enough but maybe not, after running it 8 times which should be 48 boolits you would think it would be up to temp. I will try to get the mold temp up before casting and try again. Is there anyway to check the mold temp without pouring lead in it, like maybe a infrared thermoter, if so then i would guess the mold temp and the lead temp should be close to the same, i am correct in this thinking. Thanks again

[Doby45]

What prolly happened is you kept looking at the boolits being dropped.

What you have here is a huge chunk of aluminum that doesn't really hold heat that well to begin with, then you check you boolits every 2-3 drops and you have a mold that never gets up to temp. I would say do atleast 10 drops right into your sprue pile and don't even look at them. Then after 10 drops in the sprue pile start dropping them in your keeper pile, still do not look at them. You will find you have a huge pile of boolits in no time and most all of them will be keepers. I personally check about every 10 drops when I am running my Lee 6 cav molds. Thats how you can tell if they are frosting way more than they need to.

[Mavrick]

finattic- From 'cold', cast 5-10 throws as fast as you can get the melt to 'freeze'. Then, start casting into your 'keep' pile. If you have someone with you, it may help. If not...OK, too.
Just look at the drop as you close the mold, and are going back to the 'melt'. Don't stop and look. The aluminum molds lose heat way fast. Don't make the next drop on top of the ones you already dropped. I'm talking of air-cooled on a soft towel. If you are going to water-quench, the water will cushion the fall. I air-cooled for about 30years before I EVER tried water and think it's a very good idea to use a towel as you can watch what your boolits are doing. You can cull later if you don't catch 'em as you go along.
The idea is to cast as fast as you can sustain. You will be able to lower the 'melt' temperature as you strengthen your wrist and speed your casting.
I use an RCBS bottom-pour and it's easy to get the molds too hot if the thermostat is turned too high. You adjust your speed to just frost a little bit.
I have to straighten my cap(the conical one with little moons and stars on it) from time to time.
I use 4-hole iron, 2-hole iron, 2-hole aluminum, and 6-hole aluminum and am getting into my first brass mold, and find each has it's own heat/speed range so it takes a little getting used to. It's not rocket-science, it's magic!
Have fun,
Gene

[Gun Nut]

CAST FAST AND HOT TILL FROSTED THEN SLOW DOWN AND FIND THE RIGHT RYTHM, MY 6 CAV .401 LIKES IT HOT! ... i DONT UNDERSTAND WHY THESES MOLDS HAVE A BEVEL ON THE BASE OF BOOLIT? IT SEEMS THAT A FLAT EDGE WOULD SEAL THE BARREL BETTER???

[gwilliams2]

Lee 175 SWC TL... Puttin them down range with a Glock, S & W and a Kahr, never had one misfeed...

[finattic]

Thanks for the replys guy's. I am reading this after another session in the shop tonight. I understand what you saying by going fast, i have not been fast enough, the best casting's i got tonight was almost at the bottom of a 10 lb pot. Must have taken that long for everything to get right, the boolits are just before frosting. I will try your suggestion about going faster and not looking and then cull later hopefully not too many. I am not giving up it has gotten to the principle of the matter now. Thanks again

[songdog53]

Lee 175 and they pour and shoot just fine for me. They weigh out little over 178gr but then they work for me. Put them over 5 grs. of Unique many because have several pounds that i need to use up and they work fine.

[geargnasher]

As far as mould designs go, the Lee 175 TC with conventional lube has worked pretty well for me, but if you want to approach the sound barrier in this potentially very powerful cartridge you will have a MUCH easier time of it using a gas-checked design. For medium to low velocity stuff (under 900 fps in the .40), use the powders and alloys you would use in a .45 ACP.

Gear

[songdog53]

Lee .401 TC for me and shoot very well and can make a bunch out of pot of lead and mine weighing in 178 lubed and love them. My 40 yet to see jacketed bullet.