40 cal Steve Brooks Mould

[Boz330]

Picked up a used Steve Brooks mould a week back for a hunert dollars. WOW am I ever pleased. Cast up about 200 boolits with it yesterday and weighed them while watching the Steelers game last night. Culled 2 of them because they were just a little outside of my parameters but still looked good and probably would have been fine. The last casting session with my NEI 40 (2 weeks ago) I culled a double hand full and a few more while sizing and lubing.
What really gripes me is the Brooks mould was only $30 more than the NEI if I had bought it new. And of course now that I've let the cat out of the bag I can't even sell it here.
Just kidding I wouldn't do that to you guys.

Bob

[McLintock]

I think Steve makes extremely good moulds. I've got one in both .38 and .45 caliber for my guns. they're the 540 gr Creedmore for the .45 and the 335 Creedmore for the .38's. I gave $172 for the .45 mould with a Butch Ulscher sprue plate on it. With either mould I could cast 300 bullets and when weighing them out to 1/2 gr increments, the largest amount would have about 200 in it, with the other 100 1/2 gr on either side. Would only have to throw back maybe 4 or 5 out of the 300. I'd give $100 any day for one of his moulds; good find.
McLintock

[EDG]

I will be generous and offer you $20 plus shipping for your old used NEI mold.
That should be about right since you can get a Lee aluminum mold for the same price.
But then again the Lee mold would be new. Of course Lee does not make .40s

BTW I have a Brooks mold that I have trouble with. Let me say though that the problem is not really the mold it is strictly an operator problem. A mold that nice could not possible have anything wrong with it.
Maybe you can give me some hints on how to make it work? How hot, what alloy and how do you pour the metal?
BTW I will never admit what I paid for it or where I got it. You would accuse me of a crime or lying or both.

[Boz330]

I will be generous and offer you $20 plus shipping for your old used NEI mold.
That should be about right since you can get a Lee aluminum mold for the same price.
But then again the Lee mold would be new. Of course Lee does not make .40s

BTW I have a Brooks mold that I have trouble with. Let me say though that the problem is not really the mold it is strictly an operator problem. A mold that nice could not possible have anything wrong with it.
Maybe you can give me some hints on how to make it work? How hot, what alloy and how do you pour the metal?
BTW I will never admit what I paid for it or where I got it. You would accuse me of a crime or lying or both.

Well that is probably more than I can get from the recycle center, but I haven't shot this Brooks boolit yet to see how it does. The boolits from the NEI aren't as pretty and there are a lot of culls, but it shoots good from my rifle. I'm hoping the Brooks will as well.
I don't use a temp guage so not sure on the heat. I'm using a 15-1 lead tin mixture. I usualy just let the mould warm up by dipping one side in the pot while it is heating up. The first pour takes a while to cool but after that it goes pretty well. I do ladle pour and I put the spout against the sprue hole while holding it on it's side and then turn it up and let the ladle hold head preasure for several seconds. When the sprue frosts then I cut it off and drop the boolit. I watch to make sure that I'm not leaving a divot in the base of the boolit from cutting it to hot. I also flux about every 20 or 30 boolits. I've been meaning to get a hot plate to keep the mould hot and a temp guage but just haven't gotten around to it.

Bob

[zampilot]

I have a .40 cal Brooks just begging for heat! The only problem so far is SAECO handles wont fit and RCBS is a bit tight with a slight bit of daylight between the halves, but I dont hink it'll matter once the lead starts pouring.

[EDG]

I have a .40 cal Brooks just begging for heat! The only problem so far is SAECO handles wont fit and RCBS is a bit tight with a slight bit of daylight between the halves, but I dont hink it'll matter once the lead starts pouring.

I am using Saeco handles with my Brooks mold but I had to deburr them pretty well to get them into the mold blocks.

[EDG]

>>>>I don't use a temp guage so not sure on the heat. I'm using a 15-1 lead tin mixture. I usualy just let the mould warm up by dipping one side in the pot while it is heating up. The first pour takes a while to cool but after that it goes pretty well. I do ladle pour and I put the spout against the sprue hole while holding it on it's side and then turn it up and let the ladle hold head preasure for several seconds. When the sprue frosts then I cut it off and drop the boolit. I watch to make sure that I'm not leaving a divot in the base of the boolit from cutting it to hot. I also flux about every 20 or 30 boolits. I've been meaning to get a hot plate to keep the mould hot and a temp guage but just haven't gotten around to it.<<<<

My technique is nearly identical to you except

1. I am using a crummy wheel weight alloy with 1% tin added. It seems adding the tin made it worse which seem impossible. I am wasting tin on the wheel weights or I need to add still more tin.

2. I have not been preheating my mold like that

Sounds like I need to better alloy and I need to preheat my mold.

[Boz330]

I tried WWs in the old barrel and it shot great for about 10 rounds or so and then accuracy started going south. For whatever reason the WWs leaded real bad with BP. I don't have that problem with the lead tin mix.
You might try a little more tin and preheating the mould and see if that helps.
I had a little trouble getting the screws through the holes on a set of RCBS handles, but another pair worked fine. I was in such a hurry to throw some boolits that I didn't want to spend time working on the handles.
This boolit, set so it engages the first full size driving band, is going to give me .210 extra case capacity from the NEI boolit. I'm already getting 65gr of 2F Swiss in the case. This will get me up near a 40-70 SS capacity. It will be interesting to see how it shoots. I won't have time to try it before the next match so I'll just be winging it.

Bob

[McLintock]

I try to run my pots at 775-800 degrees, seems to work the best for me, and thats around a 7-8 on their rehostat. I'm able to keep a more consistent temp over a gas pot. I use two Lee 20 pounders (not bottom pour) and dip out of them, alternating, often with two different moulds.
McLintock

[Gellot Wilde]

I have a .40 cal Brooks just begging for heat! The only problem so far is SAECO handles wont fit and RCBS is a bit tight with a slight bit of daylight between the halves, but I dont hink it'll matter once the lead starts pouring.

I thought that Brooks blocks were designed for SAECO handles?

[zampilot]

That's what they told me on the phone also!
I cast about 300 over the weekend and once the mold was at the right temp it cast and dropped wonderfully, great fill out. I was alternating the SB .40 with a BACO .441 PP mould (which has a slight taper), casting at about 800 degrees, about 25:1 and 18:1 lead/tin.

[McLintock]

I use Lyman on both of mine; cheaper than Seaco and fit with no mods needed.
McLintock