Cast my first boolits!! Lee 459-500-3R - Let me have it!

[BowHunter252]

Well I did it. Melted down my 11 pounds of bullet pick ups from the range. It gave me about 8 - 8.5 pounds of lead. I have no idea how hot the lead was, so maybe that is part of the problem, maybe not enough tin???

Anyhow here is a picture of one of the boolits. Not one of the worst and not the best but about average. The weight of the better 10 of the 30 or so that I casted was between 479 and 483 grains.

Is there any problem with shooting bullets like this? Any suggestions. Is this a decent bullet or completely awful?

[mooman76]

Not comletely awful but you can do better. Your mould or the lead just needs to be hotter. It would be shootable as is just not the best. We all have to start some wheres.

[sheepdog]

Mold is too cold, thats all.

[jack19512]

I also think your mold is not hot enough, dump them back into the pot and get the mold hotter.

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Yes you need a hotter mold, also did you clean the mold good before you started casting??

[Heavy lead]

I agree from what I can see with all, add tin and flux well, clean that mould with boiling water, and run it hot, very hot especially with that big of boolit. You can and will do better, that is a big (meaning difficult) boolit for your first, I applaud your courage. The bigger and longer usually are more difficult.

[WHITETAIL]

BowHunter, Welcome to the forum!

[WHITETAIL]

Yes I also will tell you to get the mould hotter.
Put the mould next to or on top of the pot.
While you are melting the lead.

[WAHO]

Like everyyone else It looks like mold is not hot enough.
I put my mold on a electric hot plate while I am getting everything up to speed, and when pausing between loading more lead into my bottom pour pot.

[Bret4207]

Your alloy is probably hot enough, but the mould isn't. Get a pouring tempo going and cast faster. The faster you cast, the faster the mould heats up. Once it gets up to heat you can slow a little to even the temp out. Don't worry if the boolits get frosty, they are better boolits IMO.

[Lead melter]

Looks like your mold may not be hot enough...now where have I heard that before?

But seriously, it may not be the prettiest, but lube, load, and shoot. A wrinkled boolit often does very well and success breeds confidence. You'll get better and so will your boolits.
Keep on plugging away and welcome to the madhouse.

[BowHunter252]

Ok, thanks. I will try getting everything hotter. And, no I did not clean the mold any. I just smoked it some with a match.

Another couple of questions- These measure right at .458-.459, so is there any need to size them?

Also, I just left about 3/4" or so of lead in the bottom of the pot, is there any problem with this?

And, should I need to smoke the mold after casting 20 or 30 bullets? They seemed to drop out real good at first then they started sticking.

[hiram]

more heat

[Whitespider]

Yep, I agree the mold ain't hot enough and/ or clean enough.

I have had the best luck cleaning Lee molds by scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing them with a soft tooth brush in very,very, hot, HOT, HOT water with a goodly amount of dish soap added. Thoroughly rinse with very hot water and let air dry or blow dry with canned air. A one time light smoking is all I've needed until I feel the need to wash the mold again.

Start casting FAST, don't even look at the first 4-5 pours, just dump 'em in the sprue pile and get some more hot molten lead in that mold as fast as you can. After that drop the boolit on your towel (or whatever you're using) and fill the mold before checking the boolit; check the boolit on the towel while waiting for the next to harden in the mold. Keeping lead in the mold as much as possible will help to keep heat in the mold, lengthen the wait time before opening the mold when/if the boolits begin to frost. The trick is to have the mold at the same temperature with every pour.

I have a big clock with second hand on the wall above my casting bench, I use it to time how long I leave metal in the mold. Adjusting time (and sometimes alloy temperature) until I get bright, shinny well filled out boolits 98% of the drops.

Well, at least that works for me.

[Linstrum]

More heat.

There could be an off chance that your mold may need the vent lines cut deeper. Lee went through a period quite some time back of not venting some of their molds well enough and I had a .515 by 500 grain Lee that just wouldn't cast - looked like the one you showed. After fiddling with everything without results, I took a jeweler's hacksaw and cut my own vent lines and that solved the problem of casting boolits that looked like bird droppings. Large boolits have bigger cavities, which translates into more air needing to escape, so large boolits tend to have the problem of inadequate venting more than small boolits. Quite a few of my moulds have benefitted from re-cutting the vent lines deeper and/or wider and I even vent the undersides of the sprue cutter plates with an "X"-cut to get better mould fill-out at the boolit base.


rl521

[Crash_Corrigan]

BH252:

We all had to start somewhere! You picked a large boolit for a Pilgrim. They are not easy to cast that big. It can be done. I agree with all of the above. Do you have a thermometer? I cast at between 700 and 775 degrees and I get good fill out and if the mold is hot enuf no wrinkles. Frosty is good. See the below listed link for a newbie mistake. BUT I DID NOT GIVE UP!

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=41217

Welcome aboard and remember no question is too stupid.

Dan

[mooman76]

I put the mould in the lead to heat it, to include the corner of the sprue plate so it gets heated too. A count about 16 sec. for a single cavity and 20 for a double. I often get good bullets first pour. You shouldn't need to resmoke that soon. I don't smoke at all but that's my preferance. I find that heavier bullets like you are making usually drop better but not always and when you are up to the right temp, mould and lead they should drop like majic!

[BowHunter252]

Well, I was only counting to about 10, so I will try 20 seconds and see if that helps. I will also clean the mold and let yall know how it works.

[HangFireW8]

Well, I was only counting to about 10, so I will try 20 seconds and see if that helps. I will also clean the mold and let yall know how it works.

Another recent newbie here. My first attempts looked just like yours. Following the advice given here, I got my 45/70 bullets good enough on the second try, and really good on the third.

I have also added a technique of my own, at least, I thought of it on my own. I also use a bottom pour. There is usually a drip of lead at the spout that is cooler than the rest of the pot. I leave an ingot mold under the spout and pour out a little into that an instant before putting my mold there and filling it. That way, I don't get cool Lead in the nose of the bullet, and it helps eliminate those little too-cool lines near the tip.

At least I think it does. Maybe it just gives me false confidence.

-HF

[Linstrum]

Hmmm. Uh, not knowing your mould needs handles? That's a good one!

I read what Crash had to say about getting "baptized" in The Silver Stream years ago and now that the subject has been brought up, I also cast for awhile without handles on one particular mould. But the situation was I didn't have handles, I needed the boolits immediately, and I didn't have enough money to get handles at the time. However, I used the small machinist's vice from my milling machine to hold the mould blocks together and it actually worked out nearly as fast as with handles! Once I got enough boolits cast to take care of my needs, I took that milling machine vice and put it back on my mill, clamped a cheap pair of pliers in it, and milled and drilled the jaws to fit the mould blocks to make my own handles. Still have those pliers around somewhere, too! Mould handles DO need wood to insulate against the heat, when I used the pliers-handles I also had to do like Crash and use my heavy welding gloves to keep from getting burned - - - YEOW! The handles do get hot!

That particular mould was one that came with a replica .36 caliber 1851 Navy Colt. I had turned the mould upside down and cut a second set of cavities in it to cast 0.368" round balls for the revolver. The conical booilts it originally cast didn't afford good accuracy, so I tried the balls and they worked great. Wish I had kept that revolver, that was back in 1974 and it was a good shooter. I just bought another replica Navy Colt built back around the same time in the early 1970s to replace the one I had 35 years ago.


rl522