what mould for paper patching

[joedapro]

what mold do you recommend for the folowing, when desiring to paper patch?


for 30-06, .308 180 grain
35 remington .358 200 grain
45 colt .452 300 grain

[docone31]

With my .30s, I use the Lee 180gn .30cal mold.
I suspect, any mold would work for what you have in mind.
I size my casting to .308, then wrap to size.

[pdawg_shooter]

Most any mould will work for paper. I prefer heavy for caliber, but that is just me. I use standard grooved moulds and size the bullet to .001/..0015 over bore diameter. Patch up from there. Like jacketed every barrel is different and you will want to play a little to see witch one your barrel likes best. If you have a friend who cast get a few samples from him (or her), size them down and patch away. See how they shoot in your rifle. Good luck and have fun.

[joedapro]

dont the moulds have to be undersized to allow for the build up of paper?

[docone31]

No, with smokeless, they have to be .001 over bore. At least that is what I have found to be true.
With paper, you size down the prime casting, then wrap, then size that to size. I suspect, the prime casting is also sized at that point. Not much, but a little. I also suspect the paper is compressed into what is left of the lube grooves.
I am sizing to jacketed diameters with paper. In other words, I size my .30s to .308 on the prime casting, then wrap to .317-.318. That I size down to .309. That is my magic number with my .30s.
You thinking on undersizing, is actually my sizing down to .308 on the .30s. The nose is .301.

[RMulhern]

[Nrut]

dont the moulds have to be undersized to allow for the build up of paper?

Hello Joe...
You are right...As pdawg_shooter sez you need to start with a boolit that is either 1 to 1 1/2 thou larger than bore dia. (not groove dia.)...There are two ways to to get that boolit...

1...order a custom mold the dia. you want..Sometimes a standard off the shelf mold will give you the right dia. but not often...

2...buy a push-thru type sizer die..I recommend Buckshot's push-thru dies as he can make any size you need cheaper and faster than LEE...Buckshot is a member of this forum..

As to your question as to which boolit to use...I don't PP for the .308 yet and most likely won't for the .45 Colt...I am just starting with the .35 cal. and I am using a RCBS 200+gr. boolit...I haven't had a chance to shoot it yet so nothing good or bad to report there...Seems I have to many projects...

If you don't already have it I suggest that you buy Paul Matthews book "THE PAPER JACKET" from Wolfe Publishing Company..

Hello docone31 ...
What do you mean by "prime casting"?...I have never heard of that term before...

[docone31]

A prime casting, is a casting fresh out of the mold before any sizing for patching.
It is presized, then wrapped, then sized. The initial casting is the prime casting, the wrapped casting, is the final product, or wrapped casting.

[Nrut]

Ok..got ya..
You are right about running a PP boolit thru a push-thru die will size the boolit down more if the sizer is some what smaller than the PP boolit...There have been times when I didn't have the right sizer to get just over bore dia. on the bare boolit so I would patch a boolit then run it thru a sizer to get it down to the size I needed..Then I would clean off what was left of the patch and re-patch it..A pain for sure but for experiment purposes it worked..(most of the time, but not today on a .411 to .403-.404 )..

[docone31]

Wow, that is a lot of sizing for .008. I patch my .30s, they come out to .318, and in one pass I size to .309. I do not repatch, I fire the originals.
I have never measured the prime after sizing in paper, I just fired them.

[joedapro]

thanks guys i just finished reading the matthews book. now to experiment.