BruceB
06-04-2005, 12:45 AM
When looking back over my loading/shooting results some months back, I noticed a trend which implied that the much-maligned 311413 spirepoint had been giving me surprisingly good results, without really being noticed. When I went to cast up a few more, I discovered that I'd SOLD the pre-war single-cavity 413 mould in a weak moment.
After watching for some time,I bought an IDEAL 4-cavity 311413 from Ebay. This mould shows some rather deep pitting on the exterior, but the insides are very decent. However, when I tried it out, it was evident that a former owner had really bevelled the dickens out of the top mating edges, so much so that each bullet had two "tits" of metal on its base big enough to prevent seating of the gaschecks.
Since ol' buddy Buckshot was a captive audience while attending the Nevada Shoot in early May, I glommed him and sent the mould back to California with instructions to "Fix it!"
Well-now...the rig came home last week, and it works perfectly! Buckshot flawlessly machined a few thou from the tops of the blocks, which ELIMINATED the extra-metal tits completely, while still allowing the GCs to seat easily. Then he went above-and-beyond, and tuned the mould in all respects for sprue-plate fit, tension etc etc.
I had vehemently instructed him that there would be NO FREEBIES on this job....so he charged me a whole twelve bucks plus shipping. Jeez...he could go broke at that rate!
Anyway, be aware that we have our own custom mouldsmith aboard here, and basically I gather he just wants to reduce his tooling costs through performing a few jobs now and again. Seems like one heck of a deal to me, and the work, as stated, is wonderful. Keep it in mind, y'all.
After watching for some time,I bought an IDEAL 4-cavity 311413 from Ebay. This mould shows some rather deep pitting on the exterior, but the insides are very decent. However, when I tried it out, it was evident that a former owner had really bevelled the dickens out of the top mating edges, so much so that each bullet had two "tits" of metal on its base big enough to prevent seating of the gaschecks.
Since ol' buddy Buckshot was a captive audience while attending the Nevada Shoot in early May, I glommed him and sent the mould back to California with instructions to "Fix it!"
Well-now...the rig came home last week, and it works perfectly! Buckshot flawlessly machined a few thou from the tops of the blocks, which ELIMINATED the extra-metal tits completely, while still allowing the GCs to seat easily. Then he went above-and-beyond, and tuned the mould in all respects for sprue-plate fit, tension etc etc.
I had vehemently instructed him that there would be NO FREEBIES on this job....so he charged me a whole twelve bucks plus shipping. Jeez...he could go broke at that rate!
Anyway, be aware that we have our own custom mouldsmith aboard here, and basically I gather he just wants to reduce his tooling costs through performing a few jobs now and again. Seems like one heck of a deal to me, and the work, as stated, is wonderful. Keep it in mind, y'all.