Capt Klutzz
01-04-2012, 10:48 PM
I have been studying here for the best part of a year and am never less than amazed at the depth and breadth of the knowlege and diversity of info contained so please let me say thanx in advance for all of the knowlege I think I have gained at this board.
Having said that I have not learned enough so I have some stats to throw out and then I be very appreciative of some help.
Over this past weekend I had my first casting session with moderate success !
I have been collecting supplies for some time so heres the list:
Lee BP 20lb pot
Lee 312-155-2r
Mosin -Nagant 7.62x54R
Alloy = 10 lbs of Roto hb#2
Using data found here on Loads for Mil Surps. by C.E. Harris
BArrel slugs .310 (probably not as accurate as I should be on this)
I lubed the mold (spru pl. & bolt) using permatex 313
Heated the mold on a hot plate (not sure of mold temp at this point)
and brought the alloy up to about 750 F
Fluxed with beeswax and skimmed
The initial casts were VERY shiny and VERY wrinkled thruoughout the bullet body.
I also noted that the casts seemed very hard, very difficult to scratch with thumb nail.
Measurments came in at about .309
I cast half the pot back into ingots and added 10 lbs of recycled scrap lead and about 4-6 oz of leadfree solder to increase tin content.
CAst again and got slightly less wrinkles, seems a bit softer and increased dia to between .3095-.310
performed a verytentative "leementing" using an exacto knife, comet cleanser and crest and a very cautious lapping in the cavs with comet and a dremmel powered cast bullet.
Cleaned the mold again and this time heated the mold to about 375F and lowered the alloy temp to about 625-650 F
This time I could see less shiny and substantially fewer wrinles to the extent that I decided to load a few and test fire them although i was still barley attaining .310dia.
hardley any resistance thru the .310 Lee sizer
Used 13 grains of unique but no gc's and although they shot a foot high at fifty yds (rifle is scoped for 180 Gr. they were pretty much centered as far as windage).
My Question is what have i missed as far as getting this .312 mold to drop .312 bullets??
I have checked with 2 different sets of digital caipers getting the same results.
I have altered the alloy temp from 625 - 850 andam now checking the temp on the mold with a digtal thermometer, and I guess I forgot to mention that i tried comet lapping the cavs again.
The wrinkling seems to be getting better the more I run the mold (approx 7 sessions now) and the weight is coming in at about 153 - 153gr. but the dia seems relativly static.
Is this mold possibly undersized and in need of a trip home? or am I missing something.
Thanx again for the benifit of all of your experiences thus far.
Having said that I have not learned enough so I have some stats to throw out and then I be very appreciative of some help.
Over this past weekend I had my first casting session with moderate success !
I have been collecting supplies for some time so heres the list:
Lee BP 20lb pot
Lee 312-155-2r
Mosin -Nagant 7.62x54R
Alloy = 10 lbs of Roto hb#2
Using data found here on Loads for Mil Surps. by C.E. Harris
BArrel slugs .310 (probably not as accurate as I should be on this)
I lubed the mold (spru pl. & bolt) using permatex 313
Heated the mold on a hot plate (not sure of mold temp at this point)
and brought the alloy up to about 750 F
Fluxed with beeswax and skimmed
The initial casts were VERY shiny and VERY wrinkled thruoughout the bullet body.
I also noted that the casts seemed very hard, very difficult to scratch with thumb nail.
Measurments came in at about .309
I cast half the pot back into ingots and added 10 lbs of recycled scrap lead and about 4-6 oz of leadfree solder to increase tin content.
CAst again and got slightly less wrinkles, seems a bit softer and increased dia to between .3095-.310
performed a verytentative "leementing" using an exacto knife, comet cleanser and crest and a very cautious lapping in the cavs with comet and a dremmel powered cast bullet.
Cleaned the mold again and this time heated the mold to about 375F and lowered the alloy temp to about 625-650 F
This time I could see less shiny and substantially fewer wrinles to the extent that I decided to load a few and test fire them although i was still barley attaining .310dia.
hardley any resistance thru the .310 Lee sizer
Used 13 grains of unique but no gc's and although they shot a foot high at fifty yds (rifle is scoped for 180 Gr. they were pretty much centered as far as windage).
My Question is what have i missed as far as getting this .312 mold to drop .312 bullets??
I have checked with 2 different sets of digital caipers getting the same results.
I have altered the alloy temp from 625 - 850 andam now checking the temp on the mold with a digtal thermometer, and I guess I forgot to mention that i tried comet lapping the cavs again.
The wrinkling seems to be getting better the more I run the mold (approx 7 sessions now) and the weight is coming in at about 153 - 153gr. but the dia seems relativly static.
Is this mold possibly undersized and in need of a trip home? or am I missing something.
Thanx again for the benifit of all of your experiences thus far.