Lyman 313492

[Ben]

sav300 in Australia donated 3 molds to my young friend Dustin ( Age 15 ). I'm attempting to assist him in learning to reload and cast. Many thanks to you, sav 300 for your kindness shown !

When the molds were mailed, he stated in a PM that the boy may not have any use for the 32 cal. wadcutter mold, but that he planned to include it in the shipment. Dustin is loading 308 Win. and 38 Spec. right now .

My first thoughts were that he could not use the mold.......BUT....after cleaning up this mold ( and that was a VERY major undertaking ) I have concluded that he may very well be able to use this mold after all.

The mold drops bullets that size .311 nice and round. The nose section of the wad cutter measures .302. Does that sound familiar ? ? These bullets could possibly make him some accurate plinking loads for his .308 Win.

I'm thinking of starting out with 3.0 grs. of B'eye and " walking up " to a load that will give him a good 25 - 50 yard economical, low noise, low recoil plinking load. Most likely these would have to be loaded in his Savage 110, 308 Win. straght into the barrel and him use it as a single shot, but for training purposes that may not be such a bad thing.

Any of you have any thoughts on some load data that might work well with this bullet in the 308 Win. ? ? I'm thinking 800 - 1,000 fps .

The bullet lubed , sized and ready to load weighs 84 grs.

Photos below :

Here is what the mold looked like when I received it :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/015-5.jpg

Here it is after a couple of hours of sweat and clean-up , ( I think I'll call this one Lazarus, as I may have brought this one back from the dead ) :

By the way, notice that the mold appears to have been stamped 311492 and a worker over stamped the 3rd digit with a 3 - - - I find this interesting because when I mike bullets from this mold they are much closer to a .30 cal. bore dimension than a .32 cal. pistol bore dimension :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/004-18.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/006-14.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/007-10.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/008-14.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/009-11.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/010-11.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/011-13.jpg

[sav300]

Ben,that little mold was in the bottom of a ice cream container of cast wad cutters and found when I was taking out hand fulls of casts for melting.Never gave the little chap a thought for my 30cals.
Good job cleaning Ben.

[6.5 mike]

Might check Larry Gibson's posts, Ben, Remember him talking about light .32 boolits in 30 cals with bullseye. :popcorn:

[Ben]

Yes Mike.............I looked for that one yesterday and had no luck finding it ?

Ben

[6.5 mike]

oops, I just re-read it & don't remember where, :groner: He was talking about the lee 32 cal swc.

[Ben]

Mike,

They say the 1st thing to go when you get old is your memory. Looks like you and I are about there.

Ben

[6.5 mike]

What where we talking about,:bigsmyl2:[smilie=l:.

[longbow]

Nice job on cleaning that mould up Ben, looks good.'

I have been wanting a real lightweight boolit for my .303 and was thinking about the Mihec .32 Brass Hollowbase Wadcutter for the same reason ~ a lightweight plinker.

That little guy should do well but I am guessing a fast pistol or shotgun powder would give best results. I recently found that my NOE 0.314" x 129 gr. likes 10 grs. 700X under it. A little heavier boolit but same idea for light inexpensive loads. I will try a few other fast burning powders as well.

Can't really advise on specific loads except that I have gotten best results with lightish charges of fast powders. When you get it right it should be a nice little plinker kinda like a .22 on steroids. Should be fun.

Also, you deserve a large "congratulations" for the effort you are putting in with Dustin. He is a lucky lad to be learning from you. It is a great thing to be bringing young folks into the sport.

Longbow

[Ben]

Thanks Longbow,

I'm having fun with the boy ( and I think he is also )................

Best,
Ben