beagle half a mold?

[brotherdarrell]

gentlemen - picked up a rcbs 308-165-sil that looks to be un-used. Got it home, cleaned it up and cast a few. The boolits dropped without any problem. Noses mic at .301"x.302", great. Body mics .3085"x.3095", not quite so great. Now I am not saying these won't shoot great as cast, but past tests have shown closer to .310" or larger to be better in my .308. So, anyone beagle just the top half of a mold with success?

I cast 75 and discounting the 8 with rounded bases the rest fill within 1 grain of each other. Now that I like!!!

brotherdarrell

[Ben]

Yes, you can beagle the top half of the mold, but of course you'll most likely run into a 2nd problem with that technique.

If your gas checks are a nice " snap on fit " right now, when you beagle the top half of the mold, you could have problems even getting the gas checks on at all because not only will the drive bands increase in size but the dia. of the gas shank will increase also ? ? ?

You may end up having to give RCBS a call.

I ordered a 338 dia. mold about 2 yrs. ago and it cast .004 small ( cast about .3355 " ). I sent it back to RCBS after a lengthy phone call with the manager of molds at RCBS. The mold that was returned to me about a month later cast at .3405 " with ACWWs. Glad I sent the mold back.

[brotherdarrell]

Yes, you can beagle the top half of the mold, but of course you'll most likely run into a 2nd problem with that technique.

If your gas checks are a nice " snap on fit " right now, when you beagle the top half of the mold, you could have problems even getting the gas checks on at all because not only will the drive bands increase in size but the dia. of the gas shank will increase also ? ? ?

You may end up having to give RCBS a call.

I ordered a 338 dia. mold about 2 yrs. ago and it cast .004 small ( cast about .3355 " ). I sent it back to RCBS after a lengthy phone call with the manager of molds at RCBS. The mold that was returned to me about a month later cast at .3405 " with ACWWs. Glad I sent the mold back.

You may be right, not being able to install a gas check would be a bad thing I would think.

Howbout I beagle the top half (it is reversible afterall) , anneal the checks and chamfer the bases? Seat checks on Lyman with handi-dandi check seating tool instead of Lee push-through? Might work, right? Maybe? Hmm.

brotherdarrell

ps - Ben, all your small .308 groups are getting really annoying, but do give me hope.

[Ben]

brotherdarrell

Keep us informed with your progress.

Ben

[runfiverun]

i am failing to see a problem here.
have you shot them yet?
3085-309 is bigger than 308.
having boolits hugely oversized is not a hard rule.
and it can change from boolit to boolit in each gun.
i shoot several boolits at groove diameter or just barely over.
you also didn't mention your alloy, i get about 301 on the nose and just under 310 with ww alloy from my silh mold.
to get another .001 over those numbers, i have to use 4/6/90 alloy.

[bobthenailer]

RCBS Silhouette bullet moulds are spec to throw the correct size & weight with LINOTYPE bullet metal, useing anything softer may produce a smaller diameter & heavy bullet

[Calamity Jake]

You can beagle the top half then if GCs don't fit flair them a little, I have to do that for a 1909
Brazilan 7 X 57 mauser that slugs .287 in the throat. My beagled RCBS 7MM-168 drops a .290 drive band boolit then sized to .289

[Ben]

bobthenailer


You know that's interesting that RCBS would do that.
I wonder how many casters use Linotype exclusively in
their RCBS molds during all use of their molds.

I bet it is a very small percentage.

Ben

[Ben]

Calamity Jake

My beagled RCBS 7MM-168 drops a .280 drive band boolit then sized to .289

Surely this is a " typo ".

[Calamity Jake]

Calamity Jake

a .280 drive band boolit.

Surely this is a " typo ".

Yap typo should be .290, I fixed it.

[kenjuudo]

I have enlarged driving bands without enlarging the gas check shank. After rolling the lapping boolit in grit and wipeing off the excess, simply reduce the check shank a little with a file. I generally do this after it is mounted.

jim

[Ben]

kenjuudo

Sounds like you're lapping the mold, I think brotherdarrell's original question pertained to beagling.

[brotherdarrell]

i am failing to see a problem here.
have you shot them yet?
3085-309 is bigger than 308.
having boolits hugely oversized is not a hard rule.
and it can change from boolit to boolit in each gun.
i shoot several boolits at groove diameter or just barely over.
you also didn't mention your alloy, i get about 301 on the nose and just under 310 with ww alloy from my silh mold.
to get another .001 over those numbers, i have to use 4/6/90 alloy.

I have shot both the Lee 160 & 200 gr. boolits at both .3085 and .3105 and in both instances the larger size produced 5 shot groups 25 - 30% smaller. I will of course shoot the RCBS boolit at both as cast size and at whatever size I can beagle up to and still get a check to seat squarely with no pre-conceived bias, but past history points to a size larger than as cast. And for no more trouble than it is to beagle the mold it makes no sense not to try both sizes.

As in all cases the target will tell what the gun wants, and getting to shoot more adds to the enjoyment. The mold is beagled and lead is melting as we speak. I will post results for all who care.

Thanks to all

brotherdarrell

[brotherdarrell]

Oh yea, alloy is 50/50 pure/ww waterdropped. This is what I have the best results with at this time, and it is a little early to start changing too many variables. If I have issues with size I will fill a pot with straight ww and see what drops from the mold. Have'nt gotten my hands on any lino as of yet, but if that is where I have to go with this mold it is cheap enough to do.

bobthenailer - do you happen to know what size rcbs specs this mold to drop at with lino?

brotherdarrell

[kenjuudo]

Ben, you are right!

Just threw it out as an alternative to fussing with the gas check issue. Apparently he knows his gun wants a .310 diameter boolit.

jim

[Ben]

Jim,

Yes, If it were mine, I'd be tempted to follow your lead and lap it as per your instructions or box it up and send it back to RCBS requesting a mold that would throw a round bullet at .310 or .3105" .

Ben

[brotherdarrell]

Ben, you are right!

Just threw it out as an alternative to fussing with the gas check issue. Apparently he knows his gun wants a .310 diameter boolit.

jim

Lapping is definitely an option, one I have used on one steel mold, and it was'nt a lot of fun, slow and tedious. After closer scrutiny of the boolits this mold is dropping it may be a complete waste of time to try beagling as it mics .308 across the parting line, we will see. Not sure beagling will add to that dimension.

I appreciate the added input.

brotherdarrell

[brotherdarrell]

I have a confession to make:oops: The first round of beagling gave me +/- .309", so I drained my 10# pot and went out back to get ww ingots and found exactly 2 1/2# of ingots[smilie=b: Been so busy making 45 cal boolits this last week that my stash all but disappeared[smilie=b:[smilie=b: To add insult to injury I have close to 1K#'s of raw ww waiting to be smelted and just today went back to work after being off for almost 6 months due to shoulder surgery[smilie=b:[smilie=b:[smilie=b:[smilie=w: Sigh, looks like this mould is going to have to wait for a while until I can get some lead melted.

thanks to all

to be continued...................................

brotherdarrell

[462]

I had an RCBS mould that was casting undersized wheel weight alloy boolits (added tin didn't help). Sent it to them with a dozen boolits, they replaced it with one that cast to size . . . just barely, though.

[bobthenailer]

bobthenailer


You know that's interesting that RCBS would do that.
I wonder how many casters use Linotype exclusively in
their RCBS molds during all use of their molds.

I bet it is a very small percentage.

Ben

RCBS only specs ther sil & rifle moulds with linotype .

[sundog]

I 'beagled' the top only (boolit base) of an RCBS 30-180-SP and got a little fatter boolit base, ever so slightly out of round. It shoots fine after going through a .310 H&I die.