Out of round boolits

[Rex]

I have a Lyman 358665 mold that refuses to drop a round boolit. I've run the melt
(wheel weight) 650 to 730, the mold from way too hot to not hot enough. The boolits look fine until I run them through the sizer and it won't touch all the way around. My wore out old Lee 2 holer drops a better boolit and that aggrivates me. My old Lyman one hole 358156 drops a real nice boolit but I hate to shoot gas checks all the time.
Do these molds heat warp? It hasn't been used much because of the above problem.
Lyman hasn't answered my querry about it.
Is there any fix or do I have a sixty some dollar paper weight?

[Wally]

What are you sizing them to? How do they shoot in your guns? In most cases an out of round bullet will shoot just fine. You can always contact Lyman and see about a replacement.

[Rex]

I am using a Lee push through that is marked .358 but measure about .357. Still plenty big enough for the cylinder throats. Yes, they don't shoot too bad but the looks bug hell out of me.

[pdawg_shooter]

I tend to think by the time you push that bullet down the barrel with 30,000psi or so pressure behind it it will be just about as round as the bore in your barrel is.

[Wally]

I am using a Lee push through that is marked .358 but measure about .357. Still plenty big enough for the cylinder throats. Yes, they don't shoot too bad but the looks bug hell out of me.

Apparantly the bullets "as cast" are on the large size--you are sizing them down to .357" and that results their unsightly appearance. Do the mold blocks close all the way (ie no light can be seen thjrough them when closed)? I'd size with a larger sizer to see it they look better--I use a .359" for my .38 Caliber bullets. I have the Lee .38 Cal 158 RNF and it looks beautiful cast and sized...

[Rex]

Wally, as cast the boolits are .360 on one side and around .356 on the other. The small side is not at the seam of the bullet but just beside it on both halves. The hole is too small part of the way around.
Has anyone sent as mold to a machinest to have the hole trued up? Is that even possible?

[MikeS]

It sounds like the lead is getting sucked in. There's a name for this, but I don't recall what it is. It tends to happen with lead/tin/antimony alloys much more so than pure lead. One thing to try, when you're casting them, open the sprue plate as you normally do, but then keep the mould closed for 10-20 seconds longer than you normally would before dumping the boolits out of the mould. Another way to see if this is the problem is to cast some with pure lead (if you have any), and see if they also have this problem. If they don't, then no amount of lapping or polishing is going to help, you will need to change your casting method, or alloy, or possibly both.

[DistRifle]

I had to adjust the alignment pins on a 358429. The mold halves were not staying in alignment when closed. That caused them to cast out of round. They still are slightly out of round. But not bad.

With the mold out of the handles, can you twist the two halves any when they are together?

[Rex]

Thinking back, I think I started having the most trouble with this mold when I started using a bottom pour pot. I'll fire up the old burner and see if dipper pouring helps any.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm just dumb enough to be dangerous with these things.

[pdawg_shooter]

Ladle casting always gives me the best bullets. Always has.

[Bret4207]

Take a glass to those out of round boolits and see if they are really filled out completely. Wouldn't be the first time a mould demanded a particular pouring style to get perfect fill out. It might take a light air drop from a ladle with a very large sprue puddle, or an off center pour from your BP pot. Play around and see.

[badgeredd]

Have you tried "Beagling" the mold? It may be just enough to help vent the mold and to increase the diameter perpendicular to the parting line to give you an acceptable boolit. Just a thought...

Edd

[Rex]

I backed the mold temperature and the melt temp down a ways and that seemed to help some however the "thin" side was still there. While the "fat" side measures around .360, the thin spot measures around .356. The thin spot is a lot smaller from the cooler mold and melt. Lyman has offered to regrind or replace it but I wonder if it is worth the effort.
By holding the mold up tight against the bottom pour spout I got a real set of fins.
The darn things seem to shoot OK as far as an old man can tell.
Sized .357, you have to lean pretty hard on a wooden dowl to push them through the cylinder throats so I suspect the spot that is .356 isn't going to hurt. I don't push these real hard, just 7 grains of Unique in a .357 case. My 2400 powder load gets a gas check bullet and the 3.5 grains of Bullseye in 38 spec. case gets a bit liter bullet.
Thanks for all the replies, I am leaning toward just cooling things down and shooting them a little out of round.

Rex

[montana_charlie]

Lyman has offered to regrind or replace it but I wonder if it is worth the effort.
If you want round bullets, why are you hesitating?
CM

[HORNET]

From your description in post#8, it sounds like you've got a little mismatch in the mold block alignment. Have you adjusted the pins to tighten things up? There should be NO movement between the block halves when the mold is closed and it should feel a little "sticky" when you pull the halves apart. The blocks should close completely with NO light showing between the blocks.If the pins are where they should be, then there's a chance the cavities were miscut. Not too badly or you wouldn't be able to get it open after casting. You can send it back to them, live with it, or lap the cavities. I've done all three at times.

[Rex]

As soon as I get a mailing address I'll send the mold back to be re-cut. Me and the Post Office haven't always had good luck getting packages where they belong but we'll see what happens this time.
Rex