craig61a
08-27-2012, 02:06 AM
I got the mold quite a while ago, and had been aquiring the rest of the stuff I needed to get started. A few months back I cleaned up WW lead and cast 1# bricks to put in my new Lee 10 lb pot. While I was doing that I cast about 150 .435 bullets for a Swiss Vetterli with a mold I bought from Accurate using a #2 ladel. Once I got the hang of it I did fairly well, and while the bullets appearance might not win any awards I think they'll shoot just fine. Got do some more work on the Vetterli...
I have a couple of Russian and Finnish Mosins and Enfields that I got the mold for. I had never cast with the pot before, so I had to adapt as I went along. After about a 100 or so I wasn't getting the fillout I wanted. I took a break for a few hours and then came back drilled the spout hole out larger with #29 drill bit to get better flow. Still not getting the results I wanted so I drove over to the local Walgreens and got a $ 15 hotplate to set the mold on while waiting for the pot heat up and when I have to reload more lead and wait for it to get to temp. Also had to work out a few issues with the mold. After a few hours I was starting to get a routine going and started dropping bullets that looked pretty good.
Most of these bullets weighed in around 208.5 to 209.5 - anything below 208.0 and over 210.0 had some sort of flaw (layered or wings) but that was probably less than 5% of the ones I cast. Most of the really obvious flaws just went back in the pot when I stopped to reload the sprues after running out of lead. The bases all mic'ed .316 on the nose, so I guess that's a testament to the quality of the mold... I plan to get a sizer to lube with @ .316 and then run these through a push through to final size at .315.
The Lee pot was finicky but after a while it seemed to hold temp fairly good - dropping in some more lead obviously drops the temp quick but I just took a little break.
All together I figure have around 700 boolits cast on Saturday - I guess the one thing I would do different is maybe have gotten a bigger pot to start with, but the smaller one just takes a little more time and I guess that's OK too.
It was a nice break from a busy week, just casting away and listening to the radio out in the garage. I wish I would have started doing this sooner!
I have a couple of Russian and Finnish Mosins and Enfields that I got the mold for. I had never cast with the pot before, so I had to adapt as I went along. After about a 100 or so I wasn't getting the fillout I wanted. I took a break for a few hours and then came back drilled the spout hole out larger with #29 drill bit to get better flow. Still not getting the results I wanted so I drove over to the local Walgreens and got a $ 15 hotplate to set the mold on while waiting for the pot heat up and when I have to reload more lead and wait for it to get to temp. Also had to work out a few issues with the mold. After a few hours I was starting to get a routine going and started dropping bullets that looked pretty good.
Most of these bullets weighed in around 208.5 to 209.5 - anything below 208.0 and over 210.0 had some sort of flaw (layered or wings) but that was probably less than 5% of the ones I cast. Most of the really obvious flaws just went back in the pot when I stopped to reload the sprues after running out of lead. The bases all mic'ed .316 on the nose, so I guess that's a testament to the quality of the mold... I plan to get a sizer to lube with @ .316 and then run these through a push through to final size at .315.
The Lee pot was finicky but after a while it seemed to hold temp fairly good - dropping in some more lead obviously drops the temp quick but I just took a little break.
All together I figure have around 700 boolits cast on Saturday - I guess the one thing I would do different is maybe have gotten a bigger pot to start with, but the smaller one just takes a little more time and I guess that's OK too.
It was a nice break from a busy week, just casting away and listening to the radio out in the garage. I wish I would have started doing this sooner!