MiHec 45-270-SAA Mould Diameter

[Racer X]

Hello,

I ordered one of MiHec's 45-270 SAA moulds awhile back while the group buy was in place, but have have not yet had a chance to use the mould.

For those of you who bought this mould during the group buy, I am interested in knowing:

1) Which mould diameter did you buy; the .452 or the .454?

2) What 'as-cast' diameters are you getting?

Thanks.

[cbrick]

I guess they must have done a re-run on this mold. Mine is from the first GB, it's the boolit in my avatar.

Mine is a .454" mold and with my alloy it casts a couple of tenths under.454" and with my alloy casts at 283 gr. My 45 Colt loves this boolit.

Rick

[Racer X]

A couple tenths under .454"?

[cbrick]

Yep, it's .4538". For all practicle purposes it's .454".

Rick

[Moonie]

Yep, it's .3538". For all practicle purposes it's .454".

Rick

While I follow what you are saying it might confuse others, I believe you mean .4538 in the above, and you mean tenthousanths earlier.

[cbrick]

Oops, now who put that 3 that close to the 4 on this key board?

Ok, fixed it.

Rick

[Iron Mike Golf]

...you mean tenthousanths earlier.

He's using machinist's lingo

http://www.jjjtrain.com/vms/measure_fundmentals/measure_fund_06.html

[huntrick64]

I have one of the .454 and would choose that one for several reasons; The several reasons being the several different 45 Colts I have that I cast for. I have some that like .452, some .453, and some .454. I use one cast and multiple sizing dies to get what I need.

Now, the catch is that if you are casting really hard boolits (18 bhn and up) you are not going to want to try and size that .454 bullet all the way down to .452 in one step, but go one 1/1000th at a time. You can try it all at once, but your Star handle will be dog legged pretty quick. This is experience talking. You could size them prior to heat treating them, but when I tried this it was easier to just do it later in two steps (.454 to .453, then on to .452)

What diameter does my mold cast at? That all depends on the alloy. Pure lead casts around .453-.4535, COWW/Lino casts about .4545. And there is anything in between. After playing around a bunch with different alloys I have settled on two for all of my casting for all of my calibers, for all of my needs (hunting and targets).

50/50 PB/COWW with 1% tin ends up around BHN=9 and I use this for everything our of my revolvers (except the extreme, rare time I am using 25 gr. of H110 with the 45 Colt Ruger Only).

Pure COWW with 1% tin air cooled ends up around BHN 13-14. I use this for everything out of my model 92 as well as those "rattle your teeth" H-110 loads from my Bisley Blackhawk.

To sum it up, get the .454 and size it to where you need it. If you get the .452 mold, and keep buying more guns, sooner or later you will have to buy a .454 to make things work.

Or, buy both the .452 and the .454, and you will then have a NEED to buy additional guns!

If you want a more detailed history about the winding path I walked to get back to almost exactly where I started, PM me.