Moving on up in production! (one cav at a time ;)

[Beagle333]

I cast these yesterday. Conditions weren't really ideal for my first time out with a MiHec mold. It was 43° and a strong North wind, and I cast out in the yard on a small picnic table. I was ladle casting with a Lee 20# pot, set on "8" on the dial. Not even sure how hot that is. But it worked pretty good. I made about 500 in short order and except for some occasionally wanting to lightly stick to one side of the mold (probably too cold on that side, or something?) they fell right out. I never had any of them stick to the pin. I was using a 2 cav 359640 mold with isotope lead (95-2.5-2.5). I scrubbed the mold out with a toothbrush and Dawn dish liquid, dried it on the top of the oven, put some of the supplied lube on the indicated areas as I attached the pins and handles, then warmed the mold a little on the stove eye before I went outside.
It wasn't quite the relaxing experience of using my old single cav with the removable pin for HPs, but it surely was more productive. I was pretty happy with it, especially since I didn't really know what I was doing. I didn't try any of the other pins (penta or flat) I didn't keep an accurate count, but I'm sure I had somewhere around a 8-10% reject rate. I'm pretty sure I didn't remelt more than 30-40 boolits out of the whole pile. It didn't take but maybe 4 or 5 pours to get the wrinkles to go away and for the little crimp groove to start to fill out good.

I took the first pic with my cel phone during a casting break, so it's kinda crappy quality, but I got the second with my digital camera last night.
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[dverna]

For a guy who does know what he is doing those are fine looking bullets. I realllllly like the HP but wonder if it will just shatter if driven at high velocity and/or with a hard alloy. It would be interesting to see how it performs.

Again, great job!!

[Beagle333]

I think I got lucky. I bought the mold months ago, but it just looked so intimidating that I was hesitant to even take it out of the box. I was kinda worried about destroying an expensive mold somehow. But it worked pretty good.
I don't mind if it blows the nose off. I shoot only soup cans, water jugs and paper with the HPs anyway. I just love the look of a HP. :-D
Previously I had been using a single cav 358429 that Buckshot put a pin in. It makes a pretty boolit, but it's pretty slow to cast with.
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[Dale53]

Beagle333;
It looks to me like you DO know what you are doing!! Great job and it'll only get easier and better with a little "mould time".

Good show!
Dale53

[Carryacolt]

That is an impressive HP. Mighty fine looking results. If they shoot as good as they look, "nothing but bulls eyes" are in order