Rcbs 308-165-sil

[MGySgt]

Wanted a good mould for my Ruger GS Scout rifle. Took a long time for me to find one in stock (RCBS was even back ordered).

Well I finally got one.

Cleaned the mould, put on a set of RCBS mould handles, fired up the pot and set the mould on the hotplate.

Alloy up to 750 degrees, mould nice and hot, so I started casting, ladle pouring.

Great boolits - cast about 100 and shut down, these are enough to test with.

Sized and lubed them with a RCBS LAM II, .311 sizer die and Lyman Super Molly lube.

Loaded 5 rounds with 19 gr 2400 and seated boolit so the GC was even with the neck.

Out the back door to the range, gonna shoot at a 9 in gong at 100 yards.

Blasted round was hard chambering. Opened the bolt and extracted the round and the boolit nose was engraved for about 1/4 inch.

Rounds fired ok -

Measured the nose of the boolits and they are .304-.305

Any way to make the nose smaller except for buying another sizer die of .300 and sizing just the nose???????

My fear is that I will push one of the boolits deeper into the case and cause a problem with the combustion chamber size (making it smaller).

[brotherdarrell]

My mold did the same thing. The problem was the alignment pins were not set in far enough not allowing the mold to close completly. A brass punch and a few judicious taps fixed the problem. The nose now mics at .301". Check for a gap with the mold fully closed.

Darrell

[btroj]

Cut back on the antimnoy in your alloy. That can easily make a 1/2 to a full thou difference.

Yep, alloy can be used to adjust the size of the nose on a bore rider.

Unless it is extremely hard to close the bolt I would leave it. That means you know the nose is keeping things centered on the front end.

[KinkBreaker]

Let me hear about the results, I was thinkin about that mold for my scout

[Char-Gar]

If the mold is not out of alignment and closing all the way, it is seriously out of spec. Send it back to RCBS with a several cast bullets. They will make it right.

[tomme boy]

Yep, send it back if it is closed all the way. Or sell it here, I'm sure there are plenty of people that have a worn throat that would want that mold.

[Lefty SRH]

I have the 200gr SIL flavor for my Ruger Scout and DAMN I'm happy with the results. My nose if right on .300", thank GOD.
I've tried nose sizing some 7mm boolits that were only .002" bigger and they ended up bending under pressure. What ever thats worth to you.
I'd like to see your results with the 165 once you get the glitches worked out.

[MGySgt]

Cut back on the antimnoy in your alloy. That can easily make a 1/2 to a full thou difference.

.

Alloy is WW with 1 percent tin. The shank mikes out at .310+. I use a .311 sizer die to attaché the GC and lube the boolit. Some times I will see a slight shiny mark on the sides of boolit after sizing.

[MGySgt]

My mold did the same thing. The problem was the alignment pins were not set in far enough not allowing the mold to close completly. A brass punch and a few judicious taps fixed the problem. The nose now mics at .301". Check for a gap with the mold fully closed.

Darrell

Darrell - Nope the mould half's close nice and tight. Checked from the bottom and top with the sprue plate open so I can look at the cavities.

I really didn't think I would see light - I checked that after I cleaned it and before I put it on a set of handles. Just finger pressure and I couldn't see any light.

Guess I need to contact RCBS - AGAIN! They are running 2 for 2 on new moulds I bought.

[MGySgt]

Thank you for the replies - I don't really think I will go the nose sizing route - have to take it down too much.

[brotherdarrell]

Darrell - Nope the mould half's close nice and tight. Checked from the bottom and top with the sprue plate open so I can look at the cavities.

I really didn't think I would see light - I checked that after I cleaned it and before I put it on a set of handles. Just finger pressure and I couldn't see any light.

Guess I need to contact RCBS - AGAIN! They are running 2 for 2 on new moulds I bought.

It was worth a shot. The mold I had was a warranty mold. The first one would not drop over .3075" on the bands regardless of the alloy. I sent it RCBS and 3 months later they sent me this one. After getting the pins set right it drops @ .309"/.301" with ww+2%, just about perfect. Good luck with yours.

[billyb]

Did you cast and size the same day? Were the boolits still a little soft when sized. I have that mold. I sized the first bunch cast pretty quick after they were cast. What I ran into was I was squashing the nose of the freshly cast boolit nose. My range is not out the back door. The one that was hard to chamber stayed in the barrel. Lucky for me a fellow shooter had a cleaning rod handy. May not be what your problem is, just sharing my experience with mine. Bill

[MGySgt]

Did you cast and size the same day? Were the boolits still a little soft when sized.Bill

Nope - I normally let them sit for at least a week. I just measured the ones I cast 2 weeks ago and came up with the same dimensions.

I have about 150 that I cast a few days later and they are still un-sized. I just checked a few and they are .303/302 - I need to check some more of those and see what they mike out as and maybe do another session.

I could have sworn I check them and they were over size too.

Maybe the mould half's were not closing all the way during the first and most of the second session.

Time for a third session.

[Ben]

MGySgt

Hopefully you've checked this, but I'll mention it anyway.

Sometimes, you can put mold halves together ( w/ no handles on them ) and they look like they fit up well with no visible light seen at the parting line.

Put handles on them and try it again, sometimes it is a different story then. Now you have visible light being seen at the parting line. The handles are the problem .....not allowing the mold to close properly.

I've had to pull the handles off, work on them with a file , put the handles back on the mold halves and then the mold halves will fit together properly with no visible light being seen between the mold halves.

In a 2 cavity mold, I've seen this cause the front cav. to " cast large " and the rear cavity cast closer to normal.

Just thought I'd mention all this just in case you have not checked this with your own mold.

Ben

[MGySgt]

Ben,

I checked them a few hours ago with the handles on them and had no light. I am wondering if the alignment pins are right at the max and the moulds heat up if that isn't what may have caused the problem.

And yes I have had the same issue where a set of moulds would not close properly on a set of handles. change to another set of handles and the problem goes away.

Aint this sport/hobby Great!

[MGySgt]

Excess650 - the boolits are not out of round and on some of them I have a hard time finding the parting line!

I was in the first group that got Dan's Bullplate lube - love that stuff!

If the nose was getting bumped in size they would not be consistant (SP?) is size like these are. And it appears to be the full length of the nose, not just the first part.

I am ladle casting.

I will do another short session tomorrow (about 50 or so) and mike all of them and see where they come out. I will also TRY to keep them separated by cavity to see if there is much difference between cavities.

[MGySgt]

Yes, you are correct, if you were bumping the noses during sizing, they wouldn't be consistent. My comment there wasn't pointed towards you...
.

I knew that - but I checked it again to make sure I had checked it and it was uniform. :)

[MGySgt]

Problem solved!

I am a little embarrassed as to what the problem was, but......................

I was so focused on the rifle engraving that I missed the slight ring impression on the front driving band that I missed it. It was only on a small portion of the band not all the way around as the sizer die is a .311 and the sides of the boolit are not really being cleaned up by the sizer die. The ring/shiny part was where the sizer die actually sized the boolit.

I re-adjusted my seating die until the hard chambering and hard bolt closing went away - about 1/2 turn on the seating die. The GC base is slightly below the bottom of the case neck, but not enough that I have to worry about it.

I thing the slight engraving is the moulds breaking in and I believe it will go away in time. But the engraving is really so slight that I do not believe it will affect anything.

Thank you for all the replies - it got me thinking and looking at different things.

Drew

[Ben]

All is well that ends well.

Ben