BABore
08-22-2005, 10:41 AM
I recently snagged a Lyman #358156 2-cavity mold on Ebay. It was advertized as brand new, but was far from it. Since I only paid $18.50 I wasn't overly PO'ed, especially since it drops 0.3605" boolits. A $5 rebuild kit corrected all of its problems.
I casted up a bunch of WW+1% tin bullets, GC and sized them at 0.358" and lubed them with Alox and Motor Mica. I tried them out with my standard plinker load of 5.0 grs of WW 231 and CCI 500 primer. This load with the Hornady 158 gr swaged SWC usually gives 1 1/4" 50 yard accuracy in my S&W 686 8 3/8 at 1,000 fps. So far, the 358156 bullets are grouping around 2 1/4 to 2 1/2". I also tried some with homemade Saeco green lube and they were even worse. I'm wondering if I'm driving them hard enough. The soft (5 Bhn) swaged bullets do great with leading only after several 100 rounds. The 156's are running at 10 Bhn plus they're gas checked. No leading at all with these. Any thoughts on this? I know this is somewhat premature since I've only tried one powder, and one weight but this load has been pretty successful in several guns with different lead bullets.
I slugged the bore, but can't measure the diameter well due to it being a 5 groove. I know it's just a tad tighter than the cylinder throats which measure 0.3572".
I casted up a bunch of WW+1% tin bullets, GC and sized them at 0.358" and lubed them with Alox and Motor Mica. I tried them out with my standard plinker load of 5.0 grs of WW 231 and CCI 500 primer. This load with the Hornady 158 gr swaged SWC usually gives 1 1/4" 50 yard accuracy in my S&W 686 8 3/8 at 1,000 fps. So far, the 358156 bullets are grouping around 2 1/4 to 2 1/2". I also tried some with homemade Saeco green lube and they were even worse. I'm wondering if I'm driving them hard enough. The soft (5 Bhn) swaged bullets do great with leading only after several 100 rounds. The 156's are running at 10 Bhn plus they're gas checked. No leading at all with these. Any thoughts on this? I know this is somewhat premature since I've only tried one powder, and one weight but this load has been pretty successful in several guns with different lead bullets.
I slugged the bore, but can't measure the diameter well due to it being a 5 groove. I know it's just a tad tighter than the cylinder throats which measure 0.3572".