Sage is now a source for bullet molds.

[Chill Wills]

98906989039890498905Sage is now a source for bullet molds.

I have been on the phone three or four times this past two weeks with Harlan Sage. He and a machine shop partner are producing very nice looking bullet molds. As some of you know, I put on a longrange BPCR rifle match and Harlan wanted to supply one of his new molds to the American Creedmoor Cup match as an example of his new product and to be given away as a door prize.

This week his care package arrived with a bullet mold for a 45 caliber (458) rifle. Harlan included a few sample bullets to exam. Both the mold and sample bullets look very promising. The Mold blocks are well finished and vented with a thick sprue plate and built in a slighter taller block for longer bullet designs. The bullets from this mold look great with almost no visible part line and when handled you really cannot feel it either.

Harlan said he was making stock bullet designs and offering custom cut molds as well. I do not have the price at my fingertips but I recall his mold was very competitively priced.

And, ……NO. I don’t work for him nor am I in any way connected to his operation. This new mold looks to be very well made and it is worthy of getting the word out to my fellow riflemen. :drinks: He does business as Sagebrush or Sageoutfitters

-Michael Rix

[country gent]

I looked at this from a link on another posting here earlier this week Are these blocks brass? Coloring in pic looks like it. Sages outfitters web page link in other post claims cast iron. Or are these two diffrent mold makers?

[Chill Wills]

I did not see the other post so sorry but I am not sure what you looked at. The blocks are iron and not silvery looking but that color iron takes on after being heating. Maybe the maker gives them some kind of post machining finish - you would have to talk to Harlan.

The info with it states the iron is "continuous cast gray iron similar to ASTM class 40". Maybe you know what that would be.

I barely know the difference between Wrought iron - Gray iron - White cast iron - Malleable cast iron and Ductile cast iron. I know that there are a lot ways of making iron with different properties, the rest is above my pay grade.

-Michael Rix

[Red River Rick]

The info with it states the iron is "continuous cast gray iron similar to ASTM class 40". Maybe you know what that would be.-Michael Rix

More than likely Dura-Bar 65-45-12 ductile extruded iron.

FWIW.

RRR

[John Boy]

Big difference between the color of a brass and meninite steel mold ... they be STEEL!

[Red River Rick]

................. meninite steel

No such thing!

[country gent]

Grey cast iron is a very fine grained cast iron, The continous refers to How it is formed. The contnuous is a pressurized pour through a die, again resulting in a very fine consistant structure. Alot of die castings use a shot tube to put the metal into the diesunder pressure resulting in a much more consistent casting with less porosity and voids.
I only asked about material as the mold shown had a goldish tint on my screen. I have looked at Sge outfitters site and the molds look very good and They have some very useable looking desghns. I wasnt detracting or trying to bring negatives out, just curious. Sometimes proto types are made from a diffrent material. The other post is under casting and reloading Awesome Moulds.

[montana_charlie]

Two features caught my eye.
One is the fact that the cavity is not centered in the blocks.
The other is the vertical vent lines in face of the right-hand block, on both sides of the cavity.
It's somewhat reminicent of the venting used by Steve Fotou, who had Victory Molds.

CM

['74 sharps]

Nice looking mold, but one lonely bullet for every pour is a bit slow for me.........

[TXGunNut]

It is a bit curious looking, CM. Proof is in the pudding, as they say.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Is there a website, I came up with nothing entering the names you say he is working under?Robert

[kenyerian]

http://www.sageoutfitters.com/sagebrush-bullet-molds.html Try this link

[Baja_Traveler]

Is there a website, I came up with nothing entering the names you say he is working under?Robert

Your search mojo skills need work...

http://www.sageoutfitters.com/page/page/7184637.htm

[Jon K]

Two features caught my eye.
One is the fact that the cavity is not centered in the blocks.

CM

Whether center of the blocks, or not what's it matter? No different than using one cavity of a 2 cavity mould.... long as it drops a good boolit.

Jon

[montana_charlie]

Whether center of the blocks, or not what's it matter? No different than using one cavity of a 2 cavity mould.... long as it drops a good boolit.

Jon
I don't think it matters. It caught my eye because nobody else does it.
Sorry to get you stirred up ...

I think the vertical venting may prove to be beneficial.

CM

[Hardline]

i don't think it matters. It caught my eye because nobody else does it.
Sorry to get you stirred up ...

I think the vertical venting may prove to be beneficial.



Cm

Here was our experiment on cross venting. One of the molds for Harlan had vent lines that were too thin so it wasn't filling out. We tried cross venting the mold and saw a big improvement on fill out. The pictured bullets below were cast from the same mold, at the same temperature, and were the best out of each batch before and after cross venting. The mold was still not good and went in the scrap bin, but we decided to cross vent all of our molds after seeing the difference it made. It makes sense from a fluid dynamics perspective too. The air only has to flow .08" through thin vent lines until it hits a deep line where it can exit the mold much more freely. The reason for the cavity being offset is so the third alignment pin would fit, which helps for better alignment and getting rid of the seam. The cavity spacing and alignment pin location was the only way the same mold block would work for both single cavity and double cavity molds.

cross vented
99104

not cross vented
99105

[montana_charlie]

When I said your cross venting is reminicent of the Victory moulds, this PGT mould shows what I was talking about.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/PGTmold.jpg

There are no vent lines at all because the mould faces don't touch (at all) in the cavity area, except for the actual nose.
But the escaping air only travels a short distance before it enters those massive tunnels that carry it away.

CM

[Hardline]

Those are a very interesting looking mold. Thanks for sharing!

[Doc Highwall]

With the mould cavity off centered towards the hinge pin it will give you more leverage cutting the sprue which is something I like. I see this single cavity mould as being used by some body that wants quality not quantity like a long range shooter that wants to win.

[John Boy]

Rick - sorry for the mis-spelling but it's my understanding that steel mold blocks are made from Meehanite steel process

[M-Tecs]

H&G and the early Saeco's used it. I believe Ballisti-Cast is also using it
http://www.meehanitemetal.com/htmlpages/whats_diff.html

[Hardline]

Meehanite is a casting process used for making a very high quality cast iron. It isn't exclusive to any one given grade of cast iron. H&G used a type of Meehanite in their cast iron blocks. Here's a link to a Wikipedia article on Meehanite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meehanite

[Red River Rick]

Nice looking mold, but one lonely bullet for every pour is a bit slow for me.........

Most BPCR shooters are striving for accuracy. So having a S/C mould that drops a perfect bullet is important.

The only "Quantity" they are wanting is "High" scores and not in bullet production.

So, "Quality" is more important than "Quantity" when it comes time to serious BPCR shooting and NOT pumping out bullets from a muti cavity mould.

Dura-Bar 65-45-12 is a Extruded Fine Grain Ductile iron, made almost the same way as the Meehanite (Trade Name)
iron is.

http://www.dura-bar.com/products/65-45-12b.cfm

BTW, very nice looking mould:-D

RRR

[Lead pot]

Before Walt at NEI (one heck of a fine fellow he was) went under He made my moulds and I had him use the Meehanite and one of his Aluminum blocks.
I fully agree with this statement, "The only "Quantity" they are wanting is "High" scores and not in bullet production." also a lot of them look for the maximum velocity than the maximum accuracy.

[.22-10-45]

1++ to the both of you guys..I never could understand someone asking advice on the most accurate mould for a particular rifle..and then bemoaning the fact it wasn't available in a six cavity! I have noticed mostly beginers are of this mind set. When the old lead-bullet masters like Pope, Zischang, Schoyen, etc. built a rifle, a mould was always included..and you can bet it was a single cavity..most likely a nose-pour. Those old timers knew what they were about..and lest one thinks it was because they lacked the latest wiz-bang CNC equipment of today..I am a tool & die maker..we run CNC lathes & milling machines daily..and I can assure you getting two or more mould cavities to drop precisely identical bullets is a near impossibility. Heck, I find myself segerating bullets from dbl. cavity pistol moulds..can't seem to break the habbit!..have to run tests and proove to myself I can get away with it in the short barrel guns.

[Don McDowell]

Farrow hisself sold 4 cavity moulds to go with his match rifles.