Crusty Deary Ol'Coot
07-03-2014, 10:58 PM
In the recent past, I ordered 2 molds from Accurate Molds. One is a .30cal of 175gr and the other a 275gr for the .444 and hopefully also my .44
I have had 4 or 5 successful sessions with the triple 4 mold, but got the 30 caliber mold running for the first time last week.
Nice bullets!
Then the problem ---------------
I had bought three luber/sizer dies, one each of .309, .310 and .311.
Wanting to make up some dummy rounds for a son's .308, I decided to first try the .311 sizer die.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!! an extreme amount of force was required to push the bullet, cast of WW and water quenched into the die and then I had to remove the die from the RCBS sizer/luber and drive the bullet from the die with a hammer.
I "E"ed Tom at Accurate Molds, and after a number of "E"s back and forth I packaged up the mold, the .311 die, the one 30 cal. bullet I had forced in and out of the die, some as cast .30 bullets and a couple bullets from the triple 4 mold that were cast at the same time and from the same alloy.
The triple 4 bullets were, one as cast and the second sized, lubed and gas checked in my .431 sizer/luber die.
Well I just sent the package off the last of last week, and Tom has already cast some bullets from the mold - every thing cast and measured correctly - sized some of the bullets his and mine in a .312 die that worked fine and attempted the same in my .311 die with results similar to my negative results.
So, It appears that there is an issue with this .311 die., something that Toms says he has never seen before.
Anyway, Tom was not only quick in filing my origional mold order with quality products, but was over the top quick in helping to find what appears to be the problem.
The bullets which Tom cast with my mold and his stash or WW, were close to those I cast, with a very small difference in diameter and mine being about 2 gr heavier.
Not bad given the less then exact composition of the WW alloys.
Thanks Tom! You went the second mile.
Crusty Deary Ol'Coot
I have had 4 or 5 successful sessions with the triple 4 mold, but got the 30 caliber mold running for the first time last week.
Nice bullets!
Then the problem ---------------
I had bought three luber/sizer dies, one each of .309, .310 and .311.
Wanting to make up some dummy rounds for a son's .308, I decided to first try the .311 sizer die.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!! an extreme amount of force was required to push the bullet, cast of WW and water quenched into the die and then I had to remove the die from the RCBS sizer/luber and drive the bullet from the die with a hammer.
I "E"ed Tom at Accurate Molds, and after a number of "E"s back and forth I packaged up the mold, the .311 die, the one 30 cal. bullet I had forced in and out of the die, some as cast .30 bullets and a couple bullets from the triple 4 mold that were cast at the same time and from the same alloy.
The triple 4 bullets were, one as cast and the second sized, lubed and gas checked in my .431 sizer/luber die.
Well I just sent the package off the last of last week, and Tom has already cast some bullets from the mold - every thing cast and measured correctly - sized some of the bullets his and mine in a .312 die that worked fine and attempted the same in my .311 die with results similar to my negative results.
So, It appears that there is an issue with this .311 die., something that Toms says he has never seen before.
Anyway, Tom was not only quick in filing my origional mold order with quality products, but was over the top quick in helping to find what appears to be the problem.
The bullets which Tom cast with my mold and his stash or WW, were close to those I cast, with a very small difference in diameter and mine being about 2 gr heavier.
Not bad given the less then exact composition of the WW alloys.
Thanks Tom! You went the second mile.
Crusty Deary Ol'Coot