First cast

[Cornbread]

Well I have been reloading cast for many years but I finally decided to start trying to cast my own. I got everything I needed and read two books and about a thousand threads and sticky's on here. Tonight my son and I went out to the shop to try our hand at this casting thing. The mold is a brand new NOE 2 hole mold for .454 bullets at 255gr RNFP which is what I shoot the most of so I figured we would try and cast the bullet we use the most of first. We prepped it just how the directions say by heating it three times up to 400 degrees to set the pins allowing it to cool to room temp between heatings. Then we scrubbed the holy heck out of it with degreasing dish soap and super hot water with a tooth brush. Allowed it to fully dry over night before casting with it today.


Here are pics of what most all of our bullets looked like. The edges aren't as crisp as I want them and there is some wrinkling near the tips but I think this is just due to us not having the mold hot enough and not casting fast enough. We kept looking at the bullets when they came out.....sorry but its hard not to because it so cool to see real bullets come out of something we are doing not out of a box of 1,000 that came from a cast bullet company :)

Anyway we are going to try again tomorrow but get the mold a lot hotter and no looking at bullets so we can get a better pace. We never got frosty bullets or anything close to it so I am pretty sure it just the mold not being hot enough.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/AndyTheCornbread/IMG_6055_zps690c08cf.jpghttp://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/AndyTheCornbread/IMG_6054_zps79b572cb.jpg

[462]

Considering that was your first cast, you did a good job.

Things aren't quite hot enough. It seems that you have a thermometer, so pre-heat the mould and check your melt temperature.

Pre-heat temperature varies from mould to mould, but somewhere around 375-degree is a starting point. Melt temperature is dependent on many variables, too -- alloy, ambient temperature, mould being used -- but 675 to 725-degrees work often.

Once you get the temperatures correct, you will discover that first-cast keepers becomes the norm.

[searcher4851]

Congratulations. For your first bullets, they look pretty good to me. I'd shoot them. (just in case you wanted to get rid of them):bigsmyl2:

[Pb2au]

Congrats, you are well on your way to boolit nirvana.
You nailed it. Your mold needs more heat.
Good job on your first voyage!

[bangerjim]

Those are acceptable! As said....hotter mold = sharper edges.

You did not say what your alloy was. Remember....Sn yields better fill-out. I run 2% in my soup and get good crisp edges.

Keep it up!

banger

[gunshot98]

I agree, those look good to me. If you need a test shooter i'm up to the task. HEEEE!

[Cornbread]

Oh sorry I forgot to put the alloy you are right. The alloy is pure COWW that I bought off jetsfan-24 here on this site. The alloy that Jim is working up for me will have tin in it but I have to wait until he gets back from rafting before he will be able to smelt that up for me.

[bangerjim]

Oh sorry I forgot to put the alloy you are right. The alloy is pure COWW that I bought off jetsfan-24 here on this site. The alloy that Jim is working up for me will have tin in it but I have to wait until he gets back from rafting before he will be able to smelt that up for me.

There is your answer to fill problems. COWW's are 0.5% Sn. You need to add a bit more from pewter/solder/pure Sn and all your problems will be minimized. Just watch your temp. Even Sn will not cure under-temp casting!

banger

[RED333]

[smilie=p::mrgreen:
Now you can use this thing :castmine:

[Cornbread]

Tonight we went out and we heated that mold until it was smoking hot. I am water dropping these COWW for using out of my 454 Casulls. We got really good results. We cast 151 of them trying to do 4 casts per minute until the bullets got frosty. I never realized how fast 4 casts per minute is. That is moving at a pretty good clip for me. Maybe it won't seem so fast once I get the motion down more to a habit. I also adjusted the little 10lb pot I have so it stopped dripping between pours. We ended up with 116 really nice ones like what I get when I buy bullets(which is what I was hoping for) and 35 rejects. The nice ones are definitely keepers. I'll be sizing and lubing those here pretty soon and giving them a test run. We weighed a bunch of them and they are weighing in between 257gr and 260gr. None of them seemed to be more than 4 grains from 257gr in either direction. I can definitely live with that.

I would say besides of course for the cajillion trouble shooting threads I read on here, the single most helpful thing I did was to read the online book "From Ingot to Target: A Cast Bullet Guide for Handgunners" by Glen E. Fryxell and Robert L. Applegate.

Here are pics.


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/AndyTheCornbread/IMG_6057_zps54b894c0.jpghttp://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/AndyTheCornbread/IMG_6058_zpsc66ab7e4.jpghttp://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/AndyTheCornbread/IMG_6056_zpsc2f89d0c.jpg

[super6]

Its not just the angle of the dangle but the dangle of the angle! Mighty fine results. Someone once said that the moon cycle had something to do with it.

[runfiverun]

a couple more go rounds with that mold and it get's better and better.
I have taken to using an aluminum mold 3-4 times, heat cycling it fully each time, and letting it cool back off before I make a full run with it.
once I get it to that point I know it's little quirks and I know I have a patina in the cavity, it casts the same from that point on unless I do something to it.

[1911cherry]

How are you gonna lube those?

[Rick O'Shay]

Nice pictures. I want to cast some but I'll have to wait till it cools down tonight. Nice looking boolits.

[Cornbread]

How are you gonna lube those?

I have a Lyman 4500 with a heater so I am going try them with some Carnuba Red and see how that works.

[tward]

Those look great! Welcome to the addiction! Carnuba red from Lars works great but does need a little heat. Good luck and happy shooting, regards, Tim

[1911cherry]

Carnuba works great ,leaves a clean bore with the right load- Have fun trying those out.

[Cornbread]

Carnuba works great ,leaves a clean bore with the right load- Have fun trying those out.

I lubed up 300 or so of them last night. I'll post results after I get a good load working for them.

[Magana559]

Good job! well on your way. :-o

[Cornbread]

I shot 30 - 40 of them this afternoon lubed with carnuba red. The load was 29.4gr of IMR-4227. Velocities were right at 1400fps with no leading in either a 2.5" barrel or in the 6.5" barrel. Accuracy was very good at 25 yards I was able to center punch a bunch of empty shotgun shell hulls with open sites. I'd give the load, lube, mold, and alloy combo an A+ all around at 25 yards. I'll post a 50 yard and 100 yard report when I get a bit more shooting time. The wife isn't feeling well so I didn't want to be out there hammering through 300 rounds while she is trying to rest. If this load does well at 100 yards and beyond this will end up being my whitetail round this year. I'll post pics of the kills back to this thread if I remember.