RG1911
07-13-2014, 05:18 PM
I finally received my Ballisti-Cast 4-cavity mold (#668) for 200-gr SWC, plain-base bullets. Basically, it's a clone of the H&G 68.
Before going into picky details, I'll give away the punch line. The mold casts very good bullets if I do my part.
These are my first impressions:
- The cavities do not appear to be quite as polished as those of my H&G 68 bevel-base mold. Since the B-C mold casts good bullets, a high polish obviously isn't necessary.
- I did have to do a small amount of grinding on my H&G handles so the B-C blocks would fit. I don't view this as a problem.
- The mold is marked .456 and, sure enough, the bullets measure at .4559-.456.
- I measured a couple to see if they were out-of-round. The ones I checked were between .0005 and .001 out-of-round. I consider this to be very good, and certainly better than what my old H&G throws.
- The mold did cast the bullets at 185 grains with my current version of Lyman #2. I simply added some more wheel weight ingots to the mix.
- Unless I squeeze the handles very hard when pouring (a little rough on the ol' arthritis), there will be some flashing/feathering at the seam. I don't see this as a deal-breaker, and it may have something to do with how the handles fit. (If that's the case, I'll have to examine them carefully to see if there's anything I can do.)
Summary: A few very minor nits, but I'd say my Ballisti-Cast mold is doing a fine job.
Cheers,
Richard
Before going into picky details, I'll give away the punch line. The mold casts very good bullets if I do my part.
These are my first impressions:
- The cavities do not appear to be quite as polished as those of my H&G 68 bevel-base mold. Since the B-C mold casts good bullets, a high polish obviously isn't necessary.
- I did have to do a small amount of grinding on my H&G handles so the B-C blocks would fit. I don't view this as a problem.
- The mold is marked .456 and, sure enough, the bullets measure at .4559-.456.
- I measured a couple to see if they were out-of-round. The ones I checked were between .0005 and .001 out-of-round. I consider this to be very good, and certainly better than what my old H&G throws.
- The mold did cast the bullets at 185 grains with my current version of Lyman #2. I simply added some more wheel weight ingots to the mix.
- Unless I squeeze the handles very hard when pouring (a little rough on the ol' arthritis), there will be some flashing/feathering at the seam. I don't see this as a deal-breaker, and it may have something to do with how the handles fit. (If that's the case, I'll have to examine them carefully to see if there's anything I can do.)
Summary: A few very minor nits, but I'd say my Ballisti-Cast mold is doing a fine job.
Cheers,
Richard