How do these boolits look?

[brockj]

I am very new to casting, and up to this point my experience has always been with lee molds. Well, I really wanted to pick up a lyman mold or two and give them a shot. Picked up a couple molds in a package dealy, and a couple of them were a bit rusty, mostly on the outside, but there was some junk on the inside. I cleaned them up real well and here is what I got.

My question is more on the full wad cutter, are those acceptable? Here is the problem with it, I don't own a gun for either of those boolits, and I was thinking about trading the molds for ones that would work for me, but only if the molds are acceptable, so since I can't shoot the boolits to see how they perform, I thought I would ask your opinions before trying to trade them.

TIA!

[runfiverun]

what is your mix and as cast diameter with these
one looks like 38 and the other 45 swc?
they lokk like they would be fine with an 001 size down

[beagle]

They look all right to me. I'd be glad to shoot them. On the full wascutters, you look for sqaure, filled out bases and fully filled out wad cutting bands. If those two points are good, usually the middle takes care of itself unless there are bands that are not filled out.

The .45 looks okay. Looks like aLyman 452460. Grab a nice .38 or .357 revolver and you're in business./beagle

[Blammer]

look good to me!

[carpetman]

How do they look to the person you'll be trading with is the question.

[cbrick]

hhmmm . . . First effort by a new caster with rusty moulds. Looks pretty good to me. :-D

As for trading them off, been my experience over the years that when I come on a good deal for a mould I grab it and then start looking around for a gun to shoot them. Got a lot of new guns that way. :mrgreen: I recently bought an OMSBH 3 screw 7 1/2" 44 Mag because I had two moulds in 44 and no gun, fixed that.

Rick

[Buckshot]

.................brockj, looks like a very fine first effort, or after 10 years experience to me. Now comes the fun part!

................Buckshot

[brockj]

Thanks for the info!

These are wheel weights with a little bit of tin added (probably 8 oz of 50/50 tin lead solder added to 10lbs of wheel weights...all I had at the time)

I can't think of the mold numbers off hand, but they are for a .38 and .45, as for getting something to shoot them in, would love to do that, but the gun fund is more than dry!

Decisions... :-D

Thanks again!

[brockj]

Figured this might help as well, here are pictures of the molds, they are 358091 and 452460. If there are any suggestions for better cleaning of the molds, I would love to hear them.

My process was to spray them down with WD-40 and work them over with a stainless steel brush. Once that was done soaked them in hot dish soap and went to town with an old toothbrush. Not a lot, but I figured was a good place to start.

[sundog]

I'd be proud as a peacock to shoot those boolits. A little rust on a mould is not a show stopper - it adds character.

And the problem about not having a gun for them? No problemo, just an opportunity to acquire more hardware! No hill fer a stepper!

[EMC45]

I just cleaned out a mold that had a little surface flash rust inside it. I used a cratex polishing bob from my Dremmel kit. I spun it with my fingers and used it like a pencil eraser. Worked like a dream. Then oiled them up.

[OBXPilgrim]

brockj -

You obviously have no concept of this casting business. You look for a cheap mold that looks interesting, then start buying guns to try to find one that that boolit shoots good in. GEEZ.

I'd shoot 'em. Nice thing about wadcutters is that once loaded, none of that rough stuff is visible.

[HeavyMetal]

Try one of those "professional" pencil style eraser. They have the rubber inside like pencil lead and a small brush on the end instead of an eraser.

Just use it like you were getting rid of bad spelling, the tip will conform to the shape of the mold!

[hammerhead357]

While I have used an eraser to remove rust I much prefer to use 4 ought (0000) steel wool. I chuck a small piece of soft wood in a electric drill and using a very slow speed wind on a bit of steel wool and then place it into one of the cavities in one half of the mould that is laying with the cavities up. I turn the wool very slowly and it assumes the shape of the bullet. I do this very carefully and stop when the rust is removed. I only do this with lightly rusted moulds and repeat it in each half of each cavity.

I have done this on numerous moulds including about 20 8 and 10 cavity H & G moulds after the roof of my shop got trashed during a storm and all of the moulds got wet. I got back home about 2 days later and set to work on the moulds. Couldn't see that any bad damage occured....Wes