Hollow Base Lyman Mold Tips

[dagger dog]

Just bought my first Lyman hollow base mold, it's a 475494 315 grain minie wadcutter design for target work, going to shoot it out of a Pedersoli 1853 Pattern Enfield.

I've cast hollow base design out of a Lee for my 45-70 H&R BC, but this will be a new experience with a removable base plug type mold. Will be using SOWW material that reads about 6-7 BHN and using 60 grs FFg or FFFg.

Any secrets on using this type mold, all tips will be greatly appreciated !
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[bhn22]

Remove the base plug before breaking the sprue. This will help prevent the possibility turning the bullet in the cavity by breaking the sprue first. Make sure the base pin is really hot before reinstalling it in the blocks. You'll know if you don't have it hot enough, the skirt will wrinkle. Out side of this, just cast as quickly as possible to keep everything heated evenly.

[pworley1]

All I would to the good advice from bhn22 is that on some hollow base molds I have had to use a ladle instead of the bottom pour to get good results.

[dagger dog]

Great tips ! I have a ladle and bottom pour I'll see what works best.

I was wondering about this mold, it was new from an individual that did not shoot a 58 cal. Springfield or Enfield, it came with 2 base plugs, with out throwing any boolits it look like one will cast a very thin skirt and with the second plug a thicker skirt, I'll have to wait until my next session to see the difference.

[Mk42gunner]

It has been a while since I cast any hollow based minies, but as I remember most of my failures were voids right at the tip of the hollow base. The cure? keep the base pin hot, while casting at a fairly rapid pace.

Robert

[rintinglen]

As fast as you can is barely fast enough. IME, you really have to kick in the after burners to keep the bases from forming voids. I took some wire and made a rest to allow the base plug to hand down in the melt while I decanted the boolit from the mold. That helped a lot, but you still need to cast quickly and not dawdle.