If you have Mi-Hec hollow point moulds, how many boolits per hour can you cast?

[Russel Nash]

Hi all,

Just wondering what your "through-put" would be.

I have four of his moulds, all four bangers, but I haven't used them yet.

Thanks in advance!

[Hickory]

I'm never in any hurry when I cast, hast makes waste and can cause accidents.
But normally with a 2 cavity mould I can get 180-200per hour.

[Motard]

Once propper heated the Miha brass mould seems holding temperatures flawlessy to me. I have a two cavity and the only limit is the mould becoming really havvy on my wrist after halfan ours or so dumping boolits. But I don't rest it on top of furnace as many do. So I bet limit is in your's fitness :)

[dragon813gt]

A couple hundred easily. I can typically drain a 20# pot in two hours or so. This is 500 135 grain bullets per hour. Not near what I get from a 45cal solid mold. Pot is drained in an hour because the mold works that well w/ no rejects.

[41mag]

On a good day when things are rolling along, I can dump a 20# Lee bottom pour in about 20 - 30 minutes depending on which one I have. Most are 41 cal and up though. I hit the sweet spot on the 125gr .357 one not long ago and WOW what a pile of bullets that turns out with a full pot of alloy.

[1_Ogre]

When talking about through put, that raises a lot of questions. If you want want to madly cast, you can really crank them out but the quality might not be there. If you want quality through put, the number will go down considerably.
I cast with mainly 4cav moulds, and when I cast I cast for 3 different types of boolits. I drop 12 boolits about every 30sec or so once the moulds come up to temp. When I start, I run each mould (1,2, then #3) 5-10 times to get the moulds up to temp. By the time I'm at mould #3, mould #1 is ready to drop, so it's like automation. Yes, arms get sore because the 4cav's are all steel and after a while get heavy, but in 1-2hrs time, I have 3 big piles of boolits to size/lube. I also let my casts sit for a minimum of 48hrs to let them settle before I size/lube.
So, through put is a relative term, based on a number of different things. Darn, now I even have myself confused lol

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

If you have Mi-Hec hollow point moulds, how many boolits per hour can you cast?

Hi all,
Just wondering what your "through-put" would be.
I have four of his moulds, all four bangers, but I haven't used them yet.
Thanks in advance!

My experience is, I can cast as fast with a well seasoned Mihec HP 4 cav. mold as I can with a 4 cav. brass or iron non-HP mold...assuming similar sized boolit cavities.

[bangerjim]

I see no difference with his HP molds and standard ones. The boolits just jump off the pins and rain down into my water catch pan.

banger

[CATTLEMAN]

I can easily empty a 20 pound pot in less than an hour with a four cavity mould, if that helps.

[Mal Paso]

13-14 260g Boolits a minute until the pot gets low.

Install the pins opposite your strong side, sprue plate tab forward. I use a tiny 6oz rawhide mallet. After you tap the sprue plate open, flip the mold upside down, tap the ends of the slider pins to move the boolits out so they fall off the pins. Preheat the mold with a hotplate with a flat surface that contacts the pin bases too.


:D

[Smoke4320]

2.5 to 3 casts a minute .. just like my non pinned molds..
I can go faster but usually that just gets my mold too hot and I have to slow down

[castalott]

Depends on the mold. If I have to individually 'pressure pour' each cavity for proper bullet fill-out, maybe 2 casts per minute with a 4 cavity mold. If the mold allows to just pour lead into the sprue plate fast maybe 3. Long(for the caliber) boolets require more time and care to get perfection. I don't normally plink with HP boolets so I go slow and careful with those wonderful HP molds. Of course going too slow lets the pins and mold cool and that is a problem too.

[gtgeorge]

I prefer to cast with 2 at a time since they retain heat so well. I can usually make it through 30-40 lbs of alloy and have to throw in the towel due to arthritis and pinched nerves. When both molds are up to full heat I am opening one @ every 10 seconds. When I choose to go one mold it is about 3 drops a minute.

[georgerkahn]

The "per hour" is a tough question for me to answer. I wash my moulds first, and then heat to about 360* in my inverted-pot "oven" atop a G.E. PID-governed hot-plate. This, while my RCBS Pro-melt pot is heating, ingots as necessary added, and fluxed a couple of times. I apply a scant drop or two of lub to pins as well as hinge, and generally only the first two or three castings are not OK. Most of the time the "defect" is wrinkling from the mould and/or pins not being hot enough. For me, the pins do need to be hot! Then, after these, I cast away. Invariably I need stop at least once for a latrine visit, dropping in some more ingots, and another fluxing or two. When the pot is then low, and I'm satisfied I have a sufficient pile -- then, I stop.
Admittedly NOT in any hurry -- this is recreation for me -- when I'm done I generally have about 600 bullets ready for lub/sizing in this 4 1/2 to 5 hour session.
So, my friend, to "answer" your question best, I can say that I produce 600 bullets in a 4 1/2hr to 5 hour time period. BUT, I include prep time in this. From the minute I actually start dropping good bullets -- I have no idea. One thing which has helped is the wonderful postings on this site on using brass pinned moulds -- 'specially re the needed heat on pins, which made all the difference to me.
I hope I helped answer a bit. I have moulds from several manufacturers, and my personal favorites are those made by MP, NOE, and Accurate. All of mine have come AAA+++ great!
BEST!
george

[zubrato]

definitely a tough Q, it took me a while to gain a better understanding of how I like to cast, the characteristic of the mold, casting bench organization, HP mold temp, and lead temp.
With maybe 1-2% culls, I can bang out 400-600 in 1-2 hours with a 4 cavity, depending on my pace. I dont really count how many I can cast in a specific time frame, because it's kind of self defeating.
I'd recommend just enjoying your molds for the first 2-5 casting sessions, seeing what each like and what they need to run well. I played with mold, and lead temp until my culls cut down to just a few out of hundreds, and speed finds itself.
Once I stopped worrying about the # of boolits per hour, I found I could go for longer, and cast more often without resorting to marathons where I finish exhausted, with a thousand boolits left to size and lube. Didn't want to cast for a while after that, and I did it to myself.

A big part for my casting efficiency as well is mold inspection and maintenance before and after casting to clean up vent lines, look for lead spots while it's hot, check if anything is loose, and making sure everything is in its place, and removing anything that isn't.

It's kinda funny seeing everyone's reloading bench so cluttered and disorganized (mine too sometimes) knowing fully well casting and reloading is a game of organization. We all manage somehow, because it's our mess.

ps:the biggest increase to my productivity was a larger pot. Preheating ingots used to be crucial, otherwise I would spend 15-20 minutes everytime the pot was low, waiting for the lead to come back up to temp.