My new bullet mold from CBE

[omgb]

I ordered a couple of custom bullet molds about 14 days ago. One came from Accurate Molds and it was a thing of beauty. Perfectly cut, shipped and received in less that 10 days and right on spec. All for right around $100. I was and remain, very pleased and very impressed. My other mold arrived today. It's a 12 bore Paradox mold from Cast Bullet Engineering in OZ. All I can say is Wow! If my mold from Accurate was perfect (and it was) this mold is that and a tad more. First it's brass. I love brass. Once it's hot it stays hot but it's lighter than iron and it never rusts. I love brass. Next, it has a nice heavy sprue plate. That's key to good bullet bases unless it's an LBT mold. Veral manages to do voodoo with his light weight but specially formed sprue plates.....but that's Veral. He can do things like that while mere mortals cannot. :) The cool extra is that the company initials, CBE are cut through the end of the plate. It looks really slick. Anyway, Lets talk packaging. This thing has to travel from way down under in Aussy land to SoCal so it's packaged to the hilt. The mold is bound together with a twist tie to keep the two halves from getting deformed. Then it's vacuum packed in plastic. In a second chamber of that plastic cocoon are three cap wrenches, one for each size screw on the mold. The the whole thing is secured in a nice little heavy-duty cardboard box along with the mold break-in and operating instructions. This box was placed in a padded plastic shipping envelope along with an invoice. It just doesn't get any better. The price for all of this? Right around $120 US and then only that high because the dang postage is about $39 US. I can live with that given the quality and the fast 10 day turnaround. Really, I got this thing under two weeks. My hat is off to David Commens. This will not be the last mold I order from CBE, not by a long shot.:-D

[longbow]

What gun will you be using the Paradox boolit in? I really like that design but do not have a rifled gun to shoot one in. One day maybe and that would be my go to slug. I love that design.

Please post photos of mould, slugs and groups.

Longbow

[LuckyLes]

I know David, and he is a nice guy. Not only that, but he is also a pretty good shot.
LuckyLes

[GWM]

I have one of his molds too, and both quality and service is great. Brass is actually not my favourite material but there are many interesting designs available there.

[omgb]

It goes in an H&R Ultra Slug Hunter

[longbow]

I'd sure be interested in seeing groups posted once you get some range time. Like I said, I have always liked that design and always wanted a Paradox gun. I wish I had bought an Ultra Slug Hunter when they were available but I was being frugal and working with smoothbores. Still am (both) but I am coming to the conclusion that rifling is pretty much required to get consistent decent groups (under 6") at much over 60 to 70 yards. I've worked up some pretty good loads for smoothbores that produce under 4" groups consistently at 50 yards but by 100 yards things are a bit different.

Did you get a solid point or HP mould?

I have one Accurate mould and would like more. If money wasn't an issue I'd have many more and I will likely be getting another Accurate mould or two in the future. I have heard good things about CBE too.

Congratulations on your two new moulds.

Need pics!

Longbow

[bigboredad]

Where's the pics?

[omgb]

I'll try and get some photos up Sunday. I cast 50 slugs from each mold today. The CBE Brass mold takes a lot longer to heat up, especially with these huge bullets. I had some trouble with sticking so I used a couple of matches to smoke the mold. That did the trick and bullets came free easier. I also put some Bull Shop lube on the sprue plate to prevent the sprues from sticking. That worked really well. The Accurate Mold got coated with Rapine Mold release (graphite in alcohol I suspect) and got the same Bull Shop treatment on the sprue plate, mold top and pins. It came up to heat faster and didn't require the long wait time for the sprues to solidify. Bullets dropped freely onto the pad. I'll weight, sort and shoot these next weekend.