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hunter74
06-01-2018, 08:18 AM
In the past I've had some problems with casting boolits on 240 gr and heavier on my Bullet Master. I've struggled with poor base fillout and rounded boolits. The base fillot got better with increasing the temp to about 730-740 F. Of course this leads to a problem of overheating the moulds and hangups. The solution is ofcourse to run slow. But if you have to run slow, well that's what you have to do! For 45 boolits I run an alloy of approx 2-3-95 if I'm cheap on sn the dripping gets worse!

If i screw the valve rod too high to get it to drop much lead at a short time, it tends to leak/drip between pours. The 250 gr 45s are right on the edge that way. Heavier would couse more dripping and a lot of debris in the boolit tray, and that's not funny to sort out before collating!

I'm planning on maybe casting some rifle boolits in 338 caliber around 300 gr for a customer and have to buy moulds from accurate moulds for this project. It got me thinking..... With previous problems with heavy boolits maybe the way to go is to buy single cavity blocks? That way the machine has to drop only 300 gr at each pour instead of 600 gr. With more "meat" around the cavity I should be able to run a tad fastet right?

The down side of the single cavity blocks besides slow production rate is of course that I have to change out the orfice plate which is sitting in a cramped place, to say the least.

I would be happy if some of you guys would chime in. I'm sure some of you have experience in casting long, skinny and heavy boolits on your machine.

Thanks!

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Tazza
06-03-2018, 03:53 AM
I'd like to think you could slow your BM down and/or direct cooling fans to keep things cool enough to stop the issue of over heating.

I'm with you on not really wanting to run single cavity moulds, it essentially halves your production. If the issue can't be worked out with double cavity ones, it's better to have fewer good projectiles, than lots of crappy ones....

I'd like to hear what others have to say on this too.

BrassMagnet
06-03-2018, 09:47 AM
My Magma Master Caster moulds are single cavity for heavier boolits.

I have heavy boolit moulds for hand casting, too!
My RCBS 43-370-FN double cavity mould frosts boolits on one side. Single cavity moulds make better boolits at that weight.

gwpercle
06-03-2018, 05:59 PM
I hate to tell you this but I get my best long heavy with a Lyman ladle , fill the ladle with enough metal for one boolit and a good sprue puddle and pressure cast with it . The mould can be hot, the fill out is good , sharp edges and the base is perfect.
This method also cuts down on finning when the mould and metal are both hot. I use 1 and 2 cavity moulds .
I tried the bottom pour...it never was as good as the Lyman ladle.
Gary

hunter74
06-05-2018, 10:25 AM
I see that opinions point in both directions regarding this matter.

I'll put my thinking hat on and see.... Maybe shoot an email to Magma. I'll be surprised if they don't have an opinion on the matter.

Thanks for all the input!

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