Kylongrifle32
09-08-2018, 08:37 PM
Hello all.
I just received a used Lee mold it's a two cavity 309-230-5R that has been altered. The mold has been bored out converting the boat tail base to a plain base boolit. I'm not sure what the hardness of my lead is I do not have a hardness tester. The lead source I am using comes from automobile battery terminals that have not been finished into complete batteries. Just the terminals only no battery plates. I have been casting pistol boolits for 35 years but just started doing rifles. Also new to me since starting rifle boolits I started water quenching them. Boolits dropped with this alloy into water come out fairly hard. I can not scratch them with the old school thumb nail test.
So I sat down today to try out my new mold. These boolits are going to be run thru a 10.5 inch 300 black out at subsonic speeds. I heated up the mold and began casting using a ladle set up. After a couple pours and bypassing the wrinkly ones they started dropping like crazy and I finished up the pot. I drained off the water and dropped them on a drying towel. I pick up one to take a look at it a was surprised at what I saw. The boolit was curved and looked like a banana. I have never seen anything like this. Upon inspection you could see that the boolit havles had different appearances. One half was nice and shiny and the other half was frosted. The frosted side was convexed and the shiny side was concaved. Out of about 150 boolits 20-25 turned out this way.
I refilled the pot and started over this time dropping the boolits out onto a towel all came out shining like a new Penny and all looking straight.
Anyone ever experience this problem. What could have caused this to happen. Mold running to hot? This long boolit dropped in water cooling to quickly and warping?
Like to hear some imput on this. Thanks Mike
I just received a used Lee mold it's a two cavity 309-230-5R that has been altered. The mold has been bored out converting the boat tail base to a plain base boolit. I'm not sure what the hardness of my lead is I do not have a hardness tester. The lead source I am using comes from automobile battery terminals that have not been finished into complete batteries. Just the terminals only no battery plates. I have been casting pistol boolits for 35 years but just started doing rifles. Also new to me since starting rifle boolits I started water quenching them. Boolits dropped with this alloy into water come out fairly hard. I can not scratch them with the old school thumb nail test.
So I sat down today to try out my new mold. These boolits are going to be run thru a 10.5 inch 300 black out at subsonic speeds. I heated up the mold and began casting using a ladle set up. After a couple pours and bypassing the wrinkly ones they started dropping like crazy and I finished up the pot. I drained off the water and dropped them on a drying towel. I pick up one to take a look at it a was surprised at what I saw. The boolit was curved and looked like a banana. I have never seen anything like this. Upon inspection you could see that the boolit havles had different appearances. One half was nice and shiny and the other half was frosted. The frosted side was convexed and the shiny side was concaved. Out of about 150 boolits 20-25 turned out this way.
I refilled the pot and started over this time dropping the boolits out onto a towel all came out shining like a new Penny and all looking straight.
Anyone ever experience this problem. What could have caused this to happen. Mold running to hot? This long boolit dropped in water cooling to quickly and warping?
Like to hear some imput on this. Thanks Mike