HG #38 Ness Safety Bullet

[barrabruce]

Well had a bit of trouble casting these but the mould may have been just hot enough for a start.
Had one big pin in and the penta point in the other.
They came off pretty easy but my spruce cutting/ twisting /Turning over upside down etc was a bit "unco" and I lost the plot after a while.
I think I only cast 20 useable bullets but mostly wrinkly.
I have to sort myself out before, I get every thing hot again and a preheat temp set-up.
The big pin started sticking and I never got it hot again after that.
Ha.
Down the range for a quick play and a bit of a shot.
Using my load for plainbase bullets in the 30-30.
Not bad considering.
243184
Filled deep cavity with wax 50yds.
243185
Deep cavity as cast 50 yards
243186
Penta pin 50 yards.
Good considering just a slip fit into the case and no load development done using rejects.
I think I’m going to like this mould.
Cheers
Wonder what the B.C. Would be?

[Echd]

Nice group. What's the load data?

[barrabruce]

Load data is.
Well used 30-30 brass.
Cleaned every year or two.
Outside wiped with ed’s Red on cloth to clean off any goop.
Only ever slightly neck sized in lee whack’em die honed out to just size most brass to 0.310".
Open to 0.312" with expander tool.
Bullets heated and rolled in tin of 60/40 beeswax/vasalene .
Sized in 0.311"Lee die nose first to clean up outside surface.
Seated by hand out long and let the gun sort out the final depth.
Dipper of 4.6 grn bullseye but backed of to 4.2 gns to see if there was any difference in sound.
Didn’t seem to crack at the noisey range.
I use a light fluffy Dacron filler to position the powder on the cci lrp.
Shot with rifle held over bench with rolled up towel under fore arm with a 1.5-4.5x power scope.
It was wet and cold miserable 20 deg c winters day with only mostly light lazy breeze (cuts through you instead or going round)one could see the strength though the constant drizzle rain with the threat of the target dripping off the backer.
It made the stickers fuzzy and out of focus.
I had only 4 cups of good sipping coffee that morning and a triple shot milk coffee drink while going to the range.
Hope it helps.

[barrabruce]

Well had another go at this mold.
Give it a good preheat they said.
Nope still cranky with the big pin. Penta point no worries.
Put it on the open flame of the gas ring to heat the pins up.
More struggling but seemed better but still in a bad way sticking but bettera
Golly I say to myself better get it hotter. They like it hot they say.
Ok put back bathing in the flame for a bit more.
Picked up the lee 2 banger 90gn swc and started to cast perfect bullets after the 2nd fill.
Got into a mode for abit and.
Forgot about the mold for a while.
Picked it up poured some lead in it.
Holy Molley Batman!
The molten pool of lead took at least 3 minutes or more to freeze over.
The Frosty penta pin bullet fell out and broke when it hit the bench.
The bottom of the big hollow point bullet fell off and the bit left on the pin come off easy.
"Well at least it should be enough now" the voice in my head was telling me.
Short and long of it no luck got a few good looking big hollow points but most have pliers marks from the removal.
I may need some help with this one:oops:

Doon thar range I go and try my several nearly acceptable bullets.
244019
And
244020
Still pretty good with a little improvement..
For me anyway.
[smilie=1:[smilie=1::-D

[Gamsek]

Let the mould SIT on a hot plate for at least 20min, so the sprue solidify in 1O sec or more. Use alloy that is hotter than usually, I used 415 C. That temp and good preheating where you let pins to soak all the temp, on a hot plate, will keep your pins hot. Hot alloy will help to keep pins hot. Cast fast, don’t stop.

[thraxx]

I had the same problems with bullets sticking to the pins also. I had 1 penta and 3 of the big pins. I coated the pins with pencil lead before preheating like bluejay suggested. I also preheated the mold on a hot plate, and turned the temp way up (PID said 780+) The penta would drop ok, but the big pins would stick. I wasn't able to get frosty bullets before the pot got low and I gave up. the base fill out was perfect.

My pins look like they have some machine marks on them. I'm going to polish them a little and try again.

[longbow]

I had fears of the long pin being an issue so didn't sign up for this one though I would like a mould. Instead what I did was to make a push out mould (like the old Ideal Cylindrical moulds) on the same design with long round pin.

This mould makes a smooth sided boolit that has to be knurled to hold lube.

In any case, I made it to see if the pin would be a problem. No! Was the answer, it cast so well I didn't bother ordering the Mihec mould. My "clone" performed very well and I have so many moulds for my .303's that I decided I wouldn't order the Mihec even though they are wonderful moulds.

But I digress, the pin was what I wanted to test and mine worked perfectly so proved my fears wrong. It is the same length, round and polished. I figured with the long slim pin it would stick badly but no. I have several other Mihec brash Cramer moulds though and agree that they have to be run hot and steady as Gamsek says... cast quickly and don't stop.

I pre-heat all my moulds on a piece of 3/16" steel plate over a propane stove and my Mihec brass moulds get heated until the sprue plate lube starts to smoke which is a bit too hot but they settle in after a few casts.

So, if you are having sticking problems:

- pre-heat until sprue plate lube starts to smoke
- cast as fast as you can to the point you are dropping soft boolits (denting, cracking, breaking) then slow down just a bit
- try putting a bit of sprue plate lobe on the pins only... just a light wipe
- if sticking is still an issue try polishing your pins

I'm sure once you get the hang of casting with the brass moulds you'll like it. Mihec makes a fine mould!

Longbow

[bluejay75]

Bang on the hing pin to get the mold to open slightly. And then gently tap and see if they come off.

Im using this in 308 and have not used the biggest pin yet, only the penta. At the velocity generated behind 18.5 AA9...ITS GOING TO FRACTURE. No Doubt.

Dont use that load...its made up but works well. Takes a good crimp...but more accurate than 2400. I think I will chuck up the large pins in a drill and wet sand them before I even try them. That is a lot of pin to get a boolit off of.

Bluejay

[barrabruce]

Thnx everyone.
I’ll try polishing my pins.
I used plate lube on the pin ...but used graphite the first time.

I have no temp control so I ‘ll try the Smokey plate lube indication.
Maybe if a bit of lead mix gets crumbly or melts on a steel plate ,then let it cool for a bit might be a good tempt to start with.
I promise I will oil my kero stove pump leather and keep up a good pressure.
Cheers.

[KVO]

I think the big pin sticking issue is both a surface finish and pin size issue. Typically I polish HP pins before ever casting a bullet. Did not polish these before as I was too anxious to try it out. If your bullets are sticking to the pins, rather than bang on the mold or use pliers, invert the mold and gently wash a propane torch over just the base of the pins and the bullets will fall right off.

[Oily]

Good tip KVO I hate beating on my handles all the time

[KVO]

Thanks Oily

If you trust yourself or have a high dexterity friend you trust, the penta pins can benefit from some cleanup as well. Either use a very fine file or 320-400grit emory cloth backed with a file to GENTLY draw file /lightly polish the pin facets. I don't take out all the tooling marks on these, just enough to take off the top layer. Caution to preserve the dimensions and not round them off! I think once Mihec starts making pins in- house we'll see a much better and consistent finish on them.

[barrabruce]

I will try the flame on the base of the pin as well.

Anything that beats bashing the mould or plucking its teeth out with pliers is well worth it.

[Oily]

Thank you fellow casters for your feedback on this mold!! I used your suggestions and heat cycled my mold 3 times then polished the large pin with 400 grit and ended with lateral strokes to finish my polish on the pin. Preheated my mold on the hotplate for at least 20 min and turned my Lee pot to 8 on the dial. Coated the large pins that had been polished with graphite from a carpenters pencil. Started casting fast and hard knocking the sprue plate when sprue solidified and then turning mold over and releasing my grip on the handles and tapping the hinge pin once and then opening the mold and viola boolits fell 95% of the time!! If they didn't fall off the pins 1 whack on the hinge pin would release them. I did nothing to the short hollow point or the penta and only noticed problem with the penta which would give me malformed penta points when they stuck and had to take a tap to release them.With your help and suggestions I was able to get 100% boolits after the first cast! I am disabled and boolit casting is my passion. I cast a couple hundred of the deep hollow points and took them to my LGS and the patrons went crazy over them. Thank you guys for your tips and instructions. I am in your debt. Your friend Oily

[Gamsek]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190727/882472cd6810b0b56f88dc4ee5392fef.jpg
I am glad you made it. I had this mould in 2016 but gave it away so just recently I got a new one from last GB.
Yes long pin and penta ( guess we all think the same) and I did all my tricks, but big pin stuck, cooled the mould, polished the pin, here we go again. Nope, still sticking but they needed just a gentle pull with pliers so I was able to cast a decent amount of keepers. Penta was no problem.
I will try again today and coat the problematic pin with graphite.

[KVO]

This is just speculation, but you could try holding a straight edge along the big pin and see if there is any "bow" to it. As long and thin as the big pins are, there could have been some tooling deflection depending on the setup. Might be slightly bulbous on the very end, causing a mechanical interlock.

[Oily]

Another tip is to make sure the sliding pins work freely. Some of my pins seem to be threaded out of round and would cause binding. You can cull through the pins and find the ones that you can tighten into the HP pin and run smoothly. Or you can simply loosen the sliding pins from the HP pin and hope it doesn't work loose during casting and start hanging up. Weird as it seems on my 2 cavity mold the 4 pins that worked great on the long hp when transferred to the penta pin would bind up. Makes me think maybe the threaded holes in the hp pins may be a little off center and you must use the sliding pin that will tighten up and run smoothly for each hp pin. Still experimenting with the pins but have cast great with all pins.My first brass mold and I am more than happy with it. I am using 10# WW and 2# lino and the fillout is outstanding. I don't know my mold preheat temp but my hotplate is just backed off from high and my alloy is 8 on my lee 4-20. I read the suggestions from this thread and happened on the right temps for my mold and am casting with only a few culls and they are my fault with slightly rounded bases. It seems to me the most problems on this mold with the long pins come down to polishing the pin and preheating the mold until the sprue lube starts to smoke. The alloy needs to be hotter than you are used to also. In conclusion get it hot and keep it hot don't worry about looking at your results until you are through casting. In hindsight cast the solids until you have perfect boolits. Then graduate to the hp. This way you are taking one variable out of the equation knowing that the solids will drop freely and with no problems and any problems will be from the hp not the mold itself.

[barrabruce]

Well I battled with it again for an hour or so and didn’t have much to look at in the end , so I put some penta pins in and cast a hand full or two for something worth my time and trouble.

One pin was dropping but the other sticking so didn’t help much in the keeping the pins and things hot.
I have been positive pouring with a ladle and tried running the lead in from the side but wasn’t getting great fill out.

This mould has me thinking I should buy a ‘lectric pot with temp control and all that fancy stuff and maybe it would work better for me.

I shall keep going with it.
One of us is going to yield sooner or later!
Ha

[Dan Cash]

I haven't the patience for moulds like this one. You folks wrestling with it are either to be admired for your persistence or else you are nuts.;)

[KVO]

Nuts. That ship sailed long ago lol.

[NYBushBro]

IIRC, I read in some "long ago and faraway" thread that some folks would put a dab of hot lead on the base of the pins (perhaps after the sprue has solidified?) to keep the pins hot. Seems to have worked for them... I haven't tried it yet, though. Just a thought.

[OldBearHair]

Anyone try WD40? It seems to work on nearly everything!

[gpidaho]

Coat the pins lightly with dielectric silicon grease. Works for me. Gp

[thraxx]

I polished my pins and graphited them and took another run at this mold yesterday. Preheated the mold on a hotplate. I set the PID at 750 the first few had terrible fill out, but dropped right off the pins, I cast for a while, but kept getting wrinkled bullets. I ran the pot all the way up to 800, but still wrinkled bullets, and no frosting, I did get some flashing, tho. It seemed like the faster/hotter I cast, the worse they stuck. I then tried turning the pot down to 700 but still kept getting wrinkled bullets, but less sticking. I'll cull tonight, but I dont expect to find many, if any, perfect bullets. I might be hard pressed to find many useable ones.

is it possible that hotter = sticky pins?

[barrabruce]

It’s been all deaths ,births and marriages ‘round hear, so I haven’t had time to wrestle with the beast for a while.
But when I get wrinklies and I’m good and hot and should fill out but don’t.
I pour a little pure alcohol in the mold and let it bubble and spit for a bit then tip the rest out.
Seems to get rid of the oil residue etc which usually helps.
Works for me.

Ohhh!
Don’t blame me if you tip the boiling vaporising spirit into a fire or hot molten lead.