Anybody shot the 45x200 FB #68 replacements?

[NuJudge]

It's too cold for me to cast here, but I'd love to hear results from my southern friends.

CDD

[Patrick L]

NuJudge,

Yes, almost immediately I shot targets and posted the pictures back in the epic, 25 page thread under the "Group Buys" heading. I posted them there in order to help calm the intense debate and squabble that was brewing due to the molds being miscut initially. Things were getting ugly and I wanted to show something positive to help out our beseiged honcho!

Specifically, post #278 shows targets shot with the original bullet with the undersize front band shot through three different guns at 25 yards. It was cold here too by the time I got the replacement mold with the correct size front band from Lee, so post #390 shows targets shot with the corrected bullet, but shot on the 50 foot indoor range with the same three guns. Both molds shot like a house afire, its just that the initial mold was messy to lubesize since lube would flow over the undersize front band and goop up the nose.

I'm very, very pleased with the corrected mold.

[ddeaton]

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l86/ddeaton2/IMG_1889-1.jpg

No, but close

[Catshooter]

I would have shot some today but when I started loading I discovered that my Hornady .45 seating was a perfect fit to the boolit. When I say perfect, I mean that when I would lower the cartridge from the die the boolit would stay behind. Still up in the die. Every single time. *sigh*

I started making a new seating punch but I didn't finish.


Cat

[ddeaton]

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l86/ddeaton2/IMG_1893.jpg

From my Glock 21 in a hurry and a little chilly at 25 yrds. These cut the sharpest hole I have ever shot. Now I need to work on my groups. 4.5 gr Bullseye
I will try them in my Series 80 sometime this week.

[Romeoburbs]

I shot 100 2nd mold group H&G 68 200 grain Lee copy boolits indoors at 50 feet. Actually 193 grain boolit, sized to .452 and lubed with my own version of the perfect bullet lube sitting on top of 3.6 grains of Hodgdon Clays. The alloy was 10 lbs. of range lead and 1 lb. of linotype. I used a Bullseye accurate 1911. I used 4 Bullseye targets 25 rounds in each, off hand. Results: one ragged hole inside the limits of the bullseye. I did shoot a ten shot group off of sand bags and it was 1.25" throwing out one shot I decreed a flyer. I won't have 50 yd. data until spring (some time in July probably). This bullet shoots very well at the short line. This boolit is good enough for competition at the short line. I may try to shoot some outdoors, but it won't be until I get back from Florida in Feb. Happy New Year All.
Gene, in MI

[MakeMineA10mm]

NuJudge,

Yes, almost immediately I shot targets and posted the pictures back in the epic, 25 page thread under the "Group Buys" heading. I posted them there in order to help calm the intense debate and squabble that was brewing due to the molds being miscut initially. Things were getting ugly and I wanted to show something positive to help out our beseiged honcho!

I'm very, very pleased with the corrected mold.
Patrick, I very, very, much appreciated your support. Actually, most everyone was pretty decent about it, and not many people attacked me. Most were upset at Lee. Those are some SHARP holes that thing cuts, ain't they?? :mrgreen:



http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l86/ddeaton2/IMG_1889-1.jpg

No, but close
Patrick, Those are some good looking 45 boolits. I see my two designs there; whose boolit is the third there? (Looks a lot like the Lyman 195gr short SWC.)



I would have shot some today but when I started loading I discovered that my Hornady .45 seating was a perfect fit to the boolit. When I say perfect, I mean that when I would lower the cartridge from the die the boolit would stay behind. Still up in the die. Every single time. *sigh*

I started making a new seating punch but I didn't finish.

Cat
Wow, Conan... That's frustrating! Just so you know, I had nothing to do with it! :mrgreen:



I shot 100 2nd mold group H&G 68 200 grain Lee copy boolits indoors at 50 feet. Actually 193 grain boolit, sized to .452 and lubed with my own version of the perfect bullet lube sitting on top of 3.6 grains of Hodgdon Clays. The alloy was 10 lbs. of range lead and 1 lb. of linotype. I used a Bullseye accurate 1911. I used 4 Bullseye targets 25 rounds in each, off hand. Results: one ragged hole inside the limits of the bullseye. I did shoot a ten shot group off of sand bags and it was 1.25" throwing out one shot I decreed a flyer. I won't have 50 yd. data until spring (some time in July probably). This bullet shoots very well at the short line. This boolit is good enough for competition at the short line. I may try to shoot some outdoors, but it won't be until I get back from Florida in Feb. Happy New Year All.
Gene, in MI
Wow Gene! Did you get any pics? That's some GREAT shooting.

[Romeoburbs]

I had intended to post some pictures, but at the end of the shooting session a fellow shooter asked me to look at his Baretta M9 as it was not feeding the last round and I got distracted. The RO's for the day pulled down the targets and picked up the ones I had on the bench and they went out with the trash. The results should be repeatable so I'll make sure that I hang on to the next set of targets. I did find the problem with the Baretta, but I know that doesn't give you what you're looking for.[smilie=1:

Gene, in MI

[Romeoburbs]

Patrick, Those are some good looking 45 boolits. I see my two designs there; whose boolit is the third there? (Looks a lot like the Lyman 195gr short SWC.)

Looks like an H&G 130 .45 SWC.

Gene, in MI

[Patrick L]

Gene,

The pictures of the bullets in the plastic tubs are not mine; they were posted by ddeaton. They are nice looking though! I think the third design looks like the old H&G 185 gr SWC, I can't remember the number?

My pictures were of targets shot with this boolit and were posted under the original thread in the group buys section. I should have posted them here as well, so here they are:

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb157/patrickl_01/Bullets/GunStuff067.jpg

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb157/patrickl_01/Bullets/GunStuff074.jpg

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb157/patrickl_01/Bullets/GunStuff069.jpg
Gosh d@mned flyer!!

These were all shot at 50 feet on our indoor range because its too cold here to shoot outside. I shot them with three different guns as indicated. I had shot the first mold (undersize front band) outside at 25 yards and it shot fantastically well in spite of the undersize band, so there's no reason to believe this one won't too. But like you said, that will need to wait for spring.

MMA10MM, you are being very gracious. Some people involved in this buy were getting downright nasty, and it was uncalled for. You took the high road through it all, and you saw to it that things were made right. Once again, thank you!

[Catshooter]

Wow, Conan... That's frustrating! Just so you know, I had nothing to do with it! :mrgreen:.

Mic,

I was sure it was all your fault! :) That boolit sticking in the Hornady die made me realize that I needed to make a new boolit alingment sleeve (or whatever they call it) and a top punch for my lubrisizer to fit. So I did.

I had already bought some blank top punches from Buckshot, so I just turned a new piece for the seating die on the lathe and then epoxied them both. Works perfectly! I mean when you run a boolit through the sizer it comes out with no marks on it that weren't there before hand. Very nice.

This mould/boolit is fast becoming one of my favorites. Thanks for running the buy.


Cat

[MakeMineA10mm]

Thanks guys. You guys are the reason I do it, and your targets and sincere thanks are worth more to me than gold in the safe. :drinks:

[n64atlas]

I've shot around 200 of the new bullets indoors. This coming Friday I'll set my Ransom rest up and get a look at groups from three 1911's I have. My 1914 vintage 1911, my Randall Combat and my custom built bulleseye 1911. I'll post results after that. This will be shot indoors at 50'.
I jusc cast up another 400 or so bullets. I'm still new at casting so I didn't post last Friday's results as several bullets were cast cold with wrinkles :^(. I also need to get some better lube. My Lyman 450 has that old brown stick lube in it from 25 years ago. Not sure if it is up to the bullet design or not. As I said, I'm new at casting.

[ddeaton]

Patrick, Those are some good looking 45 boolits. I see my two designs there; whose boolit is the third there? (Looks a lot like the Lyman 195gr short SWC.)

Looks like an H&G 130 .45 SWC.

Gene, in MI

You guessed right, it is a HG130. This was just my second time at casting. turned out ok, I sent some back to the pit though. I am liking this.

[Lloyd Smale]

havent shot it yet but i broke out one of the three new replacements i got and i have to say that mold is the nicest casting lee mold ive ever delt with. Bullets just fall out of it.

[garandsrus]

I cast with my mold the other day also. As Lloyd said, the boolits drop out very easily.

John

[huesos]

I'm sure we are all going to be happy with these moulds. The replacements arrived rapidly and look fine. Thanks to Mike for seeing this through, we all owe you one.

[Romeoburbs]

QUOTE=NuJudge;454800]It's too cold for me to cast here, but I'd love to hear results from my southern friends.

CDD[/QUOTE]

I am in SE Michigan, but I must be way south of you. I am 40 miles north of Detroit and shot these targets on Saturday 1/10/09. They were shot at 50 yards off of a rest. The temperature was about 19 degrees with about a 12 mph wind; it was snowing hard enough to make it difficult to see the target, what you might call a white out. I shot three rounds of two mags with 5 boolits each. I couln't shoot any more because ice was forming on the mags. Three targets with all the shots in the black. I will take that even on partly cloudy 70 degree day. I am heading for Florida and the Shot Show on Wed., so I wanted to get these pictures up before I left. Don't feel sorry for me, as I will most likely make through the heat and all.
The boolits were cast with range lead 10lbs and linotype 1 lb. and are about a 12 BHN and weighed 193 grains. They were sitting on 4.2 gr. of Hodgdon TiteGroup with WLP primers. The crimp is .470". I would still like to see a more "Keith" type nose, but I would not hesitate to shoot these clones. MMA 10MM did a good job with Lee even though they didn't make the boolit nose to the print.:Fire:

Gene

[colbyjack]

my handles just came in so ill cast some up this week. -chris

[crf250x]

Hi,

I just cast some bullets from the molds I got. This is my first real try at casting, so the first few hundred didn't come out that nice but once everything got going and I got the hang of it the bullets came out nice. Took me all day to cast about 2k.

I'm happy with the results, even the bad bullets shoot good. This was my best ten shot group at fifty yards resting on the bench with my wadgun and aimpoint h1 micro red dot scope. I was a little off on the trigger on the two fliers. At 25yards, it's just one hole the size of a quarter.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v136/a1acp/DSC00468.jpg

This is where I shot my groups.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v136/a1acp/DSC00469.jpg


Thanks again Mike for the group buy.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Hi,

I just cast some bullets from the molds I got. This is my first real try at casting, so the first few hundred didn't come out that nice but once everything got going and I got the hang of it the bullets came out nice. Took me all day to cast about 2k.

I'm happy with the results, even the bad bullets shoot good. This was my best ten shot group at fifty yards resting on the bench with my wadgun and aimpoint h1 micro red dot scope. I was a little off on the trigger on the two fliers. At 25yards, it's just one hole the size of a quarter.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v136/a1acp/DSC00468.jpg

This is where I shot my groups.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v136/a1acp/DSC00469.jpg


Thanks again Mike for the group buy.

Thank you for the shooting!!! You do live in "Paradise." So, in your first experience at casting you make up boolits that can shoot X-Ring groups at 50yrds?

Must be the moulds..... :kidding:

I wouldn't mind seeing the 25 yard groups! ;)

[Matt_G]

crf250x, 100-8X with your first cast boolits from 50?
I'm impressed.
Nicely done sir. :drinks:

[Romeoburbs]

Ok, don't hold back now; what were the particulars of your load? Lube, size diameter, which powder and how much, OAL, and crimp. Not that I would want to shoot a group like yours (like heck I wouldn't). I am going to try 3.8 Hodgon Clays next.:shock:

Gene, in MI

[ernierod]

Excellent groups big guy. I,too,would like to know bullet weight,sizing diameter,type powder and amount used. Thanks.

[crf250x]

Sorry for the delay.

My bullets cast at 189 to 191 grains with some mystery mix lead which tested about 8 saeco. Lubed on a Star sizer to .452 nose down with White Label BAC lube. I load 3.9 bulseye to about 1.245 oal with a .469 crimp, mixed brass. Clays should be good, I don't like it because it is more snappy than bulseye. My 25 yard targets got messed up with other testing before I could take pictures.

[Orygun]

I haven’t shot any yet, but I had a great casting session with the new mold this afternoon that I can share with you.

I tried to do everything right…..cleaned with brake cleaner, then boiled in detergent water brushing out with a toothbrush. Checked for burrs with a Q-Tip and didn’t find any. I did not smoke the mold as I have done with other Lee and/or Lyman molds.

I made sure that all of the stars were in perfect alignment ;) then pre-heated the mold on a hot plate, cast a couple times and applied Bull Plate as directed and then went to town. At first it was dropping bullets with just a shake and as it heated up I had to give a couple of easy whacks on the hinge pin to release them. No problem.

I water quenched (for convenience) and most of the time it threw 6 perfect boolits if I had all of my ducks in a row. Sure, once in a while I would have a base that wasn’t completely filled out or a cratered base if I got in a hurry, but more times than not it was 6 keepers per throw.

Ran my RCBS Pro Melt at about 825° according to the dial, stirred with a wooden stick, used sawdust for flux and maybe a pinch of boolit lube on the first melt. Cooled the sprue plate on a wet towel for a couple of seconds before opening the mold. I’m getting pretty picky about keeping only “good” ones and pushed out the bad with a small wooden stick before dropping the rest in the water bucket. Got about 500-600 rds. done in a pretty short time.

Alloy was wheel weight with 2% Sn, got great fill out and frosting was not a problem (even though I don’t worry about frosted boolits).
They weigh an average of 193/194 gr. and measure an average of .455 on both driving bands. I usually like to size/lube on the same day as casting as they tend to size easier on the Star, but will wait until tomorrow and I hope that going from .455 to .452 isn’t a big problem. I don’t think it will be.

I will lube and size to .452 and then load with 5.2 gr. Titegroup, as my old Lee #68 clone liked this as well as the Lyman 452460. When I load and test, I will select and weigh about 100 rds. and use the same head stamped brass, and then test in a Ransom rest at 25yds. and 50 yds. Not sure when I’ll get to that, (maybe when it warms a little around here) but will try to post results when done.

Anyway, this is probably the easiest and less picky mold that I have ever used (and I have many in both alum. and steel), so I am very happy with it and will be even more happy if it drills 1 ½” groups at 50 yds. like my Lyman boolit does.

[Dale53]

crf250x;
I don't think your backstop is high enough:mrgreen:. Just kidding!

That is excellent shooting and looks like the bullet is a winner!

If I didn't already have two four cavity moulds of similar type I would have been all over this GB. I think you good people did well.

Dale53

[colbyjack]

mine are casting at 191/192 for weight with my metal wish it was heavier. also stuck it in the hg mold and the mold wont close so its a little off. -chris

[ktw]

Shot some of mine for the first time yesterday. Haven't done any load development with it yet, this was simply a load that worked for me back when I was buying custom cast H&G68's.

The load has a bit of zip. I am shooting them in a strong single action revolver (FA97).

10 shots at 30 yards, sitting in the snow at the local gravel pit, back up against my truck tire, gun braced between my knees.

These shoot every bit as good as the H&G68's I used to use. I make no claims to being an accomplished pistolero. I have no doubt the three low shots are all me.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g232/ktwna/reloading/fa97-target.jpg

-ktw

[MakeMineA10mm]

DANG, ktw! That's nothing to be ashamed of at 30 yards!!!:mrgreen: