Land Owner
04-05-2021, 05:32 AM
I purchased a new 2cav RCBS 22-55-SP mold in 2017, oiled it, and "circumstances" left it to sit in the drawer with all of its mold buddies, unused, until last month. I didn't make many boolits or shoot very much over that period of bereavement. Just the way it worked out.
When the wife got the itch to shoot in January, I got off my idle butt and made several thousand 4 cav Mihec 360-159 SWC and SWC HP boolits (quite the mold). We are still shooting those.
Since January, several thousand 22 Bator boolits have been formed in a Lee 2cav aluminum mold. Its continued 100 yd. inaccuracy is frustrating. So, out came the "new" and unused RCBS 22-55-SP.
That is one SWEET mold, cleaned vigorously with a nylon bristle toothbrush in warm soapy water, dried, then the cavity halves smoked with a candle. The melt temperature was mistakenly left at 825*F (quickly getting the alloy melted). The spru plate and mold halves were dipped in the melted alloy for about two minutes each.
The boolits drop out of that mold LIKE THEY SHOULD, at 58 grains (alloy is 49-49-2 Pb-WW-Sn). No knocking the mold handle. Just open it up and they fall right out. Repeat. SWEET. Rejects went to practically NONE (20 +/- in the first 600). I promptly branded my left knee with the hot mold (a senior moment, mental mistake, and another thread) and gave myself something to remember these days of the 22 cal.
When the wife got the itch to shoot in January, I got off my idle butt and made several thousand 4 cav Mihec 360-159 SWC and SWC HP boolits (quite the mold). We are still shooting those.
Since January, several thousand 22 Bator boolits have been formed in a Lee 2cav aluminum mold. Its continued 100 yd. inaccuracy is frustrating. So, out came the "new" and unused RCBS 22-55-SP.
That is one SWEET mold, cleaned vigorously with a nylon bristle toothbrush in warm soapy water, dried, then the cavity halves smoked with a candle. The melt temperature was mistakenly left at 825*F (quickly getting the alloy melted). The spru plate and mold halves were dipped in the melted alloy for about two minutes each.
The boolits drop out of that mold LIKE THEY SHOULD, at 58 grains (alloy is 49-49-2 Pb-WW-Sn). No knocking the mold handle. Just open it up and they fall right out. Repeat. SWEET. Rejects went to practically NONE (20 +/- in the first 600). I promptly branded my left knee with the hot mold (a senior moment, mental mistake, and another thread) and gave myself something to remember these days of the 22 cal.