Boolit Size

[Danth]

Working on an old Steven's Tip-up that takes a .363" boolit. The boolit cast from my mold mic's .363" exactly cast in 30-1. I'd like it .366" or so. I understand I can harden it up and/or cast at lower temps to increase size, but the old timers recommended 30-1 for this particular bullet. Any other way to bump it up, or does hardening pose no ill effects?

[RickinTN]

Have Hollowpoint molds open your mold up a bit, or have Tom at Accuratemolds.com make you one that drops at .363".
Rick

PS. Or stick with your 30:1 alloy and load to enough pressure to bump your bullet up during firing. This may be the easiest option.

[Mal Paso]

Beagle the mold with aluminum tape. A search of "Beagle mold" will turn up details but you put strips of aluminum tape between the mold blocks to make the boolit bigger.

You can also lap the mold with an abrasive like diamond or carbide, there are instructions on this site.

You won't get close to .003" with harder alloy, more like .0005". Good Luck!

[poppy42]

What grain/ type of boolet? I’m not familiar with the gun so I have no idea if this would even be of help to you but Lee makes a two cavity mold for a Makarov. It drops at 95 grain round nose bullet that measures .365. I know I have two of them! Like I said I don’t know if this is any help to you but hopefully it is. If you want to send me a PM and I can send you a few bullets to test out.

[Danth]

Thanks for the great info, and poppy42 thank you for your offer. The bullet for this cartridge is 210grs, so the Makarov bullet's gonna be too light/short. Best, Dan

[WRideout]

Beagle the mold with aluminum tape. A search of "Beagle mold" will turn up details but you put strips of aluminum tape between the mold blocks to make the boolit bigger.

You can also lap the mold with an abrasive like diamond or carbide, there are instructions on this site.

You won't get close to .003" with harder alloy, more like .0005". Good Luck!

I have an old 32-20 revolver that needed a larger boolit, so I beagled my Lee 100 gr mold, as described by Malpaso, and it shoots them just fine.

Wayne

[Danth]

How do you get the aluminum tape to stick to the mold?

[Sam Sackett]

The aluminum tape has adhesive on one side. Clean the mold faces with acetone and stick ‘‘em on.

Sam Sackett

[Mal Paso]

How do you get the aluminum tape to stick to the mold?

It's a heating and air conditioning product for sealing ducts usually 2 inches wide. Aluminum tape with adhesive on the back. Hardware store item.