A bit awkward but handy

[jonk]

I have this .58 wadcutter minie mold for my muzzleloaders made by a company called 'challenger'. Nice looking mold, but it lacks any sort of vent lines and the sprue hole is fairly small. Getting good fill out has always been a pain especially with pure lead or even a 40:1 alloy. The skirt on the minie always has a small void- or does on maybe 60% of the bullets.

I hit on a solution yesterday. As I pour the lead in from my Lyman ladle, if I tap the mold as I'm pouring up and down on the rim of the pot, it seems to get better fill out. Now maybe 20% rejects instead of 60. A bit awkward but once you get the rythym of it is pretty manageable.

I might use a carbide engraver to scratch some small vent lines, especially near the base, and see what I get.

[leadman]

Even on an iron mould a sharp knife with a thin blade will usually cur shallow vent lines. I use a Swiss Army pocket knife for this.
When you cut the lines this way there is a small burr that has to be cleaned off. I hit it with some 1000 grit wet-dry sandpaper very lightly.
Vent lines can be added to the sprue cutter or the top of the mould also.

[leftiye]

Voids anywhere are often amenable to "Hotter." Especially at the first place that the lead hits the mold and the points of base pins and hollow point pins. I'd bet that what you've got isn't about air flowing out of the mold, but rather the lead freezing before it conforms to the mold. Thicker skirts might help (turn down the base pin) and will also enable hotter charges (though a .58 wadcutter flies worse than a rock does). Vent lines though are never bad.

[jonk]

I have the pot up on 10. Thermometer says 930 degrees.

Mold is so hot that the wood handles are hard to hold. Still same issues.

Flies worse than a rock? Well maybe for trajectory. But it will hold 4" at 100 yards, good enough for me. :)

[SciFiJim]

Tapping or jiggling a mold while filling have helped me many times when I am getting poor fillout.

[Buckshot]

http://www.fototime.com/E73FC324E248E9B/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/B0C531FAC01F5E1/standard.jpg

...........Must be this one? It's a Challanger and fits the description. I bought this from Maven some years back. Nice Minie'. It weighs 530grs and the skirt is too thin for heavy charges. I've had issues with voids aboved the core pins before on other Minie' bullets besides this one. Something that seems to help is if the cavity pin has a pointed or rounded nose, file it to give a flat.

Those targets were shot as a simple quick lube test and bore out my beliefs that rifles are indeed individuals :-) The range was 50 yards, benched using a Parker Hale P58 2 band Enfield.

..................Buckshot

[Echo]

You might consider also lightly stoning the upper edges of the mould blocks, just enough to see a bright line, for added venting.