Got my first mold ,lee .575 minie

[amwdc]

I picked up this mold from cabelas for my repro 1863 Remington zouave ,Ive got a led pot ,about 15 lbs of pure led ,and led dipper, this going to be my first time casting . Is there any problems , or tricks to a lee mold,or to casting minie balls with a lee mold ?

[chuebner]

I have the same mold for my Zoli Zouave, and I found that besides the normal pre-casting cleaning routine, this mold needs to be very hot to drop good Minie balls. I cast at about 750-775F to get good results. Unfortunately I have also found that my Zouave shoots way better with a patched .570 roundball and 50gr. 3F GOEX. Group sizes are about half with roundball vs. Minie. Hopefully your results will be better.

Charlie

[mooman76]

I have the same mould also. Some bigger moulds like to be ladle cast better than bottom pour.

[amwdc]

I cast about 30 today i did it on the campfire on my 200 year old cast iron lead pot (my mom gave it to me for Christmas last year ) since i am still waiting for electric lee pot to come in its was,defiantly a learning experience .For every good one there is about 4 i had to throw back in the pot ,either the mold wasn't warmed up of the lead wasn't hot enough.The most embarrassing was a couple were i forgot to close the mold completely at the bottom:oops: as for size all but one came out to .575
the odd ball was .572 so i threw it back in the pot .