http://www.castpics.net/subsite2/MoldMods/BDE.pdf
John Goins/aka beagle
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http://www.castpics.net/subsite2/MoldMods/BDE.pdf
John Goins/aka beagle
Excellent how to. Does it work with aluminum molds as well??
What did you use to keep the brass shim stock in place??
Shiloh
the tape works fine with aluminum molds.
Here is the problem I have finding the right diameter mold. It was never made. This is for a 8mm Lebel pistol, I would like to shoot something around 100GN RN in cast, but all the molds for 32 caliber run .311-.314, while this barrel casts as .323. I figure I will need at least .325 for a good fit. I thought of buying some molds off e-bay to try and beagling came to mind, but now we are talking about a difference of .011-.014 depending on where the molds drops. Is it better to increase the size by beagling OR to go to a 9mm mold and size the bullet down sacraficing lub capacity.
I have yet to cast my own, I have all the pieces, except the molds.
thank you
garra, You might try looking for an old Ideal/Lyman 32360, 32361, or 32362 on eBay. The 32360 does come up fairly often.
You know, I think I have seen some commercials on TV on this subject of "natural mold enhancement"!!!
I've had pretty good results using the high-temp flue tape for beagling molds. The only ones I have trouble with are the pointy spitzer boolits, which form a bit of flash on the tips.
If anyone has had this problem and found a solution I'd sure like to hear it.
Great information. MANY thanks to Beagle for his experimentation.
Ream out the lands. (do not ream out the grooves)
Thanks for all the advice. I have an older copy of Cartridges of the World and for this caliber they mention the Lyman 32359 mold which I can look for on e-bay. Reaming the mold out using a adjustable reamer is a good option, especially if I buy an inexpensive Lee mold.
Trying a new method of beagling
aluminum foil seems to do the trick
just fold to the size you want to gain
place in mold and pinch into alignment pins
cut out around bullet halves and fold excess around sides and bottom of mold
holds tin foil spacer on
try it !
garra, have you thought about paper patching those bullets for your pistol? I use a .312 bullet and wrap it twice with tracing paper from Wal Mart which makes it about .325. You can size them when they are dry and coated with Lee Lube cut half in half with mineral spirits.
Thanks Beagle for developing this technique. I recently started doing this with 3M high temp flue tape and it works great. Sheer ingenuity. I have sized up .003 to .005 with no problems.
Okay , this could have been a sob story like so many out there .....
Getting set up for my .308 , .. slugged out .310 in the grooves ....took a chance and picked up a lyman 311299 as per a lot of recommendations in the forums , most said hold out for a ''special order " or group buy as no one had one available accept for the lymans from retailers ..so came home with one.
Rolled the dice , aaaaannnnnnd ..... BINGO ! ... no luck ..... they came out at .309 .....&&&**((^$#$ ...[smilie=b: . ..(scuse me!) ... limited budget like a lot of us these days. Well , didn't want to fight with Lyman .... thought about picking up a lee mold .. thinking of the possible routes to take , kind of depressing while eating my turkey ....
Well here came along Mr Beagle .... been reading about the process now and then , didn't think much of it ... Ha ! till now ... THANK YOU Mr Beagle ! , you saved a beginner in casting for rifle ...
Ran down to Ace hardware , picked up a roll of tape and played with the mold today.
put on one little strip between and outside of both cavities ... they came out at .310.5 or .311 ... yessssss ! with just a tad of finning now and then.
put on one more little layer of tape ..... 311.5 to .312 .. alright ! ... just a bit of finning at the mold lines ... this I will live with for now as they uniformly size now at .311.5
Once again .. thank you Mr. Beagle ... you made my day .. week ... month ..year or ....
Now I can proceed with the rest of the process for my Garand ....:awesome:
digger
Ah, great how to, thank you sir. I have 2 moulds that I will try that with this weekend to see if I can get them into service making some useful boolits.
Thank you for your valuable contribution. Seems like you have answered a question I hadn't even asked yet. I seem to have a few rifles that have shall we say "generous" bore dimensions, and your procedure looks like it will take care of that problem for me. Heck, I may even be able to use Lyman's notoriously undersized molds now.
Thanks for this article. I am tempted to use a .355 mold to get a .358