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Good evening John , first a thank you for all your wisdom and creating my favorite firearm! I was planning on loading some of these boolits today and was just wondering what OAL were you using with the BLC 2? Also wondering if that would be a compressed load? Thank you in advance keep up the good work.ScottQuote:
Originally Posted by John Ross
Mine had a big white sticker on it(don't know if it was CN 23 form? Already threw the box out). Had to sign, but no extra fees.
Dennis
Got mine yesterday, no sticker, no signature needed
Scott, my mold has a .700" nose and the OAL is 2.320" This mold may have a slightly shorter nose. Crimp at the crimp groove. BLC-2 loads are somewhat compressed.
Got them today
Touchdown!! Got one in yesterday and the other today. Now, to learn to cast these monsters! Beautiful craftsmanship!!! Iron Whittler [smilie=w: :Fire:
Monster mold blocks, got mine today
Tips for using this mold:
1) Clean this mold completely before use to remove machining oils which will otherwise cause wrinkles when the oils burn off.
2) I would run the mold halves through at least two (and three would be better) 400+ degree (Farenheit) heat cycles in the oven to "normalize" the brass after machining. Best done with the two mold halves wired together so that the alignment pins assist with the normalizing process. Allow to air cool to room temperature between cycles. I started doing this for aluminum molds, and have continued the normalizing with machined brass molds. Miha's work is amazing, and the molds seem to like the break in cycling.
3) There's a LOT of brass here. Either use a hot plate, or dip the corner of the mold into the lead FOR A LONG TIME to allow it to come up to proper operating temperature.
4) You will likely NOT have much success with this mold if you try to get it up to running temperature by filling cavities over and over and over again. The mold needs to get up to a HOT temperature to fill properly for these big bullets, especially when running the hollow point inserts.
5) You will find that you need to start off with the alloy temperature a bit on the hot side, and then adjust downward as the mold and the alloy find the mutual perfect place.
6) When the mold and the alloy are at the perfect temperatures, I am easily able to open the sprue plate with a leather gloved hand (no banging on the sprue plate!)
7) 10 bullets is a pound of lead, so in my mind adding the sprue cut offs immediately back into the pot is a big deal. I drop the cut sprues into my gloved hand, and slip them into the pot for re-melting. This also lessens the heat shock that putting otherwise room temperature sprues into the pot would cause.
8) These bullets are big and dense. The guys who got two molds were the ones wearing the wise and smart caps! It takes a long time for the centers of these big boolits to solidify. So, be patient. While one mold is setting up, you can be pouring the other one. Don't try to open the molds too soon, you will be ripping and tearing the edges of the hollow points. If you only have one mold, be patient with the set up time. Cut the sprues early though, while everything is still sizzling.
9) I use one of my mold tappers to gently (very light taps...) tap on the pivot screw for the mold handles to create a vibration that eases the mold halves away from the boolits. The boolits should gently fall out with a large thud. I place the mold down on the landing area while doing this tapping. The molds are heavy, and the filled cavities make them even more so.
10) For that reason, use a few cotton or linen cloths in the landing zone for the falling boolits. The boolits are heavy and still kind of soft when you ease them out of the mold halves. You don't want them banging into your catching area or into each other. And, they will take a long time to cool to room temperature. I don't like water cooling these boolits. Too much opportunity for boolit on boolit damage.
11) If you have all your temperatures right, you should get nice shiny boolits without having to bang the heck out of the molds. If you treat these molds properly, they will make T-Rex bullets for hundreds of years. Maybe millions.
12) If you are winging it like I used to do, a mixture of 50% wheel weights, and 50% range lead or pure lead is just about right for these boolits. Lyman #2 works well. Add some 60/40 solder if you need to for filling the edges of the hollow points, but don't go crazy on the tin. No need.
13) There is also no need for "smoking the molds"... These are high quality molds. They should be ready to run, and will drop boolits well without any butane smoke.
Duke in Florida, Thanks for the tips on casting these beauties. Itching to heat em up. Iron Whittler [smilie=w: :Fire:
I have retracted the new mold.
Lead mixture is 80% air-rifle lead and 20% writing lead. Here in Austria (and Germany too) is tyre balancing lead no existed for 10, 15 years, they're forbidden here. Only zinc and stainless steel is used...
My last wheel weight lead I poured 8 years ago :-(
Bullet with Pentagon hollow point weight 639grs, and the massive bullet weight 694 grs. With gascheck and lube.
Charles
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Kawacharles, and others.........
Lead is **THE** most recycled metal in the world. I always seek permission to "mine" lead bullets from the impact berms at the places I shoot. Last mining expedition yielded 2,000 pounds of lead, jacketed bullets and cast bullets. When melted down they yield a Saeco 5 hardness. Easy to adjust from there.
So, try to get permission to get all of those precious bullets back.
Having some issues loading these into cases. Even trying to put them into empty cases the noses are getting mashed. I'm using the lee expander. NOE doesn't offer one in this size, what are you guys using to expand the case to successfully load these boolits?
Not sure I follow, pictures might help. Also what cases are you using? I've had issues with certain 500 S&W cases being too thick and causing dimensions of the finished round that do not allow free chambering even.Quote:
Originally Posted by Moonie
https://ibb.co/gfaNUn
https://ibb.co/iGDWN7
Starline brass. I'm going to try water dropping out of the oven. I did have some issues during my powder coat session with these, the airsoft bb's stuck in the cavities and other issues related to moving my setup to a new area.
Airsoft bb's? Ok you're above my paygrade now heh :shock:Quote:
Originally Posted by Moonie
lol, they help generate static to help the powder coat adhere. I was able to get the bb's out, just a pain.Quote:
Originally Posted by wonderwolf
Are you using the die from the 500s&w set or just a generic case mouth flare die? I ask cause I’m not seeing anything beyond the flared mouth on the cases. On mine you can clearly see the slight bulge where the expanding plug has opened up the case prior to seating the bullet.
I'm using the die from the 500S&W, it's a lee set and the expander doesn't go very deep. My first thought was to get one from NOE, but he doesn't make one for 500 S&W. I'm not opposed to getting another expander die if it will help.Quote:
Originally Posted by readr1
I have not had any luck with seating castings which were not properly sized prior to seating. If you are taking raw castings, and then powder coating them, you are building up too much interference dimensions. The inside case dimension is set by SAAMI spec. That requires that the bullet be no more than a given diameter. Anything more than that will yield your issue.
Even if you create a way to push the bullets into the cases, you will still get a seated bullet in a bulged case, which may or may not chamber in your gun.
I strongly suggest that you do a sizing operation on these bullets before attempting to seat them. I use a LEE bell mouthing die very successfully with mine. Even if you get Lyman to make you a "M" die, which would be the perfect world of seating, I am sure that unless you make a change to your PC bullets, you will have bulged cases and assemblies that might not chamber.
Gas check applied and sized to .501 post powder coat. I've not had this issue with any other rounds I've loaded. I loaded a few dozen 460 S&W this week using 350/325gr NOE HP's. Not as long as this 700gr boolit but long none the less. I'm in DC for a week and will try some other things when I return. Perhaps some lube or I guess it could be they didn't cure properly when I baked them.Quote:
Originally Posted by DukeInFlorida