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Thread: MP .402 group buy

  1. #1
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    MP .402 group buy

    I just PCd my first run of our .402 group buy HP mold. It's raining here so I figured I wouldn't have that great of coverage. I even used old powder I had sitting it Tupperware wit air soft BBs. I used Smokes powder. First go was traffic purple with black and blue mixed in. I noticed the HP cavities didn't want to have PC stick to them today. I had a few bright specs of bare alloy showing as well. All colors I tried did the same but seemed to flow into the spots but not the HP cavities. Not to worried about the HP areas anyway. I then had some red, Green, and orange mixed from last year or longer. Made a nice brown. I ran out so I dumped some.orange in I had in a another Tupperware tumbling container.













    I'll have to get a .401 lee sizer ordered up! I did get some tinning towards the end of my casting session. I think I scraped most of it out with a wood dowel. I'll have to take it apart for cleaning and run another batch. I have 2 buddies waiting for small flat rate boxes full.to test. I did put a heavy patina on my mold but just end up running them to hot and to long.






    My patina with salt and vinegar fumes before casting...



    My outter pin kept not wanting to release boolits. I did end up spraying a little dry graphite on the pins and spru plate to help with the release. I'll have to debur the pins when I take the mold apart to clean and check for tinning.



    I did get some finning right towars the end. Around the HP area and then by the crimp.groove so I knew I either didn't get the mold shut all the way and or tinning was present. Oh well, what can I say? I like to cast pretty bullets...and hot! Had my lee.4/20 on 8.5 and it still took alot to keep my mold and pins hot consistently so the boolits would drop and not wrinkle. Been a while since I casted anything so I had to get my groove back in order. I'll be loading these in my glock 20. I used 16/1 pure lead and pewter alloy with a BH of 7.5.
    Last edited by Tripplebeards; 09-10-2022 at 02:05 PM.

  2. #2
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    cwlongshot's Avatar
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    GOOD LOOKING BULLETS!!!

    I love my MP HP molds.

    Get your self a HOT PLATE and a thermo. I rarely need more then 700° and get very few culls using the hot plate. I cast nearly as many HP as I do solids.

    CW
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  3. #3
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    Got a hot plate…forgot to try it. Picked one up in a thrift store NIB for $2 or $3 a year or so ago and forgot about it. Need a thermometer though. I never sorted and weighed. Got to excited and wanted to PC them. I found only 3 boolits that I missed with lack of HP fill out. I’ll smash test them. Still got to order a .401 push through sizer so I load and shoot them.

    Updated: I weighed one of my 16/1 ally deep HPs after PCing. It weighed 160 grains. I also found out why I had one cavity that would not release a boolit every time. I could not find the issue till I zoomed in on some photos of the mold. The brass edge by one of the HP cavities is damaged or chipped off. It allowed alloy flow into the mold. I have pics of the mold before I casted showing it was pre existing. I sent photos late morning our time to MP hoping they will make it right. Think it’s nighttime there (and Sunday) so hopefully I’ll hear back tomorrow. I have to say There was barely a little tinning in other spots but it wiped off really easy with the patina applied from vinegar and salt fumes. I’ll have to make the patina a new practice with all my brass molds from now on. I haven’t decided to try the penta pins yet but have two buddies chomping at the bit for some of these.. I might have to make another run of them tomorrow using the good cavity.
    Last edited by Tripplebeards; 09-11-2022 at 08:26 PM.

  4. #4
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    Dieselhorses's Avatar
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    Those bullets look delicious! Nice job on PC'ing and creativity! Any color will do the job, but I am impressed with yours!
    The unexamined life is not worth living....Socrates
    Pain, is just weakness leaving the body....USMC
    Fast is fine, but accuracy is FINAL!....Wyatt Earp

  5. #5
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    Just heard back from MP. They are sending replacement blocks. Thanks MP!

  6. #6
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    Polished up the HP pins with mothers today before trying a go with it again. They dropped and released the boolits by themselves for thr first 2/3's of my casting session. After that a quick tap with my glove on the back side of the pins and they dropped right off. I unfortunately still had finning around the HP area. I haven't inspected the mold but will after it cools down. Not worried since MP said they would send replacement halves. They sure look pretty with 16/1 alloy. I will have to do some PC color mixing again.





    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails n4pWskX.jpg  
    Last edited by Tripplebeards; 09-12-2022 at 03:16 PM.

  7. #7
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    Alright...done with PCing batch #2. I mixed Smokes traffic orange, bacon grease, and black for about half. Thought they would turn out more orange but I'm pleased with the outcome.



    And wanted something different for the second half. I first mixed traffic yellow and bacon grease together. Tumbled and rolled in black afterwards in a separate Container. Didn't trip my trigger after baking so I used a Qtip with traffic orange and stuck it in the HP cavities and baked again. Gonna call it Firetiger..
    O
    or better yet, T Rex color!





    Just waiting on my .401 sizer to show and I'll load a few up and test!!!!
    Last edited by Tripplebeards; 09-13-2022 at 03:09 PM.

  8. #8
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    cwlongshot's Avatar
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    I agree. Not apealing yellow is a tough color.
    But highlighted noses is something I also do and
    Like the effect!

    I do it on different hardnesses from norm. Harder (quenched) or softer to highlite.

    CW
    NRA Life member • REMEMBER, FREEDOM IS NOT FREE its being paid for in BLOOD.
    Come visit my RUMBLE & uTube page's !!

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  9. #9
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    My lee .401 size showed today. Ran a boolit through and measured it. It was sizing small at .400. My plan was to hone it to .402 anyways. I used 320 grit wrapped around a pencil and a little oil. I then polished the inside with my drymel. It's at .402 now. I sized about 20 of them and loaded up with 7 grains of unique to shoot a few test loads. I took the load from Lyman 50th and a 165 grain jword. Loaded them at the book size listed at 1.250". I used a lee crimp die to just knock down the bells. They all drop right in my barrel but a few won't fall back our easily. Maybe they are on the verge of just touching the lands. I'll run them the way they are for now. I measured where I knocked down the bells. They are .423 or a little smaller. Maybe I quick fix might be to crimp them a little tighter next time around or shorten the OAL.





    I belled the cases a little to much. These 4 I had to hit my press handle to get it to enter the crimp die. One didn't pass the plunk test. I will shoot the other three out. The one I pulled didn't seem to have boolit crimp damage which shocked me...




    It's definitely a color I don't plan on repeating.
    Last edited by Tripplebeards; 09-15-2022 at 06:59 PM.

  10. #10
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    Well my 10mm doesn't like soft 7.5 alloy. I casted up 2 different coww alloys today. Added 2% pewter to each alloy so I'm guessing I'll end up with 15bh on the harder coww alloy and 13BH with the softer. Made 4 pounds of the harder alloy and PCd purple...



    And the softer alloy I used my left over orange mix. I also I gave one a smash test to rule out a PC issue...



    With the coww alloys the boolits turned out nice. Frosty and silver looking like always with COWW alloy...




    Well, I have 20 pounds of the 7.5 boolits casted up and can't use. I'll have either smelt them back down or do some with 40S&W shooters before I do.

  11. #11
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    Casted up about 7 pounds of 16:1, 11BH today. Must have got some alloy in one of the pins. The mold was hard to open and started to no close on the bottom towards the end so I quit. Looks like the pin halves are shiny. I'll have to clean, polish, and lube them. Hopefully i didn't beagle any. They still looked great!






    Thought NY purple wasn't sticking so I dumped some blue in...




    Last edited by Tripplebeards; 09-19-2022 at 06:18 PM.

  12. #12
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    I had a chance to weigh the 16:1 , 11BH alloy boolits today after I sized them. I knew I was going to have some variance in weight because the blocks had a gap in then towards to end from the mold not shutting. The majority of the them weighed 158.0 to 159.0 grains had a decent amount in the 157. 0 to 157.9 and 159.o to 159.9 grain variance as well.

    Last edited by Tripplebeards; 09-20-2022 at 08:54 PM.

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