I just got the Lee buckshot mold. I have the slug molds and now this one, kinda completes the shotgun collection.
h t tp://leeprecision.com/xcart/00-Buckshot-Mold.html
I did some casting with it and having no experiences with a larger capacity mold, I have some questions about this for the shotgun casters crowd...
My setup
- lyman electric melter
- hand cast ladle
- lead- almost pure and cleaned ( unfortunately I have no thermometer to tell temp. I guess and it seems to work for other casting.)
- buckshot mold- cleaned with alcohol and smoked with a Bic
I am getting 1 or sometimes 2 cavities filled(of a string of 3), rarely 3 full cavities filled(I got 6pcs of 3 strings total out of about ~250pcs aprox.) After the first, the next cavity at the gate the lead looks to freeze off and it stops with just a little tail.
I reckon the mold is hot but I never done casting with a big mold like this before. Is it hot enough? Do you have to have this like smoking hot to use properly? (I had placed the mold on the melter for quite a bit before I started and I had a cadence of production to keep it hot.)
I had not see any mold vents to clean like some other molds, so I dont know if venting is a problem.
I have some buck to try to shoot but it was quit the effort to get this far. Some advice from users and experts would be great.