1st "boolit" casting session

[Gitsum]

Finally got to try casting some boolits. Did 475 with 168 bad ones mostly due to allignment. I was checking most of the time too. Will some lube on the pins remedy this? If so, what kind should I get and will one lube work for the sprue plate AND the pins? Mould was new out of the box and dry. Once I can get it lining up better I would like to try leementing as well. Even with a little trouble, I enjoyed the casting session and can see sticking with it for a long time. Nothing like starting from some dirty old wheel weights and taking them all the way to the paper!

[Vance]

Yes you should lube the sprue plate and alignment pins. Bull Shops Bull Plate Lube will work on both. Contact this guy: [email protected] to get some. Awesome stuff.

OH, and post pictures of your boolits. We like pictures here.

[LAH]

Yes you should lube the sprue plate and alignment pins. Bull Shops Bull Plate Lube will work on both. Contact this guy: [email protected] to get some. Awesome stuff.

OH, and post pictures of your boolits. We like pictures here.

+1

[Gitsum]

Thanks, I sent an e-mail. here are some pics

[Gitsum]

oh, btw... Do I need to size? these are 38/357 and they will be going through a S&W 686 4".

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Great job on casting!

What size are the boolits dropping from the mold?

Generally, the TL design does not have to be sized. BUT, some molds may not be within spec and may drop boolits too large. Then they would need to be sized down.

Slug your bore to find your groove diameter. Whatever this number is you generally want you bullets (forgot "boolits" is forbidden here) to be 1-2 thousandths OVER groove diameter.

BTW, there are many good vids on YouTube that will show you how to slug your bore.

[PawPaw]

Slugging the bore is important, but what is also important is slugging your cylinder mouths. What you want to happen is for the bullet to go through the cylinder mouth, then be sized in the forcing cone, so the cylinder mouth has to be a thousandth or so larger than the forcing cone.

If the cylinder mouth is smaller than the forcing cone, the bullet is being sized at the cylinder mouth then going into the forcing cone too small to be properly sized to fit the bore.

Or, you can do what some folks do, just load 'em and shoot 'em. If they're a little oversize, they'll swage down when they hit the forcing cone. If your accuracy is acceptable, don't fix whut ain't broke.

[Gitsum]

never thought to check the diameters tonight. ok.. lets see if i have this right. in the end, the bullets should be about .002 over sized. If my bullets are with in this range they are ok but if over that I should size down, and the sizing die should be .002 OVER the slug size?

[shootniron]

MAN...are you in trouble now...

This addiction will eat you up!

[Vance]

Those are very good for a first session. Very shootable. As you do more casting, you can vary lead temps up or down a few degrees to find the sweet spot as each mold likes a different temp to work at.

Here is a link to a free to read and download for personal use resource for casting bullets:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=110213
That is some very valuable info, and my own casting has improved.

[Gitsum]

Thanks Vance. I already have that one nicely in its own 3 ring binder right next to the ABC's and the Lyman manual and some other valuable resources. Not to mention the endless amount of info I have gotten here on TFL. I really love comming here because the members actually WANT to help out unlike some other forums that are full of useless comments. I have found a home. Thank you all.

[LAH]

oh, btw... Do I need to size? these are 38/357 and they will be going through a S&W 686 4".

If those bullets are soft, say straight air cooled wheelweights, less than .360" diameter & you are using starting loads I'd just load them. If they lead it's a simple thing to clean the lead out.

[GP100man]

Shoot as big a bullet as you can reliably chamber .

Good looking bullets , but build the lead up on the sprue plate so it`ll warm it up & the bases will look sharper.

The bases are a critical part of any bullet .

Wish my first pours looked that good , mine were terrible

[TXGunNut]

Good job, welcome to the asylum! For my purposes (mostly rifles) the Lee sizer gives me a more consistent boolit and the free bottle of LLA is nice too. Can't say for certain your 686 will ever know the difference, I'd try it without sizing first.

[Gitsum]

Checked measurements and they are .359-.360. Also ran another session for 115 gn 9mm. they measure the same but the lyman manual says they should be .355 so depending on my barrel I should consider sizing these? here are some pics from tonights session.....

[Vance]

Very nice. It depends on what your barrel slugs to. The barrel on my Ruger SR9 slugged to .356. I cast with a Mihec 2 cavity mold that throws .359 - .360 bullets. I size them to .357. Seems to be working fine for me. There are a few you tube videos showing how to slug a barrel.

[TXGunNut]

Slugging is pretty cool, lets you graduate from "should be" to "is". A 36 caliber pure lead round ball flattened a bit with a hammer on an anvil would be my choice. I'd load a dummy with this boolit and see how well it "chambers" in your barrel, out of the gun. Once you determine it will work load up a few more dummies to check cycling in the pistol.
Kinda purty, ain't they?

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

If those are dropping from the mold that big then I would use one of those to slug your bore. I like to spray the inside of the barrel with gun oil and wipe a touch of boolit lube on the bearing surface of the bullet. Then whack it thru with a wood dowel rod or brass cleaning rod (I have a brass rod devoted to this because the threads got snapped off and can't use it for anything else).

You will be able to tell if the barrel sized the boolit down completely because the area that is sized will be shiny. Just make sure that when you slug your bore that the barrel is indeed sizing the boolit down to get an accurate measurement.

Good luck and those boolits look great!

[hornetguy]

+10 on what Paw Paw said. Re-read his post. Print it out. Learn it. Live it.

Unless you have a freak mold that is WAY out of spec, you should be able to lube, load, and shoot. That's why measuring the bullets is a good idea.

[rsrocket1]

I think the Bullshop folks shut down their internet service and are taking only snail mail. On top of that, they only get to their mailbox once in a few days. It's quite a few miles. Casters who wrote to them get replies, but slowly.

In the mean time, you can use a high temperature synthetic 2-cycle oil as a pretty good substitute (it may be the actual stuff). I got the Husqvarna XP Professional XP ($2.35 at a local lawn mower shop). Some experienced casters say this is the same stuff as Bullplate. I don't know because I just started casting and never saw Bullplate.

I applied it on the sprue plate by dipping the tip of a cotton swab and spreading a very thin layer on the hot plate. I also spread it on the guide pins, pivot screw and screw slot. Less is better, otherwise it will creep into the cavity and cause wrinkled boolits.

No lead smearing on the sprue plate, smooth closing of the mold and no need to relube throughout a 1+ hour casting session.

[Mike / Tx]

Gitsum, your definitely on the right track. Those are some nice ones you poured up. It won't be long now till your stocked for sure.

I got out a new HP mold last night and poured up a hundred of my best ever HP's. I only had about 6 toss backs. In a previous attempt, I had tried out three different HP molds, and was ready to toss them all out in the yard. Nothing came out usable other than to go back into the pot. I think I have it down now, and will go back to them this week one at a time.

Keep up the good work, next lets see some targets.