Ben made me do it. (That's my story, anyway)
- Thread starter Ian
- Start date
fiver
Well-Known Member
I run the rcbs 22-55 fn mold and can tell the two cavity's apart on the scale.
as I come up into it's heat zone they overlap each other so have just learned to let the heat fluxuate just a little.
this gives me a much larger pile of same weight bullets and a good pile on either side of the target weight.
I do have outliers and all the light ones go back for sure.
but it ain't too hard to hold a .3 or .4 gr weight window.
I wish JT hadn't of had the issues he had with his bosses too, I gave up on even trying to weigh the 9m boolits from his mold.
I can see what's good or bad as soon as I open the mold.
as I come up into it's heat zone they overlap each other so have just learned to let the heat fluxuate just a little.
this gives me a much larger pile of same weight bullets and a good pile on either side of the target weight.
I do have outliers and all the light ones go back for sure.
but it ain't too hard to hold a .3 or .4 gr weight window.
I wish JT hadn't of had the issues he had with his bosses too, I gave up on even trying to weigh the 9m boolits from his mold.
I can see what's good or bad as soon as I open the mold.
Ian
Notorious member
Well, the TL-452-230TC ran pretty well with the grainy, over-tinned hot mess I tried to make bullets out of. No issues with the mould other than I didn't smoke it to start off with and got some clumps stuck in the nose of the cavities. Fixed that, put a little haze of soot and off again casting bullets that look exactly like fine bead-blasted aluminum. COWW ain't what they used to be, but that's what I have the most of and am trying to use it on something that doesn't care that much. .45s and .38s would be it. Due to me being sloppy closing the blocks a few times there were some fat ones in the bunch, but most came out .4515 to .4525" on front and rear bands with the microbands running around .4505. Good 'nuff I hope, they'll probably gain at least half a thousandth by the weekend.
KHornet
Well-Known Member
I also have several NOE molds, and no problems. If you follow Al's instructions regarding heating the molds to seat the ins 4-5 times and let them cool in between, they seat well. Most of my RCBS molds are for round ball from my front stuffer days. Never had any complaint about the round balls from them.
Ian
Notorious member
Ok, the Lee TL452-230-TC is a success, mostly. They cast great, lube easily with BLL, size easily, load easily and very consistently in my RCBS seating die with the SWC seating punch installed, crimp very nicely at the same time in the same die (crimp mouth right behind the front driving band, works like a charm). My Kimber seems to like them (no leading, pretty accurate) and my SAA likes them too with the .45 ACP cylinder installed. No leading, no feeding issues. I'm sold there. My finicky AR-45 fed them fine but doesn't like to group them on the same target. Ten shots made a paper-plate sized group at 25 yards, from a rest. Wow. I may try again without the suppressor on it to see if it's any better, but I shot a group off-hand at the same distance with my shorty Kimber that I could easily cover with the bottom of a Coke can so the little carbine is pretty dismal with these. Load was 5.1 grains of HP-38, a powder that never has liked me very much. Previously I was running a ball copy with 5.5 grains in the AR-45, it made 2-3" groups at 25 yards but I thought it was a bit hot for my pistols.
BLL sure does make a revolver sticky all over, but it works!
BLL sure does make a revolver sticky all over, but it works!