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I should have a good idea what load my guns like.



Going to shoot them out of my 8.5 twist AR and my 8 twist T/C Encore. And if I feel confident I will shoot then in my open sighted Contender pistol with a 10 twist barrel.

15.5 gr Lil'Gun gave me 1850-1900 fps from my 9" AR pistol, but I haven't had time to work up anything better, hoping to do so this weekend. I'm expecting to reach 2000 fps, no idea what to expect for accuracy yet though.

yondering

Looking forward to your accuracy report

Bullet maker, maker
Swede Nelson

I just cast up my first trial batch. I went with a 70% Linotype and 30 Pure Lead mix. This mix is slightly harder than a 50/50 mix of ww/lino. About 90% of mine had whiskers on them, but they are pretty brittle and a quick swipe of a thumbnail and they come right off. The weight is running VERY CONSISTENT and between 125.1 and 125.4 grains. I am pretty excited to work up some loads. Most of the "AR" guys are running gas checks, but I am not. I don't want to run the risk of pushing gas checks through my suppressor.....and shooting without the suppressor just isn't an option that I even want to consider.

Anyway, thanks to Swede for another great mold.

It occurred to me today as I was casting and scraping the whiskers off, (and not to cause any controversy), but wouldn't this be a great design for a nose-pour mold? Assuming the nose was opened just enough to allow the lead to flow in, it would be about perfect since you'd get the perfect base that nose-pour aficionados like, but with such a small nose, the sprue plate would cut it cleaner than a wide-nosed bullet.

I suppose it would be harder to make the mold based on my assumption of how these things are machined, but I could be wrong.

any thoughts? (Swede?!?)

Castloader wrote:It occurred to me today as I was casting and scraping the whiskers off, (and not to cause any controversy), but wouldn't this be a great design for a nose-pour mold? Assuming the nose was opened just enough to allow the lead to flow in, it would be about perfect since you'd get the perfect base that nose-pour aficionados like, but with such a small nose, the sprue plate would cut it cleaner than a wide-nosed bullet.

I suppose it would be harder to make the mold based on my assumption of how these things are machined, but I could be wrong.

any thoughts? (Swede?!?)

Exponentially harder. Would have to cut one weird ass cherry (with a very thin shank that would probably cause wobbles and a bad cut) and could only do one block face at a time which would make aligning them that much harder.

Rushthezeppelin wrote:

Castloader wrote:It occurred to me today as I was casting and scraping the whiskers off, (and not to cause any controversy), but wouldn't this be a great design for a nose-pour mold? Assuming the nose was opened just enough to allow the lead to flow in, it would be about perfect since you'd get the perfect base that nose-pour aficionados like, but with such a small nose, the sprue plate would cut it cleaner than a wide-nosed bullet.

I suppose it would be harder to make the mold based on my assumption of how these things are machined, but I could be wrong.

any thoughts? (Swede?!?)

Exponentially harder. Would have to cut one weird ass cherry (with a very thin shank that would probably cause wobbles and a bad cut) and could only do one block face at a time which would make aligning them that much harder.

Yes, unless you made it normally, but placed the nose at the extreme bottom edge of the mold block so that it creates a hole in the bottom of the mold block, and moved the sprue plate to the bottom, then flipped it over and put a solid "sprue plate" in place of the current one so the lead doesn't flow back out.

If you're worried about the mold losing heat too fast, you could make a big solid aluminum sprue plate to hold the heat in at the bottom. In fact, the mold I just got from Swede could be converted just like this if I brought it to a machine shop for the milling. I seriously doubt it'll happen, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility. It would allow for a shorter (read larger meplat) tip if cut off in the right place which would reduce bending issues for regular WW casters like me.

Besides, how does he cut these ones? It can't be a straight plunge cut, or there'd be no lube grooves!? I mean, nose-pour molds exist, how are they done?

Dolomite_Supafly wrote:I should have a good idea what load my guns like.

Going to shoot them out of my 8.5 twist AR and my 8 twist T/C Encore. And if I feel confident I will shoot then in my open sighted Contender pistol with a 10 twist barrel.

What are your loads for IMR 4227 with the new 309 129gr? I just picked up some of that powder yesterday, and am excited to try it!

I am using published data for now.

I have not had any nose deformation issues using WW lead.

Let us know your results on the IMR 4227 goes....