Which Mould?
 

I've been thinking about buying some stuff to do my own casting. Well, my father in law told me yesterday that he has everything needed to cast except lead and moulds for ML's. Right now, I can really only afford one mould, but don't know if I would be better to find something that would work better with a sabot, or a conical mould. I have a KRB, and while I've not shot conicals out of it yet, it sounds like it's a great conical shooter. So, what would be the best investment?

RE: Which Mould?
 

SuperKirby
The Knights are supposed to be good conical shooters and if you go by the forum they are but my Big Horn dont follow that rule, I suggest it would be wise to try what you are interested in before spending your money. Lee

RE: Which Mould?
 

I'd slug the bore of the knight first and see what molds out there will work. My Omega with the way i am able to measure shows it as .502" which is good, most out there are tight bores.

I havent even considered a conical mold due to the lead it would eat up and i just dont have access to that kind of lead. I also haven't seen knights shooting off the shelf conicals. Its always bullshop or no excuse conicals.

RE: Which Mould?
 

An inexpensive mold you might try would be the Lee 90991 for the .500 S&W. It casts at .501 or so and would drop about a460 grain bullet in the purest lead you can lay hands on. It's a gas-check design so not ideal but there have been reports of excellent results in some rifles. And honing to enlarge the cavity is a possibility. Aside from that and a couple of other .500S&W molds that are much more expensive, you would need to take a big jump in bullet size to .515 which would require a two-step sizing operation and would still look "skinned". The truth is there just are not very many reasonably priced, off the shelf, molds for .50 caliber muzzleloaders. Those that are available are mostly minnie, maxi, and REALs and are tapered conicals. I'verepeatedly askedLEE to put out a good mold that would drop a .505 modern conical design that could then be sized to fit most any .50 - but so far no luck.

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1216606114.275=/html/catalog/bullmol2.html

RE: Which Mould?
 

Dumb question- how do I slug the bore? I've heard of it but don't know what it is.

So it sounds like at least to start I would be better off to find something that work well with sabots and then play around with a conical mould later on. Whatever I get will be used mainly for shooting paper, but will be used for deer also.

RE: Which Mould?
 

For a .50 caliber I cast a .457 LEE 405 grain bullet. I can load that in a sabot and they shoot real well. Or I can size them down to .451 and shoot them out of my White M97 with some amazing accuracy. MMP sells an orange sabot that fits these bullets. Some people claim you can load them in a .452 sabot. One of these days I will have to try some of them I sized down in a .452 sabot and see how they shoot.

RE: Which Mould?
 

Hey Cayugad, have you ever shot a deer with one of those 405 Lees?

RE: Which Mould?
 

I was loaded with them one day in my Staghorn, sitting in a tree. But no deer would cooperate that day. I was shooting 90 grains of Pyrodex RS and that 405(actually 423 grains on my scale). I was sure it would blow through a deer with little problem and probably make a nice wound channel.

RE: Which Mould?
 

The "405s" that I casted last week weighed in from 420 to 423 also. My mold is at least 20 years old.

The 340 mold arrived today and I ran a batch of about 100. They came out right at 340 grains. Nice looking bullets. I hope to shoot some next week-end.

RE: Which Mould?
 

Now if you was to come up with a mold that was a copy of the FPB with a rounded soft point I would have to have one. Lee

RE: Which Mould?
 

Nice looking bullets there Semisane...

RE: Which Mould?
 

How about if you made a jig to hold the bullet and drilled out the base of the 340 Lee with a drill press?The small flat point is close enough to a round nose.

RE: Which Mould?
 

Well it might work but it would be tricky to get it just right. Since the redesign is fairly plain and the bullet is a copy of one of the old Minnie design with the sides smoothed out and the hollow base redesigned, somebody will come out with a mold version with just enough changes in the right places to avoid the pattens matching the alloy and copper plating is no problem. Lee

RE: Which Mould?
 

Semisane, I have killed a couple with the .457-405F sized to .451 . They work great but I've only recovered one. Mine come out of the mold at 421 to 423 grains.

This one crashed through the rib cage of a medium sized buck and lost about 50 grains weight before lodging just under the skin on the off side.I believe the bullet weighed 373 grains as shown.

Not bad on paper either



One of my 340s all dressed up and sized to .451


and those do quite well from a 30" twist Knight

http://i37.tinypic.com/34hf6lt.jpg

RE: Which Mould?
 

this might answer your other question, although this one is far from "undamaged". :D

RE: Which Mould?
 

For 50 caliber I like the RCBS adjustable Hotchkiss mold. This mold allows you to adjust the length of the bullet you are pouring(which obviously affects the weight). My Knight rifles prefer the 525 grain bullet. I cast this bullet with straight WW, and it shoots great from my Knight rifles. Tom.

RE: Which Mould?
 

Hey UC, what are you lubing those with?

RE: Which Mould?
 

That is the $64,000 question. :D It's a homemade lube that started life as Bob Bower's Ruby Red in a small crockpot. As the level in the pot dropped, I started adding "stuff". It is at the point now where it is almost a complete mystery mix. I add a hunk of beeswax on occasion, a piece of parafin wax now and then, cooking oil or Crisco on occasion, flakes of Ivory soap when the urge hits me, a chunk of DoAll Tool Saver once, some other lube mix someone sent me to sample, occasionally some red food coloring just for the halibut, and heaven only knows what else I've put in that pot. I'll add something then figure it needs a bit more oil or a bit more wax or?? And it works!! :D I call it my bubblegum lube because (sometimes) it looks like bubblegum.

Bob's Ruby Red was a creation by Bob Bowers (aka Super91) based upon a variation of a lube recipe from Cast Boolits. Woodgoat makes a lube of"50% beeswax, 20% tallow, 15% jojoba oil, 15% lanolin and some red candle dye to make your bullets look like they been smeared wid bubblegum." I'm thinking I should sue him for patent infringement er sumpin. ;) His is actually prettier than mine but looks about the same on the finished bullet.He can get away with lubing his bullets like this

I would probably get confused and eat it.

With his lube and the method of application shown, he can simply push the bullets out of the cake and they come out like this



I may make some his recipe if my pot ever empties. :D

RE: Which Mould?
 

:D:D:DWell, I do like your lube recipe. Patent applied for?

I use a mix of 25% bees wax, 25% Crisco, and 50% Olive oil on my patches and also smear it on Lee REALs. I guess I'll try that with the cast conicals. Don't want to infringe on your proprietary formula. :D

RE: Which Mould?
 

I think you should add about 35% unknown to that mix. :D ;)

RE: Which Mould?
 

One more question UC. Do you use a wad under those Lees?

RE: Which Mould?
 

I did not at the time but I probably would now. I don't know that a wad can be said to routinely improve accuracy but .125" thick wads that I get from TOTW are not only inexpensive, they are really neat! :D

The bullets I used for that 5/8" group had actually been pan lubed with a 50/50 mix of Lee Liquid Alox and alcohol, stood on wax paper and allowed to dry. They shot great but really stunk. That was before I got my crock.

OK, seriously, the wads I use are thick enough and rigid enough they actually scrape the barrel a bit going down and I feel that alone makes them worthwhile. The scraping action tends push any stray powder granules down into the main charge and make for a more consistent bore condition. They hold position well enough that I apply a bit of compression to the charge using the wad only, then seat the bullet until it just contacts the wad (which makes a very distinct sound at contact).

RE: Which Mould?
 

Thanks. I use the Lee liquid alox/alcohol mix for the 405's in my 45-70. But you're right - it sure does smell. Been reluctant to use it with black powder. It didn't give you nasty fouling?

RE: Which Mould?
 

No nasty fouling using Pyrodex. The bullets were just very lightly coated with a layer of the golden chit. :D

RE: Which Mould?
 

Lee offers custom bullet mold making services.Set up is $100, or $150 for a hollow based bullet. They evenofferdesign assistance. Each mold then costs $25 each. They offer several options for the number of mold cavities with size limitations for each.
If6 guys get together and submit a bullet design, and the $300costissplit evenly, then each custom mold costs about$50.That'san affordable price fora "Limited Edition"mold.

Here'sLee'sinfo.page:

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1216779063.3551=/html/catalog/custom.html#CUSTOMMOLDS

RE: Which Mould?
 

but... be prepared for quite a long wait to get the molds. Lee stays pretty busy so I think you would be looking at several months for delivery. The guys over at CastBoolits could give you a better idea on the current wait time.