Cast my first boolits today.

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sapper6fd

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Well, I finally did it. I popped my casting cherry tonight.

My Lee mould came in the mil yesterday, and today I fired up the burner and cast my first boolits. I prepped the mold by cleaning it and lubing it up with anti seizing lube, and began to pour. My first two boolits were an abomination and I'm embarrassed to even show. The next two got better and it was all uphill from there. I did a batch of around 100, and they all came in at 184 grains or 186 grains. Funny how that worked. None of them I weighed came in at 185 (no big deal as far as I'm concerned).

So a few questions to the more experienced here.

1) The mould is a Lee C312-185-1R, being used to cast for a Lee Enfield. I've slugged the barrel and it came out at .3125. The boolits coming out of the mould are .3135 - .314. If need be, can I size them all to .314 with a sizer?

2) While casting, I never could get rid of the film on top of the lead in the pot. Is this normal? I'd scrape it all away but it would return. I smelted it into ingots last weekend, fluxed three times on each pot and cleaned it up until I thought it was good to go. But when re melting it tonight, it seemed to always be covered in an extremely thin film.

3) Not only is this my first time casting, but it will be my first time reloading as well. I noticed after re-sizing my .303 brass (neck sizing only in the Lee .303 Collet, the boolits don't fit when I they and push them in by hand. I'm assuming them will under the pressure of the reloading press?

Here's some pics of the final result. The two horrible looking boolits were my first ever and as horrible as they are, I think I'll keep'em.

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Well done, they look great!

1. Yes you can size them all with a 0.314 sizer, the slightly smaller ones will have a very thin layer of lube on the, but it won't hurt anything.

2. The film is a layer of oxidized lead which is normal and nothing to worry about. If you have added tin to the mix and you see the top turning goldish in colour you lead is to hot and the tin is oxidizing out of the mix. Flux it to mix it back into the lead.

3. That's normal it will help hold the bullet (neck tension I believe). Just watch if it shaves any of the lead off the bullet while seating. If your going to use gas checks it shouldn't be a problem, but still watch for it.

Keep up the good work and post your results!
 
Nice looking boolits. You probably lucked out that your Lee mould casts at or near 314. Although I don't own one my understanding is that many of this model cast at a slightly smaller size,
As to bullet seating you should acquire a neck expander die. Both Lyman and RCBS make caliber specific models while Lee makes a universal die which does the job for most cartridges. Good luck with your cast loads.
 
I was unaware there was a neck expander. Looks like I'll need to pick one up.

I was expecting the mould to to cast slightly under as well, and was hoping it would cast slightly over. I have heard like you, many people's mould casts small but have also seen a few people as of late that have molds casting larger (especially over at castboolits). Perhaps Lee changed their manufacturing process slightly???
 
They made the 2 cavity molds alot better. They have the same design as the 6 cavity pins. That might have done it.
 
This Lee is a pretty good design and shoots pretty well when matched to bore size.I have one and shoot it in Mosin.My boolits come out like yours-.314 and I use .314 sizer.

Film on the lead is always normal,what I watch for is its color-if it turns very dark blue I lower temperature a bit.Don't bother skimming-flux it every 10-15 min and your alloy will be constantly the same.

Use Lee expanding die.It's the best die Lee ever made IMHO.


Small tip since you are starting this-sort your boolits by eye and re-melt boolits with any kind of flaws.Shoot only perfect casts.

Shooting imperfect boolits is a waste of lead,components,your time and it's very frustrating when you see target.

In time you will see the number of rejects falling and you will be happy with groups :)
 
No caliper should be trusted more than +/- .002" from the reading it shows. Some of the more honest ones have this printed right on them. You really need to use a micrometer to measure critical things like bullet diameters. You might get the same result, you might not, but you will get a result you can put more faith in either way.

A decent micrometer can be bought for under $50 so it wont break the bank.
 
Waiting on the gas checks. Henry from Budget Shooter Supply sent them out today.

I've been going through each of the cast boolits by and and tossing those that were not formed right back into the lead pile deformed, wrinkled, base too rounded and so on. So far around 30 % have been rejected.

I notice tonight while prepping the mould for another batch that one of the alignment pins has receded into the mould so it only sticks out 1/2 as far as it should be. Hiw I I fix that without ruining the mould?
 
Congrats on a successful first boolit casting. You've done well. To avoid shearing I use the Lee universal expanding die and it works like a champ. The alignment pins seem to be pressed in place so some careful tapping with a hammer and punch should set them back into place.
 
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