New LEE .22 cal mold

kjohn

kjohn

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Tried just a few today. Not having good luck. Maybe crank the heat up a bit. Using pretty much straight wheel weights, but have lots of lino.available. Anybody use one? Have any tips, advice, experience?

I don't plan on using these bullets in any high mucky muck contests. Mostly to smoke a few gophers every year, and cast some for a friends who traps and wants some for light loads.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
hard to get that mold up to a temperature where it wants to make good bullets, not enough lead, and not enough bearing surface against said hot lead, keep cranking up the temperature of the lead until it starts to throw good bullets, the key with this mold is to cast fast, don't let the mold cool down between cycles, don't panic if your pot temperature runs up about 775 degrees to make nice bullets, aluminum molds will tell you what you need, most of the time, it's a lot hotter then you want, but it is what it is if you want good bullets. Tin is going to help, but not much, so just save it for now
 
I pre-heat all my moulds as the furnace heats up.
Once you have a good rhythm, keep on casting as long as the mould doesn't get gummed up with lead smears.

In the past, I had little trouble getting one inch groups at fifty yards but the same load opened up to eight inches or more at one hundred yards. It was good enough for stalking the wily gopher when I lived on the prairies.

About 10 years back, I gave up on casting. 22 cal, because my arthritic fingers had trouble holding the itty bitty things. Now powder coating has me itching to try the small bores again. I have a 61 gr. Elvis mould from Arsenal for my .223 and 46 gr. from NOE coming, for the .222.

According to Beagle, on the cast boolit forum, an honest-to-gosh guru, a hollow point bullet is required for good .22 shooting at 100 yards.
I will bow to his greater experience.
 
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Well, I took the advice of the two below my OP and added a bit of linotype and cranked up the heat. Worked much better! They are a bit fiddly to pour, that is for sure. I think a powder coating will do them some good. I'll pour a few more and powder coat them, load them and see if they are good enough to hit a gopher at close range. The bullets have a wee flat nose, so it should knock them down.
 
If you think there fiddy to pour try working with a single cavity Lyman. I laugh as the spruce pile is bigger than the bullet pile. 200 bullets don’t look like much piled up. Proper loads will do under an inch at 50. My Hornet will do an inch at 100 with cast.
 
Snider shooter said:
If you think there fiddy to pour try working with a single cavity Lyman. I laugh as the spruce pile is bigger than the bullet pile. 200 bullets don’t look like much piled up. Proper loads will do under an inch at 50. My Hornet will do an inch at 100 with cast.
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So far, the only rifle I have that shoots centerfire .223 is a Norinco copy of a CZ 527. It shoots quite nicely with factory, not sure what they were. This is all just a whim as I posted in my original post.
 
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Make sure you have two or three % of tin in your alloy to help filling. This does not apply to pure lead; tin just seems to mess things up in some designs under a certain %.
 
I've shot hundreds & hundreds of the Lee 55gr gas checked & Saeco 60gr gas checked @ 18-19Bhn thru a 1:9" twist direct impingement AR-15 w/o issues.

IF,you attempt to use the Lee 6 cavity,run it as fast as possible & alternate front to back/back to front while pouring to keep all the sprue to set at the count of 8 for best results.

Meaning-If one sprue is set while you're pouring the second cavity....your mold/sprue plate is not hot enough.
 
I'm looking at purchasing the Saeco mold myself. Could you tell me what sort of accuracy you are getting out of that bullet? Also what sort of recipe are you using to prevent leading, ive heard this is an issue in .223.
 
Sam:
FWIW, I've heard a few rumblings on the cast boolit forum, that Saeco's quality has gone downhill.
My older Saeco moulds were excellent but they were in .30 cal and up.
I suspect that a steel mould in .22 cal. would be a bear to get up to a proper casting temperature.
I would strongly recommend an aluminum mould.
 
ShortActionSam said:
I'm looking at purchasing the Saeco mold myself. Could you tell me what sort of accuracy you are getting out of that bullet? Also what sort of recipe are you using to prevent leading, ive heard this is an issue in .223.
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The Lee 55gr &/or Saeco 60gr will shoot MOA w/ slight taper crimp....roll crimp & cast boolits disrupts the sizing operation.

I don't reinvent the wheel per se to plink w/ cast boolits.
ex-223 powder capacity is 24ish grains of powder.
I download 10% from my jacketed projectile load to cast boolit load for rifle chamberings- - Hornet to 458WM.
The Lee 55gr thru a 1:9" twist 16" carbine AR run 2600 fps,while the Saeco 60gr run 2550fps.
To throw & seat,Accurate 2460 or 2520 powder is my choice.
My SIGnificant other enjoys dancing & hitting clay pidgeons at 300 yrds w/ her AR's.
 
slug said:
Sam:
FWIW, I've heard a few rumblings on the cast boolit forum, that Saeco's quality has gone downhill.
My older Saeco moulds were excellent but they were in .30 cal and up.
I suspect that a steel mould in .22 cal. would be a bear to get up to a proper casting temperature.
I would strongly recommend an aluminum mould.
Click to expand...


The Saeco molds that I've acquired in the last decade have been top notch.
Yes,It is going to take more preheat to heat a cast iron mold w/ any number or size of cavity(s).
An aluminum mold on the other hand will take names if you hesitate for a few seconds in one's cadence/routine until one casts 1/2oz & heavier boolits.
 
The couple Saeco molds I do have are impecable, I find them much nicer to use than the Lee molds personally. I keep a hot plate set at the right temp and rest the mold there if i take a break or anything like that.
 
Snider shooter said:
If you think there fiddy to pour try working with a single cavity Lyman. I laugh as the spruce pile is bigger than the bullet pile. 200 bullets don’t look like much piled up. Proper loads will do under an inch at 50. My Hornet will do an inch at 100 with cast.
Click to expand...

Was my experience that to get decent results, I had to work VERY fast, with a heavy glove on the hand that was used to cut the sprue. Sprues were purposely over-poured, making a dime sized puddle on the top of the sprue plate This was not wasteful, as the sprues got plonked right back into the pot, by the same gloved hand that was used to cut them off, and the extra mass of hot metal keeps the temp up in the mold.

Beyond that, tweaking the temps up, helped, but being able to keep a steady rhythm going while casting, was what made the most difference, as any time I got hung up, it took a few casts to get back in to the swing of it and get consistent bullets landing on the bench top.
 
With just about every mold you have to get it up to the correct temperature for them to work right. Sometimes I take a dozen or more pours to where they come out correctly. I also alternate with two molds to let the cast set for a few moments. Pour 1 and let it sit while I pour the other. Drop the cast from the first one and pour again.
 
yodave said:
hard to get that mold up to a temperature where it wants to make good bullets, not enough lead, and not enough bearing surface against said hot lead, keep cranking up the temperature of the lead until it starts to throw good bullets, the key with this mold is to cast fast, don't let the mold cool down between cycles, don't panic if your pot temperature runs up about 775 degrees to make nice bullets, aluminum molds will tell you what you need, most of the time, it's a lot hotter then you want, but it is what it is if you want good bullets. Tin is going to help, but not much, so just save it for now
Click to expand...

Understated, I have a 10 cavity 0.225" NOE 37 grain mold.
I have to keep the alloy temperature higher, keep the mold very close to the spout, and drop bullets as soon as the sprue hardens to keep the mold hot. I use an electric hot plate with a PID controller to pre heat the mold and a metal lid over the mold on the hotplate.
I will cast 8 or 9 lb of bullets ( 1/2 GC, the other half of the mold is PB) when I do casting session. This will feed my 22 hornet and my 222 Rem Mohawk for about 6 months.
 
Made up a bunch more small muffin size ingots yesterday and this morning. Mostly WW with some print press pieces of Lino. Got the pot down to approx. half full, heated the mold up, cranked the heat up on the pot (10 lb. LEE bottom pour). Plopped in a pure Lino and Presto! Way, way better looking bullets, somewhat frosty, but no ugly marks. Powder coating will cover the frost, and I will fiddle a bit with the heat. I have been making a few gas checks every now and again with my new little maker, BFB .22 cal.

These are gas checked (.012 flashing) and sized. Next - clean in acetone, dry, powder coat. :)
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Cast more later in the day. I installed a few checks and sized them. The little bullets have a wee bit of flashing, causing the bullet to sit crooked in the check and when run through the sizer. After I did a few more, I was having trouble. The checks weren't seating squarely and were coming out not nice and flat. Long story shortened, I started running the bullets through bottom side up. Worked good, as the little bullets are flat nosed.
 
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