90 FPE .224 Marauder
hey-Hey!!!,
I built a.224 Marauder around a TJ Hornet liner. 27″ barrel, 14″ twist and installed a 53 ci Catalina tank for the air supply. It has a custom valve, and a pull back bolt with a flat face. Firing position leaves no part of the bolt across the transfer port, though an adjustable stop to act as the velocity needle does in the OE valve is next. It shoots 20 shots across about 350 psi with a 15 fps spread centered on 950 fps. Boolits from a Lyman 43 gr mold that turns out to be 45 gr with 2% Tin content alloy. Boolits lubed with 30 wt Bel Ray fork oil. The barrel requires a weight to tune the oscillation, and with a short bit of adjustment tuning I get dime sized groups at 40 yards consistently…:) more work is required to set the weight right where it belongs. This down from a group size between an inch and a half and an inch and a quarter. Weather warm enough to shoot w/o freeing one’s fingertips would be most welcome.
cheers,
Douglas
All Replies
No rush on that mold Doug. Take your time and hold on to it for a while longer. I have enough to shoot at rabbits and squirrels.
I cast around 600(300 of each) of Cedric’s cut down mold. They are 71 gr reg and 67 gr HP. Will do another 600 so I have 600 of each.
:8: :8: :8:
Im really hoping to get out Monday Knife. I’m long overdue for an outing and some shooting.
I saw the spru plate that you did for Cedric. Sweet!!! I made him promise to twist your arm and make another one. I have the same NOE mold 80gr. 4 cavity he does.
But I’m kinda thinking that ever since the 7mm came in, he is in his own little wrold. 😆
Still waiting for results on the 60 gr. NOEs’ I sent him. I was going to send him more to test, but I think he is in 7mm heaven right now. :rofl:
Knife
Yeah I have a rcbs on a pid controller that keeps the lead within about 10° of what ever temp I set it at.
I did a little over 600 257420 on Saturday morning. Then later I made a new sprue plate with smaller holes in it and did another 650.
Bullets come out perfect now.
I can’t see doing it with a ladle.
A ladle and a propane stove always worked best for me, and yes I have had numerous Lee, Lyman and RCBS furnaces,I just found a cast iron propane burner and a 20 lb lead pot worked better and melted faster to rebound when I added lead.
No doubt, the pot on the propane burner comes back up to heat a LOT faster. But Man, the mess with all the dross on the dipper and constant fluxing in my tiny shop was getting to be a real pain! I am using the propane burner I got from you for melting my recovered lead, and do it out side. (If the damned wind would stop blowing! 😆
I am starting to get very good results with teh bottom pour, and MAN is it FAST with the 4 cavity NOE. Really makes casting a pleasure.
Knife
Which is why I used a ladle. I started using a ladle on the advice of the owner of Buffalo Arms years ago for the big 45 Sharps bullets. He suggestrred I try the sideways method with a full ladle and hold it against the mold longer to get a better fill.
A ladle and a propane stove always worked best for me, and yes I have had numerous Lee, Lyman and RCBS furnaces,I just found a cast iron propane burner and a 20 lb lead pot worked better and melted faster to rebouind when I added lead.
For me, 20-1 lead to tin seems to be working very well in the .257. And was RC’s suggestion. Pure lead doesn’t seem to do as well. And yes, lead bullets will frost even without antimony. I heat my mold to just start frosting and start casting. With in two cast, they are dropping good bullets.
I have had very good luck pressure casting with a ladle with a mold I have here that is a bit stubborn, but it won’t respond to pressure casting with the bottom pour worth a damned. Grrrrr!!!
Knife
your more than likely right there, have never cast a rifle bullet with soft alloy, only hard alloys to tempered stuff.
but i will tell ya one thing , with with deformed bases , your sprue plate and or the top end of your mold is not getting hot enough, just pour more puddle on top of the sprue plate and then regulate when all comes together for a fine bullet.
i cast with a fan and damp cloth, and an electric iron upside down to keep molds regulated.
for instance , if casting with two , two cavity molds, they go under the fan between dropping bullets.
with the steele four cavity molds , on the iron between dropping bullets , and or regulating as to what ever is needed while casting.
ill tell ya you picked a tough one to get started casting, 22’s can be very daunting, never worked with multi cavity 22 mold, hell with bigger cal cavity 4 or 6 cavity molds you can be hot on one end and to cool on the other, so i can see the challenge with the 22’s
Hey , also ,
i have had good luck with molds that were not cooperating to pressure fill the mold, by pushing the mold against the bottom pour pot to fill, might give it a shot. spru has to be good and hot or the lead will not flow properly .
or with a casting ladle or dipper like the lyman, put the spout of the dipper/ ladle against the sprue hole of the mold side ways and tilt them up together at the same time to pressure fill the mold
i have a 7mm mold that will not produce unless it is cast this way, i think due to the small diameter and length of the bullet.
any way very interesting reading , looking forward to your future finding s with your project .
That Lee mold was a mistake…was supposed to be a RanchDog 255-50-RF…but some Lee machinist has dislecksia and cut it .225…it is experimental and inexpensive in any case. I have sorted 225107’s from a 3-cav NOE mold and can not find any modality between the three holes. I’ll see how the Lee works once I get the proper plate, it sure makes a diff for the other 22 and 25 molds I have used them on…:)
cheers,
Douglas
PAK,
I see the Lee 22 6 cavity molds for sale n Ebay. Seems like beginners really want to buy those things thinking it will cut down on casting time, what they cut down on is bullet quality, and yes I have had several in 45 and 25 caliber and used them for years, cranked out a bunch of bullets but never the most accurate bullet. Best for tyro’s to stay away from them for best accuracy, but other than their bullet sizers, which are never the advertised size and differ greatly in each size, but I never really liked Lee produts for reloading.
For best accuracy it is always a good mold that is single cavity and then double cavity, I always believed that each cavity is different though very subtle.
I had issues with a 87 grain 257 mold and too big of holes in the plate, bitched at RCBS to no avail, never got that bullet to fly nose first in the Haley.
I see a hollow point 22 swage die on Ebay screws into a press and reforms the bullet and puts a HP or a tit on the nose depending on the punch used.
With no antimony, there will be no frosting. Casting with between 2 and 5% tin…no particular alloy stands out shooting-wise just yet, and the Tin is for fill.
RC, if I could go back and give myself a 30 mins period of instruction, I suspect I could have gotten the current skill set in about 2 weeks. 5 mins if I coulda handed myself a typed set of instructions with a few branches of ‘what-if’ contained.
Alloy to 820+, preheat the mold well, and make sure the base area to sprue plate hole area ratio is large…too big a hole in the plate and you get deformed bases and those do not help make accurate boolits. A 6 cav, 40 gr, .225 Lee is effectively unusable until I get a custom plate delivered, and that one will have .1″ holes instead of .150+
cheers,
Douglas
Doug,
Remember the two rubber bulbs I had on the Haley barrels and the one Tof has on his 257 Talondor. Those are supposed to dampen the vibration. I tried them in various locations and they seem to work well just about any place I had them. Browning also made a muzzle brake that was adjustable by turning it, it had a dial on it so you could repeat it for different loads.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Have fun shoot’n Cedric!
dou, let me know how you like the cut down NOE’s! They are doing Great for me.
I cast a little over 1200 of them last night in 60 Grain.
Knife