Cast bullets in the Condor rd 2 Lee Precision/Ranchdog mold
I got the mold in from Ranchdog yesterday, he has designed an entire line of molds for auto pistols and lever guns.
The design resembles a LBT bullet, but has the tumble lube grooves and are 6 cavity molds. He has a .256 TL design that I have been looking at for months but it has been out of stock.
I wanted the .256 diameter because my bore is .2549 and I have ordered a .255 sizing die to be custom made by Lee.
I waited months for the mold, he has them made up in batches and had been out of stock for months.
I got the mold in yesterday, in the meantime I had Lee commercial handles waiting, I had odered 40 lbs of pure lead.
So I cleaned up the mold with soap and water and then alcohol. I assembled the handles, heated the mold and lubed it, the alignment pins and sprue plate screw/mold bearing surface, with 1/2 alox and beeswax Lee lube and began casting.
Within minutes I was knocking out perfect little 50 grain bullets 6 at a time, I as amased at how fast I got a pile of the little slugs.
Then disaster hit.
I measured the bullets only to find that casting from pure lead, which gives you the smallest daimeter bullet, they were .261 diameter which is completely unusable.
What a disappointment. I emailed Michael from Ranchdog, he answered on his phone that he was out guiding his dad to get the 82 year old gentleman a big buck. He said he would refund my money when he got in last night.
I responded that I wanted to try #2 which he also said that he used. So this morning I tried #2 alloy, it cast out at .263.
Shit!
When I size them to 253, they get deformed because that is way to far to size a bulet, even with Lee dies which are more gentle than others like RCBS and Lyman.
So the entire Ranchdog 25 caliber experiement is a bust.
Why, because Lee can not get their shit together to make a mold that is a quality product. No other excuse here folks, Lee dropped the ball, not Michael from Ranchdog outdoors, but Lee Precision. And this was with a custom order, not a production line product that can vary as equipment wears, but a custom run of molds.
So round 3 will be me designing a bullet with three narrow driving bands, and a short wide metplate at around 50 to 55 grains and have LBT make it exactly to my specs.
I ordered 13 tins of Kings from Pyramyd Air this weekend, I had to screw with their new website, but all in all it sure was easy. It takes a lot of work to be self sufficient know what I mean?
Regards,
Roachcreek
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Good luck RC I’ve been reading you experiments. With mold over the past few months u are definatly helping us poor folk who don’t know which mold to break the bank on what do u think of corbins swagged molds for 25 are the good or to high price I hear they Make quality slugs
Well I have been at the drawing board, litterally today coming up with a design.
It will have three bands, .055 each at .256 cast from pure lead. It will be .515 inches long with a .055 long nose ending in a .180 metplate.
WIth the narrow bands, it should chamber easy and have little friction.
Regards,
Roachcreek
That sucks its not working out for you roach. Your mold that got damaged seemed to be the one that you were getting good results out of. Hopefully if you get another custom mold it will work better for you. Its very frustrating getting something and it being f**ked up, my Yamaha shop always orders me wrong parts. Yet I still go there, haha only one in town.
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RC,
I too hate to hear this. As for your new design, have you contacted LBT reference making this mould? I never did attempt to get in touch with Veral a while back about a custom mould but a few years ago he only offered his standard designs and had quit making custom moulds I think. The reason I ask, is I too would like to do the same.
JD