New Bullet Mould

Contacted Swede Nelson & asked for a 2 cavity NOE 454-255-RF mould. He had one & only a few days later it arrived. The man is quick.
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Open her up & took a look. The blocks were clean, no burrs or out of place tool marks. The cavities were beautiful. Removing the sprue plate, screw & set screw I gave the blocks a going over with a nylon brush & hot soapy water. She looked good. The sprue plate was cleaned with starting fluid & brush.

Before cleaning
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After
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I coated the top of the blocks & both sides the sprue plate with Frankford Arsenal Drop Out, installed the plate, adjusted & replaced the set screw.
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Installed the blocks on RCBS handles & placed on the stove to warm up along with a Lyman 4 cavity 358429.
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Once the melt was at 750 degrees & the blocks up to temperature the casting began. The mould dropped acceptable bullets after only a few dumps. The bullets fell with little effort. These are the first.
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I sized at .454 for my 1973 New Model Blackhawk Ruger using LBT Blue lube. These fit my cylinder perfectly. The bases fill out well with a loose sprue plate, the lube groove is plenty large, & the meplat should be a killer.
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I’ll load these first chance & see how they do, I’m expecting good things. BTW they came from the mould using wheel weight alloy at .454+ & 258 grains.

Finally took a break from firewood & fishing to try this bullet. I loaded 50 with 7.0 grains of HP38 & a Tula primer.
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The bullet has a nice crimp groove. These were lubed with LBT Blue. The first target fired was on a previously used paper plate. If you throw out the called flyer its 1 ½”. All targets were shot at 30 yards.
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Second target was 1 7/8” & third 2 1/4”
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Notice the vertical stringing no doubt do to the fuzzier than normal front sight today. It’s hard to repeat the vertical hold & I would have been better served holding center.

These bullets were cast from air cooled wheel weight alloy. The barrel shows no signs of leading though I haven’t cleaned to be perfectly sure. I do believe however the load was too lite & needs to be increased. The cases were sooty so next load will be at least 7.5 grains. I’ll need the extra velocity as my rear sight is bottomed.
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My better shooting Krags have bores that slug at .309-.310", minimum, at the muzzle. I am considering buying a Lee mould that casts 185 gr. round nosed .312" projectiles