Bullet Casting Woes

[jmoore]

Those pics would seem to further convince that hollow based bullets are the way to go.

Mmmm, a guarded "yes". But mostly in situations where using a bullet that is at or slightly above groove diameter is not possible. Rifled muskets for one instance. And not always then! (Hornady makes a nice reversed stepped bullet that engraves the front band, but it's still hollow based.) Some cartridges just won't chamber with a full sized bullet seated in the case. (Assuming that the case isn't doing further bullet diameter reduction upon seating as happened above!) But otherwise you end up having to forgo base wads that protect the bullet's base from the black powder's low grade explosion.

Here's the damaged mould set mentioned several posts ago (#72) after being attacked with a flat rock:

Attachment 43820Attachment 43818Attachment 43817

Added some copper based anti-seize and was very careful in setting the sprue plate tension at reassembly. There's a little light visible under the plate at the outer portion, but it's probably less than 0.003". I get nervous when I can see any light between flat surfaces, but it's often less than 0.0005", so consider the source!


Attachment 43819

I believe Patrick Chadwick mentioned an aluminum based anti-seize recently, but this can will do me for the foreseeable future. ETA: Here's a link for reference: A square screw?

BTW, IIRC, lead is generally considered "self annealing" at room temperatures, so swaged bullets are very unlikely to have a hard outer shell unless they're oxidized. Even heat treated wheel weights will slowly soften over time.