Glutton for punishment

[ssb73q]

Hi, I'm getting prepared for doing some BP revolver projects this winter. Since I'm a glutton for punishment I ordered a bullet mold for heel based bullets. In the past I purchased dies, .38 Colt brass, and some heeled based bullets. The bullets were shit and just gave me fits trying to load. Maybe with proper bullets I will be more successful? The mold ordered:

https://oldwestbulletmoulds.com/products/38-375dia-125gr-heel-seated-double-cavity-mould

Regards,
Richard

[mike116]

You will be impressed with the mold from Old West Bullet Molds.   I have a couple of them and they are excellent molds.   I'm betting you will have better luck with the hand cast bullets.   

[AntiqueSledMan]

Hello Richard,

Crimping for the 38LC can be done with a Lee 35 Remington Factory Crimp Die & a
custom shell holder.

I used an aluminum shell holder on my experiment, but would probably go
with steel.

I also used a set screw for locking the 1/4-20 Socket Head Cap Screw in
place, but one could get by with a jam nut instead. Maybe a 1/4-28 fine thread bolt also.

Simply set height & lock position, if cartridge hangs in crimping die a
pencil would be all it needs to push it out.

This setup would work for 357 Mag, 38 Special, 38 Long Colt, 38 Short Colt, and even 35 & 351 Winchester Self Loaders.

AntiqueSledMan.

[ssb73q]

Hi Antique, thanks for the information. I have the Lee 35 Remington factory crimp die. However, all I had was a kludge to bring the shell up to the correct height. It's the custom riser that's the tough part to get right. Instead of fooling around trying to make a suitable part, I am thinking of buying this die:

https://oldwestbulletmoulds.com/products/38-long-and-short-colt-heel-bullet-crimp-die

Regards,
Richard

[ssb73q]

Hi, I ordered some Lee liquid Alox to lube my heeled bullets. I intend on using this lube, but not sure of putting the lube on the bullets before loading, or simply dipping the bullet after loaded is a better path. Lubing the bullets before loading risks gumming up the loading dies. Heeled bullets are externally lubed where lubing after loading may be preferred? What would you do?

Regards,
Richard

[AntiqueSledMan]

Richard,

I used Hoof's plan, lube after loading. But of course I had to do it differently.
I didn't want to try a Black Powder Lube in my Lyman 450 Sizer Lubricator,
so I built my little Sizer Lubricator to fit my Cylinder Press.
It worked great, but I needed to size before loading to keep bullets from
pulling out of the case. Of course had I used my 450 Lyman, the ejector punch
would have pushed them out instead of my pulling them by the case.
I think Pan Lubing would be impossible. Larry Potterfield did a video where he loaded
44 S&W American, he brushed lube on the bullets. I thought it was interesting. He has
many interesting videos, worth looking at.

[ssb73q]

Hi Antique, thanks for the reply. I liked the video link.

Regards,
Richard

[ssb73q]

Hi, the brass heeled bullet mold should be here any day. I have a question on prepping the brass mold for casting. I use both aluminum and steel molds, but never cast with a brass mold. Do I smoke a new brass mold like the aluminum? Have you ever had the melted lead solder to a brass mold? Are there any special brass mold needs that I should be aware?

Regards,
Richard

[ssb73q]

Hi, I guess that nobody has any advice for me on prepping brass molds? The new mold and crimping die for heeled 38 Colt bullets arrived today. I am very impressed on the quality. The mold and die:



I was sweating out if the completed cartridge would fit in the Howell conversion cylinder. Initial measurements shows that it will fit.

Tomorrow I will cast some of the 125gr 38 Colt heeled bullets.

Regards,
Richard

[mike116]

Hi Richard,   I did nothing to my Brass molds from Old West Bullets molds except clean them and start casting.   I'm casting large bullets over 500 grains in weight so I don't know if this applies to your .38 cal bullets but both my brass molds like to be really hot before they drop good bullets.     

[AntiqueSledMan]

Richard,

I hope you will show how you lube these.
Curious to see how you will go about it.
Looks like a nice mold, I have never messed with brass (yet).

Good luck, AntiqueSledMan.

[ssb73q]

Hi, I took the new Old West Bullet Mould's (OWBM) 125gr 2-cavity into the Basement and cast some bullets. The Lee 6-cavity handles fit the new mold. My interest wasn't to go into production with many hundreds of bullets, but just enough to learn using a brass mold and produce a few bullets for testing OAL and if they fit in my Howell .45 Colt conversion cylinder.

The brass mold heats up fast with it on the top of the Lee 10lb bottom cast pot. The first two bullets cast were less than perfect, but then all the remaining bullets cast are very good. The brass mold is heavy compared to aluminum molds. I was very impressed on how well the brass mold dropped the bullets after the sprue is cut. The waste on the top of the sprue cutter falls right off. I experienced no tendency for the lead to solder to the mold or sprue cutter.

Okay, enough of the talking, show me the cast bullets:



What is neat with these bullets is that the bullet heel can be finger pressure fit into new 38 Long Colt brass without case mouth expansion. The powder die mouth expansion will make seating even easier. See the bullet in the brass in the bottom of the photo. That bullet (no powder or primer) was then dropped into the Howell conversion cylinder. It drops right in with no problem. While I expected the completed bullet to fit from OAL, there is a reduced internal diameter at the front of the conversion cylinder chamber that was a question if it would interfere with cartridge cambering.

Even though finger pressure can be used to seat the bullet in the brass case, I will use a bullet seating die to produce a reproducible cartridge OAL.

Since the OWBM crimp die uses the bullet riser doodad, I will set up that die in my rockchucker press and crimp after the primer, powder, and bullets have been bulk loaded using the Lee turret press.

More to come.

Regards,
Richard

[ssb73q]

Hi, the dies have been set up and 50rds of 38 Colt were loaded with the 125gr OWBM, CCI small pistol primer, and 2.1gr Trailboss powder. These are the rounds loaded:



The bullets need to be lubed. I will use liquid alox applied with either a Q-tip or small brush.

Regards,
Richard

[mike116]

Richard,   I have heard that thinning the liquid Alox with mineral spirits and then dipping the bullet works pretty well.

[ssb73q]

Hi Mike, that's a great idea that I will try for my next 50rds, thank you. I used a brush with straight alox on the last 50 batch. The alox is now drying.

I'm looking forward to shooting them.

While being historically correct I doubt that the work required to load heeled bullets is worth it. It didn't take long before people learned that internally lubed hollow based bullets are the way to go.

Regards,
Richard