Just another mould..or two.

[Distant Thunder]

Don,

#6 actually does exists and therefore is not mythical, but it has been as near to magical as a cast bullet can be when the people around have their heads out in the daylight. I will see what I can do to round up a picture. It's not going to look like anything special, but it sure shoot well in some hard conditions. I only wish I fully understood what makes one bullet shoot so much better than other bullets, but I don't. I have two examples of such bullets and neither looks special just sitting there. I have unable to produce the magic on demand, it just sort of happens.

I finished my Hepburn, more or less, enough to shoot the August match at Lodi in 2013. The rifle still needed a few bugs worked out of it. That match showed me that my #4 bullet, which had worked so well in my Shiloh .45-90, was not a good match for my new rifle, I had finished in 19th place.

So in September I cut #6. I have long ago forgotten what #5 was, but it apparently wasn’t good. My thoughts were to cut a mold that would be a little bigger in diameter to fit my Hepburn and make it with a shorter elliptical ogive for better stability and a bit more weight. The mold wasn’t perfect but it fit my Hepburn better. It actually cast a 540 grain bullet 1.464 long and .444” diameter. The nose was .650 long and because I was working with some new software it ended up with a bit of a flat on the nose. I later figured out how to cut my molds without that flat.

I shot the heck out of that bullet through the winter months and by May 2014 had my rifle and that bullet working pretty well. Brent Danielson won the match with 536-4, but I finished in 2nd with 521-6. The new #6 was working for me and I was learning the proper care and feeding of my new rifle.

I shot #6 again for the June 2014 mid range match and again finished in 2nd place. Bob Walline won that match with 567-23 and I ended with 566-21. Since Bob and I were shooting together I just figured Bob had the better spotter! Those scores are in the 94-95% range and fairly high X counts. #6 did well.

When I set out to cast with #6 for the August 2014 long range match I had all kinds of trouble getting good bullets from the mold and I was pressed for time. I grab my #3 mold, which was identical to my #4 but I had opened it up to cast at .445 diameter, and I cast enough bullets for the match. The bigger diameter #3 shot well enough that I won the match.

I never really looked back at the #6 and just set it aside. I opened up my #4 mold to fit my Hepburn and shortened it to 1.435”. It took me some time to improve my scores but after 2 years I was winning matches shooting #4, including 2 Creedmoor Cups and 2 State Championships and a handful of other long range matches over a 4 year period. The 2020 shooting season was my best year in long range, but as it has been for me 2021 was not so good as I continue to learn and experiment with new things.

I should probably revisit #6 at some point, but my #4 has won more matches for me than all my other bullets combined. It’s hard to leave it behind when I want to win a match.

#4 is on the left and #6 is on the right.