Just another mould..or two.

[Kurt]

Gavin,

That looks like what I shoot. I adjust my mould to .325 for the 1/19 twist and 1.4" for the 16 and 17 twist.

The blemish you see on your cast.
Start your cast with the sprue plate on the side and mate the ladle spigot tight starting the pour slow and slowly rotate the mould upright and lift the ladle letting it dribble over the hole.
That gray blemish is trapped air when you have the plate on top when starting the pour.
Y'all have a Merry Christmas Gavin and hope to see you this coming season.

Stay well.........Kurt

[J.B.]

Thanks Kurt. Those are the sample bullets that came with the mould. Only arrived yesterday and the garage is like an oven currently ..so it could be a while before any get cast up. Really happy with how the design came out though. Looks to be everything I asked for. Probably lose a few grains in weight with 14 or 16/1 but not much. Just want that bore riding section to grow a little and hopefully the added tin will help with that. Either way I doubt it will impact its performance. Most .432's I've tried so far have all worked.. just a little less friction when chambering.

J.B.

[Kurt]

Just use some .002" thick diapers and all will be fine.
They will also work just fine with .0018".

[Don McDowell]

If you can get some Seth Cole 55y paper it’ll probably work well with that bullet

[J.B.]

I'm sure it will be fine. I'm pretty much using Seth Cole ...55w or yellow as they are the two thinnest I've been able to find in any volume. The yellow definitely finer and between the two usually have the latitude to thicken or thin the base when wrapped to friction fit in the fired cases. I've been keen to try the Lee push through sizing dies that Jim and a few of you guys have used to true up the diameter for a given case. Actually I went on line to order some more for both the 40 and the 50 but while Lee shows them, they currently arent shipping to Australia ( and a few other countries also ) due to problems with the USPS apparently being stretched a bit thin with resources. I had the same problem when I ordered the mould but Gayle was able to get around it by sending it priority. Cost me another $20 but over the price of the mould it was a non issue. Priority international for an order with Lee of probably only $40 or so...isnt quite so enticing. There will be no shooting here until late January now at the earliest....and they are starting to 'wind everyone up again' with this supposed 'new strain' business. I dearly hope it doesnt impact travel again. This world has to start spinning again or it will never get off its feet. Keep the momentum going as it were.
Gavin.

[Don McDowell]

I’ve been using a custom expander die that is about .002 over final bullet diameter
That keys the case mouth spring back just enough to give a nice tight fit on the bullet

[J.B.]

Not trying to wear out this post..but just to keep you up to date. Did a short casting run today ( got interrupted with guests ) using 16/1 with the new Brooks mould. Nice and shiny... and bullets dropping at 510 grains, still at 1.41" long...and now the bore riding portion or shank is sitting right on .4335-.434". Base still at .442/.443 and once wrapped should be a nice snug fit in the neck of fired and unsized cases. Very nice.

[Don McDowell]

Sounds pretty good. Hopefully you can grab a minute to go shoot some of those.

[Distant Thunder]

I did get out with my .44-77 and my new Brooks paper patch bullet yesterday to run a second test of the under powder wads after the first 3 shot group really looked good. I did change the wad material because using the coffee filter in the first test I found it was hard to cut good wads. Instead I went with some of my 9# patching paper which is the same .002" thick but is stiffer and I could cut better wads from it.

I just dialed up the same sight setting I have been using with this basic load and the first was was just low and left so I did something stupid and corrected to center. I was shooting for a 5 shot group and center didn't really matter, no need to correct. The #2 shot was of course high and right because my correction was too much! After a few choice words I dialed back to the setting for shot #1 and fired the other 3 shots.

These two test groups both showed an improvement is group size at 200 yards and less than a half minute of elevation spread (if you don't count #2). So it's time to move on to 10 shots and leave out the oops!

[Don McDowell]

Not bad Jim