Measure those noses!

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Last Post 10 May 2021

CBA Member

Pentz posted this 07 May 2021

Off I went merrily to the range for our monthly CBA military match. Beautiful BN 23 bullets shining in my tray. Conditions ideal. Sight in period taken up with my !@#$%^&!! cartridges not chambering. Ran into the attached reloading room to seat my beautiful bullets deeper. Started the match, no joy; dnf'd for the match, did scoring instead. Got home and mic'd the noses, and they were .305 instead of .302 from my custom mold. Crap. Lesson learned. Mic those noses after casting and BEFORE checking and loading!!!!!

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CBA Member

RicinYakima posted this 07 May 2021

Always load a dummy with any new bullet or rifle.

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 07 May 2021

..." cussed em " mold ... heh

been there done that

ken

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Duane Mellenbruch posted this 07 May 2021

Given the Covid interruptions, how long ago were these bullets cast and how long after casting where they sized, with gas checks and then what was the alloy. Antimony in bullet alloy will result in slightly growing bullets over time. Soft cast bullets can have the noses distorted (expand when pushed into the in/out dies). Disappointing, when it happens, but maybe the next range session will be better.

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OU812 posted this 07 May 2021

Simply seating bullet in case will sometimes cause softer alloy bullets swell to larger diameter. Reducing neck tension helps.

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John Alexander posted this 07 May 2021

Although it doesn't apply to Pentz's hard bullets, unless the sizing is extreme, I second what Duane and OU812 say. Soft bullets are sometimes the best choice, but treacherous things and the nose can be expanded to unusable size in either sizing or seating. The noses are safe in Lee or other push through dies of course.

John

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Wineman posted this 08 May 2021

Well my story is a little different but the result was the same. At our monthly CMP 100 yard reduced match I usually use my M1903a3 with 16 gr Alliant 2400 and one of the usual suspects (Lee 312-160, Saeco 315, 312299, 311284). Unfortunately I didn't have time to load my match brass and just grabbed what I had on hand (seated out to the lands (NOE MX 310-196). Well I was able to get five rounds off in rapid but was not able to strip in the second five, and just got two more off by single loading. So down three and a pretty big group on the rest. I probably could have single loaded the last five but I did not discover the length issue until the "load" command while standing ready to go to prone and the second five were down on the mat. Check the dummy behind the trigger before leaving for the match.

Dave

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Ross Smith posted this 09 May 2021

I recently got 2 new molds. The one did not close well, you could see light thru the bottom of the closed mold. Could be I warped it, or not. The harder I squeezed the smaller the crack, so a light came on. Buffalo arms is out of stock of those toggle link mold handles so I grabbed one of my vice grip c-clamp style vice grips, removed the pivoting ends and ground the ends to fit my mold. I put a lock nut on the adjusting bolt and now I get consistent diameter bullets. Before they were over .001 different and up to 8 grn. weight difference on a 725 grn .502 bullet.

I tried them on a new 30 cal mold and they helped the consistency there also. and The handles don't get hot.

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OU812 posted this 09 May 2021

Is it an Accurate mould? I know overtightening the Allen screws to handle will cause the mould to bow or deform. My brass mould had this problem and both faces had to be sanded flat again. Do not overtighten mould to handles.

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Qc Pistolero posted this 10 May 2021

Yeah! always check loaded rounds before getting to the range.

A few months ago,I ordered a Pedersoli Sharps Little Betsy in 30-30 for my wife(her favorite cast bullet caliber).It got here yesterday.She's in love with it.Since she already have a model 94 carbine in same cal and all in all we now have 5 of those inhouse,I was pretty confident that her regular load with an Accurate 31-155D would perform good to great in it too.

Got to the range this Mothers Day with but with only the little Sharps(t'was her day afterall),set everything up and....rounds wouldn't chamber.Bullet too long.

Learned my lesson well.At least,it got a good laugh from my wife.She's still laughing and I think it'll last for another few hours!!!