Maillemaker
08-10-2013, 07:48 PM
I placed the order for my .580 Wilkinson on a Monday, and I received it on Thursday or Friday. Very fast response time.
Tonight I cast up a batch of about 20 pounds of pure lead.
The mold is a delight to use. First of all it's double-cavity, which means you crank out bullets at twice the speed of your usual single-cavity Minie/Burton mold.
But it also cranks out virtually flawless bullets. Unlike hollow-base bullets that almost always form voids in the hollow base, these bullets almost never produce a void. I think I had one bullet out of 100 that had a tiny pinhole where the sprue sheared off.
Being an aluminum mold, it heats up fast and starts producing perfect quality bullets within 3 drops.
This is the first mold I have ever purchased that drops bullets at the diameter stamped on them. They came out exactly .580. No other mold, be it Lee, Lyman, or RCBS, has done that.
They size nicely to both .580 and .576. I suspect they will work well in my P1853 and Richmond Carbine, which currently use the similarly-short RCBS-Hodgdon bullet. They will need to be .576 for those guns. I will try them at .578 in my Pedersoli P58, but it does not like short bullets with its 1:48 twist so I doubt these will work in it but I will try them anyway.
Also: Moose Juice. Great stuff. I suspect this is rubbing alcohol with powdered graphite in suspension. I have been using a lead pencil to coat the moving surfaces of my molds with graphite - this Moose Juice stuff is much better. It basically paints on graphite and then the alcohol dries off, leaving a durable wearing surface of graphite. I'm going to use it on all my molds.
If it's not raining tomorrow I'm going to go to the range to see how they shoot!
Steve
Tonight I cast up a batch of about 20 pounds of pure lead.
The mold is a delight to use. First of all it's double-cavity, which means you crank out bullets at twice the speed of your usual single-cavity Minie/Burton mold.
But it also cranks out virtually flawless bullets. Unlike hollow-base bullets that almost always form voids in the hollow base, these bullets almost never produce a void. I think I had one bullet out of 100 that had a tiny pinhole where the sprue sheared off.
Being an aluminum mold, it heats up fast and starts producing perfect quality bullets within 3 drops.
This is the first mold I have ever purchased that drops bullets at the diameter stamped on them. They came out exactly .580. No other mold, be it Lee, Lyman, or RCBS, has done that.
They size nicely to both .580 and .576. I suspect they will work well in my P1853 and Richmond Carbine, which currently use the similarly-short RCBS-Hodgdon bullet. They will need to be .576 for those guns. I will try them at .578 in my Pedersoli P58, but it does not like short bullets with its 1:48 twist so I doubt these will work in it but I will try them anyway.
Also: Moose Juice. Great stuff. I suspect this is rubbing alcohol with powdered graphite in suspension. I have been using a lead pencil to coat the moving surfaces of my molds with graphite - this Moose Juice stuff is much better. It basically paints on graphite and then the alcohol dries off, leaving a durable wearing surface of graphite. I'm going to use it on all my molds.
If it's not raining tomorrow I'm going to go to the range to see how they shoot!
Steve