NOE 360-180 for the 360 Dan Wesson

[donhuff]

They look pretty good GasGuzzler

[GasGuzzler]

Honestly look good or look OK for a newbie? The other box will be there soon. Need assembled pics then front of loaded cylinder pics too....then target pics.

[donhuff]

Yes, they look pretty good. There were a few rounded edges where it looks like you could run the heat a little higher or either cast a little faster to keep more heat in the mold. But most were filled out right and they ought to shoot pretty good. Hey, if they did not look good enough, I would not have wasted time coating, checking and sizing them!

I know from some of your other post that you know to add tin, so I'm betting it is temperature related. Many new casters seem to think that there is something wrong with frosted bullets, and try to keep the temp low to avoid this. That make you operate in a very narrow temp "window" where you get good fill out, but no frosting. I have never seen a problem with frosted bullets, but then I am not very picky about controlling weight nor size. I'm more of a volume caster, than a quality caster. If I'm shooting for the best accuracy I can get, I'll weight sort batches of bullets to see if it matters. But I usually do not get that involved with accuracy. If I can hit a pie plate at 100 yards I'm usually OK with it.

I'll sometimes cast two bullets at a time so I don't have to wait for a mold to cool off when it gets to hot. The sometimes I'll just dunk the mold in my drop bucket of water They say not to do that, but it works for me. I'm bad about doing what "they" say not to do!

From the softness of these bullets I'm assuming that you are air cooling? I could scratch them with a finger nail so that's why I say this. I water drop all of mine because it speeds up the casting for me. Just open the mold and let them fall, and right back under the pot for another pour. The water hardens them some, not that I want them that hard, don't really care, but it just speeds thing up so much for me. I sorta enjoy casting, making bullets from wheel weights or from raw materials, dug out of mother earth.....BS. Fun for the first hundred or so, then boring monotony like most other processes in reloading. If it wasn't for trying something new, ie-- bullet styles, weights, powders,calibers, I'd have quit this a long time ago. Why am I rambling on about this??? I got off subject again didn't I? I'm doing that more now that I'm older.



I'll get some loaded, give me a minute! I got them for the 360 so I'm gonna have a hard time showing the in a revolver cylinder. I do not have a DW revolver. I guess I could load a few in 357 magnum though. I bet they will do well in a 357 even in the rossi because they are actually shorter than my favorite 358429 SWC. And the 429s do not do that well in the rossi unless they are going fas as possible, and they weigh less too at 170 grains. The few of these 180s that I weighed, after getting them "fully dressed", came in at 186-187 grains.

[GasGuzzler]

I think improper fill is mold temp in my case. I've been running my PID at 715.

They are air cooled. I might try water dropping some next run.

See if there's any difference in box 2.

The ones I've weight checked have been in the 182 range as dropped.

I saw DW and ASSumed revolver.

I have a BH so when I get around to loading some I'll take a pic.

[donhuff]

Remember, I reamed the chamber on my rossi 92 to accept the 360 case.

I loaded a few up to see how it measures out. All looked good as the slugs in 357 cases and crimped in the forward groove are dead on 1.6" long. In the lower groove 1.660". But they fit in my blackhawk with a little room left over.

But in the 360, they still measure fine at 1.735" and it could handle the JSPs at 1.750. But that dang wide meplat is not letting them get into the chamber. I'm gonna have to trim back the guide rails a little more to allow the rim to come up earlier and that should fix it. Trouble is, I have trimmed them so much already, that there is not much left to trim! I wish the bullet had a more pointy nose on it and they would feed fine. I'll single feed these to see if there is any need in trimming the guides or not. If they don't shoot good enough to proceed, I'll go back to shooting jacketed or hunt a bullet with a smaller nose.

Got some pics for ya anyway.

[Okie44]

Yes'sir, those look good!
Water dropping gives a bit of hardness depending on alloy. Baking the powder coating for 20 minutes and air cooling anneals the lead back to original BHN level.

Edit:

Looks good Don. I'll be glad to hear how they work.

[donhuff]

I did not mean to sound like I was saying that these are "to soft". Not at all, I was just making the point that I could tell that they were softer than mine because of the air cooling. I don't water drop mine for the hardness, but rather to make the casting go a little faster.

I thought it odd that I could tell the difference just by handing these bullets, and looking at them. I could tell that during the shipping, some of the edges and surfaces had gotten "burnished?" from rubbing together. I have not seen this happen with mine, and that made me suspect that they were softer, and so I tried the fingernail test.

Kinda hard to say if they have hardened now from the PC bake and water drop. I only bake for 12-15 minutes @ 385-400 degrees. The coating is so tuff that the finger nail test does not work. And I do not have another way of testing.

[GasGuzzler]

I packed them in smaller lots to try and keep them from tearing each other up too much.

I don't think I care about their hardness much since they're checked and although I won't puny load them, I likely won't go crazy hot with that much lead. 167 is the heaviest (not checked) I've used in the BN36 and R92 with full 2400 and 296 loads. They're hot enough for me but more importantly, predictable on point of impact.

Dang I need to open that chrono I bought myself.

[ethang]

Those look nice all color coded like that. That would come in handy for different loads. I am going to try them with some full bogey Lil'gun and 296 loads, then hopefully kill some deer and maybe a hog.

[GasGuzzler]

I predict you'll love the 296 loads. I hope so anyway.