NOE Clone of NEI 358 282 GC, 300gr Flat Nose?

yodogsandman

yodogsandman

Well-Known Member
WOO HOO!!! My "35 Thumper" molds are on their way!

I plan to try molding samples using different alloys for best fitment to start development this time.
 
yodogsandman

yodogsandman

Well-Known Member
Received my molds today, 3 hours ago! Woo Hoo!! Cast some right away with COWW's + 2% Sn. Loaded a couple, sized and GC'd, in some dummy cases, a C.O.A.L. of 3.375" looks about right in my rifle. This engraves with about 1/4" lines all around the nose. At this length, the bottom of the top lube groove is even with the case mouth and the base is a little above the case neck and shoulder junction. The mold started throwing good ones after about 10 casts. I had washed it down with rubbing alcohol, lubed it up and heated to 375*F (air temp) on a #10 tin can covered hot plate. PID was set to 725*F and bullets dropped frosted with band diameters of .360".
 
yodogsandman

yodogsandman

Well-Known Member
Ok, I've cast up about 200 of the FN tonight and oven heat treated them at 430*F for an hour, then a quick quench in ice cold water (with a bag of ice). Let them age harden till say Sunday and I should be shooting them then. I'll GC and size tomorrow. First try will be with 3 coats of BLL. Three powders should work well, IMR4350, IMR 4831 and H414 (with mag primers), they proved good with the Lyman 358009.

I decided that I added too much tin to the pot of COWW's and corrected it by pouring off 4 ingots and replacing them with 4 ingots of COWW's. The first bullets looked galvanized due to the Sn content. I keep thinking that the Lee 4-20 BP pot is 20 lb pot where it's really closer to 15 lb just filled to 1/2" below the rim.
 
Rick

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Whenever I oven heat treat I always size & put on checks and then heat treat. After they are dry I then lube them with a die .001" larger than used to size. A far simpler method than trying to size hardened bullets, something I only tried once many, many years ago.
 
3

35 shooter

Well-Known Member
yodogsandman said:
Ok, I've cast up about 200 of the FN tonight and oven heat treated them at 430*F for an hour, then a quick quench in ice cold water (with a bag of ice). Let them age harden till say Sunday and I should be shooting them then. I'll GC and size tomorrow. First try will be with 3 coats of BLL. Three powders should work well, IMR4350, IMR 4831 and H414 (with mag primers), they proved good with the Lyman 358009.

I decided that I added too much tin to the pot of COWW's and corrected it by pouring off 4 ingots and replacing them with 4 ingots of COWW's. The first bullets looked galvanized due to the Sn content. I keep thinking that the Lee 4-20 BP pot is 20 lb pot where it's really closer to 15 lb just filled to 1/2" below the rim.
Click to expand...
Really looking forward to your first range reports. I finally got out to do some shooting today after about a month of mostly being busy working 7 days a week....felt good!
 
yodogsandman

yodogsandman

Well-Known Member
Rick said:
Whenever I oven heat treat I always size & put on checks and then heat treat. After they are dry I then lube them with a die .001" larger than used to size. A far simpler method than trying to size hardened bullets, something I only tried once many, many years ago.
Click to expand...

Rick, That's still the best way but, I was crunched for time. I like to age harden bullets for 5 days after heat treating before shooting them. To be able to shoot them this Sunday, I had to heat treat them right away.

I'm done sizing them now and will now weigh them and lube some up with the first coat of BLL. They did need extra effort to size but, I'm on schedule for Sunday at the range. I broke my table once when I sized after waiting 4 days! Never again! I had to use a pipe for leverage on those suckers!

35 shooter, glad you finally got to go out and shoot! That's a killer long work week!
 
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