In my opinion, quite possibly the best plain base .30 cal.

Kevin Stenberg

Well-Known Member
I need a little help in ordering the Accurate 31-175b & bp mold.
At this time I only shoot PC bullets. So if I order a mold with the dimensions the 315. I have to presize my bullets to .308 so the finished size of my bullets are .3095 to .310 after PC.
Will I make problems by sizing down the .003.
 
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Glaciers

Alaska Land of the Midnight Sun
Kevin are you planning on only using PC or will you be using traditional lubes in some cases?
 

popper

Well-Known Member
Kev - no it's the 31-142C that I modified from fiver's 31-165B design. Designed to drop at 312 and I size to 311 after PC. Intended for BO but works fine in the marlin. I guess old eyes gave that target the multiple groups. Shooting off front sand bag.
 

Kevin Stenberg

Well-Known Member
Glaciers At this time I will use PC. BUT I can forsee that sometime in the future the mold could once again be used for those greasy bullets.
 

Glaciers

Alaska Land of the Midnight Sun
Well Kevin I ordered a 5 cavity from Tom of this bullet with 3 plain base and 2 gas check. Now that is two different designs which incurs a extra $20 charge.
But my point is that you could order say a 4 or a 5 cavity and have 2 cavities at say .309 and 2 cavities at .311. There would be the extra charge and you would have to sort with a micrometer
Although I think you could just size down with a push through die then PC, and size again.
Most of my .30 calibers like .311, some even .312. so I ordered Seaco clone as drawn at .311. Lubing is easy and PC sizing in a .311 die was a piece of cake.
 

Matt_G

Curmudgeon in training
I am thinking very seriously about ordering one of these.
I have been quite remiss in my mold purchases.
I do not own a single Accurate mold.
I think it is high time I fixed that gaping hole in my mold collection and this is the mold to do it with.

I won't have much, if any time to really play with this until I retire. (At least 3, possibly 4 years from now.)
But I do know that I want to be setup to play and play hard once I do retire.
IOW, I really need to be making all expensive purchases now while I am working.
Discretionary income will drop precipitously once retired and everyday becomes Saturday.

So I need to make up my mind on how I want to configure this mold.
I am going to want both GC and PB cavities in this mold.

I really love brass (Love Miha's molds...) but that is limited to 4 cavities.
It's also heavy and I'm not getting any younger.
It isn't a problem now but in 10 years? Probably will be...

I have never cast with an aluminum mold; don't own a single Lee.
I do own a aluminum NOE copy of the 358429 with RG4 pins in it but I have never cast with it.
I won that mold at the first NCBS I went to back in 2010.
I reckon I should cast with that NOE and see what I think of aluminum before making a decision on this mold from Tom.
The main reason I haven't is that I am a bottom pour guy.
Those damn pins and the mold guide for the RCBS pot are NOT going to like each other at all.
I'm gonna have to figure something out for that.

So I am torn between ordering a 4 cavity brass - 1 GC and 3 PB cavities.
Or ordering a 5 cavity aluminum - 2 GC and 3 PB cavities.

I have visions of plinking with the '03, 03A3, and the 1917 Enfield using the PB version.
I also have this crazy idea of trying to get these to shoot in the Garand's and M1A.
Maybe even get them to cycle the rifle and still be accurate.
Hence the GC cavity(s).
 
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Glaciers

Alaska Land of the Midnight Sun
Matt, NOE has PB and GC molds in stock, but there dual GC & PB molds are sold out. If you don’t order the RG molds there is no hardware on the bottom of the mold to contend with. But look carefully at the dimensions in Al’s drawing it isn’t really a tap design like the Saeco 315 or the Accurate’s design.
links to both below.



Edit: I guess it would depend on if you really need the taper in the bullet, for me I did want the taper. I Will be seeing if the taper is helpful, so far, for the little use I’ve had, it’s looking good. Need much more trigger time for all my molds and firearms. They have been neglected.
 
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Matt_G

Curmudgeon in training
Thanks for the links John.
Not sure if I need the taper or not.
I really need to do a pound cast of all these rifles.
 

Glaciers

Alaska Land of the Midnight Sun
That’s why I went with the tapered design, works good in the Winchester 94 with conventional lubes and PC for some other rifles