Casting Cores

[Donna]

Hello all,

I don’t do it but some of the other people and I are or may be interested. When you cast cores for swaging do you still need to run them through the core swage die to make the cores uniform in weight?

Donna :wink:

[bullet maker]

Hi Donna
 Yes you do. I have cast cores for about 10 years now, and You don`t have to but the weight will vary a couple of grains if you don`t. That is I have corbin`s four cavity mould`s, and I can use them just out of the cast, but the bullets will vary anywhere from 1 to 3 grains, no matter how accurate I try to adjust the core weight from the moulds. Its time consuming and a pain in the A$$ to try to get them as close as possible for a certain weight.
    I finally went and spent the extra money for the lead wire after reading about it on this forum, and have been more than happy ever since. The cost for pure lead in my part of the country is the same as buying the lead rolls of wire, so I elect to purchase the lead wire.
    which ever way a person goes, cast their own useing lead mould`s or buying the lead wire, you still have to run the cores through a core swage die to get an accurate lead core weight for the bullet.
bullet maker

[talon]

Donna, Not all casted cores, even from the same melt, have the same dencity. This will cause slightly (up to 4% perhaps) different bullet weights in the same batch. Air voids can be the problem in one batch of casted cores: swaging casted cores before droping them into the jacket for core seating will guarentee a constant bullet batch weight. While we're on the subject, remember that density varries from one melt to another. This is because the alloys we find to melt down may be called "Lead", but it's not pure. I know we try our best to get as close to pB as possible, but that smiggen of Tin or whatever can radically change the mass (grains per cc), as well as the hardness. Thus a core cast from melt #37 can be significantly lighter than one cast from #48 if you use the same mold and even have no voids in them. Bullet casters run into this 'problem' all the time. It is for these two reasons that you should be as careful as possible to keep the cores made from one session seperate from the cores in another, and swage them all. Then, after you swage up all the bullets from that one batch of cores, you will most likely find you'll have to adjust your punch debth for the CS and PF stages as the other lot of cores will be slightly different in size. This change in density from one melt to another is a very good reason to take time to mix and remix as much melted lead as possible... to have a large supply of the same mixture... before you even start the core casting session. As far as ensuring no air voids, I've never been successful. I've heard that if your column of melted lead were 20" high that this would give the pressure needed to force the air out of the liquid as it entered the mold. Most melted lead columns are only 8" high, at best.  

[Donna]

Hello all,

Thanks for your replies to both bullet maker and Talon. They were very informative.

Donna :wink:

[Lead pot]

If your thinking about getting a core mould,you might think about making your own.I picked up a six cavity mould at a gun show a .38 wad cutter mould for $25.and drilled it out deeper.It works a lot better then some of the adjustable once you buy.If the core is to long just cut it to length with your lead wire cutter.

Kurt.