To all of you fine people, and especially master Obiwan Graybeard, I now have superclean molds with nothing but their raw surface exposed to the lead, and I am turning out gorgeous bullets.
You were spot on, GB!!! I chunked the mold release, got to scrubbing with Brake Cleaner and a little of the leftover tce, and voila, perfection. The only caviat is that I turned the temp up to frosty bullets, then backed down a touch, and I now get 5.8 out of six fine, sharp, shiny bullets. Like so many of you said, I think I was working with too cool alloy with too much gunk, complicated by inexperience.
The moral of the story is....CLEAN, THEN CLEAN SOME MORE!!! Then check the temp on the mold and the alloy. Keep it fluxed, and even a newbee like me can turn out pretty good bullets.
Now, how do you get rid of crabgrass???