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We at Victory Molds are
Accuracy Shooters. Almost all of our own shooting for the past 25
years has been with cast bullets. We discovered what many others
have: cast bullets are the most versatile projectile period! Whether
you are after penetration, expansion, or a happy medium, with
accuracy and economy figured in for good measure, cast bullets can do
it. The options with a single mold in a given caliber are truly
impressive. By varying the alloy, you can make the bullet perform
the way you want it to. You are in control!
Vintage arms are especially
suited to cast bullets because of the variances in groove diameters.
The softer steel of their barrels virtually mandates
cast bullets.
And with all the modern replicas
available today for which people are spending $1,500 to $12,000, it seems unjust to use a
$20 mold on
such fine rifles. It is like filling your Ferrari with coal dust and
wondering why it won't perform! Victory Molds are made to out-
perform the rest. We offer a truly premium product.
Safety Comes First
1. No casting should
be done without basic safety equipment. This includes long pants,
shirt sleeves, sturdy gloves, eye protection (such as goggles), and
closed top shoes.
2. Keep all flammable
items away from casting area. Do not operate unit on flammable
materials such as paper, wood, or carpeting. Keep primers,
loaded ammunition, Powder, and other shooting accessories away from casting
area.
3. Casting should be
done in a well-ventilated area. Avoid breathing fumes and dust
from furnace.
4. Never allow
moisture near molten lead. When moisture is introduced to
molten lead, a terrific steam explosion occurs and molten metal
sprays not only over the immediate area but also over the bullet
caster. This moisture can be introduced by a wet ladle or
dipper. ALSO: Never put a COLD dipper into a lead pot as it
will act in the same manner as water. Warm it first.
5. Keep children away
from casting and reloading areas.
6. Never pick up unit
when heated.
7. Never drop poorly
formed bullets or sprue cut-offs back into the molten lead in the
pot. This can cause molten lead splashes which can seriously
burn the user or damage property. Always use caution when
adding bullet metal to a furnace or pot containing molten metal.
8. Do not continue to
cast if distracted.
9. Do not eat, drink,
or smoke while handling lead.
10. Do not run unit dry without
lead, except during initial warm-up period.
11. Keep the plug dry.
12. Always wash hands after
handling lead. WASH YOUR HANDS WELL WHEN DONE. Lead is
soft and will rub off on your fingers.
13. Be certain to place and
use the melting pot where it cannot be tipped or knocked over.
Never leave a unit unattended.
14. When finding lead to use
in casting, never use lead from any kind of battery.
15. Keep bench area clean
from sprue and droppings. Always clean casting area
afterwards. Periodically damp-mop.
Taking Care of your
Victory Mold
Your Victory Mold is
precision equipment which, with care and common sense, can easily
last a lifetime. But it can be ruined in one session, if abused. Before using a new mold, it must be
cleaned with a suitable solvent, such as alcohol or an aerosol
degreaser, to remove the protective film of oil. Never cast
bullets with oil still in the mold as the oil will vaporize and
leave an undesirable baked-on residue.
Check alignment pins in mold for
wear when the blocks are closed together. Try to twist the
halves in opposite directions. There should not be any
movement. If there is movement, drive the pins in very
slightly until all movement is gone. Check that the blocks
still close fully.
Our molds have a clearance ground
between the two halves for venting purposes, so a strong light will
show through the halves. However, this light should not show
through at the corners. This is VITALLY important in obtaining
round bullets!
After casting, clean your mold.
Wipe off any splashes or smears of lead with a rough rag. If
the lead spatters are difficult to remove, re-heat the mold blocks
until the lead wipes off easily. Never use an abrasive
material or scraping tool to remove lead from the mold. When
your mold is clean, allow it to cool, then re-oil it with rust-
preventative oil. This oil must be removed each time before
casting.
Alternatively, store your cool,
clean mold in an airtight container with a bag of desiccant crystals
or a piece of VCI paper. Molds preserved in this fashion do
not require cleaning before their next use. Whichever
preservative system you choose, store the mold in a dry place of
relatively constant temperature. Note: Leaving
the last bullet in the mold cavities offers little, if any
protection.
From time to time, check the sprue
cutter plate. This plate should swing freely, without vertical
play. If too loose, the sprue will extend beyond the base of
the bullet. A bit of graphite or Motor Mica, sprinkled between
plate and block, will greatly reduce friction.
Lead Alloys and Gas Checks
Pure lead is suitable only for
muzzle loading conical and roundball projectiles or shotgun slugs,
not for centerfire rifle and pistol bullets. To harden pure
lead into a better bullet material, tin must be added.
Tin and lead mix well when melted,
and a good bullet alloy should always contain tin to enhance
castability. The presence of antimony in the alloy, especially
for gas check bullets in rifles, has an advantage. It hardens
the alloy, making the bullet less liable to gas-cutting and more
capable of withstanding higher velocities. Because antimony
shrinks less when it cools, bullets of antimony alloy will
cast a little larger than softer alloys. Antimony should be
kept to 5% or less of the total alloy as more than this causes
casting problems.
The gas check is a shallow gilded
metal cup which must be pressed onto the base of a cast bullet.
The purpose of this cup is to protect the bullet base from the
burning effect of hot powder gases. It also acts as a scraper
to push the lead out the bore. Gas check bullets, since
they can be driven at higher velocities than plain base bullets,
will give flatter trajectories and greater energy. Even with a
gas check, however, the lead alloy bullet cannot be driven as fast
as some jacketed bullets or it may lose accuracy and lead the bore.
Bullet Casting
A. Necessary Equipment:
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Bullet Mold
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Mold Handles
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Bullet Metal -- Made from
appropriate lead alloy.
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Lead Pot or Electric Furnace,
bottom pour pots are not recommended.
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Fluxing Material -- Tallow,
beeswax, Marvelux or any other bullet lubricant may be used.
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Lead Dipper -- For pouring and
stirring metal.
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Small Wooden or Metal Box -- To receive sprue, scrap, or rejected bullets from your mold.
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Cloth Pad -- Any old cloth made
with natural fiber material which may be used as a pad to soften the
fall of the hot bullets as they drop from the mold. Must not
be synthetic since hot bullets may melt it.
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Protective Clothing -- Includes
glasses, gloves and apron for protection against spatters.
Shirts should be long-sleeved, trousers full-length, and shoes
close-topped. No slippers or sandals.
B. Preparing Metal (Melting
& Fluxing):
If using a lead pot, place it
securely on a gas or electric stove and put a quantity of bullet
metal into the pot. Add metal as needed to raise the level in
the pot close to full. Set the lead dipper in the pot to
preheat it.
In about 20 to 30 minutes, when it
becomes liquefied and flows freely, the bullet metal will be ready
to flux. For fluxing, allow adequate ventilation.
To flux the metal, merely drop in
a small bit of tallow, beeswax, bullet lubricant or Marvelux.
A smoky gas will rise from the top of the pot. To eliminate
this gas, light it with a match (Marvelux does not need to be
ignited). Stir the mixture with the dipper. Metal which
as been properly fluxed will have a mirror-bright surface flecked
with a small quantity of black or brown impurities. Skim off
these small flecks of foreign matter. Flux the metal whenever
it seems to need it.
Use a good calibrated thermometer,
and record casting temperatures for your various alloys and molds,
they could vary from 650 -825 degrees.
C. Casting Bullets:
Note: Always wear safety glasses or goggles
while casting bullets.
When the metal has been fluxed and
is hot enough to pour easily through the dipper, it is ready for
casting. Fill the dipper with metal and place the spout with
the mold turned on its side. Holding the
mold and dipper together, slowly turn them into a vertical position,
with the dipper on top of the mold Be
generous with the metal and let extra run onto the mold's sprue
cutter plate. pour the entire content of the ladle over the sprue so
fresh metal can enter the mold during cooling. This extra metal is called sprue. When it
hardens, which takes only seconds, pick up the casting mallet and
tap sprue cutter plate sharply, or use a heavy glove and pop it with
the heel of your hand. This will
separate the sprue from the base of the bullet Drop the sprue from
the base of the bullet into a scrap box. With the mold held
close to your cloth pad, open the blocks and let the bullet fall to
the pad. If the bullet does not drop readily, use the mallet
to rap the handle hinge pivot sharply.
Use only wood (or similar non-marring material ) for this purpose.
Never strike the mold blocks themselves.
Your first bullets will be
somewhat flawed because the mold is cool. Casting bullets, one
after the other will bring your mold to the correct temperature.
Wrinkled bullets indicate that the mold, or metal, is too cool.
Frosted bullets indicate that the mold, or metal, is too hot.
Good bullets should be clean, sharp, and fill the mold. This is
usually 20-30 bullets, new molds could take 70-100 before they
settle down to cast well. Have patience! They
need not be bright because their color will depend largely on the
mixture of the alloy being used. Antimony alloys are duller in
color than those of pure lead. Imperfect bullets should be
collected and, along with sprue and other scrap, returned to the
pot. Never dip your cool mold into molten bullet metal because
the rapid temperature change may cause permanent block warpage. Also,
never cool your mold in water as this will ruin them too!
Lubricating and Sizing
A. Necessary Equipment:
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Bullets -- You have cast these
already.
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Gas Checks -- If your bullet
design requires them.
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Bullet Lubricant -- Alox/beeswax.
SPG or any number of quality products.
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Lubricator and Sizer -- With
correct top punch and sizing die for sizing your style and caliber
bullet.
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Gas Check Seater
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Lube/Sizer Heater -- It heats the
Lube/Sizer to the right temperature, allowing smooth, effortless
bullet lubrication (optional).
Before your newly-cast bullets can
be loaded into cartridges, one further operation is necessary: Cast
bullets are designed with lubricating grooves around their
circumference. These grooves must be filled with a suitable
lubricant to prevent barrel leading and maximize accuracy.
Since each Victory Mold is custom
made to your specifications, little or no sizing will be necessary.
In the event you still require sizing, please use the following
directions:
B. Choosing a Bullet Sizing
Die:
The correct-sized diameter for
your cast bullet depends upon the groove diameter of your gun.
The exact-sized diameter is a determination that only you can make.
Experienced shooters usually prefer bullets sized to or as much as
.002" above exact groove
diameter, with the exception of black powder muzzle loading rifles,
which usually shoot best with bore diameter bullets.
Carefully drive a SOFT lead slug
through the lightly lubricated bore. The slug should be large
enough so that some excess lead is shaved off as it enters the
muzzle. Insert a cleaning rod into the breech and carefully
tap the slug back out of the barrel. With a micrometer,
measure the diameter of this slug at its WIDEST POINT. This is
the groove diameter of your firearm. Usually a sizing die up to a couple of thousandths of
an inch larger than the slug will be best.
Place the gas check, if one is
required, in the center of the sizing die. The bullet is
placed, base down, on top of the gas check. If a gas check is
not being used, place the bullet, base down, in the center of the
sizing die. Align the point of the bullet so that it centers
itself in the top punch and pull the handle down firmly. Hold
the handle down firmly while turning the ratchet handle slightly to
force lubricant into the bullet grooves.
When you raise the handle, the
bullet will be ejected, completely sized, lubricated, and ready for
loading. However, if the gas check will not fully seat on the
bullet using only finger pressure, a gas check seater should be
employed for best results. Next, a gas check is set, cup-side
up, in the center of the sizing die and a bullet guided into it as
you pull down on the operating handle. Use only enough force
to fully seat the gas check. After all the gas checks have
been installed, remove the seater and size and lubricate normally.
Use of a gas check seater ensures the squarest possible bullet base
regardless of the type of gas checks used. A good square
bullet base translates into improved accuracy. Loose gas checks are
disastrous to accuracy. Make sure that after the bullet is
ejected from the die, the gas check will not rotate on the bullet or
pull off.
Loading Cast Bullets
Keep in mind that cast bullets are
more fragile than jacketed bullets. And will not tolerate a
heavy hand. Use an expander of groove diameter (VERY IMPORTANT) and
chamfer the case mouths watching for shaved lead (VERY BAD). This is
where many hand loaders get into trouble. The bullet should be held
firmly, but in many cases you can actually rotate the bullet in the
case of the loaded round or even seat the bullet with your thumb.
Too
much neck tension can deform cast bullets and destroy all you were
working for. All bullets, of course, should be seated the same depth
in the cases, usually just touching the lands in the throat of the
rifling.
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