What is the inside diameter of a mould that casts a 0.459" diameter bullet?

H. C.

That depends on the temperature of the alloy & mould as well as what's in the alloy.

You might want to take some of the alloy you plan on using on a similar (or as close as you can get) diameter and cast in the rythm you normally would and then measure the mould and the bullet. Then it's simple math to calculate the shrinkage ratio and apply it to the new diameter.

Having said that let me quote someone from one of these boards that said, "Shrinkage for wheelweight is about 0.0024". Add 0.001" for pure lead." I think that would be in terms of shrinkage per inch of diameter.

Sounds like you want to know about a particular mould or a mould for a particular application, yes/no?

Not exactly.

I know that different alloys shrink by different amounts.

My question is this: A 0.458" nominal mould probably has to be big enough that the shinkingest alloy will not produce bullets smaller than 0.458". Bigger bullets can be sized down.

I'd like to know how big the cavity in the mould is so that I can drill and ream a hole in a block of metal and pour lead into it. My goal is to know how to produce an adjustable bullet weight mould for cyclindrical paper-patched bullets.

I picked 0.458" out of the air, I realize they need to be 0.005" to 0.010" under bore diameter.

If it ever cam to the point I was ready to do this, I would probably go and buy the mould. They're costly (US$137 from Australia, plus shipping), but so is my time and all the blocks of iron I'd end up scrapping. I'm no machinist.

H. C.

HC, I have been making my own moulds for a year now. I have read all I can and I got all kinds of answers. I make boolits with 1 to 20 lead, tin and also hard boolits for my handguns. I found that if I make the cherry exactly the size I want my boolits, the boolits come out the size I need. Try drilling the hole just to the proper size and cast some up.