Finding no commercial source, I am going to need to cast my own reduced load bullets for a 577 NE 3 inch.

Accurate Molds can make me a mold with a cavity for a 650g and a 480g. A few questions (casting rifle bullets is new to me though I have done some pistol bullets)

- The catalog shows the 650 as for a 577 NE but at .590 diameter. That seems way too large for a .585 bore. I thought the notion was 1-2 thousandths over the bore size.
- How to you size these? I have an RCBS sizer. There are no dies available this big, but it looks like you could bore one out and still have enough material to work.

Thanks all

Brad

Go to the website, pick the bullet you want Tom to cut the mould for, and then modify it to suit your needs. If the groove diameter for the 577 is .585", I would suggest you get a mould cut that will drop bullets of .586-.587", then pan lube and shoot them un-sized.

The trickiest part is that "as-cast" diameter is going to change based on the alloy you choose (or can get your hands on). It may not change enough to be a problem, but as lead and its cast bullet "buddies" antimony and tin become harder and harder to get hold of, and as wheel weights go completely away, it is going to become a challenge for you to maintain what you want, as I see it. And I think you are going to need something pretty hard to shoot out of the 577.

Good luck.

I built a 585 BME (necked up Gibbs) six or seven years ago.

NEI cut my mold. The only issue is honing out a sizer die to fit the as-cast diameter. Mine is half a thousandth oversize, to just square the bullet and put lube on it. Any machine shop can do that for you.

I faced the same alloy issues you are going to. I found a local swaging company that sells me a 97% lead, 3% antimony alloy for lead spot price. I just stick 2 pounds of tin in my 100lb smelting pot and mix that much at a whack.

Rich

PM me if you have any questions.

ISS--You are not smelting--you are merely remelting. Smelting is the process where the alloy is removed from the ore--a whole nuther deal.

cm1,

The poster is trying to accomplish something here of a serious nature.

I posted with my experiences.

NObody here needs you to try and turn this into another pissing contest.

ISS--You think you know it all and what you say is exact. Just helping you out,maybe you could learn something. Do some research and you'll find I was correct.

have you settled on a mold

looking for a mold die punch my self

thanks

I ordered one from Accurate Molds with one 650g cavity and one 480g cavity. Should show up shortly

A little late, but still.....
I would not recomend to shoot bullets this size without sizing. The bullets will vary a lot in size depending on temperature and alloy. Find yourself an lead alloy that does the job and stick to it. Then you will almost know what to expect of bulletsize. Sizing bullets this big is a little problem. The rcbs and lyman sizerdies will be very, very thin if you bore them out to fit a .488 bullet.
If you bore out a Lee sizerdie you will have a thicker and stronger die. Then you can pan- or thumblelube them.
I always run my big bullets (45-70, 485Lott,470NE) through a Lee sizerdie first. I started doing this after fighting hard alloy big bullets through my rcbs lubesizer almost killing it. I bought lee sizerdies close to the size I wanted and customised them.

quote:

I bought lee sizerdies close to the size I wanted and customised them

I have done the same thing not hard to do.

For our 585HE we just use easy to get Minie ball moulds,

and if we want heavier up to 700gr or more just

flatten the base pin. Can go from 350 gr on up and

as hard as we want with harder alloys.

And for our 24ga FH, And guys on GB sells a variety

of those bullets. One of our guys shoots 480 gr ones

with only BHN of 10 through an old telephone pole he has.

I got hard alloy, heat treated ones a guy did for me that

are BHN of 28-30, harder that solid jacketed ones. Ed