So, I gotta couple hours of playtime in this afternoon. Fired up the ol ol'Coleman stove and got out my 2 smaller 25 Cal moulds. One's a 80 or so grain SWC and the other is a 75 or so grain Loverin. Both of the Lyman persuasion. The SWC is a single cav. Using my usual run-two-moulds-at-once method I was unable to get any acceptable bullets. I says to meself-Turn the heat up dummy!. Nope, still wrinkled little gnome bullets. Add tin I says! Nope part deux. Degreased, fluxed and fluxed and fluxed, nothin'. The thermometer was holding steady at 700-725 so I knew it was hot enough. Gotta be the mould. (Keep in mind I had never used these two before and that I was figuring I had two bum moulds about now.) I took the single cav and started casting as fast as I could in about 4 cycles things were looking better. I stuck the corner of the mould in the melt, (HORRORS!!), for about 15 seconds and went back at it. Now we were getting some good frosted bullets. I kept at it and things were going good. Then I see that the sprue is staying molten for like 8-10 seconds. Molten mind you, not hard but not hard enough to cut. This was about when the temper started to rise. My temper that is. Then I recalled BruceB (forget his new handle) had a solution. I wetted a shop rag and tried cooling the sprue. Viola!! I kept this up and found myself getting darn near perfect bulets with nice clean cut bases. This method seems to help my style of casting. It worked with the 2 cav too and I got a pile of nice bullets. I can actually tell which bullets had the bases cooled. They have a nice sharp edge to them, and no tearing either. Thanks Bruce. I also got out my NEI .330-245 which is a sorta 311284 looking job for the 8X56R. I have to say right now that this is the single nicest mould I have ever used. It's an aluminum job and was bought used. It drops the bullets with no shaking or tapping. Even my LBT is lame compared to this one. I need the right handles for it though, anyone know what is supposed to fit? Last but not least I got out my brand new 8MM Karibiner. WOW! I had to work to get it hot enough but after doing the dunking the corner thing she started making alot of good bullets. I can see where a little lapping or edge relieving would help. I also will have to switch to my 1 lb. Rowell ladle, the dutch oven, and the plumbers furnace to keep this one fed. I made a lot of lead disappear real fast with that one. The 358-260 is gonna be even better. All this finished my weekend (Sun/Mon off) in which I got to see my 14 YOA son take his first duck and our 7 YOA Lab finally start retrieving, 4 out of 4 ducks, and I remembered my anniversery and sent a dozen lavender (!!!) roses to SWMBO office for all the other unlucky girls to ogle. The roast beef came out perfect and the gravy wasn't lumpy. Darn, just when you figure life really sucks you get a weekend like this and you have to re-think it all.

Tpr. Brett,
Great Post. Life continues to amaze us doesn't it ? Somedays if one more ugrateful sob wanders in to the wrong lane we can see letting him go,on the other hand if is the fiftieth sob........Whether traffic cop or salesman..somedays the ungrateful "customers" can really make you bite your tongue and for me today was one of those days. Glad to see an fellow boolit caster have a dandy of a day. 45nut

Tpr. Bret,

Sounds as if, at least for a weekend, that you got life licked. Nice report.

Bret--

Sounds like a GREAT weekend!

NEI recommends RCBS mold handles for their products. My experience with Walt Melander's molds is like yours--the bullets leap from the cavities without prompting, and they are a joy to use.