Designing the 2-diameter paper patch bullet.

[Distant Thunder]

I apologize for letting this sit for so long but life can sure get in the way at times, sorry.

So I cut the first mold and after casting some bullets with it I wasn't satisfied with the end results, just not what I wanted. I decided to start over again with a different set of blocks and I made some adjustments in the way I machined the cavity. A this point it looks much better than the first one. The blocks sat there waiting for me to find the time to machine the cavity, which I started late last week and finished today. I'll fit a sprue plate to this mold hopefully yet this week and cast the first bullets with it. It can be very hard for me to tell what a cavity is going to produce until I actually have bullets from it to examine.

   

To tell the truth the mold I use for long range matches doesn't cast perfect bullets and I am amazed how well they shoot every time I shoot a match with them. I plan to cut a new mold to the same dimensions that I hope will cast better looking bullets. Once my bullets are wrapped they look fine. Maybe the patching makes them shoot so well, it at least hides the flaws!

Dimensionally this "second" 2-diameter pp mold is the same as the first one, but the finish much better especially on the nose of the bullet. I do learn something new with each mold I cut and these 2-diameter molds seem more difficult than the straight sided bore diameter molds to get everything just right.

I plan to work on the first mold and make a couple of adjustments so I can use it in my old C. Sharps .45-70 which has about .200" of freebore. That rifle is the only one of my rifles that I have not been able to get consistent results with using paper patch bullets. It should come round with a 2-diameter design. Time will tell.

Hopefully I can finish this mold up for Matt soon and he'll have plenty of time to get his rifle up and running for the 2019 season, which has been the plan all along. I should have some sample bullets next week, that will tell the story.