Hello All,
Here's another problem I solved for the 700NE Double - BULLETS.
Although Woodleigh 700NE bullets shot very good, they are really expensive. The cost $385 for 100 - THAT'S NEARLY $4 EACH.
To save money, I had ordered a custom bullet mold from Accurate Molds in Utah. They build a top quality mold for a very reasonable price. I designed a 1000g bullet with 2 grease grooves and a crimping groove. The cast bullets were perfect, and weighed exactly 1000g with wheel-weight alloy.
Here it is compared to a Woodleigh 1000g Soft Point.
Although I've had excellent results using these molds for other calibers, and although this mold casts a "perfect" bullet, these cast bullets didn't shoot worth a crap! I tried everything, hard lead, soft lead, different lubes, oversize bullet, undersize bullet, wad under the bullet, I even tried powder paint coating the bullets - nothing worked. (and I have no explaination as to why) I shot patterns, not groups. Random holes were over 12" apart, and not repeatable.
Since no one makes 700 cal gas-checks, I couldn't try that. But, I did do something that I had tried before to solve a similar dilemma.
First, I modified the Accurate mold by removing the grease grooves.
Next, I went to the hardware store and bought a bunch of 1/2" copper pipe caps. The kind you solder at the end of copper pipe when plumbing. They measured about .705 dia and were 5/8" long. I cut the copper cups to uniform length to match the modified mold, then sized them to .699 dia, and drilled a 1/4" hole in the bottom of the cup.
Finally, I placed the copper cups into the mold, and cast the lead through the hole in the bottom of the cup.