Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Brass.....

Not a big fan of anything but steel molds, but I have an MP brass mold coming. I've used aluminum molds but never a brass one.

Anything special needs done or not done with brass?

I love brass molds but they are very heavy.

Some heel jack lube or pencil graphite on the bearing areas keep them slick and free from lead sticking if they are open too soon (which is easier said than done sometimes).

Its just a double cavity mold for my 444. Can't imagine it be much heavier than a steel one. Thanks for the tip on the pencil graphite. You smoke them with an oil lamp or anything?

I don't smoke anything, so I'm not much help there.

No rust is a big plus over iron molds, excepting the sprue plate.

I've used this stuff a time or two on sticky new molds that won't let go of the bullets. I think it works alright, but like I said, I've only used it a time or two.

The only brass mold I ever had was a little round ball mold that came with a cap & ball revolver. What a pain in the butt that was.

What made it a pain?

Brass moulds like to run hot. Keep it lubed. If a bullet sticks send it back, something is wrong.

Try holding on to that joker after it gets hot. This is not the one I owned, but it's identical to it.

Ah, yeah, I'd do a little work on that thing.

My experience is that smoking, lubing or whatever is a panacea for not doing "something" else.

I've bought used molds treated with "mold prep" and any amount of garbage advertised as such and they are a a symptom in search of a problem which is primarily the reason (IMO) they were for sale to begin with.

Even the corrupted ones have obeyed without the magic coatings, despite their former lives .....

IME limited as it is, a BIC lighter carbons up a mold pretty well and drops em with a few taps every time. Never had the pleasure of a brass mold, plenty of steel and aluminuminum ones though. Waiting for it to dry out some, I have a new one from Accurate that I'm itching to fill.

Hope this casts good as it looks like it's made.......

I've had a few of those & they cast great.

Good to hear. It's almost too damn pretty to use.

And that profile is just sexy as hell.

Might even give it go in the 44 Mag revolver with some wheelweights and a hollowpoint nose.

Pretty amazed that FedEx international got it from Slovenia, through Italy and France, to Virginia in less than 3 days, but the USPS can't get a 20lb box of scrap plumber's lead unstuck from 300 miles off course to the east that was mailed from NY city a week and a half ago.

Cudos to both MP molds for making a fine mold, and FedEx for getting here SO fast. I will very likely look to them for my next mold.

A month or two ago I acquired a brass 30 caliber mould by Accurate Moulds. Honestly, the mould is absolutely beautiful. I won’t be able to cast in it for another couple months but since I have never cast in a brass mould I thought I would ask here before trying, are there things I should be doing or not doing with the mould to ensure good bullets or should I just proceed as if it were an iron mould? What do you suggest?

Brass moulds are the schizzle!

I've only used ferrous molds, myself but that brass mold IS almost too purty to use. It has just occurred to me that the blocks would remain in an annealed state---at least they would of the brass alloy is similar the the brass used to make cases.

What's there to know about that?

Annealing brass cases requires a quick hit at 750 degrees. Due to the very thin walls of the case neck it happens within seconds, removed from the heat source immediately, and immediately begins cooling below annealing temp, which stops any further softening.

My casting pot temp for the alloy I'd use in this mold hovers around 700 constant. The mold, although remains "hot", must be below the pot temp or the bullet would never freeze and drop. The mold is also exponentially thicker than a brass case neck, so the soak at annealing temps would be drastically longer to actually achieve an anneal.

I've no idea what state of anneal this mold is in as new, but I do have an IF temp gun and can certainly monitor mold temps when I start casting.

Interesting, and something I hadn't considered until now.

Edit to add: "brass" will anneal to some degree at lower temps but the time under those temps is much longer. This is why it's not a good idea to "bake" your brass dry in the oven at much over a couple hundred degrees after wet tumbling, there's a possibility of softening the case head.

Again, I don't know what the effect of casting temps will be on this brass and the best I can guess is the new mold is in the same state of anneal as any other extruded example of "brass". I highly doubt it started life as a casting, but rather cut from a joint of extruded brass. I'm sure there's a degree of work hardening that's present. Alloy composition also affects how brass anneals.

Can't really be an issue because of MP's goodly track record of making nice molds. Certainly not at all similar to Lee's pathetically soft and gall prone aluminum molds.

The only thing I did with my MP brass mold was the heat it up a couple of times to operating temperature and then let it cool down. I think on his website he recommends doing this maybe twice before using the mold. I just put it on my hot plate for 30 minutes and then removed and did the same the next casting session.

seems to be all good now. sometimes I get a sticky cavity, but overall two thumbs up on the MP mold (9mm 147gr HP/155gr solid).