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TDW
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Beagling a vintage mold
May 12th, 2024 at 5:29pm
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Has anyone tried the aluminum tape method on a mold with solid handles? I have a vintage Winchester mold that is casting undersized by .002, and the mold is made with integral handles. I’m considering beagling the mold, but thought Id ask first (my brain keeps telling me it won’t work, unless the mold can move a little to re-align itself) 🤔! 
Thanks
Tom W
« Last Edit: May 12th, 2024 at 5:57pm by TDW »  

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calledflyer
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Re: Beagling a vintage mold
Reply #1 - May 12th, 2024 at 7:06pm
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Yes. I have done that on two Winchester molds I have for .32 caliber bullets. One is about as perfect as these get, the other showed some use, but still fitted up nicely, and only a little play in the hinge. They cast at about .319 and my rifle disliked that. So, as an experiment, I did the metal tape trick to see if it helped with either. They are subtly different bullets. Well to make a long story short, it wasn't any improvement, though the results casting were fairly decent. I concluded the rifle just shot better with other bullets and ceased the project. Your rifle may like what you get, so it's worth a try at any event. 
I didn't even consider that fact that the loose blocks we usually use would make the thing align more certainly, and just went ahead- protecting the innocent?
  
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marlinguy
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Re: Beagling a vintage mold
Reply #2 - May 12th, 2024 at 7:53pm
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I've just had the base band opened up to fit my groove diameter. The rest the forward bands don't need to be enlarged, and often just opening the base band makes for a better bullet too.
  

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gnoahhh
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Re: Beagling a vintage mold
Reply #3 - May 12th, 2024 at 11:34pm
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I've read about beagling but can't wrap my head around how creating an out of round bullet is beneficial. Am I missing something?
  
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JerryH
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Re: Beagling a vintage mold
Reply #4 - May 12th, 2024 at 11:39pm
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gnoahhh wrote on May 12th, 2024 at 11:34pm:
I've read about beagling but can't wrap my head around how creating an out of round bullet is beneficial. Am I missing something?


I don't think so. Having a hard time with the out of round bullet also. It's still too small on two sides.
  

I'm not a complete idiot, some of my parts are missing.
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TDW
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Re: Beagling a vintage mold
Reply #5 - May 13th, 2024 at 8:22am
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Thank you for your comments, gentlemen! A member of our local gun club suggested the method of increasing the bullet diameter. I had never heard of it, and he suggested I search the Cast Bullet Association Forum for more information. Apparently this method can be successfully applied to modern molds with removable handles ( although like many of you, I can’t figure out how shooting an out of round bullet can be accurate). Like calledflyer’s, my mold has fixed handles( cast in one piece with the mold block at one end). Guess I’ll give it a try next casting session, and report back here when I get a chance to hit the range!
Again, thanks for your thoughts
Tom W
  

"The farther North you go, the more things you will run into that will eat your horse."
S.P. Garbe, Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, 1980
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Re: Beagling a vintage mold
Reply #6 - May 18th, 2024 at 10:44am
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What do Beagles have to do with molds?   Is this an old term I'm not familiar with? Huh
  

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calledflyer
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Re: Beagling a vintage mold
Reply #7 - May 18th, 2024 at 1:27pm
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I saw the idea on the internet somewhere. I never gave the fixed blocks any thought- tho I should have. In any event, the idea was not liked by my rifle but I don't recall if it was worse than the regular cast from those two molds or not. Either way the gun didn't care for that and I don't know what Winchester was doing when they made them so small. After all, mine was one of their barrels they didn't fit worth a ..........Anyone else have similar observations about the Winchester molds? They do cast nice bullets if they were fitted better.
  
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Re: Beagling a vintage mold
Reply #8 - May 21st, 2024 at 11:57am
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“beagle” is a screen name you’ll find on the Cast Boolits forum and similar places.  Beagle is a longtime bullet caster who lives in Central Ky and does very little machining himself, so he developed the aluminum tape method.  You can find exhaustive discussion of the method on the Cast Boolits forum.
Froggie
  
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Re: Beagling a vintage mold
Reply #9 - May 25th, 2024 at 9:29am
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I read somewhere that Winchester moulds were made to cast bullets that fit the nominal sized Winchester barrels without the need for sizing.  If one or the other was out of spec, there would, of course, be trouble.

My “32-165” Winchester mould casts at 0.321” diameter and is perfect for my off-spec Stevens 107 in .32-35, but doesn’t work in any of my .32-40s, including my one original Winchester barrel, which mostly seem to be ~0.323” groove diameter.  So I use other moulds for those.

“Accuracy,” of course, can be relative.  An oval casting that still fits the barrel will certainly be more accurate than an undersized bullet rattling down the bore.  It might even be “accurate enough” for some people, despite its out-of-roundness.
  
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calledflyer
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Re: Beagling a vintage mold
Reply #10 - May 25th, 2024 at 5:47pm
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that is exactly the case with my molds and barrel, Bent-Ramrod. The ol' barrel is an original and so are the molds. But, I sure had hopes when I first decided to actually use the molds instead of just looking at them as collectibles. Well, they are back to simple ornaments. Darn. My barrel likes .323 and does pretty well with some slugs a bit more.
  
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