What is the best way to clean off flash from the base of my bullets? I had thought of using steel wool or fine emery paper but I'm afraid I'll get "stuff" imbedded in the lube.

I tried using a case deburring tool but it is too big.

If the flashing is bad, you need to look at correcting the mold. The soft aluminum Lee molds often have a burr along the cavity profile that can be removed by very careful work with a single-edge razor blade. The mold should close tightly enough that the worst thing you see are little teats at the air vents along the mold seam at the bullet edges. If you get an actual flat flashing all around the mold line of the bullet, then the mold isn’t closing completely, and the deburring should fix that or you might have some debris at the registration pin that has to be cleared away.

Also, you referred to the back of the bullet. If this is a base-pour mold (most common) you will normally see a short round stub where the sprue was cut off. You shouldn’t need to remove that, though adjusting the cutoff plate to get it as well-centered as possible is a good idea. If the flashing is around the bullet base, then either the sprue plate on the mold is too high and needs to be adjusted down, or if you are pressure-filling the cavities by snugging a bottom-pour spout down against the sprue plate, you can cause this. In th latter case, don't do that. Pour it in.

You might also be using the bottom-pour spout on your casting furnace to let alloy in at a velocity that forces it into the vent grooves. Adjust the flow from the bottom spout down a bit. You alos might try a ladle. Some casters swear there is no better way to get consistent results.

You can trim bullets with a razor, too, but it is easy to get them off balance, so avoid this if at all possible.

Nick

Thanks, Nick. I should have been more specific. These are "bought" bullets.

it doesn't sound like these are coming out of a quality mold. Might look to other bullets your next go-round. If the flash is not to bad the razor blade works good like Nick said.

Well, if not your's, then what I said applies to the caster's molds. Get on his case; that's just sloppy.

Assuming the flashing sticks out sideways, you could buy a Lee sizing die for the diameter you want and push these through it backward. That should flatten the flashing against the sides of the bullet and make them easier to load. You could push them frontways, but the tails sticking down are almost certainly going to come off in firing and land on your bore. Pushed up along the sides they may also come loose, though not as easily. I don't believe you will find cleaning after using these bullets a lot of fun, nor that they turn out to produce any accuracy miracles.

Nick

Ken,

One other thought: On some commercial cast bullets I've seen base flashing that was all on one side of the bullet. I believe that is caused by working the sprue cutter too soon after the pour, so it is really a form of smearing rather than flashing. Great for production rate, bad for bullet symmetry. If you've got that kind, then the razor is about the only recourse because the weight is off-center. Be aware that bullets dropped from the mold that soft may have other shape issues. You may want to check their lengths and cull any with uneven sizing die burnishing on the sides?

Nick