First cast

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I made 20 or so Lee R.E.A.L 50 cal 250 gr boolits for the MZLDR sunday

learned so far i like making them but need a better pot , and laddle

and i need a pot to smelt down and clean up my lead doing it in tiny batches stinks lets just say what i used thus far was very make shift and cumbersome but basicaly free

also my boolits have a wrinkly nose it got better twards the end i figure cold mold and if i had kept going i could have gotten them better that and if i had any idea how hot my lead was other than melted

had no problem getting them to drop fro the mold somtimes they took a tap from the stick i used to knock the spru plate open

so after stopping of at Gander mountain yesterday and pricing round balls , sabots and the non existance of the conicals i have been using i concluded
i need to order up some equiptment

and another question when you smelt and use the sloted spoon to remover the clips and crud what kind of laddle do you use to get the lead to the ingots what holds 1 , 2 , 3 ,4 , or 5 pounds at a time

[Hickory]

Better equipment is always good.
I presume you are using pure lead
pure lead need more heat to melt and
to cast a good boolit

When you get your next deer with boolits
you cast, it's a good feeling.

Welcome to our site.

[RRaider806]

If your anything like me and I guess most everyone is you want to save some money with this hobby. I have a Lee production pot that i got for $50 a Lee Ladle and Lee Ingot mold all told for about $75 from Track of the Wolf. I know that Gander Mountain has the Lee pots in the fishing department for casting sinkers. They also have pure lead over there next to the fishing molds. Its something like a 2 pound string of it for about $8. I bought some cheap spoons from walmart for like a dollar. I imagine you could get a large ladle from there as well to cast your ingots. Just make sure to heat it up so the lead doesn't stick.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

not exactly pure lead it was about half stick on WW and half WW with clips

on the R.E.A.Ls only the front band engadges the rifling , they push in with the same preasure as the conicals i was using

i pulled my breach plug out and ran one down then checked it all the lands engage the forward band

it is only a single cavity mold so they don't go real fast but it didn't take very long

[rhbrink]

Welcome GREENCOUNTRYPETE there is much to learn but that is part of the fun. On a big mold with soft lead you really want that lead hot and you need some flux that will help the boolits fillout too. I don't know how much you know about using boolits in a muzzleloader but you need some lube on them when you shoot them too. You may already know this but I have ran into people that did not and that turned into a ugly deal, lots of lead up and down the barrel took a while to clean it out.

[mooman76]

When I made ingot, I used a small juice can and pliers to pour the lead. You can get a big ladle from a $ store too. You don't have to get fancy if you don't want.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

Thanks for the welcome
muzzel loading , yes i do know about using lube , i am using my home made lube here is my not so secret formula VT3BW 3 parts rendered venison tallow to one part bees wax

it is good for when you fingers crack also but a little greasy.

lead melting , some thingsi read say Wheel Weights can be treated as lead not pure but close enough in brill hardness that it can be used , others say nothing but pure lead

it seams to me that if a harder alloy works fine in a barrel that is breach loaded at higher velocities that at slower velocities with less preasure from a slower burning lower preasure powder , and a boolit sized and fitted to the bore at loading that it should be no issue at all
other than it's difficulty to load

my store bought load a 50 cal hornady 410 gr flat nose great pains bullet on top of 90gr 777

that just happened to be what i started with it was a recomended loading for the bullet and nicly accurate about 3 inches low at 100 for my 50 yard zero

i shoot this from a NEF huntsman

it's not a traditional ML but a nice hunting gun and deer haven't noticed it wasn't traditional and refused to die so it works for me some day in the future maybe a side lock.

but the 410 flatnose was discontinued then i used a 395 hollow point and now i can't find that either

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

When I made ingot, I used a small juice can and pliers to pour the lead. You can get a big ladle from a $ store too. You don't have to get fancy if you don't want.

i was using a tuna can , pliers , welding gloves , and a Map torch it worked ok

but i would like a larger pot , been looking for cast iron , i see lodge has a sauce pot about a pint with a ladle like shape for 10 bucks at the local store that might make a good ingot laddle with a added 2 hand wood handle or a decent small melting pot but the 5 bucks for the lee ladle seems like it is probably worth it to get an easier pour into a boolit mold.


cast iron skillets are easy to come buy but the deeper cast iron is not so easy to find on the cheap

[mooman76]

Check out the yard sales and thrift stores. A steel pot will work too but I like a thick pot and some make them out of steel containers like empty propane. Like stated, crank up the heat and it will help with fill out. I used reclaimed range lead (about the same as WWmix with soft)for REALs. Thats all I had at the time and it worked well. Just had a sore palm pounding them in. If that's what you have then thats what you have. Some still swear you get lousy acuracy with WW RBs but those have never tried. I can't tell the difference myself. The qt pot I had was just for regular boolits. It holds at least 20#. I had a 3 qt pot for smelting.

[boommer]

ALL you need is a turkey fryer base and any steel base pot (ammo can, steel house pot,cast Iron) dosn't matter but aluminum pots are a no- no, but can work, but a fine line.
somebody you know should have a base that you can use, it's not like you can hurt it
this is all it takes to to get you smelting very basic stuff.

[idahoron]

First welcome. I have played with lead hardness quite a bit. I have a hardness tester and a lot of lead to play with. Clip on WW's are too hard for REAL bullets. Most guns would need a hammer to seat them. My 50 CAL real drops out at .517 at the top band if I remember right. The stick on WW's are good but a little harder than pure. On my Cabine tree tester it has a dial indicator. I like it to read .032 to .038 that gives me a bullet that is harder than pure but loads easy. The accuracy with this slightly harder bullet is MUCH better than with pure lead.
I like the Hornady 410's for one of my Rifles. I saw where they were going and got 30 boxes of bullets for that rifle. When they are gone I will use my Paper Patched 500 S&W bullets for that gun too. Ron

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

the lp tank is a good idea , i will have to check and see if the farm store has any they can't fill , maybe i can do them the service of getting them out of thier yard.

remove valve fill with water then cut at given depth easy enough


i also find it hard to belive that with a .490 round ball there were would be any signifigant differance between pure lead or WW since the patch has all the bore contact

[idahoron]

I think that a lot of guys do use WW for PRB's I don't know how well they shoot I don't shoot PRB's. I know that when I tested Paper patching conicals the clip on ww's didn't shoot that well. Ron