rbertalotto
10-29-2011, 03:35 PM
The weather here in SE New England is simply horrible.........So rule #2 goes into effect.....
#1 You should be shooting your guns
#2 If you can't do rule #1 you should be reloading / casting
#3 If you can't do #1 or #2 you should be fondling - cleaning your firearms
#4 if you can't do #1, #2 or #3, you should be reading about guns
#5 Etc..........
So anyways! I recently got involved in Cowboy Action Shooting. I plan on using my 45LC Ruger New Model Vaqueros. I usually use a 255 grain boolit for plinking out of these revolvers, but I think this might be overkill and a bit more recoil than needed. I ordered up a LEE #90697, 452-200RF. I figured a 200 gr boolit would lessen the recoil and allow quicker recovery and faster times.
Most of my casting is for 45-70 with very large boolits. 500-535g. With these little 200g pills, I was spilling lead all over the place at first. The cavities fill up fast!
The LEE mold I bought is a 6 cavity and it was dropping perfect boolits from the get-go. Very pleased. But these aluminum molds tend to get quite hot and then I was getting the dreaded frosty boolits. So I dug out my 255g six cavity mold and started rotating them.
My PID kept my lead at exactly 665 degrees and I'd do two casts of one mold (12 boolits) and two casts of the other while the first mold sat on a piece of steel cooling a bit.
The boolits started popping out like crazy. Nice, shinny, perfect little projectiles.
These LEE 6 cavity molds are so inexpensive I'm going to double up on both of them so I can cast only one type of boolit if needed.
The second thing I learned is that LEE Alox works much better if you put a tablespoon full of mineral spirits in the bottle with an old bolt to act as an agitator and shake it up. Flows beautifully and puts a nice even coat on the boolits.
So that's if from here........Time to go do some fondling!
#1 You should be shooting your guns
#2 If you can't do rule #1 you should be reloading / casting
#3 If you can't do #1 or #2 you should be fondling - cleaning your firearms
#4 if you can't do #1, #2 or #3, you should be reading about guns
#5 Etc..........
So anyways! I recently got involved in Cowboy Action Shooting. I plan on using my 45LC Ruger New Model Vaqueros. I usually use a 255 grain boolit for plinking out of these revolvers, but I think this might be overkill and a bit more recoil than needed. I ordered up a LEE #90697, 452-200RF. I figured a 200 gr boolit would lessen the recoil and allow quicker recovery and faster times.
Most of my casting is for 45-70 with very large boolits. 500-535g. With these little 200g pills, I was spilling lead all over the place at first. The cavities fill up fast!
The LEE mold I bought is a 6 cavity and it was dropping perfect boolits from the get-go. Very pleased. But these aluminum molds tend to get quite hot and then I was getting the dreaded frosty boolits. So I dug out my 255g six cavity mold and started rotating them.
My PID kept my lead at exactly 665 degrees and I'd do two casts of one mold (12 boolits) and two casts of the other while the first mold sat on a piece of steel cooling a bit.
The boolits started popping out like crazy. Nice, shinny, perfect little projectiles.
These LEE 6 cavity molds are so inexpensive I'm going to double up on both of them so I can cast only one type of boolit if needed.
The second thing I learned is that LEE Alox works much better if you put a tablespoon full of mineral spirits in the bottle with an old bolt to act as an agitator and shake it up. Flows beautifully and puts a nice even coat on the boolits.
So that's if from here........Time to go do some fondling!