Castboolits.gunloads.com = positive effect.

[MBTcustom]

I cast for years and didn't worry about frosty boolits, a wrinkle here or there, or anything. Just woop 'em out and run 'em through my favorite hole-punch. This morning I cast up a bunch and I was culling them out and I was bummed that my consistency was so bad. I had a whole 1.5grain spread in my boolit weights. I culled out all but the ones that weighed within .4 grains of each other, then culled again by appearance.
As I was going along there was a moment where I just stopped and looked at my set-up and took stock of all the changes that have happened to my setup since I found castbolits.com
My pot is full of an alloy that I know exactly what is in it. It has been tested for elemental content and it was designed by me.
The pot has a thermometer sticking out of it, keeping me informed on the exact temperature of my alloy.
The lead is covered by sawdust, actively fluxing the mix as I cast.
My new mold has no smoke or spray on "mold release" It is clean and sharp, properly treated with Bull-plate.
My right hand is gloved and no timber has ever hit this mold to cut the sprue. It is treated gently to render a lifetime of faithful service.
The boolits are weighed and sorted using an electronic scale.
When the good ones have been found, they are rolled gently in a tub with a few drops of 45/45/10 and layed out on wax paper to dry.
Above the pot on the shelf sits a bowl of Hornady gas-checks. Properly annealed and ready to go. Soon they will be installed on the bases of these fine rifle boolits, by being pushed through a custom made Lee push-through die that will make them exactly .0015 larger than the groove diameter of my favorite rifle.
Next to the gas-checks is a block of Felix lube carefully prepared for this application.
As I survey my set-up and go through the steps in my mind, I think about whether or not I should paper patch these boolits someday. It would be good to try.
The die set for this rifle has a special M die to properly seat the boolits in the cases.
The cases themselves have been trimmed to length, the primer pockets have been deburred, and the necks have been annealed, ready to go.
All of these details have been learned here by reading about the mistakes and victories of countless members, both from the experts and those who are becoming experts. :wink:
Yes, this is a far cry from the way I did things a few years ago. Only shooting boolits through pistols, and wondering why I sometimes didn't get the accuracy that I expected.
Thank you to all the members here who quit lurking and joined up to ask a question. Thanks to Ken for sticking himself out there and getting this great site started.
Thanks to our brothers in Australia, new Zealand, England, and Europe. I have learned from all of you.
Even after all of this, I know that I have only scratched the surface of what there is to learn, but in the company of such generous and kind booleteers as we have here, I am confident that in another two years, my setup will be as different then as it is now and I will be a better rifleman for it.
Take care everybody!

[geargnasher]

Ditto here.

Reminds me of a line from an Indigo Girls song: "Every five years or so I look back on my life---and I have a good laugh!".

Gear

[45-70 Chevroner]

What caliber and weight boolit are you talking about. If I am casting large boolits such as 45-70 or large pistol boolits like 44 or 45 and even 357 boolits 1.5 grs. is not a problem for me. I will do a random weight check to see if they are all pretty close in weight and if they are, all I do is a visual check for imperfections load them and shoot. For rifle caliber in the 38-55 and smaller I like to weigh them to with in + or - .5 gr.

[MBTcustom]

Balderdash! I keep my 540 grain 45s within .8 grains!
The boolits I was casting today were 206 grain RCBS 35-200-FN. The range of acceptability was 205.9 - 206.3.
OK I suppose I was being picky, but by doing it that way, I can throw 20 shots through a 1.25" hole at 50 yards. I dont know what it is about the RCBS, but my Accurate 36-210A wont do that yet.
Tell you the truth, next time I have a casting session, I'm going to throw all the rejects into a bucket and load them in the 357Mag.

[popper]

You anneal factory GCs? Home made I can see, especially aluminum ones. I figure the factory anneals them to reduce wear on the stamping tool. Does it make a difference?

[geargnasher]

The "factory" doesn't anneal them, in fact they are pretty work-hardened, probably left that way on purpose. Annealing can, in some instances, improve accuracy.

Gear

[MBTcustom]

You can see for yourself. Anneal 10 gas checks (Just heat them red hot with a torch while they are cup down on a cast iron skillet or something and let them cool). Install them on the bases of 10 boolits. Check 10 more boolits with regular gas checks. You will feel the difference as you size them. Go to the range and shoot two targets 10 in one and 10 in the other. For me, the results spoke for themselves.

[462]

Good write up, Goodsteel.

It's much too late, but I should have paid as much attention in school as I have here. Or, could it be that the subjects and the teachers weren't as interesting?

[Harter66]

boy me too . I found some I cast about 3yr ago ........uuugllllyyy, i sure shot a bunch of those though.

I ust read a post from a fellow working on a lube and having horrible leading w/it . reminded me of the fits and kittens w/a certain 32cal rifle . A 8mm expander solved all the issues .....funny how 1/1000 will do that.

[MikeS]

It's amazing when you look back at where you were, and where you are now. 25 years ago if anyone had told me I'd be where I am now I wouldn't have believed it. Even 15 years ago my supposed future was much different than it turned out to be! Life has a way of not listening to what you want, and instead gives you what it wants! The one thing I've learned over the years is to never say never!

Thanks to this site, my boolit casting education proceeded at a much faster pace than it would have if I was doing this all by myself, and reading the stuff available on the net, and/or YouTube videos. I've learned stuff from many many members of this site, even ones I've argued with in the past! Thanks again everyone!

[cajun shooter]

Mike S, I'm sure that you know that many of the videos on You Tube and others like it are filled with false facts also.
You do need a standard to go by and not take it all to be fact.
As Will Rogers said, Don't believe anything you read and only half of what you see. Take Care David

[Frosty Boolit]

I never worry about frosty boolits either!

[Grandpas50AE]

Goodsteel, I think you have eloquently expressed what many of us feel after being on this site for a while. I spent a lot of years making boolits that shot well, but have ruined a few molds years ago by casting too hot or too fast or both. I have learned much here that I would have liked to have been learning 30+ years ago, but life is what it is. I pleases me greatly to see the younger/newer shooters come here and avoid the years of mistakes and frustration that some of us went through before the internet et al. Great post Goodsteel.

[Ola]

boy me too . I found some I cast about 3yr ago ........uuugllllyyy, i sure shot a bunch of those though.

Lately I've been saving my ignots and feeding my pot with bullets..

[lbaize3]

+1 on Granpas50AE!

[Blammer]

you just need some Gator checks, and then you'll be 100% cast boolit certified. :)

[Doc Highwall]

Well said Goodsteel.
I noticed you have a new avatar also.

[MBTcustom]

Yeah, I got all duded up for a Lodge meeting and the wife took my picture. Figured it would fool folks into thinking I had class or something.

[jandbn]

If it wasn't for castboolits.gunloads.com, I would still be clueless about all aspects of boolits and also never have bought Ruger Bisley in 45 Colt. Instead, I would have bought a SBH like I had 20 years ago when I quit shooting until recently and still be shooting j-words. CB is a place to learn what amounts to almost a college level education (with a secondary education in debate :razz: ).

I started lurking here three years ago as a kindergartner to begin my education. With CB members holding class and providing the book learning, I poured my first boolit last October and then put them into the berm at Thanksgiving. Now I suppose I could say I've graduated to third grade. It took a while to learn in order to be able to do what I've accomplished so far, but with the help of all the tutors here, I hope I can graduate my CB education with honors! Long way to go though...

[geargnasher]

I got to thinking, there is another really positive effect of this site and this hobby: It keeps some of us out of bars and away from cheap (or expensive) women!

Gear

[MikeS]

Mike S, I'm sure that you know that many of the videos on You Tube and others like it are filled with false facts also.
You do need a standard to go by and not take it all to be fact.
As Will Rogers said, Don't believe anything you read and only half of what you see. Take Care David

WHAT?? Say it ain't so. Everyone knows if it's in video it has to be correct! Just like everyone knows that if it's on the news, it's true, newsmen would NEVER lie, or have a bias at all! There's no such thing as a liberal reporter!

And if I believed all that, I probably would be the proud owner of a few bridges, or at least one bridge a few times over. The problem is that there ARE people that think that if somebody is doing something, and making a video of it, they must known what they're doing, and so it must be right.

I don't recall what the conversation was about, but I was talking to one person about boolit casting, and when I said something about keeping the lead 100 degrees over liquidus, and using a wood based flux, the other person said something to the effect of "Oh, you read those jerks on Cast Boolits?" and my reply was that I'm one of those jerks, and that he should "Have a nice day" and I walked away from them.

[MikeS]

I got to thinking, there is another really positive effect of this site and this hobby: It keeps some of us out of bars and away from cheap (or expensive) women!

Gear

When I lived in TN, they had 3 ***** houses, 2 chicken fighting arenas, and 1100 churches in the county I lived in. I had started a taxi company there, and even after I closed it, I kept a deal I made with one of the houses to go to Knoxville (50 miles west of town) to pickup or take the girls to the bus station. As I was one of the few males many of them knew in town NOT as a customer (of theirs) I was on friendly terms with many of them, and I'll never forget, this one girl, when she was in town would always go to church on Sunday (sometimes different churches too), and once I asked her if she was religious, and when she said no, I asked why she always went to church, and she said "Well, the pastor gave me his business, so I'm giving him mine!"

That's just one of the many stories from when I lived there. I would love to move back up there, even tho they closed down the houses, fighting arenas, and locked up more than half the police dept. as well!

They still have a general attitude that I like, and miss. Down here I have a policy of never going anywhere wearing clothes I wouldn't be comfortable wearing in jail. up there I've had cops apologize for pulling me over! Big difference in law enforcement attitudes. Once when I had a roommate that was into listening to police scanners, we heard them dispatch an officier to a domestic dispute (this is up in TN), about 4 minutes later they called the officier to advise that "Shots have been fired", and his response was "Ok, I'll be careful" Down here, Shots Fired would require dispatching a dozen more officiers, up there they just advised the single deputy!

[MBTcustom]

Again, positive effect.
I started casting big roundballs for my shotgun. New molds on lone from a member here. I was getting wrinkles and poor fill out. I did'nt miss a beat, just turned up the heat from 650 to 700.
I recently whipped out my Lee 6 cavity RN 230 grain mold. I have not cast with this one since I have been on here. First thing I did was scrub off the "mold release paint" from the cavities. Next I shot it out with carb cleaner.
Then I lubed it with bull-plate.
As I proceeded to drop over 1000 boolits in the next 2.5 hours, I remembered that my boolits used to be all frosty out of this mold, I just smiled as I kept dropping shiny, perfect boolits again and again.

Perfect.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Goodsteel: you have witnessed the power of "brain-storming"

The process is all about exposing as much knowledge about a certain topic as possible and then weeding out the BS. That's kind of how it works here.

Great success can be had by this process as witnessed by your progress up the food chain of boolit casting.

I would not have even achieved "mediocre" results without this site.

My current ammunition is the best I have ever made, and is getting better every time I load.

I also have quite a few new friends as a result.

It's all good!

Randy

[MBTcustom]

Dang right.

[Bullet Caster]

I agree. If it had not been for this site I'd still be contemplating casting and not "doing" it for real. The information gained from this site is invaluable. I probably would have blown up a gun had it not been for this site. I try to visit this site at least once a day to view all the new posts. I have certainly gained a college degree on casting boolits. BC

[MBTcustom]

I try to visit this site at least once a day to view all the new posts.
Really? I try not to visit this sight several times a day and I just cant seem to get any traction on that.
My wife has found that castboolit merchandise makes great Christmas and birthday gifts. I drink my coffee every morning out of a cast boolits cup, I have the castboolits mouse pad, and the castboolits bumper sticker. I realy want the castboolits shop apron too, and I wish they would make a castboolits wrist or pocketwatch. I'd be all over that like flies on roadkill.

[looseprojectile]

need to post this but it struck me when Goodsteel made the comment about our members in other countries.
What ran through my head is why do we not have members in some of the other countries? Say like South American nations and Japan and China and Cuba and Russia and India and on and on. Some of you may remember Ferfal and his commentary? I don't think he was a member here.

The main reason is that The USA is the most gun lenient Country in the world and the foremost gun friendly. You can guess which Countries are not by the lack of members from those.
We here are so lucky to have the freedoms that we enjoy and I hope that these freedoms are an example that those in other Countries can aspire to and get.

I have been to the far east and a lot of those people are just as gun crazy as I am and they can't touch a real gun.

Most of us can thank our lucky stars that we were born in about 46 of the 50 States of the USA and the best we can do is try to share as much as we can with those that were not.
Example! There are over seventy thousand cops in New York City. Can you imagine what just their bill for factory ammo is? You would think just a few of those cops would love to shoot more and reload ammo. Laws, restrictions?

Leaders, laws, legislation and geography can not make us different people!


Life is good

[Frank]

It has made a positive impact! :drinks:

[MtGun44]

"filled with false facts"------- if it is false, it is not a fact. If it is a fact, it is not false.

Nonsense phrase.

Bill

[1bluehorse]

I got to thinking, there is another really positive effect of this site and this hobby: It keeps some of us out of bars and away from cheap (or expensive) women!

Gear

and the positive side of this would be ????????? [smilie=1:

[cbrick]

It keeps some of us out of bars and away from cheap (or expensive) women! Gear

Nothing cheap about them when you consider how tremendously expensive a divorce is. :holysheep

Rick

[waksupi]

The last time I looked, I believe there were members from 26 countries signed on here.