Cast my first boolits today

[texassako]

First time I have cast, and I think they came out pretty good. I am casting on a budget; so the lead was melted in a Palmer Hot Pot 2. They are 9.4 Dutch Revolver out of a 2 cavity brass mold from Old West Bullet Moulds. I preheated the mold on a Sylvania hot plate while the lead melted. All of them seemed to fill out from the start, and I was able to make 70 in about 30 minutes. Dropped at ~170gr and .382"; so I will probably just use them as cast since my bore is .381". It will be nice to try something closer to the original than resized .40 cal plated bullets.

[Trey45]

I wish my first cast boolits looked as good as those do.

Let us know how they shoot too!

[Walter Laich]

very nice job.

What are you going to use for lube?

[Wayne Smith]

Love to see pics of the revolver and the case as well as the boolits. They do look good.

[**oneshot**]

Looks good! Took me months to make them like that.

[ShooterAZ]

Very nice looking boolits indeed. My first casting was dozens upon dozens of wrinkled boolits because I didn't know to preheat the molds. Nice job.

[texassako]

Thanks for the compliments, I could not have done it without a lot of reading on here. Better than any book.


very nice job.

What are you going to use for lube?

The ones with smokeless are getting LLA as tumble lube since I have several of the small tubes that come with sizers. I don't know yet what I will use as lube for the ones I will try BP in since I am also new to loading that as well. Lots of recipes that I have few of the ingredients for. Pics of the cartridges with a .380 Auto for scale and the revolver. It is missing the lanyard, but it still shows the case colors. It is very smooth and well put together, and has an interesting safety device.

[UBER7MM]

texassako,

That looks like a fun project. Post photos of your ventilated targets when you get a chance.

Good shooting,

[Cherokee]

Nice job on the first try.

[Inkman]

First time I have cast, and I think they came out pretty good. I am casting on a budget; so the lead was melted in a Palmer Hot Pot 2. They are 9.4 Dutch Revolver out of a 2 cavity brass mold from Old West Bullet Moulds. I preheated the mold on a Sylvania hot plate while the lead melted. All of them seemed to fill out from the start, and I was able to make 70 in about 30 minutes. Dropped at ~170gr and .382"; so I will probably just use them as cast since my bore is .381". It will be nice to try something closer to the original than resized .40 cal plated bullets.

Awesome looking boolits Tex. Like others have said, much nicer than my first couple batches lol.

Al

[MikeS]

It took me quite a few batches before I got boolits that look that good!

[MBTcustom]

Cool aint it! Now your'e hooked.
Those actually look quite good. You must have done quite a bit of reading from the right sources. Kudos!

[Dutchman]

texassako - got a couple questions for you.

One on left is what I believe to be a 9.4mm Dutch cartridge. Can you give me some dimensions of your brass? Do you have any original cases? Rim thickness, rim diameter, head diameter, case length? What are you using for a cartridge case donor? I figured .41 Magnum would be the closest. These are smokeless guns. The 9.4mm Dutch would be around the same power level as .38 S&W. Bore diameter of mine is same as yours, .382".

Can you show all the markings on your revolver?

(cartridge on right is 10.4mm Italian blank)

http://images58.fotki.com/v511/photos/2/28344/3886627/blank3-vi.jpg

Mine is a Belgian 5 shooter by (pretty sure) August Francotti. This revolver also has a safety lever on the left side but is not a military or police revolver. Matter o'fact it came with a rather interesting narrative which I'll include below. The revolver was mounted in a shadow box with that one single cartridge and this narrative stuck on the back. When ebay allowed guns...I bought this off ebay.

http://images109.fotki.com/v78/photos/2/28344/157842/belgie1-vi.jpg

"Ireland, 1907

The two British soldiers had been manning the road
check station for the last three hours. They were
awakened very early and driven from their barracks
to the point. As the sun warmed them, they began to
get drowsy. The taller of the two leaned against
a tree and nodded.
Byron O'Malley, looked at his pistol and then at
the soldier leaning against the tree a few feet
away. His hand shook but his aim was good. The
soldier's head pitched forward and the young man
was dead as he fell to the ground. Byron ran thru
the woods, "My God, what have I done?" blurred
everything else from his mind, as he made good his
escape. For the rest of his life Byron kept this
pistol and his memory, and the firm belief he
acted for his country."

[Dutchman]

Note:

The Handgun by Boothroyd:

"The 9.4mm cartridge was also used in the Luxemburger Gendarmerie revolver under the synonym 9.85x20.8mm".

I had not recalled seeing a metric case length for this cartridge. My single 9.4mm cartridge is buried in a box at the moment.

See:

http://www.littlegun.be/arme%20belge/artisans%20identifies%20ma/a%20marechal%20joseph%20gb.htm

Cartridge drawing with dimensions:
http://en.valka.cz/viewtopic.php/t/19808

[Dutchman]

Scroll down. They have one like yours...

http://www.coreden-sterling.co.uk/page04.html

Double Action (Cobold) Revolver in 9.4mm Dutch Calibre

Of a type issued to police, postmen and some service people, the top strap bears the Dutch motto 'Je maintiendrai' and the name of 'Joh Munts Amsterdam.'

The gun is Belgian, made by Marechal, but with Dutch proofs and features the unique (Cobold) pivoting safety lever which engages a chamber in the cylinder. This type of safety is not perhaps too aesthetically pleasing - but was very practical. Unlike the more sophisticated safety shown in the 'Bird's head' Cobold above, this safety could be released with the firing hand, and showed clearly whether it was on or off.
During part of the time these guns were in use on the continent there was a law stating that prior to firing a live round at a miscreant, two blanks had to be fired. Obviously it was important to know which chambers held the blanks, and this safety enabled the cylinder to be locked in a position that ensured, when it was released, that the first two shots were blanks. Some of these guns included stampings on the cylinder denoting the chambers to be used for the blanks.

The loading gate pivots to the rear.

The gun has a 'square' butt rather than a 'bird's head' grip and a nice touch is the spring loaded ejector rod, which when pulled out of its housing springs into correct alignment with the chamber. It has a shiny bore with strong rifling.

Overall length 7.5" Barrel length 3.25"

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Hlo Texassako, Now you are afflected with the curse of the silver stream...good casting

[texassako]

texassako - got a couple questions for you.

One on left is what I believe to be a 9.4mm Dutch cartridge. Can you give me some dimensions of your brass? Do you have any original cases? Rim thickness, rim diameter, head diameter, case length? What are you using for a cartridge case donor? I figured .41 Magnum would be the closest. These are smokeless guns. The 9.4mm Dutch would be around the same power level as .38 S&W. Bore diameter of mine is same as yours, .382".

Can you show all the markings on your revolver?



I do not have any original brass, only what comes out of my CH dies made from .41 Magnum brass. It gives it a slight shoulder because the original tapers its entire length. I started with formed 9.4 Dutch brass from Buffalo Arms. Loaded the last 20 with 16 gr of FFFG and some homemade beeswax/crisco lube to try the proper loads, since it is a BP proofed gun.

In the pics, the top strap says Je Maintiendrai(I Will Keep in French) over Joh. Munts Amsterdam, right side is a crown over R and * over O, left side is serial and J. Marechal over Cheratte, and right above the grip is the Munts lion. The LP on the cylinder is Losse Patroon in Dutch, or blank cartridge in English. I could not get a clear pic of the other side of the cylinder with a crown over L, * over O, and the spangled ELG in a crowned oval.

[texassako]

I took it to the range today, and never realized how messy BP in a revolver could be. I went prepared with some cleaning supplies at least. The BP loads were a bit to hot with 16gr of Graf FFFg, but they were the only ones with anything resembling accuracy except a 3gr Unique load.

Update: The BP fouling cleaned up faster than the Ruger Securtiy Six I took along with it, and the barrel even cleaned out better than before to a mirror with only a couple of patches.

[HangFireW8]

In the pics, the top strap says Je Maintiendrai(I Will Keep in French) over Joh. Munts Amsterdam, right side is a crown over R and * over O, left side is serial and J. Marechal over Cheratte, and right above the grip is the Munts lion. The LP on the cylinder is Losse Patroon in Dutch, or blank cartridge in English. I could not get a clear pic of the other side of the cylinder with a crown over L, * over O, and the spangled ELG in a crowned oval.

If the cylinder is marked for blank cartridge, is it also proofed for firing real ammunition?

HF

[texassako]

If the cylinder is marked for blank cartridge, is it also proofed for firing real ammunition?

HF

Yes, it is proofed for real ammunition. It has the Liege BP proofs on it. The cylinder marking is to identify where the blank goes as there were laws in Europe at the time that required firing a blank or 2 before you shoot someone. There were even some that required a shot shell next to see if they would run away.

[HangFireW8]

Yes, it is proofed for real ammunition. It has the Liege BP proofs on it. The cylinder marking is to identify where the blank goes as there were laws in Europe at the time that required firing a blank or 2 before you shoot someone. There were even some that required a shot shell next to see if they would run away.

Wow. Just wow.

I learn something every day. Well, on good days.

HF