From Now On ... I'm Gonna Get Smart

[John Boy]

Spent the better part of the afternoon and evening taking Bhn readings on a pile ingots that were not pure Pb. What a pain of an exercise and still have BIGGER PILES to determine. Even the WW's that ranged from 12-16 Bhn

From now on, any ingots are going to be marked with the date and Bhn reading to preclude all the UNKNOWNS that I had to determine!

[Lloyd Smale]

melt them all together and test one! Then from now on mark you lead. I just put ingots in 5 gallon pails with the date hardness and alloy marked on them.

[randyrat]

I did the same thing now i have a few buckets of unknown. So what i do i just mark them WWs and when i cast i weigh the first few bullets. I can always add a little tin or lino to the mix to lighten them up to keep my bullets consistant. I quit smelting pure lead, in the sheet form i know what it is and if i sell a little the value is the same and anyone can tell what it is. My method of madness may not be that greatest but if my bullets are not hard enough/ or questionable they can always go in the low velocity pile, Plinkin pile. I can see why i hord lead now, yesterday i cast a bunch of 230 gr 45s it sure uses some poundage. You guys that shoot those big bore 400-500 gr tranasaurus killer bullets must go thru some poundage of lead. I noticed myself looking more and more at those 45-70s when i look at guns i think they have a glow or something, kinda appealing, No No i refuse to save for one, i'm not looking at them anymore.

[VTDW]

randyrat,

There is a nice .444 at MarlinOwners right now for $350 bro. :)

[IcerUSA]

Hey randyrat, should have been at the range with me yesterday, nice day too, 50 rounds out of the RBH 44 Mag , only 240grainers tho, scope is sighted in, nice. :)
( 12,000 gns total )


Then we fired off the new to me 45-70 Marlin GG , 20 rounds of factory for a few cases to load , 405 grainers , shot well for me with open sights , she now has a cheap Simmons on top , now to get my cast boolits going in it , 405 gr RCBS RNFP GC boolit , this is going to be fun ya now :)
(8100 gns total )


And then we had to clean out 22 cases in the 444 Marlin , I do like this rifle , 310 gr Lee RNFP GC boolit , still want to try one more powder in this one before rifle deer season starts here in Michigan , and this one definitely like her loads a little hot to say the least :)
(6820 gns total )


( grand total for the day was 26920 gns + or - as I didn't weigh my boolits ) :)


Not a bad day at all , you should try it some time , lots-o-fun :)


Keith

[Sundogg1911]

I use a different style of Ingot mould for each of my "Standard" alloys (WW, Lino, and straight Pb) I can easily tell at a glance what I have. Some of my "Mystery Metal" gets marked with a sharpie. I used to use only the 1# Lyman ingot moulds (I have about 10 of them) until my shelf colapsed in the garage and I had to go through each one. Now if it's a 1 pound Lyman ingot I know it's Linotype :-)

[Misfire99]

Gee I and I thought this was going to be about shoe phones.

[Bret4207]

"Missed him by THAT much!"

[Nueces]

"Would you believe...?"

[Misfire99]

"Missed him by THAT much!"

Deer don't care how much you miss them by. ;-}

[shotstring]

I do the same thing Sundog. I use Saeco molds for WW, RCBS for lino and plan on using muffin cast iron mold for straight lead. Would like to get some of the old Lyman molds if I ever find a couple cheap enough. Tin I have in long ingots that our tin dealer here molded on angle iron, so no mixing them up with the others either. Makes life a lot simpler if you don't have to write anything down when you get old and senile like me. :killingpc

[mastercast.com]

I mark my various ingots/alloys with a set of metal stamps and a hammer. WW for wheelweight, L for linotype, P for pure, etc. It only takes a few seconds per ingot to mark them as they are cooling and you are waiting for the next load to melt down. Won't wipe off like the various "markers" do,(I used to do that too before I thought about using stamps.) and you can use all of your various ingot molds no matter what the shape to speed up the pouring/ production rate between melts as long as they are stamped to identify them.

That is what works best for me.