Digital Dan
06-11-2014, 03:05 PM
Been visiting this site for some time and recently began to post now and again. Reading more than contributing and stealing the nuggets of insight for my own enterprises and there have been more than a few.
Started casting a few years ago, feeding a couple of BP bench guns, one of .40 caliber the other of .50 caliber. I backed into the high end of the art without knowing it at the time and it seemed perfectly normal to me then. Ignorance is bliss, really and truly. Early on I ran a batch of bullets for the .40 and had some discussion with some gurus of that black art. My weight distribution was on the order of .3% of 350 grains, or about 1.05 grains for 50 bullets. I was immediately brutalized for my liberal ways and informed that an acceptable spread for that sample was .3 grains. Wow. That hurt my feelers.
It was however an achievable objective and not that difficult to reach, or at least get close enough that weighing and sorting left me with not too many culls. It is with such diligence that archaic guns can challenge new fangled contraptions at surprisingly long ranges. It was about a year later when I began feeding my .25-20 Win. Etc., etc, etc, etc. Part and parcel of that was increasingly frequent visits to this site and a few other select sites which cater to the black art of bullet casting.
I think I've been here long enough to start sorting out the personality of the site and flow with some of the more active members. Certainly long enough to irritate a few, that's easy enough to do, hey? The reason I'm posting what follows is simple and relates directly to the on again, off again agony proselytized by dogmatic contention over issues that, in my opinion, are largely irrelevant to most of us. It is not that each side of the debate is wrong, because they aren't. Not even a little bit. If anything, they are mutually supportive if the objective is to produce cast bullets capable of performance equal to modern production. Yes, I mean jacketed bullets. I am not afraid of that turn of phrase any more than a Stephen King novel. The question however, is do I want to chase that ant? For me, personally, the answer is no, and here's why:
The slug guns are fairly large bore muzzle loaders which use false muzzles. One uses cross strip paper patch and both use pure lead or very thin lead/tin alloy, this on the order of 60:1. This class of firearm is typically large bore, the bullets are heavy but the twists slow. 14-18" twists probably serve 90% or more of the class and a 16" twist probably does over 60% by itself. Velocity is commonly in the range of high subsonic at the muzzle and targets are anywhere from 200 yards and up. Bullet fit in the throat, concentricity and rpm are not issues.
The other iteration of casting that I do stems from several circumstances of late. I can, with the assistance of a melting pot and ladle, feed guns for which ammo is either not available or readily available. Some are not beset by the issue mentioned previously by my own choosing and others, largely by their nature. Black powder cartridges do not spin quickly. For repeaters there are necessary considerations of fit that might not allow for the same complimentary geometry as smokeless guns and fodder. This is not to say they can't shoot well, but it is a different sort of ant being chased here, not the 3,000 fps version. In some cases even the smokeless cartridges do not generate a lot of theatrics or velocity and they shoot well without a convoluted dress rehearsal. Lastly, loading cast bullets is cheaper than any other alternative, to include the lowly .22 RF in many circumstances of late. Anyone priced a box of top end .22 match ammo from Yurp lately. Holy Cows...
And my flint lock can shoot most anything that fits reasonably well, to include marbles, so there.
So, in the spirit of making a long post longer....
I started shooting in the '50s with a Benjamin air rifle. It was followed by a .410 H&R Topper (Geesh, I wish they still made them that well) and so on and so forth. Before I ever owned a "real" rifle the Big Green Machine gave me a M-16 and a Minigun, assigned me to the Group W Bench and said "You're our boy!" After a spell in the tropics I was offered a 3 screw Blackhawk, holster and a ton of reloading equipment for a paltry $125.00. Sold! It was the start of an attack on my financial well being that rages even today and for which a vaccination remains non-existent. I struggle to bear such burdens but have not given up hope.
One of the whims that struck me about 16 years ago was having a .22 short shooter. Seemed like the perfect tool for squirrel, and it is. It is also close to perfect for hogs, but I'd actually prefer a repeater than a single shot. It is, nonetheless, one of but 4 guns I do not reload, all .22 RF shooters. The others range from .17-.50 caliber, use lead bullets, shot or jacketed bullets as I deem appropriate. My passion for chasing the HV ant with jacketed bullets has waned of late, not because of need, but more of desire and understanding what can be done with more pedestrian loads and lead bullets. There is a stuck thread here that proclaims something to the effect that cast bullets are the best....well, I agree to large degree, but there are places I won't go with cast bullets. Not so much because I can't, but rather that I am not willing to reinvent the wheel. I can whack anything that walks in North America and most to the world with average cast bullets. Not everything, just most of it. I'm not interested in building cast bullet ammo for autoloaders or for that matter, belt fed guns. That ant runs on rocket fuel...
I don't have to build bullets that I can drive at warp speed to hit my target. I do not have to build bullets capable of minute of gnats *** for most of my guns. Soft lead driven and pedestrian velocity will kill anything if well placed...ask the buffalo or better yet, Billy Dixon.
By now you're probably wondering if there's any point to this? Well, yes.
The point is that this is a very useful website that we all profit from in many ways. We profit from the contributions, not the acrimony. I have disagreed with internet dogma more than once, but it is rarely productive to address that with a hammer. My dogma on this is simple: Everyone knows something I don't.
That is all,
Dan
Started casting a few years ago, feeding a couple of BP bench guns, one of .40 caliber the other of .50 caliber. I backed into the high end of the art without knowing it at the time and it seemed perfectly normal to me then. Ignorance is bliss, really and truly. Early on I ran a batch of bullets for the .40 and had some discussion with some gurus of that black art. My weight distribution was on the order of .3% of 350 grains, or about 1.05 grains for 50 bullets. I was immediately brutalized for my liberal ways and informed that an acceptable spread for that sample was .3 grains. Wow. That hurt my feelers.
It was however an achievable objective and not that difficult to reach, or at least get close enough that weighing and sorting left me with not too many culls. It is with such diligence that archaic guns can challenge new fangled contraptions at surprisingly long ranges. It was about a year later when I began feeding my .25-20 Win. Etc., etc, etc, etc. Part and parcel of that was increasingly frequent visits to this site and a few other select sites which cater to the black art of bullet casting.
I think I've been here long enough to start sorting out the personality of the site and flow with some of the more active members. Certainly long enough to irritate a few, that's easy enough to do, hey? The reason I'm posting what follows is simple and relates directly to the on again, off again agony proselytized by dogmatic contention over issues that, in my opinion, are largely irrelevant to most of us. It is not that each side of the debate is wrong, because they aren't. Not even a little bit. If anything, they are mutually supportive if the objective is to produce cast bullets capable of performance equal to modern production. Yes, I mean jacketed bullets. I am not afraid of that turn of phrase any more than a Stephen King novel. The question however, is do I want to chase that ant? For me, personally, the answer is no, and here's why:
The slug guns are fairly large bore muzzle loaders which use false muzzles. One uses cross strip paper patch and both use pure lead or very thin lead/tin alloy, this on the order of 60:1. This class of firearm is typically large bore, the bullets are heavy but the twists slow. 14-18" twists probably serve 90% or more of the class and a 16" twist probably does over 60% by itself. Velocity is commonly in the range of high subsonic at the muzzle and targets are anywhere from 200 yards and up. Bullet fit in the throat, concentricity and rpm are not issues.
The other iteration of casting that I do stems from several circumstances of late. I can, with the assistance of a melting pot and ladle, feed guns for which ammo is either not available or readily available. Some are not beset by the issue mentioned previously by my own choosing and others, largely by their nature. Black powder cartridges do not spin quickly. For repeaters there are necessary considerations of fit that might not allow for the same complimentary geometry as smokeless guns and fodder. This is not to say they can't shoot well, but it is a different sort of ant being chased here, not the 3,000 fps version. In some cases even the smokeless cartridges do not generate a lot of theatrics or velocity and they shoot well without a convoluted dress rehearsal. Lastly, loading cast bullets is cheaper than any other alternative, to include the lowly .22 RF in many circumstances of late. Anyone priced a box of top end .22 match ammo from Yurp lately. Holy Cows...
And my flint lock can shoot most anything that fits reasonably well, to include marbles, so there.
So, in the spirit of making a long post longer....
I started shooting in the '50s with a Benjamin air rifle. It was followed by a .410 H&R Topper (Geesh, I wish they still made them that well) and so on and so forth. Before I ever owned a "real" rifle the Big Green Machine gave me a M-16 and a Minigun, assigned me to the Group W Bench and said "You're our boy!" After a spell in the tropics I was offered a 3 screw Blackhawk, holster and a ton of reloading equipment for a paltry $125.00. Sold! It was the start of an attack on my financial well being that rages even today and for which a vaccination remains non-existent. I struggle to bear such burdens but have not given up hope.
One of the whims that struck me about 16 years ago was having a .22 short shooter. Seemed like the perfect tool for squirrel, and it is. It is also close to perfect for hogs, but I'd actually prefer a repeater than a single shot. It is, nonetheless, one of but 4 guns I do not reload, all .22 RF shooters. The others range from .17-.50 caliber, use lead bullets, shot or jacketed bullets as I deem appropriate. My passion for chasing the HV ant with jacketed bullets has waned of late, not because of need, but more of desire and understanding what can be done with more pedestrian loads and lead bullets. There is a stuck thread here that proclaims something to the effect that cast bullets are the best....well, I agree to large degree, but there are places I won't go with cast bullets. Not so much because I can't, but rather that I am not willing to reinvent the wheel. I can whack anything that walks in North America and most to the world with average cast bullets. Not everything, just most of it. I'm not interested in building cast bullet ammo for autoloaders or for that matter, belt fed guns. That ant runs on rocket fuel...
I don't have to build bullets that I can drive at warp speed to hit my target. I do not have to build bullets capable of minute of gnats *** for most of my guns. Soft lead driven and pedestrian velocity will kill anything if well placed...ask the buffalo or better yet, Billy Dixon.
By now you're probably wondering if there's any point to this? Well, yes.
The point is that this is a very useful website that we all profit from in many ways. We profit from the contributions, not the acrimony. I have disagreed with internet dogma more than once, but it is rarely productive to address that with a hammer. My dogma on this is simple: Everyone knows something I don't.
That is all,
Dan