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View Full Version : Cast my first boolits.... Now what?



notsorichguy
06-25-2014, 11:53 PM
Well, I guess you could say I'm a long time lurker.... This I believe is my first ever post on this site, I usually hang my hat at canadiangunnutz dot com.

I have been reloading and shooting rifles, pistols and shotguns for many years. I learned to reload centre fire rifles at my daddy's knee. At 7 or 8 yrs old if the old man is to believed! I refined my abilities at the hand of my father-in-law (he sired 4 daughters, I'm the only in-law that is somewhat "gunny"). I've been with his daughter for just shy of 20yrs, so I've had a bit of practice in the reloading arts! I have been told on several occasions I'm a bit of a gun nut. I consider myself a rifle looney with a heavy leaning towards pistols and MSRs. I use "hunting practice" as an excuse to shoot as much as I do, but in all honesty I just like to shoot sh*t!

Long story short (it still seems pretty long....) I started shooting cast projectiles as it was much cheaper to buy cast than jacketed boolits, then I joined an indoor range where cast pistol rounds were mandated by our govt. "overseers".... It was just a small step to transition to making my own....

I have found a steady supply of lead. Every 6 months or so the club gets together and cleans out the bullet trap, usually nets 600-800 lbs of castable lead. Members of the club are allowed to take it with dibs going to the ones who volunteered to actually clean out the traps..... Usually it's the same 5-6 guys that volunteer and usually the club sells 1000lbs a year to the recycler......so I think the system is working.

I cast my first ever slug in an attempt to make cheap 12ga shot slugs. I liked the fact that I could use trap wads etc with the lee key drive mould. Then I started onto a lee bottom pour 10lb pot. Fast forward to today, I have finally graduated to pistol and rifle casting. On Friday I received an additional 1oz slug mould, a 45-200 6 cavity mould, a 38-148 6-cavity mould and a 308-200 2-cavity mould...... I may have tried to go too far too fast....

Firstly, the 45 mould throws 1 slug at .453 one at .451 and 4 at .452. In all honestly I haven't loaded or shot any of them yet, so if may not make a difference, but it's bugging me.... I figure that I could lap the .451 to .452 or I could lap all but one to .453 and the swage them down..... But I figure I may just try them first.

The 38 mould doesn't seem to want to cast 6 useable slugs at the same time..... It's never the same same slug either so it's kinda making me scratch my head.....

The .308 mould is throwing the slugs at .307. Will this change once I install gas checks? Do I even need to worry about it? I was hoping for .309....... I'm concerned that the 307s will give me grief at the range.....

Im planning on tumble lube for the pistol stuff, there seems to be scads of recipes for that on the site. I was thinking a tumble lube may not work on the 308, I'm planning on pushing them up to 1600-2000 depending on what the BHN winds up at......

Im im sure I'll have a bunch more questions as time wears on......

Please be be patient, I'm fairly new to this!

Wayne Smith
06-26-2014, 08:06 AM
WOW! Slow down, focus on one gun/caliber at a time, and climb one learning curve at a time. Figure out the molds and get useable boolits before you load and shoot anything unless you love to clean lead out of your barrels! That means slugging a barrel, measuring the result with a micrometer and appling that knowledge to what you need for that barrel. Make sure you can cast that boolit reliably and then come back and ask us some more specific questions.

GhostHawk
06-26-2014, 08:45 AM
Agree with Wayne, one at a time.

As to the 45 mold, run 3 or 4 cycles through it to get it warmed up, then fill and keep what you got so you can check size. If one spot on the mold consistently throw's small, mark it and just don't fill it. Oversize is easier as you can just size it down to what your gun likes.

notsorichguy
06-26-2014, 08:41 PM
Thanks guys, Somehow I knew that I should have just kept my mouth shut...... Or at least put the flame suit on! Unfortunately I'm one of those guys that once he starts something he just keeps worrying at it till it's figured out or finished.....

I ran almost 40 lbs of lead through the 45 mould before putting it aside and trying any of the other new moulds. I'm not looking forward to sorting 350+ usable pills to sort out the small ones. I was thinking that

As for slugging the barrels..... I have 9 1911s in 45 that all digest commercial cast boolits in .452, excuse me for assuming that since I have loaded literally 25,000+ rounds of cast 45 ACP that I could skip a step or 2 and go right to casting.

I usually run a fair bit of lead through each mould to get them to temp. Usually 2-4 quick pours to heat the spru and fully heat the mould. Then settle in to pouring and then waiting at least a 10 count before cutting the spru and dropping the slugs onto a soft clean rag. I tried to only pour for a calibre at a time, but the wait times were getting to me..... In all honesty I was casting shot gun slugs with my 2 1oz moulds in between pouring pistol calibre moulds so that I could keep the boolits from frosting..... Over the course of the weekend I cast 350 45 slugs, 300 38 slugs, 150 308 pills and approx 200 1oz shot slugs.

One of the advantages to having your ingots cast in mini-muffin size is that a half pound is perfect for topping up the pot as you go!

Well thanks for your help fellas.... I guess I'll try a few things and see how I do.

bangerjim
06-26-2014, 08:54 PM
First......preheat your molds on a hotplate! Bring them up to casting temp first. I do that and I drop PERFECT boolits the 1st time! Not rocket science. A cold mold is your enemy and heating it up over you pot or with lead takes too long. I usually have 3 molds on the plate set at about 630F. And I use that plate to pre heat all my 1# casting ingots to save time when recharging the casting pot.

Second....I only cast one cal/size at a time! I drop them in a pan with an old towel and water to cool them....not for hardness......just so I don't burn my fingers!

Third......you talk about "sorting for size". All you need is a Lee push-thru sizing die for each cal and that solves your problems. I size EVERYTHING, even the TL boolits, to catch any outlayers and squeeze them back into spec. I powder coat everything so I use no grease any more.

Fourth.....welcome to the madness. Just s=l=o=w down and take your time! This is not a speed race.....it is supposed to be a relaxing hobby. At lease it is for me!

bnagerjim

Animal
06-26-2014, 09:18 PM
Congrats. I'm new to the craft as well. I've been tinkering around with 2 molds for my 45 1911 since last Christmas, 1 is a lee and 1 is a lyman. I've found that this sort of thing does require a certain amount of healthy OCD. Trying to sort out preferences with 2 different molds for one caliber is enough for me at the moment. My hat is off to you, sir! Enjoy.

TXGunNut
06-26-2014, 09:23 PM
Welcome to the forum and the affliction. Many of us are longtime loaders as you are but believe us when we advise you to tackle one (maybe two) projects at a time, especially at first. It seems moulds have personalities and to get the best boolits you first have to figure out what mould temp, pour temp, cadence, alloy and even pouring style it likes. I've also learned to take notes after each casting session to record all the specifics and observations. I learned some basic lessons the hard way, trust me. I made the same mistakes more than once because I didn't know to focus my efforts.
Congrats on the lead source, that's a constant challenge for many of us.

Calamity Jake
06-26-2014, 09:34 PM
"Thanks guys, Somehow I knew that I should have just kept my mouth shut...... Or at least put the flame suit on! Unfortunately I'm one of those guys that once he starts something he just keeps worrying at it till it's figured out or finished....."

No one is flaming you man, just trying to give highly experienced advise, pay attention to what their saying.

Those commercial cast boolits aren't the same as your home made, there going to be a harder alloy
and have a hard lube on them.
Sort thru the 350+ 45's you'll be better off for it.

Again no flaming has happened here, and don't be silent, ask ?'s!!!

bangerjim
06-26-2014, 10:05 PM
Congrats. I'm new to the craft as well. I've been tinkering around with 2 molds for my 45 1911 since last Christmas, 1 is a lee and 1 is a lyman. I've found that this sort of thing does require a certain amount of healthy OCD. Trying to sort out preferences with 2 different molds for one caliber is enough for me at the moment. My hat is off to you, sir! Enjoy.


I hit a brick wall recently with my new 1911 45ACP. Nothing I made would chamber or load.......commercial rounds......perfect!

After much messing around and some good advice from here, I now size them at 451 and use a FCD to get the cases back to factory specs. Now all four 45 style of boolits I make will load, cycle and work!

Total bliss.

bangerjim

trixter
06-27-2014, 02:37 PM
A freind loaned me a bunch of "45" casting stuff. Molds (3) Luber-sizer (Star), with 451 dies. I was a little concerned about size, but after using everything I have become a '.451' believer. My Lee Classic Cast Turret press does a perfect job of loading and them at 451. I love the FCD, for straightening out the case walls from the mouth belling. He benefits form this, in that the deal is 1 for me, 1 for him. Good for both of us.

I found out early on in the process, go slow, look carefully, and ask a lot, lot, lot of questions, read everything I can get my hands on and research through the net.