First Cast

[WFO2]

Well gave it a try today I think they will all load and go bang.

[Ed_Shot]

Lookin good. Are those 358477's?

[WFO2]

Yes they are casted with Lyman #2 .

[Echo]

Lookin' Good!

[WFO2]

Now waiting on the parts to finish rebuilding my Lyman 450 to size and lube them .

[kmw1954]

Looking real nice. Hope I do as well when I finally start.

[WFO2]

KMW1954 I will tell you I was a bit nervous . Bought a steel Lyman mold and went for it .I did Kroil the cavities. I noticed when the mold got to hot the bullets would stick so I would let it cool a bit and they would start dropping easy again . I did use an Oster 20.00 Wally World special hot plate to preheat and started getting decent bullets right from the start .Can't wait to get my Satan's Little smelter so I will have more then 15 pounds of lead to work with .

[kmw1954]

I for sure am doing a lot of reading here and learning much.

I'm just starting to get back into shooting sports after being away almost 30yrs. A lot has changed in my area. Used to be a lot of places to shoot and now the closest outdoor range is over 30min away and the next closest is about 45min. in the other direction. Back then there were numerous gravel pits that we could shoot in, now they,re all gone.

The next issue with location is the state of Illinois outlawed lead wheel weights years ago and Minn. did so just recently. Haven't heard when Wis. will be doing it. So between the boolit casters and the fishing jig casters finding lead is work.

[WFO2]

Sorry to hear that . You might try a pharmacy that does nuclear medicine and ask about their ISO cores .

[WFO2]

Sorry to hear that . You might try a pharmacy that does nuclear medicine and ask about their ISO cores .Plus there are lots of boats in that area you might try and find keel ballast .

[TXGunNut]

Good job, WFO2! Good eye, Ed Shot. Is that a Lyman mould?

[WFO2]

Yes it is a Lyman 358477 four cavity

[Walter Laich]

nice job, shoot them, cast more and drive on.

My free lead sources dried up years ago. There are alot of good guys selling lead on this forum. I've used quite a few and have always been pleased with the product, packing and price. Most are around $1.20 per pound, shipped.

Some will steer you to rotometals with will give you precise alloys but you do pay for it.

anytime you get down with the cost of lead just check out the cost of already cast or jacketed bullets. Makes it all worthwhile

[kmw1954]

In regards to lead, Have a few friends that run roofing and plumbing companies so I suppose I need to hit them up to keep a watch out for it. Seems the local rate here is $1.oo/$2.oo a lb.

From what I've seen the price of cast boolits runs about .10/.12 cents ea. which is still much less than jacketed.

[marlin39a]

Great mold. Was my first 40 yrs ago. Still one of my favorites in 38 spl.

[WFO2]

I have the same mold for 44 mag and plan to cast for it as well . Good thing is they take the same top punch .

[runfiverun]

I have a bunch of those cast up sitting by the sizer right now.
my 4 cavity mold pours out a titch bigger than my 2 cavity mold so running them through the star requires some extra oomph.
but one good casting session leaves me with 3-4 thousand ready to go boolits, so I don't have to do them too often.

[WFO2]

Nice this time of year in Texas cant do real long session.But look forward to doing it again in 44 next weekend .

[runfiverun]

winter time is casting season.
it's too cold outside for much more than doing some shooting, or running the snow mobile.
spring is loading time, and varmint hunting. [depending on if it's raining/snowing/hailing or not]
summer is shooting and fishing.
fall is big game and bird hunting.
then we start all over again, keeps things simple.

[WFO2]

Yeah a good cycle indeed .