Custom Length Waductter From Any Mould

[Michael J. Spangler]

Somewhere on the forum I read about someone doing this. I believe it was Larry Gibson in a thread on 45/70 collar buttons or round balls.
Either way it’s a pretty cool and simple idea.

Place a gas check into the driving band of a mould half. Close the mould.
Now pour your bullet.

You can customize a smaller wadcutter from any mould this way. I imaging if the gas check is placed upside down that you could basically just use it as a spacer and re use it again. Or place it right side up and you have your gas check already seated onto your new wadcutter.

Why you ask? Why not? I’m going to mess with this to make some 458” wadcutters to play with in my 45/70s.

Seen here with a Lyman 358495 mould and hot glue (lead was cold by the time I remembered to try this)
211811

[GRid.1569]

That is so brilliant... I’d never have thought of that idea...?

[wolf3006]

I have got to try this!

[brewer12345]

This should be a sticky.

[Mohawk Daddy]

Thanks so much for posting this picture. It's a way to get some custom bullets without buying a custom mold.

[MyFlatline]

Wow , great idea..Do the checks stay in place after dropping the bullets is one question I have.

[gwpercle]

Just remember to keep the gas checks hot , we used to play around with this during the 1960's ...custom moulds were beyond our budgets but gas checks were cheap. Tweezers work best for handling the hot checks. Any mould can be used , we made WC's with SWC and RN moulds ..works well and when you want some WC's for a 45 Colt or auto-rim loading , it was a cheap , albeit slow way , to produce them.
We left the check in place and used it as the boolit base.

The other trick, for rifle bullets , was punching a hole through each gas check and installing a hot check in each driving band, closing the mould and casting the boolit. The object was to have every driving band copper. In theory the boolits could be shot at higher velocities. This process is called tedious ! The idea sounds good on paper . On the 30 cal boolits we fooled with a 25 cal hole was punched in each check , to let the lead through. Everything's got to be good and hot to get decent boolit .
Gary

[Michael J. Spangler]

Wow , great idea..Do the checks stay in place after dropping the bullets is one question I have.

Yes they’re stuck on there. I’m sure once you size they will crimp in nicely too.

Like stated above I’m sure when working with lead the checks should be hot to keep good fill out. My guess is if your mould is hot you can place the checks in and wait a few seconds before you cast. Those tiny checks will come up to mould temp in no time.
Keeping a pile of checks on the hot plate is a good idea too.

I showed a buddy this and he said he used to do similar things with nose pour Moulds way back when. He would wipe a touch of plumbers solder in the gascheck before casting and said it would solder the check on beautifully.

[Larry Gibson]

The old Lyman slip GCs, current commercial slip on aluminum or home made ones w/o the crimp flare work best. After cooling the GC flicks off and can be reused. With these lightly loaded WCs there's really no reason to shoot the GC. If using a GC mould the small step has little or no adverse affect with light loads.

The tin lid for the old tins Hornady GCs came in is great for setting on top of the furnace with GCs in it to pre-heat. As mentioned they can be placed in the grooves with tweezers. Trying to put the GC in the hot mould block with your fingers doesn't work too well.....been there, tried that.....ouch!

[Michael J. Spangler]

The old Lyman slip GCs or home made ones w/o the crimp flare work best. After cooling the GC flicks off and can be reused. With these lightly loaded WCs there's really no reason to shoot the GC. If using a GC mould the small step has little or no adverse affect with light loads.

The tin lid for the old tins Hornady GCs came in is great for setting on top of the furnace with GCs in it to pre-heat. As mentioned they can be placed in the grooves with tweezers. Ttying to put the GC in the hot mould block with your fingers doesn't work too well.....been there, tried that.....ouch!



Thank you Larry!
He’s the man with the plan. I just put the pics up folk.

[Skunk1]

Interesting, might have to give this a try. Something to play with since I have a week off coming.

[Skunk1]

Somewhere on the forum I read about someone doing this. I believe it was Larry Gibson in a thread on 45/70 collar buttons or round balls.
Either way it’s a pretty cool and simple idea.

Place a gas check into the driving band of a mould half. Close the mould.
Now pour your bullet.

You can customize a smaller wadcutter from any mould this way. I imaging if the gas check is placed upside down that you could basically just use it as a spacer and re use it again. Or place it right side up and you have your gas check already seated onto your new wadcutter.

Why you ask? Why not? I’m going to mess with this to make some 458” wadcutters to play with in my 45/70s.

Seen here with a Lyman 358495 mould and hot glue (lead was cold by the time I remembered to try this)
211811


Now as I think about this, have you tried shooting your “hot glue” bullets with a primer alone? Guess I would worry about gluing the barrel instead of leading the barrel.

[Michael J. Spangler]

Now as I think about this, have you tried shooting your “hot glue” bullets with a primer alone? Guess I would worry about gluing the barrel instead of leading the barrel.


I have many times. There is a thread on here about gloobits.
They shoot really well.

[Skunk1]

I have many times. There is a thread on here about gloobits.
They shoot really well.

Using just a primer?

[JBinMN]

The "Gloobits" topic = http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?118655-Gloobits-work-!-!-!-!

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Might have to try this GC thing as well as the Gloobits sometime this Spring/Summer.

[Michael J. Spangler]

Using just a primer?



Yes. Drill out the flash holes in the cases to about 3/32” to prevent the primers from backing out.
The thread linked above and some other threads have great info.
Lube the cavities with light oil so the bullets release.
Leave a good sprue puddle of glue.
Lightly oily the gloobits and your bore before shooting.

[Michael J. Spangler]

Had anyone tried this out yet?

I'm dying to get to my lee pot to try it but I've been stopped by life every day. Tomorrow should be the day after an oil change and brake job.
I'm going to start off with a Lyman Postal 535 grain turned into a wadcutter. Should be super fun in the Marlin.

[44MAG#1]

I posted a pic sometime back with a wadcutter I made like that. This something that isn't new as Larry Gibson said before. It's been around for years. I just forgot about it until sometime back and a friend reminded me.