Spring Casting "In the ZONE"....

[BruceB]

Ah, Spring! When a shooter's fancy turns to....CASTING!

Curmudgeon returned my 4-cavity 311467 yesterday, and today I was sorta looking things over in general out in the shed, and THEN I saw BobS's post about CBs in the '03A3 with 4831, and one thing led to another....and I fired-up my RCBS pot.

Everything worked great! No screws working loose, no plugs getting unplugged, no bugs in the air, no smearing, ....and perfect 467s were dropping from that mould with no effort at all. After I had about a thousand, I figgered that HAD to be enough, so I stopped. Then, the 4-cav 311291 caught my eye, and a fast inventory revealed a lack of 291s in stock, so.... I made ANOTHER thousand or so boolits (going by the clock, not actual count) and I'll be durned if this mould wasn't acting just as sweetly as the first one. A handful of each design, about 20 of each, were weight-checked after a visual look-see, and NO boolits were eye-ball rejected. The 291s were all within a one-grain spread averaging 171 grains, and the 467s were about the same spread with average weight of 182 grains (all in straight WW alloy).

It's a good thing Karen called dinnertime, or I woulda tested this Zen state-of-being even further with my 311413, another 4-cavity jobby. It's just such a fine feeling, and I hate to stop, when everything is humming smoothly and the gorgeous boolits are piling up in the water bucket...... I think my aging feets are now the limitation, as I cast standing-up (for a fast escape, as Curmudgeon recommends). Once the clompers start to complain, it's not so much fun and I usually stop. Today, no problemo. I cast for about three hours without anguish from the extremities.

I did an earlier run a few days back, but without the strange motivation that glommed me today. That run produced about 500 311284s (1-cavity) and around 800 311466s (2-cavity). I should be good for some .30-cal shooting now!

[Pystis]

I know what you mean when you don´t want to stop pouring.
I was testing my 314-120 group buy mould from Willbird, and when I learned the rhytm, I just hated to have dinner break. The mould dropped 6 perfect slightly frosted boolits time after time.
I used BruceB method and got little to no smearing. I poured with ladle I made from 2x2 square tubing. (The ladle has exchangeable spout, that seemed to be too large.)
When I stopped casting I had 20# of good boolits.
I also casted some with my single cavity LEE 312-185 mould. Damn it was slow.

[Buckshot]

When I stopped casting I had 20# of good boolits.
I also casted some with my single cavity LEE 312-185 mould. Damn it was slow.

..............HA! :-)

...........Buckshot

[beagle]

Got the urge myself yesterday and ran 900 9mm bullets.

What a great day to cast./beagle

[keeper89]

The bug has stayed with me all through the winter--piles of 45 flat point 230's, 158 flat point 38's, about 1500 311467 (out of a single cav--holy sheepdip) and an even larger pile of 31141 not to mention a couple of thousand wadcutters for 38 and a few thousand 429421........been lubing and sizing this week and am out of gaschecks again.....hope the gator check group buy comes in so I can finish up on those 30 cals and maybe cast some more--and oh, yeah, maybe get to the range for a little fun now that the weather is breaking.........:castmine:

[NVcurmudgeon]

I agree with BruceB, and apparently several more of you, in trying to get all my casting done in spring. I also sense the "days dwindling down to a precious few" until NCBS 2006. Today's session produced 469 (before inspecting) boolits from my favorite mould, Lyman 314299. I am now halfway through my scheduled ten castng days. More agrement with Bruce, my legs are what limits casting time. Have to be done before it gets hot, wouldn't do to have a sweat induced steam explosion!

[9.3X62AL]

This thread prompts a recollection from early last week--I hadn't poured many boolits for the prior month, and wanted to get an NEI 4-banger in 9mm that Buckshot came up with going in volume. DID IT EVER. Now I have an easy year's worth of 9mm fodder ready for Marie's disassembly through the muzzle of her P-228. Cool-looking truncated cone-type 125 grain critters, NICE!

[NVcurmudgeon]

Allen, I have that same four hole NEI 9mm mould. Like you say, one casting session makes a year's worth of 9 boolits. Have you ever tried it in a .38 or .357?

[9.3X62AL]

Nope, no 38/357 work with these critters. I suspect they'd do all right, esp. in the Colt OMT, with its tighter specs than the S&W and Ruger rollers.

[NVcurmudgeon]

Today I finally stumbled into that zone that BruceB is talking about. Today I had a little spare time and decided to cast some NEI 220358 boolits for the Whelen. Oops, only about 1/2 tank of fuel left for the Coleman. Oh well, the Princess whose court favorite I am, next to the cockapoo of course, is going to come home with a car load of groceries to put away. Maybe I can get a hundred or so good ones cast before the stove quits, or she comes home. First, I realized that SWMBO was making a shopathon out of her trip, just about the time I saw that match-grade boolits were piling up on the drop pad. Secondly, my old Coleman was trying to repeal the laws of energy by running on empty beyond any reasonable expectation. and the perfect boolits kept multiplying. By the time my wife got home I had cast 290 boolits, nearly all looking excellent. Leaving the mould full, and nearly in the flames, I made a new world record in the running grocery storage event. Racing back to the foundry, I discovered everything still at tolerable casting temperature and pressed on, managing another 60 excellent castings before the fire went out and the alloy froze in the ladle. Casting 350 boolits from a one-hole mould while under double frenzy conditions made my whole day. I should give a large share of credit for today's success to Buckshot's new, thick sprue plate, which has put my old mould on steroids.

[waksupi]

Bill, doncha just love it, when a plan comes together?

[FISH4BUGS]

It is supposed to rain all day tomorrow here in NH. I will be ready to cast in the shed with my 4 cavity 358156, 124gr 9mm TC, and some 9mm124gr rn and 380 95 gr rn (the H&G 10 cavity moulds) for the subguns. Take my girlfriend out to breakfast, then a casting day! Can't wait.....adult beverage(s), a cigar, and the radio for the Red Sox game and hopefully I can get the NASCAR race on one of the channels............ah.....a perfect day. I will go through some lead tomorrow!

[NVcurmudgeon]

Ric, yes, especially when it is entirely Vulcan's doing. I just went along for the ride.

[wills]

Take my girlfriend out to breakfast, then a casting day! Can't wait.....adult beverage(s), a cigar, and the radio for the Red Sox game and hopefully I can get the NASCAR race on one of the channels............ah.....a perfect day. I will go through some lead tomorrow!

She does not cook?

[Ken O]

This morn it was sunny, blue sky, I had 100# of WW in the smelter, just getting ready for the pour when it sounded like little firecrackers it the pot, .... yep, it started to rain. The last time we have had any precipitation was a few weeks ago and it was snow. I put the lid on the pot, its a bottom pour stock pot, and made my ingots up in the rain. The rain quit when I got the last ingot poured.
Then I fired up the Lee 20# pot and got about 500 or so .45ACP 200gr SWCs made up with the Lee 6 holer. Then they started coming out with beards, the outside alignment pit disappeared! I never did find it, I'll have to call Lee Monday and hopefully it replaceable. It doesn't look like any threads so I don't know. Oh well, a good day anyways....

[FISH4BUGS]

She does not cook?
Actually she does..........and quite well, but we have a little tradition that I take her out to Sunday breakfast at a local reataurant. .....kind of a date. We read the Sunday papers and have breakfast, drink coffee and chat, then we are off to do whatever we have scheduled that day. Since we both work 6 days a week, Sunday is our day off.
Today was my casting day. The 358156 got a great workout. The H&G went south on me. She was cleaning the house and chatting every once in a while with me in the shed. She is very interested in the metallurgy part of this and has watched my casting hobby grow over the last five years. She has started to like shooting the submachine guns, particularly the supressed ones. I just bought her a Model 36 3" heavy barrel square butt for her house gun and we are starting to shoot some together. Despite being to the left of Karl Marx, she is a keeper. I have made her into a pro gun liberal........go figure.