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GOPHER SLAYER
03-21-2010, 09:41 PM
I have had a bad day today. I wanted to go shooting this coming week so I thought I would lay in a supply of 30 and 38 cal. bullets. I bummed my last 38.55 bullets from Buckshot and I only have eight left. I hate to ask for more. I don't want to wear out my welcome. They were out of a Lee mold and they shot very well in my Uberti Hiwall. I pugged in the SAECO pot and took care of other chores while it got hot. When the lead reached liquid form I started to cast or at least tried to. I had two double cavity molds, one by RCBS is a 250 grain gas check and the other was a SAECO bore rider gas check. I don't remember the numbres of either. I don't really care. A few weeks ago Buckshot gave me a bottle of Bullplate. I thought I would give it a try. I guess I over did it. I come from the school whose motto is " the bigger the glob the better the job". Big mistake. I couldn't get a good bullet to save me. I found the oil got into the cavity and prohibited the lead from doing the same. I tried to clean it with gasoline and that made it worse. I jumped in my car and go to Auto Zone and bought a can of carburetor cleaner. I finally got the Bullplate removed but I still couldn't get a good cast. I get out one of my 311291 molds, I think I have four. I can always get good casts with one of those. That didn't work either. After almost three hours I gave up. I started casting in 1959 and I have never had such difficullty. I don't like casting anyway. I do it to save money and to get the type of bullets I want. If I were rich I wouldn't even reload. I would pay Jon K. to do it. He is much better at it than me. To me it is only a little better than washing dishes. All I want to do is pull the trigger. Boy those English land owners had the life. They didn't even load their on guns. They had their servants do that chore. I'm not that lazy. It could be that my SACO pot isn't getting as hot as it should. The mix was very liquid though. I have a Lyman Mag 20 that I bought sixteen years ago and never used. I may have to plug that sucker in. About two weeks after I bought it I was at the Pomona gun show and a man had this SAECO electric on his table. I asked "how much" and he said "thirty five". I jumped on it, as they say, with both feet. I even got the casting mold and dipper with it. As I said, I never plugged in the Lyman. Bad day all around, not only did I not get any bullets, Oboma care is about to pass into law. I think I will get on the phone to Buckshot or maybe get a lotto ticket. Maybe we should change our national anthem to , Bad Moon Rising. What do ya think?

JSimpson65
03-21-2010, 11:08 PM
I've had days like that myself, sometimes casting, sometimes doing other things. Usually, I just put everything away and call it quits for the day. Somehow things usually end up working out fine a few days/weeks later when I go back to it with a fresh start.

Greg in Malad
03-21-2010, 11:12 PM
Bad Moon Rising, HMMM! How about Pink Floyd's, Run Like Hell

supv26
03-21-2010, 11:21 PM
Brake cleaner works much better that carburetor cleaner for me.

Buckshot
03-22-2010, 01:37 AM
.............You guys just have to know Gopher Slayer.

http://www.fototime.com/13881F72D0749CB/standard.jpghttp://www.fototime.com/7E780518CBB1DB4/standard.jpg

This is what the back of Gopher Slayer looks like, and on the left is Jon K, who he'd like to have do his casting for him. And this is a sitting Gopher Slayer :-)

When we used to shoot the Burrito Match every Tuesday the way he worked it was to bring 14, 12 or 16 rounds. It always depended on how many of any boolit of the same type he could find laying around. Our course of fire was 10 rounds offhand, iron sights at 50 yards for score. On occasion all he'd have was 10, and a couple times I recall he had to borrow a round or 2 from someone else who might also be shooting the same cartridge, TRUTH! He probably has a half million 30-'06 cases but insists on using the same 20 LC53 match cases for the past 8-10 years.

Now if we were shooting 22 rifles he was okay. If we shot 22 rifles AND pistols he'd use his rifle but would shoot my pistol. If we shot centerfire pistol he'd shoot MY pistol :-) I could be wrong but I don't think I'd ever seen him shoot pistol ammo he'd actually loaded on purpose for himself. I HAVE seen him bring coffee cans of pistol ammo to shoot that he'd gathered up or had given to him. It'd go, bang, bang, pop, ka-boom, pow, bang, poot, ka-bang, pop, pop, bang .............. & etc[smilie=w:

I guess he's got 15 lube-sizers and probably an equal number of presses, and lots of moulds and plenty of lead, but it's my conclusion that he just likes having the stuff rather then USING the stuff[smilie=s:

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

qajaq59
03-22-2010, 08:41 AM
I've had days like that myself, sometimes casting, sometimes doing other things. Usually, I just put everything away and call it quits for the day. Somehow things usually end up working out fine a few days/weeks later when I go back to it with a fresh start.
I do this as well. If everything starts going bad I just walk away. Life's too short to get frustrated by less then an ounce of lead.

blikseme300
03-23-2010, 09:14 PM
A bad day of casting beats a good day at work!:kidding:

454PB
03-23-2010, 09:34 PM
I guess I'm lucky. I like casting, sizing, and handloading as much as shooting.