Benjamin Bulldog is in the mail! Did a little casting for a hopefully good “pellet”

Well... I bit the bullet and ordered a Benjamin Bulldog when I saw them come back in stock at Crosman a couple days back. I’ve had a Maximus for a good 2 or 3 years now and been using a hand pump, but decided I’d take the plunge as I’ve been doing a lot of .38/.357 handgun reloading the last year or so.

I cast maybe 200-300 of a mix of 356-125-2Rs that drop at .357 and 358-105-SWC that drop at .3585 I can size down to .357 if need be. I had a little SOWW set aside and some ingots of mostly pure lead I got from some sheet lead when I first got my little Lee pot. Added a little bit of 50-50 solder for fill but wasn’t gunning on a specific percentage... use a few inches to get it to fill and them to pop a bit. Still reading up on to lube or not to lube and if so, what to use as I’ve only used Alox up to now. Fingers crossed!

I was gunning for as soft as possible and I think it worked out well. A 6B pencil won’t score them but a 5B juuust barely will. A 4B chews right into them so I think I’m sitting right at 6-7 BHN.

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Looking forward to more posts about how they work!

I’ll be sure to share the results... good or bad.

The oil for the compressor arrives today. The Benji is supposed to be here Thursday. A tank in another week but I can fill directly from the compressor initially. I’m a big time plinker who loved the idea of getting something I can shoot for essentially nothing after the initial gun+tank+compressor investment. I’m in on a hunting lease and we have a shooting lane that goes out to 300 yards but usually just shoot pistols between 10-25 yards and open sight rifles 15-50 occasionally stretching further w/ scoped guns. I’ll probably just do a quick sight in the first trip, see how they group at 50 then go home and check the bore. I’m admittedly not a great marksman but I do enjoy shooting as it forces me to take a breath... relax... and do my best.

I made about 125 of each bullet so I’ll have a decent amount to shoot right off the bat. I’m really not 100% on lube usage. I’ve been loading for a .38/357 for a while and decided I’d make use of my ability to make (hopefully) decent ammunition and snag a big bore finally. I’ve really enjoyed my Maximus and would have a Gen 2 Fortitude if they’d ever come back into stock as I see that as an evolutionary upgrade for that gun... and I’d just toss my trigger mods over and might let the Maximus go if the Fortitude is the shooter the Maximus has proven itself to be. It’s pretty much replaced a .22 LR for 90% of my small game hunting and plinking these days. CO2-powered 2400KT, 2240 and some Walther-replica BB gun fill my can-killer roles in the backyard. Even when most ammunition has gone dry or the price has gone crazy, I can still buy BBs and pellets and have enough on hand to shoot to my hearts content w/o anxiety of running low. I’m primer-limited in hand loading... but still have a couple thousand that should get me through the current drought. Fingers crossed!

Well... last night I threw on a cheap scope I had in my “cheap scope bin” (I need to get a decent scope) and did rough sight in about a half dozen shots and managed this at 20 yards (my initial sight in)

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Backed out to 50 yards. Couldn’t ever get all 3 to touch in a 3 shot group but shot a few like this.

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Gun shot well I though. As to the cast bullets. I thought the SWCs shot a bit better than the .356 RN bullets that dropped around .357 from a few I measured... but I probably only shot maybe 2 dozen shots that outing. I could get them all in the bullseye at 20 but they’d never quite one-hole (I know, a SWC makes a nice big clean hole... but the RNs just shot wider) The main thing is there didn’t appear to be any leading in the barrel after having shot those cast bullets which were unlubed. Most everything was a first on this one... new gun... junk scope... 2 bullets never used... me shooting the gun which I need to get a better feel for the trigger and where it breaks... first time using a bottle filled from a HP pump... so literally everything is a variable. But, if the gun went bang... hit the paper and the barrel stayed clean, I’m very happy with the first outing. Next time out I’ll likely just stick to the SWCs... get a decent scope and work on it for awhile. Once I get it sighted, I can start chronoing and tweak the power adjuster and start seeing what each one likes. I also haven’t hand sorted these bullets by weight and they do have a bit of variation. Not much for plinking but certainly not going to one hole at a great distance as they drop around 110... but may vary +/- 2 grain from there, with over half w/in a grain of 110.