new to the forum ; introducing myself

[ra454]

I am an avid re loader for many years now but this is first time I will dabble in the art of bullet casting. For a while I have been researching the equipment and techniques of this new found hobbie ; I also wanted to build my own bullet mold. My sons bought me a mosin-nagant 7.62x54 this past Christmas and I decided then that this will be my first caliber I will try casting bullets for. I did build my first mold and design it to be a double cavity 180 gr. bore rider with the driving bands diameter to cast at .316 and will swag them down to .314 dia. , bought some casting equipment and found sources of lead (wheel weights) and I am ready to dive in !
I also wanted to make my own pan bullet lube and so far Ben's Red that's posted on this forum seams to be a good choice. I will keep posting up dates as I progress . I do realize there is a lot to know and as I get deeper into this I will have questions that I will post and any advice from this forum would be greatly appreciated!
so long for now

[Tatume]

Welcome aboard. It's good to meet you. Have fun.
Take care, Tom

[johnny356ER]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on taking the next step!
johnny

[Beerd]

First time poster who wants to "dabble" in casting bullets and you start by building your own mould!
What are you, some kind of over achiever?

Welcome to the board!

..

[Cherokee]

Welcome

[pworley1]

Welcome.

[Echo]

Welcome the greatest board on the net, and welcome to the addiction!

[Love Life]

Welcome!!

[country gent]

To some of us retired tool makers machinist mold makers and pattern makers making moulds isnt anything other than working mirror image. Ra454 welcomne and keep good notes so you can repeat what works and not what doesnt.

[62chevy]

What a way to get wet by making your own mold !!!

[Shuz]

Welcome and have fun at your new found hobby. Stay safe!

[w5pv]

Welcome

[45-70 Chevroner]

Welcome aboard. You will find lots of help here. You will learn to make wise choices, and some times you will find that trial and error is a good way figure it out. Good luck and happy casting.

[wistlepig1]

Get out now before it's to late! you will be addicted SOOn!

[bedbugbilly]

Welcome! Great folks here! I look forward to seeing some of your molds! Enjoy!

[303Guy]

Great way to start by making your own mold! Welcome aboard.

Would you mind taking photo's as you go next time and posting them?

There's another even darker side you may want to look into sometime (maybe soon) and that is paper patching. The Mosin should be ideal for it.

If those .316 boolits will seat in an unsized neck you might try them as they are.

[brown bass hunter]

Welcome, but just to warn you this place is Addictive !

[ra454]

sorry for the time laps , i wanted to check in before I go to smelt more wheel weights. I will have pictures of my progress but for now I can only say that I did cast a small sample batch from my mold and I did have some casting issues which I need to work on . I picked out about a dozen good bullets and sized them with the gas checks installed; Then proceeded to load dummy rounds I wanted to see how they chambered.
When making the dummy rounds I noticed that I was shearing some of the lead from the bullets as I was pressing them in ; So I bought an expander die to relieve this problem and happy to say that these rounds chamber fine. I still need to make some bullet lube and decide on a powder and load some live rounds to see how they shoot .

I must say that this forum is a good resource of information and enjoy reading the experience of others and applying these excrescences to my own. so long I do my homework I believe that I will have a good time doing this and at some point I can share my own discoveries. so long for now !