Hello All,
I've finally ventured in to the world of casting.
My initial interest of casting began a couple years ago when I purchased my first box of center fire cartridges and couldn't believe the cost. I quickly read Modern Reloading by Richard Lee, purchased a Lee Loader in 303 British and got to work reloading. I was very intrigued by the casting section of the book but figured that it would be too ambitious to attempt to create high velocity rifle boolits while I was learning to reload. Jacketed projectiles were expensive still, but I saved enough money that I felt I could continue this glorious hobby of shooting. I ended up upgrading my reloading process with presses, tumblers, scales, calipers and all the other fun tools that look good on the shelf in the reloading section of the store. I became confident in the process and with all the ammo I produced I became a much better shooter.
As more guns have been added to the collection, the interest in competitive handgun shooting is in the horizon. I want to get lots of practice in but the cost of jacketed 9mm makes reloading cost prohibitive. This is the time for me to cast!
I've lurked around this board from time to time and had many of my questions answered by the excellent information here. Thank you to all that have contributed, much of what you have said has inspired me to give this a try.
This weekend my favourite shooting mate and I sorted wheel weights, processed in to ingots, and casted our first boolits from a Lee Production Pot IV in to a Lee 356-125-2R two cavity mold.
clip on wheel weights left, stick on wheel weights right.
Love how mistakes can be recycled. Each of us must have casted around 500 each but only ended up with 120 that passed inspection.
The money shot, so proud of those sharp bases and lube grooves.
Sorting wheel weights was hard on the hands. We chose the squeeze with side cutter method and developed some nasty blisters. The final consensus was that it would be useful to get the ring against some steel method calibrated.
During the melt it was quite easy to find the two zinc weights we missed floating on the top with all of the steel clips. This part of the process was both exciting, and less intimidating then I had imagined. Working with molten lead is not like working with molten steel; the temperatures are like a hot oven, not a cutting torch. We realized that our fan was under powered and purchased a much larger one for the next melt.
Casting was so satisfying. We followed the Lee instructions for the 356-125-2R mold and cleaned the cavities with lighter fluid, smoked the cavities with a lighter, and lubricated the sprue pivot and alignment pins. The first pour dropped bullets without any voids or sticking, success, but the edges of the lube grove and base of the bullet were rounded. We found that some pours would fill out nice and sharp and others would round in the details. We kept casting, after all the duds go right back in the pot. I managed to get lube in to one of the cavities and found that 30-50 casts pretty well stopped the wrinkles from appearing.
By the end of the session we had increased the temperature of the alloy to about 8 on the Production Pot and we were running the mold hotter then when we started. The boolits were almost always dropping nice and sharply filled out. A feel for temperature was an important take-away from this first casting session.
A final measurement of the boolits dropped from the Lee 356-125-2R with COWW alloy was 128.5gr to 130gr and right around 0.3575" diameter.
Our goal is to reload 9mm in volume for future IPSC practice. Ideally a single cartridge that will work in both of our guns is desirable but due to the variations in 9mm bore diameter I understand this may be impossible. I also understand that 9mm is a difficult cartridge to cast for due to the variation in bore diameter, the small case capacity and the higher than average pressures.
I will be developing a load for my Norinco 1911 9mm first. I plan to slug the bore to determine if sizing, or different mold selection, is required. Then determine the proper seating depth, flare and crimp with some dummy rounds and check to see if the load will chamber without swaging the bullet in the case. If all goes well, and I have some luck, then it will be time to determine which powder will be suitable. I think we are leaning towards powder coating as dry boolits seem most attractive to me but the jury is still out.
I'm thoroughly enjoying this venture in to the world of unlimited projectiles and I'm excited to solve some of the challenges ahead. If you've got any good strategies for a newbie like me feel free to send them my way, otherwise thank you for the inspiration to get started!
- Bear