casting bullets is fun...

[Fire_stick]

but it is even more fun when you get to shoot them!

Here are 3 recovered bullets from my first casting/fired rounds.

They were made using the TL358-158-SWC mold. The WW bullets were air cooled and had a tested hardness of ~ 13.4 BHN.

I loaded about 40 of them in 38 spl. cases over 11 gr. of H4227 (powder I had on hand). The gun is a Rossi 92 with 20" barrel. Velocity 10' from muzzle averaged 1252 fps. Used LLA, no sizing, except for the sizing done to the final cartridge with the Lee Carbide Factory Crimp Die.

No leading was observed in the barrel. Accuracy was decent at 25 yards, but I think I can do better. I had fun plowing ant beds though. Now to see how much I can push them before leading. CUP for this load is 17,600 according to the Hodgdon website.

The bullet on the left was recovered from earth after attempting to place the shot in the end of a 4 x 4. It hit the corner of the wood and exited, lodging in the ground.

The bullet in the middle hit the 4 x 4 fairly square and lodged into the 4 x 4 about 5" to 6" deep.

The bullet on the right was shot into a red clay bank.

Not exactly scientific, but an interesting experiment to see what they look like after firing and impact.

I have some water quenched WW bullets I will try next. The hardness for them measured about 26 BHN. That is higher than I expected, but I am new at this.

I want to thank everyone again for all the knowledge and encouragement you guys impart.

This is fun!

[qajaq59]

casting bullets is fun...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

but it is even more fun when you get to shoot them!

I have to agree with both those statements.

And better yet.... It's cheap!

[Calamity Jake]

"casting bullets is fun... "





I knew there was a reason I started maken my own over 25 years ago....................................




Plum forgot it was so much fun

[Jack Stanley]

Oh !! is that it ?! I thought I was doing it to acclimate myself to the recoil of the 788 I had . Back then the .308 loads were beating me up a little . Over the years I increased the velocity of my loads untill even the ammo belted for the M60 wouldn't bother me .

Fun ?? yeah ........... when it all works right and the bullets are dropping perfect every time . Of course that only happens when I'm dead tired and I have to be up for work in a few hours

Jack

[ghh3rd]

Hey, those look like my 'soup cans' from the same mold. I have fired 100 of mine so far. They sure make perfectly round holes in paper Wish I could shoot them somewhere in a field too...

Randy


ps - my first batch of lubed 'soup cans' are shown in my avator while drying.

[jonk]

Yup. Fun it is. Cheers!

[Ole]

There's something really special about making something useful out of what most folks consider junk.