What did you cast today?

[Bwana]

Today, 800 of the 102gr and 700 of the 125gr. Tomorrow the 500lb of ww into ingots.

[mold maker]

I was so sore this morning from splitting wood, that I couldn't even cast a shadow.

[JJC]

500lb of ww into ingots. I thought I had a good day today when I poured 61 lbs

[468]

I smelted 2 buckets of wheel weights into "cupcakes" 2 weekends ago. Then cast about 300 225 gr .45's and 500 155 gr .40's. Weather is perfect for this stuff!

I had a FULL bucket of steel, zinc, and valve stems when I was done smelting.

[Bwana]

Ok. I was a little optimistic on my total bucket weight. It was a total of 455 lb. Four hours later I have 342 lb ww ingots, 36 lb stick on, and there was 77 lb of zinc,steel, and dross. I had paid $90.00 for the lot. That's 378 lb total of lead at 26 cents a pound. brings the total ww ingot on hand up to 1900 to 2000 lbs. Pure on hand around 700 lb. I might just slide by.

[qajaq59]

500lb of ww into ingots. I thought I had a good day today when I poured 61 lbs

I'm like you JJC. If I get a 150 lbs done over a couple of days I'm happy,

[Ole]

I smelted 14# of (mostly acid core) 50/50 solder into 47 1900 grain ingots today (perfect weight for sweetening 14# of lead with 1% tin).

I thought for sure someone was going to call the fire dept.

[Dale53]

I am a "Certified Old Fart" and physical prowess is NOT my middle name. However, with a thirty dollar Bass Pro Fish Fryer and a Harbor Freight $25.00 six quart dutch oven, I can easily do 250 lbs of WW's in an hour and a half. My brother and I, last year, smelted 650 lbs of large ingots (62-92 lbs each) into smaller, usable ingots in an afternoon.

It doesn't take expensive equipment to do good and efficient work. Smelting is one part of the casting/reloading cycle I dislike (it's just flat SCUT work)! So, I want and NEED to be as efficient as possible, cause I pretty much HATE it.

YMMV
Dale53

[No_1]

I cast about 2k of the Magma 35-158 RNFP and sized ~2800 of the same that I cast 2 weeks ago. 2 more K of this one and I will be set for 2011!

Next on the list is the Magma 45-250 RNFP to feed my 45 colt desires. Got to get the casting done while the cool weather cooperates.

[lawboy]

110bls of ingots.

[Bambeno]

Cleaned up about 60 pounds of pure lead into ingots. Need to cast some bullets this weekend. lol

[MakeMineA10mm]

From 9:30 to 11:30 this morning, I made these:

86 Lyman 358430 (133gr SWC):


123 Saeco #315s (175gr):


151 Lee 356-102 RN:


322 Lee 401-175 TC:


Made all these off of one pot of alloy without returning sprues. Had some issues with screws and handles on several of the moulds loosening up and needing tightened, but nearly 700 bullets in two hours after culls isn't bad. Also got rid of some old odds and ends of alloy and melted down my first 40 lbs or so of old lead shot. Thought I was going to have to add some tin to the pot, but after stirring with the wooden stick, scraping, and a light flux, the pot was shiney silver on top, so I just got to casting. Boolits were just falling out of the moulds, for the most part... If it wasn't for stopping to tighten screws and dealing with some two-cavity moulds (the 380 bullet and the Lyman 430 moulds are both two-cavs), I would have really pounded out the volume. The 300+ 10mm boolits were cast at a fairly leisurely pace in the last 40 minutes of casting, while all the others were cast together (rotating moulds) in the first 80 minutes. Shows why the 6-cav. moulds are so much better than the smaller ones...

[Ben]

I been doing some real nice shooting with the 311290 Cup Points in my Ruger # 1, 308 Win., stainless. Thought that with winter on the way, I better get out on a 73 degree day and " put a few back ". I'm hoping to kill a white tail with this load.

Ben

[desteve811]

Ben can you post a pic of your 308 and a loaded round? Very impressive groups.

[Dale53]

Ben;
It appears to me that both YOU and your RIFLE are really "doing the job"!

A whitetail should not present a problem to you or your rifle.

Nice bullets!

Give us a follow up when you connect.

Good Show!

Dale53

[9.3X62AL]

HIJO LA, Ben! I'd say you found The Load, all right. Best of luck afield with that.

No recent casting, but I do have some nice Lyman #2 ingots I'd like to try out. I've never poured that alloy previously, and want to give a melt-and-pour sequence in a couple of my more balky moulds--#311252 first. Its dinky drive bands don't fill out well with WW metal or 92/6/2 alloy, I get about 15% reject rate due to rounded/unfilled bands. I'm hoping the 5% tin will resolve that issue.

[HATCH]

Today was my 3rd time casting.
I used a Lyman 4c 358 mold (sorry don't have the mold # handy)
In 3 hrs time (includes putting everything out on the picnic table, heating up 9lbs of lead and putting all back up) I cast 340 perfect boolits and 8 rejects.

I am extremely pleased with that mold. It really makes you want to cast more when you can put out 4 perfect boolits in 40 seconds. Well that was what I was doing right before I quit.
5 seconds for sprue to cool, 5 second wait - dump the boolits, wait 15 more seconds and start again. That was roughly the plan. I did stop every once and a while to put the sprue cuttings back in the pot and the puddle I made under the melter (I cast at a slit tilt to the right and a slit tilt down)
I start on the farthest away from me and worked back towards me.

I had to quit because my son came home and didn't want to take a chance with him.

[keeber]

Last Sunday I smelted 40#s of we ingots from my dwindling ore and tomorrow I plan on testing a Lee 430-240swc with about 500 boolits. Just got my first 44 magnum and it can't wait to feed.

I still smelt on a Coleman stove and Dutch oven set up and ladle cast from the top of a hot plate... Maybe the wife will talk Santa into the lee production pot I wrote him about.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Today was my 3rd time casting.
I used a Lyman 4c 358 mold (sorry don't have the mold # handy)
In 3 hrs time (includes putting everything out on the picnic table, heating up 9lbs of lead and putting all back up) I cast 340 perfect boolits and 8 rejects.

I am extremely pleased with that mold. It really makes you want to cast more when you can put out 4 perfect boolits in 40 seconds. Well that was what I was doing right before I quit.
5 seconds for sprue to cool, 5 second wait - dump the boolits, wait 15 more seconds and start again. That was roughly the plan. I did stop every once and a while to put the sprue cuttings back in the pot and the puddle I made under the melter (I cast at a slit tilt to the right and a slit tilt down)
I start on the farthest away from me and worked back towards me.

I had to quit because my son came home and didn't want to take a chance with him.

Hatch,
Sounds like you're on your way! I was having one of those days yesterday too. A good lesson is to not give up on a mould til you experiment with it. That Seaco rifle bullet mould I was using was my first rifle mould (that I've owned), and I was having fits getting good boolits from it when I used it before. Yesterday, though, it seemed hard to get a bad boolit out of it. I rejected quite a few for rounded/incomlete corners at the base, but usually it was just one bullet every few casts... Play with alloy and temperature before giving up on a mould. Sounds like you got that 358 mould figured out already though!

[zdogk9]

I ran a 240 15 amp circuit to my shop for my new Lee twenty pounder, then cast 15# of RCBS 150 gr. SWC and 100 or so 160 grain boolets for my 32 special and paper patched 30 of them.