A Rainy Day

[Euan]

We don't get many wet rainy days in Central Otago. But we had one today, so I thought I had make the most of it. Was geting low on 22 boollits to load into the K Hornet for my rabbit control work.
So got stuck in this morning & cast up approx 3500 TLC225/50 RD & aprox 1500 CBE 225/42 gc. Then after lunch I made a few Gas checks to go with the boolits.
So I was pretty happy with the effort. Will keep the K Hornet going for a day or two. Cheers Euan

[JeffinNZ]

Top work Euan. Rained here too and we needed it.

What are you using for the check material?

[RayinNH]

:drinks:. Wow, 5000 boolits before lunch and a pile of gaschecks in the afternoon. My brain turns to jelly looong before that kind of quantity. I'm impressed Sir...Ray

[home in oz]

WOW! That is some volume!

Well done.

[Jim]

Ooooohh, dem's purty boolits!

[ghh3rd]

Very nice job indeed. Everything must have been clicking just right. Besides asking what GC material you are using, what GC tool do you have?

Randy

[Euan]

G'Day Guys,
Am using soft drink and beer cans, I cut off the top 7 bottom then flatten them, so that they are now 2 ply. The cut into across the can into strips 11/16'' to no more than 3/4" wide. Tis gives me a check just on 9 thou" (of an inch or .23 of a mm) which seems to work in my hornets.
Tool is Freechec 111

Cheers Euan

[JeffinNZ]

WOW! That is some volume!

Well done.

Yeah, but you wait until Euan tells you how long they will last.

[Von Gruff]

That was a good rain. we got just under 3 inches

The rabbits are just about back to pre virus days in some areas and that is a lot of rabbits. 5000 boolits could go in a scarily short time.
That is still a hell of a pile of boolits and GC though. Good one Euan.

Von Gruff.

[JKH]

I was quite proud of my first .22 boolit casting adventure, 2000 LEE Bator's in about 2.5 hours stretched over several days (2 gand mold), however, after reading this on Charlie's recommend (codarnal who builds the Freechex tools) I am thorughly humbled! Charlie and I have been bantering back & forth concerning volume needs of .22 check making & he stated that he knew of only 1 man that could possibly benefit from an FCIII in .22 (as they are a bear to make & the FCII makes them fast enough for most users) and he certainly was NOT kidding!

How many cast .22 boolits do you shoot in a months time? I have some extremely good newspaper lith plate material that works perfectly in the FCII & III (anealed, .008" thick) that I would gladly send to you for experimenting with (Charlie is familiar with my material if you care to ask him), I use it for .22's on up to 8mm & have had customers use it in calibers up to .50 in both rifle & magnum handgun calibers with success equal to copper factory checks, it cuts & forms even easier than beverage can material, PM me with your mailing info & I'll look into sending you some @ no charge.

Please keep us updated with your exploits, I never dreamt anyone could shoot so many cast .22's! This incentivises me even more to develop accurate functioning loads for my AR15.

Jeff

[Canuck Bob]

Rainy day! The only rain we get is a solid this time of year. Impressive stockpile!

[quasi]

Euan, how do you like the RD .22 mold, how easy is it to cat with? What velocity co you load your Hornet boolits to?

[Euan]

quasi, 22 RD mold is not to bad, I really like the 6 at a time. It casts well. Am running them at 2250fps in front of 7.7 grains of LilGun & a small pistol primer.
Canuck Bob, We will get the solid stuff in 6 months time or so.
JKH, I go through quite a few chex a year, a bit over 9000 inthe last 10 months.
Thanks for your offer, but I'm on the other bottom side of the world. It sounds like good material. I should try and find some here. I think I saw on another thread that Mr V Gruff was onto something, so I should contact him.
Cheers Guys and all the best for New Years. Euan

[JKH]

Euan,
postage might be pricey but not horrible, in the states I sell a package of 100 5"x7" sheets that conservatively yields 16,000 .30 cal or 8mm single ply checks for $50 USD shipped flat rate priority.
I would imagine this same package would easily yield approximately 22 to 24,000 .22 caliber checks. I have shipped to Canada & international priority mail was about $15 USD, I would imagine to down under it would double.
Factory copper checks here run about $40 to $60 USD per 1,000 checks so do the math on 20,000 plus checks for roughly $80 USD & the savings is staggering! As I said, you can check w/ Charlie about the quality of my metal, just think of how much time & hassle you would save & have consistent/uniform results & a 2+ year supply of check material. If you wish I can find out the exact shipping to your door if you just let me know the name of your town & postal code, this material is getting much more difficult to find & works the best of anything in Freechex tools with very little effort & wear on your expensive tool
Jeff

[Doc Highwall]

Check out the Gator gas checks that Blammer sells here a lot cheaper then elsewhere. $19.00 per thousand for 30 cal gas checks.

[Von Gruff]

Euan, pm sent regarding .012 litho plate.

Von Gruff.

[Euan]

Thanks Mr Gruff, Have just replyed.
Cheers Euan.

[looseprojectile]

My middle name is Evan.
You people that live in a target rich country are lucky in a way. Gives you a reason to shoot more. But who needs a reason. That's what paper and steel is made for.
The best I can do is a 5 or 6 hundred mile trip to Montana to shoot prarie dogs. Maybe a hundred and fifty miles for ground squirrels in the spring.
I am lucky to be able to see fifty feet in the brush here. Mostly so thick you can't walk through it. My best guns for the brush are the 10 22 Ruger or a pistol caliber lever gun. Nice mess of boolits. Free is always a good price.


Life is good

[JKH]

Von Gruff,
is the .012" lith plate manufactured in New Zealand? That's the thickest I have heard of & if anealed like what I have here would be a thing of beauty ;^)
Not many papers using this material so it's hard to say how many more years of availability, like wheel weights I'm afraid, our illustrious govenor (Patterson, accidental, NY State USA) signed a law here a few months back banning the use of any new lead weights so there is a scramble on to hoard as much as possible.

[JeffinNZ]

I used .012 litho plate but for that lil .22 Freechex III it will be too heavy. The tear tops of baby formula cans in NZ are .010 and work great.

[JKH]

Hey Jeff,
I have one of Charlies FCII's in .22 and it is finicky as well, Charlie tells me the .22 FC tool's are the hardest to make work well with varying material due to the very tight tolerances and the FCIII is so bad he does not want to make anymore (I've been pestering him about making more and this is why he doesnt want to mass produce them and end up with a lot of negative feedback).

My FCII works very well with .008" lith but are still loose as my tool was designed to make .22 checks large enough for the old .22 Hi-Power boolits, when I try any other material that is thick whether single or double layers the tool simply punches through the check.

I never considered the pull tops on formula cans, we threw away a good years worth from my granddaughter, that would have made a lot of checks!

Anyway, hope this works out for you Euan, I would still gladly send you some of my lith plate material for free if you so desire, enough for a couple thousand checks anyway, but in the end if your buddy Von Gruff's material works in your tool then that will be the best answer for you, just stock up on lots!

Jeff (JKH in USA)

[Von Gruff]

I knew someone who knew someone and was given 6 sheets of the .012 litho plate that measure 800mmx600mm (32x24in) so have enough to last for a while.

I know there has been a few posts on the thickness of the GC material and I had similar difficulties in that the GC shank on the boolit my FC 11 is for required a certain thickness so the sizing would actually give it enough grip to stay on the shank. I had to "adapt" my FC 11 a bit by lapping out the underside of the check form dia so the stem and two thicknesses of the GC material would fit without the punching through. There has been a few other tweaks and special considerations for my own particular GC needs but this is Euans post. I will get some of the .012 away to him when the mails start again and see how it works for him. It is a lot easier to cut the sheet into strips with a NZ$20 guilotine from trade me than cutting ends off cans and flatening etc.

Von Gruff.

[skeet1]

Hey all you guys from New Zealand what is the deal with all the rabbits? Are there no natural predictors like coyotes to keep them thinned out? If you need some we have quite a few here in Oklahoma we could give you to get you started.

Skeet1

[Von Gruff]

No predaters unless you count the ferrets, stoats and a few ferel cats, but they dont make a dent in the rabit populations. The rabbits are into the third breeding cycle for this season alone so you can imagine how the numbers explode. There was a virus released a few years ago that had a dramatic early effect but the few who survived have developed an imunity so they breed in ever increasing numbers. In some instances the large farm areas may get in a helecopter for a few days and they will eradicate whole passels of them but the numbers are back the following year. Every year there is a big rabbit shoot at Easter time in Central Otago with teams from all over NZ competing. They ballot for areas and there are many thousands shot over the weekend.

Von Gruff.

[hornetguy]

my GOODNESS... how in the world did you cast so many bullets in such a short amount of time? Are you using multiple 6-cavity molds?
I have only recently started trying to develop a good cb load for my K-Hornet. I haven't tried Lil Gun for these lighter loads... I'll have to give it a shot (so to speak)