First casts!

[rsrocket1]

Thanks to all you boolit casters here. Whether you knew it or not, your contributions have made my first ever casting session go great. I've been lurking while saving up for a Midway purchase and slowly gathering the extra tools this fall by visiting thrift stores and dollar stores.

I got my Lee 4-20 melter and 6 banger molds in 45, 40 and 38 caliber on Friday night. on Saturday, I degreased, smoked, heated and lubed the TL452-230TC mold and in less than an hour this evening dumped about 500 boolits, 450 of which look to be keepers. This mold sure puts 'em out in a hurry!

Once the mold came up to temp, the boolits came out looking real good. With the proper prep, they fell out of the mold after opening the handles and took no more than a little shake to empty any stubborn ones. I made sure the sprue plate was solidly planted before the pour and opening it up was never a chore.

The boolits came out at a constant 240g and the dimensions were a very consistent .4515 to .4520 which ought to be OK for my 1911.

I just finished tumbling them in Recluse's formula which I cooked up on a $1.99 Mr. Coffee hot plate. It only got the JPW up to 264F, so I let it cook for about an hour until the paint thinner smell mostly went away. I then mixed in Xlox's lube and the oderless mineral spirits. I'll let them dry overnight and see how they come out.

[mongo]

They look really good. I have been casting a little over a year now myself. Nice job

[Rhino]

Good Job Mate,

Welcome to a fun & highly addictive hobby.

I started out about 8 years ago, with a small melter, ladle & single cavity mold, now, multiple pots, approx 20 4-6 cav molds for more cailbres than i shoot (go figure) and thousands of lost hours, boxes full of shiny little pills, mountains of ingots, buckets full of wheelweights and relaimed boolits.:razz::razz:

I can't walk past a wheelweight or shot bullet on the ground, I even have friends who collect them when they see them in a car park !!!

Take the simple safety precautions, you will have lots of fun, save heaps of cash (only to be spent on other shooting stuff).

I also take pride in being 'more involved' in the shooting process, the feeling of competing well with your own cast boolits, in your reloaded ammo give a great feeing of satisfaction.

Cheers and enjoy.

[Lefty SRH]

I just started casting myself. A little frustrating but still learning and enjoying it.

[Boolseye]

Very nicely done. Feels good, don't it? It'll feel good to shoot 'em, too.

[rsrocket1]

After letting the tumble lubed boolits set overnight, they came out great. Fully coated and no tackiness. More like a thin wax coating.

When I loaded them up, using the disassembled barrel of my 1911 as a case gauge, I saw that these will need to be seated a bit deeper than 1.220" which is what I thought they were supposed to be. I used a magic marker on the bullet and saw that the cartridge was headspacing on the bullet, not the case. I seated deeper and deeper until it got down to the proper depth in the chamber. 1.173" was the max COL for my gun. Any longer and it wouldn't go into full battery.

I loaded them up with a safe charge of 4.0g Bullseye which would make sure that I wouldn't go over pressure with these loads.

They all fed perfectly and shot well. Average velocity was 687 fps with an SD of 8 fps. I can probably go up another 0.3 - 0.5 grains to get a little more speed, but these are very pleasant shooting bullets.

Shooting your first casts is like shooting your first reloads. :bigsmyl2:

[JeffinNZ]

And so the addiction begins......LOL.

Nice work.

[RobS]

Good looking 1st round.

[VA Shooter]

nice job

[fishnbob]

Very nicely done. Feels good, don't it? It'll feel good to shoot 'em, too.

I don't know about the "feel good to shoot'em too". Once I buy, beg, borrow or steal the WW's and sort 'em and smelt 'em and then melt them down in the pot and all that fluxing and mixing tin and Pb and casting them pretty, shiny boolits that are then carefully and lovingly lubed and reloaded into some pretty, shiny, freshly tumbled brass, I HAVE A HARD TIME PULLING THE TRIGGER! It hurts.:violin:

[Tar Heel]

hehehehe....Your Hooked Now!

[Alchemist]

rocket,

That may be one of the saddest things I've ever seen. Kinda like seeing the picture in the paper of the 12 yr old kid killing a huge 10 pointer for his first deer. Gonna be hard to ever do any better....

Cheers for a job well done! :drinks: