My biggest casting session ever

[Alan in Vermont]

I set out to do "some" casting today. The weapon of choice was the Lee 6-cavity 452-200-SWC. I had a fair amount of a uniform alloy left from my last smelting session. Took a break at about the 2/3 point and ran until the pot was down to about an inch from dry.

39 pounds 8 ounces. At theoretical weight that's almost 1400 boolits. This is on top of about 17 pounds I did yesterday. I think I can safely set that mold aside for awhile, like maybe the rest of my life.

I'm sorting these into three batches, ones that will likely shoot better than the gun can, ones that I expect will shoot better than I can(plinkers), and the ones that need a second chance at being boolits. Out of the last night batch I had only a pound, 35, that need reincarnation, and only two pounds of "plinkers"

Next up is to fill a 30 cal. ammo can with 230 gr. RN .452s and finish filling one with 429421s.

After casting a mess of 93 and 105 gr. stuff these big guys sure empty the pot fast! :)

[Cherokee]

Way to go and 35 rejects is good. Now enjoy shooting them.....

[williamwaco]

1400 .452-200-SWCs:

You are now "Officially" inducted into the club.

.

[Alan in Vermont]

This batch is doing even better than the last one. I'm about 80% through them and only 11 in the reject bin. Had to quit inspecting, even with the opti-visor my eyes were getting tired.

[Forrest r]

Nice!!!

I like to use a propane turkey cooker base & heat a side pot of lead when I cast bullets in my lee pot. When the lee pot gets low on lead I just use a metal ladle and it takes 4 or 5 ladles full to refill it & go back to casting.

Those 6 cavity molds & a good supply of lead will put out a mountain of bullets in a hurry.

[latesvak]

Thats sweet. I just love a good casting session . The most I have done at one time is like 1k 185 gn 40 s&w.



Latesvak

[Longwood]

I add ingots I pre-warmed on my mold hotplate.
I keep the temperature pretty steady by never letting the pot get below about 80 percent capacity and only add one, or maybe two ingots at a time then letting the temperature return to where I want it to be.
I try to add less than 10 percent at once.

[Echo]

I add ingots I pre-warmed on my mold hotplate.
I keep the temperature pretty steady by never letting the pot get below about 80 percent capacity and only add one, or maybe two ingots at a time then letting the temperature return to where I want it to be.
I try to add less than 10 percent at once.

Ditto

[Beau Cassidy]

That is a pretty good session. I also keep ingots on the top of the Magma warming up. Last year I cast 270 lbs of H&G 68's in 4 days in in late June no less. I figure it was somewhere along the order of 14 or 15K bullets. Should last a week or two.

[**oneshot**]

I try to cast in bunches/batches like that. On the days when everything seems to go right I find it hard to turn off the gas.

I've actually gone straight from one set of molds to another when the casting is great.