bangerjim
05-27-2013, 04:30 PM
No...........they are not really hot! But the load behind them is.
I have been casting and shooting cast hot melt glue (HMG) boolits in 9mm and 45LC for sometime now because they are cheeeeep.
You cannot just cut off hunks of hot melt glue sticks and shoot them as seen on some YouTube videos. No accuracy and they tumble like crazy. And try to find a 9mm stick! And......wax sucks......and you cannot use it again until you cast it.
Have been just shooting HMG boolits with primer only. Usually mags after drilling out the hole on the 45's. Important - or the primers will back out. Mark your cases somehow so you will NEVER use them for real loads! I paint the ends red.
"Tumble lube" with mica powder. See below.
These will NOT cycle a semi.
Depending on the rifling in your barrel, you mag get a bit of glue ( but not melted) left behind. It comes out very easily with a standard brush and patch cleaning, something you should do anyway. My 9mm has hex rifling and you can see the tiny grooves in the slug after it is retrieved. The 45LC carbines does not have any problems.
And no.............casting hot melt glue in your mold will not ruin it as some on here have complained about. I use Pam as a casting lube and an ice cube rubbed along the bottom to cool the mold after injection of the glue. Don't use one of the cheepee glue guns you have to press on the end of the stick! Buy and use a good trigger-feed one. If you put Pam applied with a Q-Tip in the sprues, excess will pop out when cool and the cast boolits almost fall out of the cavities. If not, spary a bit more on.
You can crank these out pretty fast.
I shoot into a cardboard box 14"x14"x12" with a 3" thick phonebook in the back (just to be safe) and several old towels folded up in the front. All held in place in the front with 5 layers of cardboard. The target hangs on the outside of that. You can recover AND reuse these glue boolits quite a few times. Just clean off any crud and black stuff with a bit of lacuqer thinner on a rag. That softens up the glue a bit but clean almost instantly. Then drop 'em in a Ziplok bag and dump a bit of powedered mica in for lube. After "tumble-lubing" them in the bag (just like originally) , dump them in a box for reloading at a future time. They should be silvery in color. Mica works very well as a lube for these! No Alox of 45/45/10 needed here. Not even Johnsons wax. In fact, any of that stuff will soften and dissolve the glue and the boolit will be stuck in the case.
Do not load glue boolits immediately after casting them. Wait a day to let them cool/dry/harden a bit......and they do!
I cast up several hundred at at time, as cleaning the Pam 100% off the mold and them resmokng takes a bit of time with lacquer thinner. But Pam and water (the melting ice cube) cannot harm aluminum~~~~! And since you can reuse them, your supply can lost a long time.
Just a note..............to ponder and play with! Something to do when you get tired of melting lead.
Good shootin! :lol:
I have been casting and shooting cast hot melt glue (HMG) boolits in 9mm and 45LC for sometime now because they are cheeeeep.
You cannot just cut off hunks of hot melt glue sticks and shoot them as seen on some YouTube videos. No accuracy and they tumble like crazy. And try to find a 9mm stick! And......wax sucks......and you cannot use it again until you cast it.
Have been just shooting HMG boolits with primer only. Usually mags after drilling out the hole on the 45's. Important - or the primers will back out. Mark your cases somehow so you will NEVER use them for real loads! I paint the ends red.
"Tumble lube" with mica powder. See below.
These will NOT cycle a semi.
Depending on the rifling in your barrel, you mag get a bit of glue ( but not melted) left behind. It comes out very easily with a standard brush and patch cleaning, something you should do anyway. My 9mm has hex rifling and you can see the tiny grooves in the slug after it is retrieved. The 45LC carbines does not have any problems.
And no.............casting hot melt glue in your mold will not ruin it as some on here have complained about. I use Pam as a casting lube and an ice cube rubbed along the bottom to cool the mold after injection of the glue. Don't use one of the cheepee glue guns you have to press on the end of the stick! Buy and use a good trigger-feed one. If you put Pam applied with a Q-Tip in the sprues, excess will pop out when cool and the cast boolits almost fall out of the cavities. If not, spary a bit more on.
You can crank these out pretty fast.
I shoot into a cardboard box 14"x14"x12" with a 3" thick phonebook in the back (just to be safe) and several old towels folded up in the front. All held in place in the front with 5 layers of cardboard. The target hangs on the outside of that. You can recover AND reuse these glue boolits quite a few times. Just clean off any crud and black stuff with a bit of lacuqer thinner on a rag. That softens up the glue a bit but clean almost instantly. Then drop 'em in a Ziplok bag and dump a bit of powedered mica in for lube. After "tumble-lubing" them in the bag (just like originally) , dump them in a box for reloading at a future time. They should be silvery in color. Mica works very well as a lube for these! No Alox of 45/45/10 needed here. Not even Johnsons wax. In fact, any of that stuff will soften and dissolve the glue and the boolit will be stuck in the case.
Do not load glue boolits immediately after casting them. Wait a day to let them cool/dry/harden a bit......and they do!
I cast up several hundred at at time, as cleaning the Pam 100% off the mold and them resmokng takes a bit of time with lacquer thinner. But Pam and water (the melting ice cube) cannot harm aluminum~~~~! And since you can reuse them, your supply can lost a long time.
Just a note..............to ponder and play with! Something to do when you get tired of melting lead.
Good shootin! :lol: