Effects of 'Cabin Fever'

[trixter]

9222892229

[birdadly]

Hmmm, I'm thinking about the same thing right after lunch... day off off work, 0 degrees outside and girlfriend at work... seems like the right thing to do! -Brad

[375supermag]

I had the day off work and no particular plans.
I should have spent the day in the reloading room.
Being an overly industrious sort, I decided to take a nap instead.
There will be another day to reload...l needed a "mental health" day.
If I don't work Saturday, I'll probably spend a few hours getting things organized in the reloading room.
Most of the evenings the next few weeks will be spent there...thousands of rounds to reload before the first nice weekend in March or April.

[leeggen]

Cabin fever can have some strange effects. Makes those shinny boolits look almost as good as a pretty lady.Atleast the boolits don't back talk nor do they produce honey do lists. Looking good in the supplies.
CD

Sometimes it is better to hide in the crowd and be quiet!

[MtGun44]

HAH! They DO produce a "honey do list" - - - - Load me, shoot me --- Please, load me. . . .

Bill

[pearcetopher]

lets play guess how many are in the jar and then whoever guesses it wins the jar full of boolits whos with me

[Bad Water Bill]

HAH! They DO produce a "honey do list" - - - - Load me, shoot me --- Please, load me. . . .

Bill

Now I know I have a serious case.

Load me.

Feel my graphite covered granules slide gently thru your fingers.

Place my gently molded and perfectly lubed body on that nice shiney brass.

Now gently snuggle me in place and squeeze me.

NOW DXXX IT GET OFF YOUR FAT AXX AND GO OUT AND FIRE FOR EFFECT.:Fire::Fire::Fire:

Yes I do have it BAD.

[dudel]

HAH! They DO produce a "honey do list" - - - - Load me, shoot me --- Please, load me. . . .

Bill

Plus: find more WW, get more primers, check the powder supply, how long are we going to sit aroung, you never take me anywhere, etc.

Boolits do indeed make "honey do" lists.

[popper]

Brass is worse.

[CGT80]

Those are purdy. For some strange reason, beautiful cast boolits make me hungry. It is like looking at a bunch of nice, crisp, green grapes. :lovebooli At least the boolits are also low in calories, if I do eat any. :kidding:

I didn't have business to do on new year's eve, so I did some maintenance on my truck and then fired up the Lee 20 pound pot and PID. I was itching to give my NOE Saeco #315 PB another go. I had some **** get stuck in the cavities when it was new, and the boolits also didn't want to drop. I cleaned the mold with a wood stick and aero kroil. It helped some. I still have some stuff stuck, but it isn't as bad, and I got the boolits to drop with 5-8 light taps on the handles with a soft plastic mallet. Sometimes it took less taps.

I ran two different batches of alloy. I added tin to the first batch because it didn't fill out well. The second batch didn't need any tin, and I couldn't get the boolits to frost. I warmed the mold on the hotplate on high, and ran a melt temp of 780 degrees. It seemed to work better with the alloy hot and with a 10 second period for the sprue to cool and boolits to solidify. The second batch was 5lbs of pure lead (AFAIK) and 4lbs of wheel weights. My first batch was similar.

I managed to make 750 decent boolits and then I sized 260+ of them.

I am tempted to get a mold and sizing die for 40 S&W. I buy cast and moly coated bullets for 9 and 40 since I use a lot of them. I run a bullet feeder on my 1050 for the 9, so moly works well and is only $65 per thousand. The 40 cal is $70 or so. If I had a push through lube sizer, I would probably be all over making my own. The 5 cavity aluminum mold really cranks out the boolits, but the RCBS LAM I is slow, even with PB boolits. Making my own would be less expensive. I just don't have the patience to spend hours on end at one task. Reloading is a bit of a love/hate relationship for me.

I have a good supply of 30 cal Jwords, but I hate to use them up at only 1300 fps and 100-160 yards since I shoot mostly steel. I do use some 30-06 150 grain Jwords for a youth load of 30.0 of IMR 4895. This does well at the end of the rifle range I use (230 yards). I have not used our 600 yard pad yet, as it is only open early in the morning and I am a novice rifle shooter.

92411

[MtGun44]

Try scrubbing cavities with toothbrush and Comet to get them to release better. This does a mild
deburr and puts a satin finish on the cavities while super cleaning them. Works well.

Bill

[CGT80]

Try scrubbing cavities with toothbrush and Comet to get them to release better. This does a mild
deburr and puts a satin finish on the cavities while super cleaning them. Works well.

Bill

Thanks. I haven't tried that yet.

I was considering using comet or toothpaste and a cast boolit to try to get the build up out of the cavity. It is right next to the mold face, so I get a little missing speck here and there, next to the parting line, on the boolits. I didn't want to damage the mold or make it oversize/out of round. I also tried melting boolit lube on the mold, while it was hot, and scraping the build up. It didn't seem to help much. I probably shouldn't have, but I carefully used a dental pick to try to loosen the build up. That also didn't get it to pop off. Of course I didn't go crazy with the pick and go over and over it. I need to get out a loupe or magnifying glass to see what that build up looks like. The toothbrush and comet may at least get the boolits to drop sooner, and if I am lucky, maybe it will touch that build up.

I am hoping to get a little experience and learning under my belt, without damaging my nice MP brass or NOE aluminum molds. I was happy to see that the NOE worked better this time around, so hopefully I haven't damaged it yet. The MP doesn't seem to be built up like the aluminum NOE. I have a couple RCBS steel molds, but the steel is naturally more forgiving due to it's hardness. One of them was very rusted and I managed to clean it up with naval jelly and a couple wire brushes. I did use a brass brush, lightly, on the cavities to get them clean. The boolits come out looking very nice.

I am a bit off topic for this thread, but I figured why not fill in the story since it relates to the above boolits. I should probably post this info in a new thread with some close up pics. I have read for hours on mold maintenance and care, but I am hesitant to do too much and make a mistake.

By the way, there is no cabin fever here. I spent half the day, outside, building an iron gate. My weather station reported a max of 90 degrees on the porch, in the shade (the sensor is 7 feet off the ground and only a foot from the ceiling). It was probably 90 in the direct sun as well.

Ask me how I feel when it gets down to the 40's during the day, over the next month or two, or when it gets to 105-110 during the hottest part of August and September. I will be whining. :violin:

I can't complain too much about today though. The stupid Sana Anna winds stopped. They should be back within a week or so. :groner:

[Shiloh]

Been in single digits and below 0 all week. High of 18˚ tomorrow, -15 Sunday. The idea of casting standing on a frigid garage floor gives me a full body shiver.

Gonna size and lube some boolits cast last fall, and load them up instead. Lots of boolits to be tinkered with.

Shiloh