notsorichguy
06-25-2014, 11:53 PM
Well, I guess you could say I'm a long time lurker.... This I believe is my first ever post on this site, I usually hang my hat at canadiangunnutz dot com.
I have been reloading and shooting rifles, pistols and shotguns for many years. I learned to reload centre fire rifles at my daddy's knee. At 7 or 8 yrs old if the old man is to believed! I refined my abilities at the hand of my father-in-law (he sired 4 daughters, I'm the only in-law that is somewhat "gunny"). I've been with his daughter for just shy of 20yrs, so I've had a bit of practice in the reloading arts! I have been told on several occasions I'm a bit of a gun nut. I consider myself a rifle looney with a heavy leaning towards pistols and MSRs. I use "hunting practice" as an excuse to shoot as much as I do, but in all honesty I just like to shoot sh*t!
Long story short (it still seems pretty long....) I started shooting cast projectiles as it was much cheaper to buy cast than jacketed boolits, then I joined an indoor range where cast pistol rounds were mandated by our govt. "overseers".... It was just a small step to transition to making my own....
I have found a steady supply of lead. Every 6 months or so the club gets together and cleans out the bullet trap, usually nets 600-800 lbs of castable lead. Members of the club are allowed to take it with dibs going to the ones who volunteered to actually clean out the traps..... Usually it's the same 5-6 guys that volunteer and usually the club sells 1000lbs a year to the recycler......so I think the system is working.
I cast my first ever slug in an attempt to make cheap 12ga shot slugs. I liked the fact that I could use trap wads etc with the lee key drive mould. Then I started onto a lee bottom pour 10lb pot. Fast forward to today, I have finally graduated to pistol and rifle casting. On Friday I received an additional 1oz slug mould, a 45-200 6 cavity mould, a 38-148 6-cavity mould and a 308-200 2-cavity mould...... I may have tried to go too far too fast....
Firstly, the 45 mould throws 1 slug at .453 one at .451 and 4 at .452. In all honestly I haven't loaded or shot any of them yet, so if may not make a difference, but it's bugging me.... I figure that I could lap the .451 to .452 or I could lap all but one to .453 and the swage them down..... But I figure I may just try them first.
The 38 mould doesn't seem to want to cast 6 useable slugs at the same time..... It's never the same same slug either so it's kinda making me scratch my head.....
The .308 mould is throwing the slugs at .307. Will this change once I install gas checks? Do I even need to worry about it? I was hoping for .309....... I'm concerned that the 307s will give me grief at the range.....
Im planning on tumble lube for the pistol stuff, there seems to be scads of recipes for that on the site. I was thinking a tumble lube may not work on the 308, I'm planning on pushing them up to 1600-2000 depending on what the BHN winds up at......
Im im sure I'll have a bunch more questions as time wears on......
Please be be patient, I'm fairly new to this!
I have been reloading and shooting rifles, pistols and shotguns for many years. I learned to reload centre fire rifles at my daddy's knee. At 7 or 8 yrs old if the old man is to believed! I refined my abilities at the hand of my father-in-law (he sired 4 daughters, I'm the only in-law that is somewhat "gunny"). I've been with his daughter for just shy of 20yrs, so I've had a bit of practice in the reloading arts! I have been told on several occasions I'm a bit of a gun nut. I consider myself a rifle looney with a heavy leaning towards pistols and MSRs. I use "hunting practice" as an excuse to shoot as much as I do, but in all honesty I just like to shoot sh*t!
Long story short (it still seems pretty long....) I started shooting cast projectiles as it was much cheaper to buy cast than jacketed boolits, then I joined an indoor range where cast pistol rounds were mandated by our govt. "overseers".... It was just a small step to transition to making my own....
I have found a steady supply of lead. Every 6 months or so the club gets together and cleans out the bullet trap, usually nets 600-800 lbs of castable lead. Members of the club are allowed to take it with dibs going to the ones who volunteered to actually clean out the traps..... Usually it's the same 5-6 guys that volunteer and usually the club sells 1000lbs a year to the recycler......so I think the system is working.
I cast my first ever slug in an attempt to make cheap 12ga shot slugs. I liked the fact that I could use trap wads etc with the lee key drive mould. Then I started onto a lee bottom pour 10lb pot. Fast forward to today, I have finally graduated to pistol and rifle casting. On Friday I received an additional 1oz slug mould, a 45-200 6 cavity mould, a 38-148 6-cavity mould and a 308-200 2-cavity mould...... I may have tried to go too far too fast....
Firstly, the 45 mould throws 1 slug at .453 one at .451 and 4 at .452. In all honestly I haven't loaded or shot any of them yet, so if may not make a difference, but it's bugging me.... I figure that I could lap the .451 to .452 or I could lap all but one to .453 and the swage them down..... But I figure I may just try them first.
The 38 mould doesn't seem to want to cast 6 useable slugs at the same time..... It's never the same same slug either so it's kinda making me scratch my head.....
The .308 mould is throwing the slugs at .307. Will this change once I install gas checks? Do I even need to worry about it? I was hoping for .309....... I'm concerned that the 307s will give me grief at the range.....
Im planning on tumble lube for the pistol stuff, there seems to be scads of recipes for that on the site. I was thinking a tumble lube may not work on the 308, I'm planning on pushing them up to 1600-2000 depending on what the BHN winds up at......
Im im sure I'll have a bunch more questions as time wears on......
Please be be patient, I'm fairly new to this!