kir_kenix
06-07-2008, 12:44 AM
Got a new mold real, real cheap from a friend who sold his .45 (traded 500 cast 9mm bullets for it). It's a Lee 452-228-1R. It was practically brand new, so I cleaned it up and casted about 1k boolits wednesday night and thursday evening.
Using straight WW's, they dropped at about 226 grs. One cavity dropped right at .452, the other closer to .453. Decided to be lazy, so I used LLA lube and sized in a .451 Lee die.
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg12/kir_kenix/castboolits004.jpg
Loaded with 4.2 gr of bulseye, I figured this would be a very mild load in a fullsize gun. I ended up taking a good friend of mine to the range with me today, which always means that I end up providing 90% of the ammo. After confirming that this load functioned in several different pistols, I settled down and shot some slow groups at 25 yards. Very impressive (for me anyway) grouping out of my Sig.
Eventually my friend and I ended up getting into a sort of argument over cast boolits in general. He said they make lousy fodder for autoloaders, for a variety of reasons. He told me if they were cast hard enough to make it from the magazine, up the feed ramp, and into chamber that they will be too hard for the load and will badly lead the barrel and/or lead will get the gun so dirty it won't function. Back and forth we went for about half an hour before a bet was placed. We would fire a bunch of the boolits thru a pistol, and the loser had to clean all the guns.
Back to my house we went. Spent a few hours loading 800 or so of the boolits into mixed brass. Decided to use a Springfield Armory .45, mainly because it's reliable and between the 2 of us we have about 20 or so magazines that could be loaded at one time. When we were done, we drove back to the range.
I have to say that looking at all that ammo made me begin to wonder if the pistol/load could make it thru the test without a hickup. I was really wishing i had used a conventional lube, and I had choosen the more reliable sig for the test. I shouldn't have second guessed my self.
We took turns loading magazines and shooting; only taking breaks when the gun got too hot to hold or to inspect it. It really didn't take to long to drain the crate I brought the ammo in. We had 8 hickups along the way...but 6 of them were out of the same magazine so they were tallied out in the end. A bore-snake was run thru the bore every so often so the bore could be inspected for lead buildup when the pistol got really warm.
I'm proud to announce that the SA did very well. Besides not going into battery the 2 times that we counted against it, it was pretty much flawless with all but one mag. At about 400 rounds it did stop locking to the rear fairly regularly (once or twice per hundred), and at about round 700 it became unusual for it to do so at all. The pistol was down right filthy. The LLA lube is kind of smokey, and seems to get soot and film all over everything after a few hundred rounds. By the end, the slide had visibly slowed returning to battery, but it wouldn't completely choke up.
When we were out of ammo, we returned to my home and inspected the gun. I ran a brass brush thru the bore several times, and leading was very minimal. It was very, very, very sooty however. It took less then 5 minutes to clean the barrel to a shiny mirror finish that it started the day with. A couple of the magazines must have just barely bumped and shaved some bullets on their trip into the barrel, and some lead/lube had gummed them up pretty well.
I think I spent more time cleaning my hands then the gun.
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg12/kir_kenix/castboolits014.jpg
Not the best picture in the world, but u can see the state of the barrel before cleaning.
My buddy is probably still scrubbing the guns from our outing, and I guess I learned something too. I expected that the gun would win our bet, but i didn't think that it would shoot so well for so long. I attribute that to the mild and unifrom ammo that we assembled. I don't think I have ever fired that many cast rounds thru a gun at one time without a cleaning before, and I expected a bit more leading and function problems. Perhaps this gun was the perfect choice, because of the 5,000+ jacketed rounds had smooted the bore enough to prevent any of the leading.
I had a ton of fun, and sent about 34 lbs of lead down range. I was really impressed all around with everything. The practically freebee Lee mold turned out to be a definate winner, and is a really easy to use mold.
Using straight WW's, they dropped at about 226 grs. One cavity dropped right at .452, the other closer to .453. Decided to be lazy, so I used LLA lube and sized in a .451 Lee die.
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg12/kir_kenix/castboolits004.jpg
Loaded with 4.2 gr of bulseye, I figured this would be a very mild load in a fullsize gun. I ended up taking a good friend of mine to the range with me today, which always means that I end up providing 90% of the ammo. After confirming that this load functioned in several different pistols, I settled down and shot some slow groups at 25 yards. Very impressive (for me anyway) grouping out of my Sig.
Eventually my friend and I ended up getting into a sort of argument over cast boolits in general. He said they make lousy fodder for autoloaders, for a variety of reasons. He told me if they were cast hard enough to make it from the magazine, up the feed ramp, and into chamber that they will be too hard for the load and will badly lead the barrel and/or lead will get the gun so dirty it won't function. Back and forth we went for about half an hour before a bet was placed. We would fire a bunch of the boolits thru a pistol, and the loser had to clean all the guns.
Back to my house we went. Spent a few hours loading 800 or so of the boolits into mixed brass. Decided to use a Springfield Armory .45, mainly because it's reliable and between the 2 of us we have about 20 or so magazines that could be loaded at one time. When we were done, we drove back to the range.
I have to say that looking at all that ammo made me begin to wonder if the pistol/load could make it thru the test without a hickup. I was really wishing i had used a conventional lube, and I had choosen the more reliable sig for the test. I shouldn't have second guessed my self.
We took turns loading magazines and shooting; only taking breaks when the gun got too hot to hold or to inspect it. It really didn't take to long to drain the crate I brought the ammo in. We had 8 hickups along the way...but 6 of them were out of the same magazine so they were tallied out in the end. A bore-snake was run thru the bore every so often so the bore could be inspected for lead buildup when the pistol got really warm.
I'm proud to announce that the SA did very well. Besides not going into battery the 2 times that we counted against it, it was pretty much flawless with all but one mag. At about 400 rounds it did stop locking to the rear fairly regularly (once or twice per hundred), and at about round 700 it became unusual for it to do so at all. The pistol was down right filthy. The LLA lube is kind of smokey, and seems to get soot and film all over everything after a few hundred rounds. By the end, the slide had visibly slowed returning to battery, but it wouldn't completely choke up.
When we were out of ammo, we returned to my home and inspected the gun. I ran a brass brush thru the bore several times, and leading was very minimal. It was very, very, very sooty however. It took less then 5 minutes to clean the barrel to a shiny mirror finish that it started the day with. A couple of the magazines must have just barely bumped and shaved some bullets on their trip into the barrel, and some lead/lube had gummed them up pretty well.
I think I spent more time cleaning my hands then the gun.
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg12/kir_kenix/castboolits014.jpg
Not the best picture in the world, but u can see the state of the barrel before cleaning.
My buddy is probably still scrubbing the guns from our outing, and I guess I learned something too. I expected that the gun would win our bet, but i didn't think that it would shoot so well for so long. I attribute that to the mild and unifrom ammo that we assembled. I don't think I have ever fired that many cast rounds thru a gun at one time without a cleaning before, and I expected a bit more leading and function problems. Perhaps this gun was the perfect choice, because of the 5,000+ jacketed rounds had smooted the bore enough to prevent any of the leading.
I had a ton of fun, and sent about 34 lbs of lead down range. I was really impressed all around with everything. The practically freebee Lee mold turned out to be a definate winner, and is a really easy to use mold.