Poured some lead today

[Bret4207]

Raining like crazy here so I got a chance to spend some quality time in the garage. Tried out my BD45 6 banger. No real issues except some trouble filling the base of cavity 3. This might have been avoided by using the 1 lb Rowell ladle. I didn't try that until I broke out the 429421 4 banger I bought off Ebay recently. Described as "rusted with 3 pretty good cavities" I got it for around $25.00 w/handles. Once it got up to heat I had nothing but perfect boolits! The big ladle worked great. For grins I got out a Cramer 45 semi-wadcutter, #5 I think. Looks around 200 gr w/ a bevel base. Again, once up to heat it worked great. A bit of a problem with the cavity closest to me hanging onto a tiny peice of lead right in the edge of the sprue hole. A bit of pencil lead helped.

The BD45 mic'd around .453-4, the 429421 a fat .434-5 which is fine by me, and the Cramer another fat .454. The 45's I want fat for my S+W 1917 which hasn't been great, although not terrible, with 452423. My particular mould is small, casting .448-9 at its smallest. I have high hopes for the BD45. The 429421 will be used in a Charter Bulldog, Smith 24-3 and Rossi Puma.

Now I have to find time to load them up. I have about 8 lbs of BD45, 15 of 429421 and maybe 50 ea of the Cramer. Had a good time anyway.

[BruceB]

Howdy, Bret.

My weather problem was just the opposite. It was TOO NICE, and I just knew that on a Saturday with nice spring weather, the range would be crowded to the point that I wouldn't be able to get any meaningful shooting accomplished. All the varminters are getting primed up for the Nevada groundsquirrels, and there are a LOT of .17s and .22s going downrange. This town is a HOTBED for shooters of all types.

So, just as you did, I cast some lead. Finding that my supply of .45 rifle boolits was close to the vanishing point, I exhumed onceabull's SAECO 021 (430 semi-spitzer GC design) from its hideout and cast about 500 copies. That went pretty well, so I also grabbed my 480-grain 457406 RNGC and cast several hundred from that one. Single cavity...that's a lot of work! Should keep the old Sharps' cooking for a while. Trouble is, I did NOT get around to casting anything from the other four or five .457 moulds here. I'd sure like to talk Bill out of that 021 mould, with the help of some long green, naturally. Deputy Al had this mould before I borrowed it, and he liked the design a lot, too.

My RCBS pot has been developing a worsening post-nasal drip, and today it finally got to where I decided I HAD to fix it. Drained and cooled, and I disassembled the pouring linkage to get at the orifice. ICK. I manually cleaned out what crud was willing to move, and then lapped the metering rod into the spout with valve-grinding compound. After at least an hour of cranking-cleaning-cranking on the lapping job with a Craftsman battery drill, it looked good so I put it together for a test run. Success....it only drips a drop once in a while, where before it was a drip every four or five seconds (just like a Lee!)

It's nice that you salvaged a useable mould there! I've found that sometimes even a really-miserable-looking mould can indeed still give decent boolits. Only one of my 20 or more Ebay moulds was beyond redemption, and for $20 I just ate it and forgot it. Not worth the hassle of trying for a refund.

[longhorn]

for BruceB-I guess I had assumed that your rapid casting techniques were primarily applicable to pistol boolits-sounds like I shouldn't have assumed! It takes me as long to cast 100 good 45-70 slugs as it takes to shoot a match! Any special tips for casting the big ones?

[Bret4207]

I won't attempt to match Bruce for speed, but those 4 and 6 bangers do make the boolits pile up quicker than a 1 or 2 cav. I also find it helps to have Marty Robbins on the CD player both because I like his music and it relaxs me and because nobody else can stand it so they leave me alone!

[Bret4207]

Got a minute to hit the sandpit before barn cleaning yesterday afternoon. The evening before I'd loaded up 30 new 44 Spec cases w/6.5 gr Unique and the 429421 sized to .431. I also loaded 20 429215 w/6.5 Unique. The problem with my 429215 is that it is undersized and throws WW boolits at .428-9. The lube, what appears to be Lymans "Black Magic" that was in the sizer when I bought it, oozed up the side of the boolit as I lubed it. I really wanted this boolit for the Charter 44 and decided to try them anyway. I had intended to load up some 45AR brasss, but have misplaced my seater die. That will have to wait.

At the pit I first tried the 429215. Out of my 24-3 at 20 yards I got around 4" groups and no leading. The Charter Bulldog did 4-5" groups, no lead. Recoil was light with the Smith and a bit less than factory level with the Bulldog. The 429421 much more accurate in the Smith, maybe 2 1/2". The Charter also grouped them better but recoil was, well, vigorous at best. I don't believe I want to go much higher with bullet in the Charter. The Smith needs it's sights sooted if I'm going to score better. It's got a red insert with a bit of a shine to it and it glares too much for me. Being half blind these days I should have rememberd my glasses so I could at least stand a chance but I left them at the house.

I'll load some more and continue with the 429421. It looks like a good one for the 44. Go figure, Elmer designed it.

[Buckshot]

...............Tpr Bret, I really like Marty Robbins too. Have a new unopened LP, "Gunfighter Ballads", and the same album on casette. Great music.

.................Buckshot

[Bret4207]

"....They'll bury Flo tomorrow, but they're hanging me tonight......................"

[Bret4207]

Just took the 44 and 45AR out for a run. The 44 Spec w/Lyman 429421 and 6.5 Unique runs about 700fps. Slower than I thought it would. The 45AR w/BD45 and 6.0 Unique runs about 600fps, again slower than I suspected. In the plus catagory the 45AR Smith and Wesson M-1917 will lay 6 shots at 25 yards into about 3 inches. Thats pretty fair for a first run with me shooting and no glasses. Forgot them, again! Bad part is that that 3 " group is 12" to the left of what I was aiming at...................