Can you top this? NOPE. [Archive]

Crash_Corrigan

11-26-2008, 06:07 AM

Way back when I first started casting boolits I knew less than nothing. I first got a hold of Lymans casting manual and read it cover to cover a couple of times and then went out and got a Lee 4-20 pot and a Lee 148 GR WC 6 Banger mold.

I had a 586 Smith and Taurus 85 to feed then. I set up the pot and after scrounging some wheel weights went to town. I got a small cast iron pot and put it on a coleman stove and smelted down the weights and fluxed with candle wax.

It was all going good until I started to mold boolits. I had a pair of leather gloves but that Lee 6 banger was really hot. I got another pair of bigger leather welding gloves and wore them. I now had two gloves on the left hand that held the mold and one glove on the right hand, safety glasses, boots etc. I was covered.

It was a nasty job making boolits but I kept it up. They turned out pretty good and I was a happy shooter and boolit caster. This went on for two years.

I guess I made about 6,000 .38 Wadcutter rounds during that time and one day a friend of mine invited me to go to a gun show at Cashman Field here in Vegas.

I was enjoying looking around and my buddy found my Lee mold with some others on a table. Only this one looked different than mine. It was the same mold but it had a pair of handles on it! :drinks: Wow! I never knew they came with handles. :mrgreen: All this time I was holding the mold in my left hand when I opened it to dump out the boolits and then I put it under the spout on a brick to hold it while I poured alloy into the empty mold and shook my left hand to cool off. :confused:

Needless to say I bought another Lee six banger with a pair of handles that day for $20 and used the handles from the new/used mold on my old mold. They fit just perfect. :-D

A little knowledge can be dangerous but that had to be the most stupid thing I did for two years was to mold boolits without using the handles that the silly mold was designed for because of lack of complete knowledge.

If that did not turn me away from this addiction then I guess I am hopeless?

No_1

11-26-2008, 07:07 AM

Crash,

You are one TOUGH dude! Has the feeling come back in that hand yet?

Robert

Cherokee

11-26-2008, 10:52 AM

Crash - Man I don't see how you did that even with two gloves on !! But I understand for sure. I had no instructor and had to learn on my own (way before this internet stuff) to cast. Same for shooting. It was 20 years of shooting Ruger's before I learned that the SAA & Ruger's should only be loaded with 5.

TaylorTN

11-26-2008, 11:29 AM

THAT IS HARD-CORE!!!!

I got started because I wanted to pour up strap weights for my duck decoys. I bought a 405 RF for my 45/70 just to play with. I had so mych fun ladling those big slugs that I bought a 6 cav SWc mold for my 38s. Now I am up to 6 2 cav molds and 3 6-cav. I haven't even shot any of teh first 45/70s because I had a load of ammo loaded already but I am now hunting with my cast 30-30s this year.

GREAT STORY!!

docone31

11-26-2008, 11:37 AM

You Da Man!!!
What is amazing, you did so many, so well.
I am impressed.
Handles do make a difference though.
Me? I would have quit after the first few like I did when I was casting cap and ball, balls, with a cold mold years ago.

dromia

11-27-2008, 03:17 AM

So Crash, after giving both techniques a thorough test which would you reccommend?

Was there any difference in the quality of the boolits from each method?

Buckshot

11-27-2008, 03:30 AM

kir_kenix

11-27-2008, 04:08 AM

Man, not sure I could have made very many boolits like that! I'm very impressed. That is dedication right there!

Tom W.

11-27-2008, 05:18 AM

Is there some blonde in your background?

SCIBUL

11-27-2008, 06:00 AM

I didn't know that captain hoock learned you to cast boolits :mrgreen:
Very impressing [smilie=1:

missionary5155

11-27-2008, 06:29 AM

DLCTEX

11-27-2008, 07:25 AM

Missionary: that's why you were supposed to use two pair if gloves, one for display, one to actually use. It amazes me that we were able to cast lead soldiers when I was a Kid. I don't recall the lead having any tin, but maybe it did. I do remember warming the mold on the kitchen stove and pouring from the little one pound electric pot. DALE

missionary5155

11-27-2008, 07:39 AM

Good morning Dale... We had a pair of GI Issue one each leather gloves we kept stuck up above the main gun on the recoil replenisher...

2muchstuf

11-27-2008, 08:28 AM

Great story Crash . Thanks for sharing it with us. We've all blundered in some way or another.
Don't confuse unimfermed with stupid. If you're casting your own there's nothing stupid about it.
2

725

11-27-2008, 10:03 AM

A true believer. Love the mission first outlook... I would suggest, however, to stay out of china shops.

Bill*

11-27-2008, 11:29 AM

Yeah well,....... I got half a ton of 50/50 solder for free but had to throw it all away as I didn't know which percentage was tin and which was the lead:roll: [smilie=1: hehehe .....Bill

crabo

11-27-2008, 11:38 AM

"It was all going good until I started to mold boolits. I had a pair of leather gloves but that Lee 6 banger was really hot. I got another pair of bigger leather welding gloves and wore them. I now had two gloves on the left hand that held the mold and one glove on the right hand, safety glasses, boots etc. I was covered."

Sounds like there was a little alcohol involved?

jhrosier

11-27-2008, 03:02 PM

Laughing with you, Crash.
None of my misadventures have left a visible scar, yet, so I won't admit them in public.:D

Jack

jnovotny

11-27-2008, 03:40 PM

WOW!!! I don't think I can top that but I once got a buch of WW from a local tire shop, and was smelting them down to ingots. I would grab a handful and slide them into the pot,and then there was a big BANG. Somehow a lone 30-06 round had ended up in the mix of WW. I have a few scars from the experiance but no worse for wear. I damn sure pay attention to what I put into my lead pot now!!!!

Crash_Corrigan

11-28-2008, 12:16 PM

:drinks:
Should I be flattered to have had so many replies to my thread? I think not...

Dromia---yes the early ones we molded with a lot of radiator shop droppings from the floor. My buddy used to have to pay someone to dispose of these toxic metals. When he learned that I was molding boolits he begged me to take some of his solder. I ended up with over 25 5 gallon buckets of this wonderful stuff. They molded great but when smacked against a steel target became instant dust.

You could say that I was one with the lead alloy after molding without handles for two years. I had very few rejections as I waited long enough for the lead to cool before attempting to dump the boolits. Something to do with pain and heat.

Tom W--- yes there was a Blonde involved. My wife she had a great rack and could write her name in the snow if you know what I mean.

Crabo---yes usually. I can recall one smelting session when it was kinda hot. I went through a lot of beer that day and when I woke up the next day I had a very large pile of metal clips and dross on the ground. But I also had over 250 ingots piled up haphazardly in the area. That was 13 years ago and I still have yet to use some of that lead.

JNOVOTNY---yes I can identify with that 30-06 story. Back in '57 I was only 14 and was put in charge of a fire in which we were burning some trash cleaned out of a an old barn. There was an old shooting jacket thrown into the fire which had belonged to my Grandpa "Uncle Joe". He had been a bootlegger and a bookmaker all his life and unbeknownst to any of us had usually carried a gun for self protection and such. He also had a habit of carrying extra rounds in various pockets in his outerware. Soon after the latest donation to the conflagration we were surprised from the sound of gunshots in the region of the fire.

I retreated to a safe distance and the noises continued for about a half hour. When all was said and done we found a pile of .22 and .38 casings buried almongst the ashes and burnt stuff.

No 1---remember that I am left handed. It kinda crimped my sex life for a time.

I guess that the lure of this addiction has to do with converting those ugly, greasy, dirty and unwanted wheel weights to shiny, new and custom sized boolits which we can shoot from our guns. The best part of it is that we think it is saving us money!

runfiverun

11-28-2008, 08:33 PM

thought you read the book, it has pictures too.
wow.....

rufracer

11-28-2008, 10:53 PM

I did that exact same thing except I only had one glove on, and it only took me about 200 boolits before I figured something was amiss.

Southern Son

11-29-2008, 05:52 AM

Crash, that has to be one of the funniest things I have read, so I read it to my missus and she said it sounded like something I would have done, except I would not have had enough sense to by the mould with the handles on.

Char-Gar

11-29-2008, 08:33 AM

About the time you think you have read and heard everything, along comes a post like this!

Shotgun Luckey

12-03-2008, 12:39 PM

Doing it for 2 years like that, and you are still doing it....I think you have the fever....and bad

Tippet

01-01-2009, 12:25 AM

45&30-30

01-04-2009, 12:06 AM

That is something. Wow.

PineTreeGreen

01-05-2009, 02:18 PM

..................Gee Crash, casting like that must have been about like driving a truck with a 318 Detroit Diesel. For it to work like it's supposed to you need to drive it completely pissed off. So if you see a truck driver slam his fingers in the cab door, then open it and get in screaming and yelling, you know he has a 318 under the hood :-)

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

And here all this time I thought a 318 Detroit had 18 horsepower and 300 oil leaks.
I drove one back in the late 60's. A short nosed Brockway would get 7000 gal. of petroleum over the road quite nicely :-D

mousegun

01-05-2009, 02:57 PM

You wore gloves? Damn! If I'd known that, my casting woulda gone a lot faster!

...the scars cut down on the pain after a while, though.

Lucky Joe

01-05-2009, 09:27 PM

Glad I read this thread, must be what a therapy session is like. Got stories of my own just not enough stones to tell them, thankfully most of the time no one was around.

3rptr

01-05-2009, 11:15 PM

Good story, Crash.

I'm figurin the handles are 'extra.' Can buy some handles, or primers...

Well, haven't heard of them, in a while, Buckshot & PTG!
318 Detroit Diesel is without doubt the absolute filthiest engine I have ever rebuilt.
Seems like there is just no end to the carbon buildup and greasy slime one of thos can contain. Great engines, though... Keep 'em wound up and they run real strong.

We had one driver had a 350 stuffed in a widenosed Pete. Over -the-road hauler with a small sleeper and tallest stacks I ever saw. Out on a dirt job he had quite a few other drivers convinced it was an experimental Wisconsin air-cooled diesel engine in the truck.
Sonny Harp was his name. He could sure lay down the apple butter with a straight face!

Best
3rptr

wolfman

05-15-2009, 11:00 PM

..................Gee Crash, casting like that must have been about like driving a truck with a 318 Detroit Diesel. For it to work like it's supposed to you need to drive it completely pissed off. So if you see a truck driver slam his fingers in the cab door, then open it and get in screaming and yelling, you know he has a 318 under the hood :-)

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

Unless you see him slam both hands in the door before he gets in because he only has a 238 between the rails
:coffee:

PatMarlin

05-16-2009, 01:44 AM

Ha! just found this thread.

You've heard of the Bruce B method, but Bruce ain't got nothin' on the Crash C method ..:mrgreen:

Recluse

06-25-2009, 01:16 AM

The first time I tried casting, it was years and years ago when I was in the service. Me and a buddy had heard about water-dropping making boolits harder, so we figured same thing with ingots.

We wanted some really hard boolits to shoot through our Ruger .44, so we did some smelting.

We water dropped the ingots, dried them off well (we thought), put them back in the smelting pot, learned about the tinsel fairy, smelted some more lead, made ingots, made SURE they were dry, re-smelted, re-water-dropped and repeated this process something like five or six times.

We were certain with all that water-dropping and re-melting that our boolits would be harder than our CO's heart. So we poured some nice Keith type boolits, and naturally water-dropped them too.

I can't remember how hot we loaded them, but we weren't worried about leading--hell, we'd water dropped those ingots and resmelted so many times, we figured the lead would be harder than cast iron. So we went full-bore magnum-plus with the loads.

After just sixty or seventy rounds fired, that poor barrel so was leaded and flying boolits every where, we couldn't have shot our smelting pot at point blank range. We scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed on that gun getting the lead out. Our armoror just laughed and laughed when we explained what we'd done.

I swore off lead bullets for a long time after that. Swore off casting, too. Finally came to my senses a few years ago when I discovered the Shooters board and the changeover to this one. Learned a lot.

But most importantly, learned to only water drop once.

:coffee:

bingo

06-29-2009, 10:46 PM

crash

Great story. Maybe I will tell mine one day about going thru 2 or 3 hardhood hammer handles untill I learned bololits are suposed to drop out of the mold and not beaten out.

bingo

watkibe

06-30-2009, 03:10 AM

Man, have I learned a lot here today. There are handles for those things ? And you can open 'em up to get the boolit out instead of havin' to beat 'em out ? I gott find me some a them handle things ! [smilie=1:

Baron von Trollwhack

06-30-2009, 05:37 AM

There is more yet to learn.

I could speculate that if someone had asked you about molding bullets before you learned about mold handles, you would have shared your technique. That's great, but you were wrong.

There are glimmers of that here frequently on a wide variety of boolit topics. Fortunately for most, there are more positive enhancements than mis-information given out. One of the toughest things to do is to tell a shooter/ molder they are wrong, because some of them will not admit to error and defend dumb to the death. No offense intended here , I simply want to point to a curious reality in this and many other things. BvT

ra_balke

07-18-2009, 04:42 PM

I shot myself in the head with my 44 remington cap and ball once.

I was shooting into old catalogs, with a board behind.
The ball passed thru the catalogs, bounced off the pine board, and plop, landed right on the top of my head.

kb2112

07-19-2009, 08:46 AM

TAWILDCATT

07-19-2009, 09:37 AM

see if you had started lik I did you would know better.my first was a winchester mold for the 73 win.the handlel were part of the mold and were wood covered.
I always wondered how the old timers cast as I had rem and colt molds and little iron handles got HOT.the best I have so fare is the Lee 6 bangers.there is a handle that goes on sprue that you can grasp like the Lee.
there is a lot out there that would make things easyier but you have hard time finding them.:coffee: :veryconfu

Mohillbilly

07-19-2009, 11:00 AM

SuperBlazingSabots

09-28-2009, 11:30 AM

You deserve to be in the Guinese Book of World Records
Believe me you have earned that title unknowingly!
Bravo.
Ajay
www.PreciousVideoMemoriues.Com

flinter62

09-28-2009, 07:00 PM

dsmjon

09-28-2009, 08:09 PM

Man... and they let you vote?!?!?!??!?!? Now that explains a LOT!!!!

:) :D

drinks

10-25-2009, 10:52 PM

I suppose I was just lucky, my first casting was with sinker molds at age 8, they come with aluminum handles, you just expect to have some kind of handles after that.

Ron.D

10-26-2009, 09:11 PM

I've practiced this sport, almost in a vaccum for 50 yrs. so I can identify with you. When you're self taught, there's a good chance there's a gap or two in your education. What I wouldn't have given to have had a mentor 40 yrs. ago. I sure do appreciate this site. Ron.D

Heavy lead

10-26-2009, 09:30 PM

This ought to be a sticky.

I reread Crash first post since someone brought this back to life, I think I laughed just as hard.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that has pulled a stunt like this.

God Bless You Crash, you makes me smile.:groner:

Three44s

11-08-2009, 11:25 AM

That's a CLASSIC ....... Crash Corrigan!!!

Just goes to show you ....... life IS stranger than fiction!!!!

LOL!!!!!!

Three 44s

stephen perry

11-08-2009, 12:21 PM

Hope it's not your left . 6000 bullets holding a hot branding iron in your hand. Can you read the words LEE in your hand.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR :holysheep

Crash_Corrigan

11-27-2009, 02:02 AM

No but I learned to line the palm of the left glove with three layers of heavy aluminum foil and that helped a lot.

johnvid

12-26-2009, 07:41 PM

Crash,
I read your wonderfull story today, I laughed so hard I cried. Thanks for sharing the story.
John

newcaster bob

02-13-2010, 01:46 PM

That reminds me of the time a friend stoped to see if he could mouch some cast bullets from me as his wife ran a large tire warehouse and could get us all the w/w we could carry. so i tolerated him. not pay tomuch attention to him i didnt see him crack open cold adult beverage and christen the pot . still cleanning uplead after that mess and scars . he felt bad after that. so he broughtover a 55gal. drum full of w/w to appease me . becarefull of who stops buy

steg

03-07-2010, 11:24 PM

It is funny to remember some of the things we have done casting boolits, when we were going it on our own, a book can only take ya so fAR..................STEG

Jaybird62

03-08-2010, 09:56 AM

Crash, it takes a brave soul to tell on himself. I read your story over a year ago and reread it today. Made me laugh out loud both times. Thanks for sharing.

Greenhorn44

03-10-2010, 11:20 PM

I was doing the same darn thing. It wasnt till I pondered your post that I did a little investigating. Burns are still healing.

grumman581

03-12-2010, 05:32 PM

AriM

03-14-2010, 03:51 AM

:drinks:

Tom W--- yes there was a Blonde involved. My wife she had a great rack and could write her name in the snow if you know what I mean.

I hope to god that you don't mean what I think you mean.....

fatelk

03-14-2010, 06:06 PM

I started out with Lee two-cavity molds, so it was years before I learned that some molds came without handles attached.

I shot myself in the head with my 44 remington cap and ball once.
When I was a dumb kid of 18 or 19, I shot myself between the eyes with a 30-06!
Someone had given me a couple rounds of old WWII AP ammo, and I thought I'd see what it'd do. I dug some pieces of 1/2" steel out of the scrap pile, lined up four of them behind the barn, and took a shot with the old Remington. Something thunked me in the forehead, and blood was running down my face all over.

The core of that bullet had penetrated a solid inch of steel, but the copper jacket had peeled off like a banana, and bounced straight back to cut me up. The scar has faded over the years, but I still have that jacket around here somewhere, to remind me to not do dumb things.:?

grumman581

03-14-2010, 07:39 PM

I hope to god that you don't mean what I think you mean.....

One of those "don't ask, don't tell" things? :)

squirrellkiller

03-27-2010, 07:09 PM

Thats Very brave or very stupid. Wow.

bbailey7821

05-08-2010, 12:57 PM

OH MY! You have my undying respect!

RiverRider

05-29-2010, 12:48 PM

That is one of the funniest reloading/gun stories I have ever read! :rofl: I can't top that, but I do have a few good ones to tell on myself.

Thanks for sharing it!!

RiverRider

05-29-2010, 12:56 PM

You have heard the "becarefull, you'll shoot your eye out with that" Well, at the great age of 7 I got a Red Rider and was given the above advise. I was shoot'n in grannys backyard, at a coffe can and it kept falling over. I got an idea and filled the can with rocks. Next thing I knew, I saw the BB hit that can, and bounce back...... Hit me on the front tooth, before I could duck OOOOOOOh boy that brought tyears to my eyes....... I did'nt tell, because I remembered what happened after I shot my mom's backside with my double barrel cork gun the year before............

MY wife gave me an air pistol for Christmas a few years back. On Christmas morning I took it out in the backyard to fire it. I couldn't find a can or any other expedient target and it was cold outside and I was a bit rushed to get back in the house. I was standing about twenty feet from my shed when I spied a nail head that had sloughed its white paint and I decided that one or two shots at that nail head would satisfy me. Well, that little air pistol was accurate, all right. The first shot hit the nail head dead center and the BB was propelled back at me with sufficient force that when it struck me, my thin fabric pants did little to reduce the energy I perceived being imparted right on the very tip of my manhood. A second shot was not required.

05-29-2010, 08:48 PM

After looking this over a story came to mind. A freind of mine got his two boys some paintball guns when they were new to the masses. So Christmas morning came and he had them stashed in the back of his jeep he slipped outside and loaded them up to surprise the boys when they came out. No he has never lean to the side of better judgement. One boy came out on the back porch and he took aim and fire a very cold hard paintball right in the middle of his back the boy screamed and fell off the porch very much in pain. After running to see how bad his son was hurt and taking the wrath of his wife he told the boys those dam things were two dangerous to play with and returned them to the store. Told me he thought since people shot each other with them they had to be ok not thinking they wore padding. BTW if anyone here dont know a paintball cold is very dangerous even one in the summer fired under 25 feet will put a hole in a teeshirt and draw blood.

Rockydog

05-30-2010, 09:17 PM

I had a buddy once who decided to try using a straight through Thrush Muffler as a silencer. He was putting a new dual exhaust on his 72 Ford Galaxy when this flash of brilliance hit him, literally. He sat down at his parents picnic table (farm country) and set the Thrush muffler on top of the boxes for the pair. He stuck his 30-30 lever gun about half way through the muffler. The old Galaxy had pretty good sized pipes on her to allow this. He carefully lined the sights up on the permanent targets they routinely shot from the picnic table. Then he squeezed one off. Though he thought he had covered all the bases he overlooked the amount of gas a 30-30 generates on firing. The blast hit him square in the face and literally tipped him off the table bench backward. He was blind for about 15 minutes and his eyes were red for days. His whole face was red as if someone had slapped him. His brothers and I watched the whole affair and once we confirmed that he was OK we laughed until our sides hurt. Dumb ass kids. We were about 18 at the time. It's a wonder we didn't kill ourselves with some of the stunts we pulled. Today's kids don't know what they are missing. Wonder if there's a Wii application to replicate this trick. Rockydog

grumman581

05-31-2010, 02:06 AM

In my younger days, I once tried to adapt one of the Olin 12-gauge flare guns to shoot regular full length 12-gauge shells. Nothing quite like the feeling of having the gun basically disintegrate in your hand since most of the pellets end up coming out the side of the barrel instead of the front.

pmeisel

05-31-2010, 05:41 PM

grumman581

05-31-2010, 06:49 PM

You know, I always wondered if anyone had ever tried that.....

All it took was a bit of sanding / scraping on the inside of the barrel to allow it to chamber the full length shells and then the stupidity to actually put a round in it and pull the trigger...

Heavy lead

05-31-2010, 07:08 PM

grumman581

05-31-2010, 07:28 PM

Now that would've been good on youtube, I know what you mean, when I think back when I was 18, I had a life expectancy of a year or so.

Yeah, up until 25 or so, us guys do some really stupid things... Our life expectancy is basically http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=302&pictureid=2073... It's one of the reasons that the human species has evolved to have more males born than females... It's also the reason that insurance companies don't want to insure us guys until we hit 25 or so. After that age, we have either stopped doing the stupid things, gotten better at them, or died from our endeavors... In my own case, I really suspect that Darwin was just sleeping on the job... That's the only way that I can explain why I'm still around... Well, that plus modern medical practices being able to glue body parts back onto the donor body...

noylj

07-21-2010, 08:31 PM

It takes a big man to offer up that story of stupidity just to let others laugh and feel superior. As a PITB, did you ever wonder what the unknown holes were for where you were holding the mold?

The sad thing is that all the stories of finding a "free" stock of solder or linotype or even just wheelweights are quickly becoming reminiscences of the past.

lencoo12

09-30-2010, 05:15 PM

I didn't know that captain hoock learned you to cast boolits :mrgreen:
Very impressing [smilie=1:

This is BARE BONES CASTING ! Talk about Minimum Investment Casting ! This is the feller I want in a tank turret beside me !
On our M60A1 (ol" portable sewer) we had a pair of asbestos HIGH temp gloves the loader was suppossed to use to flip the hot casings out his hatch... Never used them because they would get dirty and the Bn Co wanted WHITE loader gloves in the rack ??? But I wonder how those would fare ?? Real Hazmat contaminated boolits !!!

Dan Cash

09-30-2010, 05:58 PM

This is BARE BONES CASTING ! Talk about Minimum Investment Casting ! This is the feller I want in a tank turret beside me !
On our M60A1 (ol" portable sewer) we had a pair of asbestos HIGH temp gloves the loader was suppossed to use to flip the hot casings out his hatch... Never used them because they would get dirty and the Bn Co wanted WHITE loader gloves in the rack ??? But I wonder how those would fare ?? Real Hazmat contaminated boolits !!!

I have a pair and they work really well. Surprisingly, the non-asbestos replacement gloves work even better. Amaze your friends and pick up a 40lb pot of molten metal by the sides and set it off to cool.

DeanWinchester

12-12-2010, 09:41 PM

This is possibly the most difficult hobby to get any information on. One day you think you uncovered some great revelation only to discover later that someone else has been doing that since the dark ages.

AndyC

04-21-2011, 10:54 PM

My dad had introduced to me to handloading around age 10 and I was familiar with loading commercial cast bullets - but we'd never cast our own.

A neighbor moved out when I was around 13 or so, and one of the neighborhood kids came over to let me know that they'd been prowling through his garage and had found a revolver cylinder amongst the junk he'd left behind - so I scooted over to see what treasures I could find and finally came up with... a real live bullet mold! Wow!

Now, obviously we weren't dumb in the slightest - we knew that lead is used to make boolits but we couldn't quite figure out how long to hold a Bic lighter under the mold blocks to melt the lead scraps we'd stuffed down the holes...

Giving that up as a bad job after 10 or so impatient minutes ("You're doing it wrong, dummy! Let me try!") we finally got a few teaspoonfuls of lead melted in an old army aluminum canteen cup on the stove and carefully used mom's ugly old Royal Coronation commemorative teaspoon to scoop and pour - resulting in some pretty wrinkled and fractured boolits which broke in pieces almost as soon as the blocks were opened, but we were pretty proud of our efforts.

Never did quite learn how they get the bases nice and flat before opening the blocks, though - cleaning a file with a wire brush of all the lead shavings to get a nice flat base is a long, tedious and repetitive process, and we admired how the skilled commercial guys obviously don't leave filing-scars in the tops of the mod-blocks. It was a few years later before dad got into casting - where I discovered that they musta suddenly invented the sprue-cutter ;-)

And 33 years later, Mom's still not forgotten that I ruined her prized teaspoon :lol:

firefly1957

04-22-2011, 11:43 AM

AndyC You got me topped we only had zippos when I was of that age but with either big or old fuel fuel lighter I have found if they are lit long enough they will turn into a raging fireball.

Frosty Boolit

04-26-2011, 09:15 PM

For a couple years I always wondered where the handy primer flipper tray that was suppose to "come with" the lee auto prime was.

mooko

11-12-2011, 05:40 PM

I might could come close. When I first got married, I lived in Havre Montana. I had reloaded for a long time so I had lots of different components on hand. My wife didn't know much about reloading, but she loved helping.
A friend bought a Savage 222 and wanted me to losd some shells to try it out. I had the stuff so, I started out loading a couple boxes using 4198. I was running along pretty true when the radar site called and had an alert. So, I took off, fought air battles all night and got home in the morning. Went to finish up the loading, but the shells were gone. I asked wifie where they were. "Oh, I finished them up, and Jim just came by a bit ago to go to the range." I went to clean things up and noticed a can of Bullseye on the desk. Why was it there? "Oh, the one can got empty so I finished up with the other one." So, imagining my friends face with no ears and one eye, I shot to the range and got there just before he was going to fire the first round. Took them home and pulled all the bullets finding three of them full to the gills of Bullseye.

Capn Jack

01-13-2012, 02:19 PM

And my wife got upset when I told her emphaticly...

"Please Don't Help". Lord save me from a "Compulsive Arranger".:groner:

When Bullseye is on the bench, it is strictly "Fill, Seat, Fill, Seat".
One at a time. A whole bunch of bullseye will fit in a .38Spl. case
and my max load is only 3.5grs.:holysheep

Jack...:coffee:

bruinruin

01-13-2012, 02:58 PM

Thanks for sharing some darned funny stories, guys. Some of them made me feel better about some of my own oopsies and all had me laughing.

El Bango

01-26-2012, 01:14 AM

Well............good grief

ridurall

01-26-2012, 02:29 AM

I guess I should share this so some other dumb guy does not pull the same stunt I did recently. Just a note on this, a #35 primer for a 50 BMG is one hot puppy with a bunch of force. Check the x-ray at the bottom for the results. Well it is official, I’m a dumb ***, a fat one too. Just before Christmas it was raining and had been raining for several days so I didn’t go out to shoot the 50 BMG to empty the brass. So I decided to use my fancy bullet puller and pull the bullets on the rounds that I wanted to use to make 50 BMG bottle openers. The one thing I didn’t do was take the empty shell and load it in my rifle to make the primer safe. Well after making the two horizontal cuts I started on the vertical cut. Now I’ve done this at least 50 times without problem but this time I screwed up big time. The primer went off, flew out of the primer pocket and hit me about 3 inches above my belly button. It didn’t hurt at all but sure rang my bell. I had safety glasses on so it saved my eye sight. After I figured that I was not hurt bad I got up and noticed that my bib overalls had a hole in them. I headed to the bedroom to double check and found that my shirt, underwear and bib overalls was drenched in blood. I was bleeding like a stuck pig. I grabbed a towel and applied pressure and hollered at my 10 year old son. When he saw the blood he started to freak out but I told him to cool it. I changed my clothes while he held pressure on the wound and we headed for the hospital. I called my 89 year old father on the way and he was waiting with his van to take Scotty and I the rest of the way. Once I got to the hospital the nurse checked me in and they called the sheriff and somehow let them know I had been shot with a 50 BMG rifle. The deputy that showed up couldn’t believe that I had driven myself or that I’d been shot with a 50 BMG. He has known me and my family for quite a while. Once they did the x-ray and CT scan they figured out that I had not mortally wounded myself. Thank goodness for fat. The primer went in above my belly button and traveled about 6 inches to my right and stopped about 3 inches under the skin. The doctor felt around and thought he had figured out how to get it out and made a cut over where the primer should be. After digging around for 20 or 30 minutes he kept having trouble with the primer moving out from between the forceps. He sewed me back up and told me to see the surgeon on Thursday. Man do I feel stupid. I know better than this and could have killed the primer with a drop of oil but I was in a hurry and it bit me. I guess it could have been worse, it could have lodged in my stomach or other important organ. The marks on my spine are from a spinal fusion I had about 4 years ago.

http://img814.imageshack.us/img814/4849/12132011primerholesmall.jpg

I'll cling to my God and my guns, and you can keep the "Change".

OneSkinnyMass

01-26-2012, 02:43 AM

wow ridurall, glad to here it wasn't any worse but watch out for infection, not just from the primer but the Dr poking around too. I was gonna order a couple of those bottle openers but now I'm afraid too :kidding:

ridurall

01-26-2012, 03:01 AM

I don't start any bottle openers any more without using fired brass. Absolutly no live primers will ever be mailed out from me.

StratsMan

01-26-2012, 06:42 AM

The primer went in above my belly button and traveled about 6 inches to my right and stopped about 3 inches under the skin.

Wow... sounds like that primer has the energy of a small caliber pistol bullet...

grumman581

01-26-2012, 07:31 AM

Wow... sounds like that primer has the energy of a small caliber pistol bullet...

The primer pocket for the .50BMG is 0.315" in diameter by 0.212" in depth.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/50_bmg_12.7x99.PNG

Small pistol and rifle primers are 0.175" in diameter.
Shotgun shell primers are 0.209" in diameter
Large pistol and rifle primers are 0.210" in diameter.

Areas:

SP/SR -- 0.024052109
LP/LR -- 0.034636051
.50BMG -- 0.077931116

I don't know what the depth of the small or large primers might be, but even if you assume that all the primers had the same depth of priming material, you would be looking at about 2.25 times the explosive material in the .50BMG vs the large rifle/pistol primer...

The .50BMG primer is about $0.30 each whereas the SP or LP primer is around $0.024 each... The BMG primer is basically about 12.5 times the price of a regular primer... Sounds like the primer manufacturers are pricing their products a bit high due to the relatively small number of .50BMG reloaders out there...

firefly1957

01-26-2012, 08:03 PM

Glad to hear you are well we all make mistakes at times . One BIG WARNING while that drop of oil will make a primer insensitive to impact heat will still detonate them!

lcclower

01-27-2012, 09:55 AM

Now that would've been good on youtube, I know what you mean, when I think back when I was 18, I had a life expectancy of a year or so.

My own mother lost a dollar bet when I made 21.

When I was 14 I tried shooting my .22 pistol off a horse. The horse came completely unglued. He bolted, bucked and threw me.
I lost the pistol, probably in midair and when I landed I rolled through a short mesquite.
My horse ran home, I pee'd my pants sometime between airborne and mesquite. I bled all over what was left of my shirt.
Dad laughed his **** off, "Next time shoot off to the horse's side, not over his head".
Mom was not amused.

waksupi

01-27-2012, 01:06 PM

You can shoot off of any horse.

Once.

Alan in Vermont

02-22-2012, 08:08 PM

And here all this time I thought a 318 Detroit had 18 horsepower and 300 oil leaks. :-D

You got it all wrong! That's 3 horsepower and 18 leaks. The 53, 71 and 92 series are even more impressive.

Quigley_up_Over

02-22-2012, 10:22 PM

Best sticky ever.

DeerMeat

03-10-2012, 11:43 PM

Just Horribly Wrong.....best one tonite!

Lefthandshooter

03-11-2012, 04:18 PM

Gliden07

01-24-2013, 10:54 PM

Way back when I first started casting boolits I knew less than nothing. I first got a hold of Lymans casting manuel and read it cover to cover a couple of times and then went out and got a Lee 4-20 pot and a Lee 148 GR WC 6 Banger mold.

I had a 586 Smith and Taurus 85 to feed then. I set up the pot and after scrounging some wheel weights went to town. I got a small cast iron pot and put it on a coleman stove and smelted down the weights and fluxed with candle wax.

It was all going good until I started to mold boolits. I had a pair of leather gloves but that Lee 6 banger was really hot. I got another pair of bigger leather welding gloves and wore them. I now had two gloves on the left hand that held the mold and one glove on the right hand, safety glasses, boots etc. I was covered.

It was a nasty job making boolits but I kept it up. They turned out pretty good and I was a happy shooter and boolit caster. This went on for two years.

I guess I made about 6,000 .38 Wadcutter rounds during that time and one day a friend of mine invited me to go to a gun show at Cashman Field here in Vegas.

I was enjoying looking around and my buddy found my Lee mold with some others on a table. Only this one looked different than mine. It was the same mold but it had a pair of handles on it! :drinks: Wow! I never knew they came with handles. :mrgreen: All this time I was holding the mold in my left hand when I opened it to dump out the boolits and then I put it under the spout on a brick to hold it while I poured alloy into the empty mold and shook my left hand to cool off. :confused:

Needless to say I bought another Lee six banger with a pair of handles that day for $20 and used the handles from the new/used mold on my old mold. They fit just perfect. :-D

A little knowledge can be dangerous but that had to be the most stupid thing I did for two years was to mold boolits without using the handles that the silly mold was designed for because of lack of complete knowledge.

If that did not turn me away from this addiction then I guess I am hopeless?

That's what I called "Handmade"!!! LOL!!

NMLRA Guy

01-27-2013, 11:28 PM

I cannot top that story but a close friend, John Musser, now gone to his reward, got interested in Luger pistols. THis was about 1950. He ordered a Lyman pot for the kitchen gas stove and a mould for the truncated 115 grain bullet and placed a bunch of scrap lead in the pot, set things alight and repaired to the living room to read the reloading manual. Some time later a loud BANG assaulted his ears and he returned to the kitchen to find the ceiling coated with lead. THere evidently was a stray primer or loaded round mixed in the melt scrap! I din't do as badly, but got some old beer coils for the tin. A piece evidently had a bit of water in it and business picked up. THis was in the dining room with an electric pot and somehow the curtains got a sheeting of lead. Lesson learned...

super6

08-19-2013, 07:15 PM

I will not try to (top) but my neighbor as a kid found his dad's dead donkey laying in a field and cried as this animal was a pet to him. He laid down next to the donkey and fell asleep. He lost an eye to the vouchers. He is 90 years old now. Just saying, I would hang on to the hot mould thank you! Great post And thread!

LET-CA

08-21-2013, 05:58 PM

I was reading through our family history and came across an account of one of my progenitors who lived in Utah in the 1800's. There was problems with the Black Hawk Indians and the local men were formed into a militia to act as protection. As part of their "training" they were taught how to fire from their horses. The men lined up in one wide line and were supposed to charge to a certain distance, fire their weapons and then perform a tight turn and return to their starting point, while maintaining the line. It all sounded reasonable but when they first tried it, all heck broke loose. Several horses bolted, some men fired early, and one poor guy got to the firing point and shot his horse in the back of the head, killing it instantly. I can only imagine the story he told to his poor wife. . . .

So, we're not the first men who've made silly mistakes and lived to share them. Hopefully, after a good chuckle, we can learn from the stories.

ASM826

10-12-2013, 12:50 AM

My senior year in high school my Dad bought an old xray machine from a dentist's office. My brothers and I hooked the cathode ray tube (out of the case) up to a car abttery and watched it glow - several times! I used it in a science project until it was stolen but after I ran several tests in front of the entire class.
First thing here I can comment on with authority. I was a radar tech on F-4s. You have to feed that cathode tube a very high frequency signal on one wire and a high amount of electricity on another if you want to get any kind of frequency out of it. Warming it up with a DC car battery will make it glow, but there would be no output to be concerned about, certainly nothing like x-rays.

Slow Elk 45/70

10-14-2013, 10:39 PM

:groner: I'm having a hard time deciding between real tough and real stupid....at least you did not get hurt!

I used to think I was a red neck, and you told the world you are one....:kidding:

larrymac1

11-03-2013, 12:19 PM

I did same thing with pellet rifle in basement.Missed caedboard box full paper hit wall and then it hit forehead didn't do that anymore. I wasn't 7 more like 40ish. Was also hit in fot with .600 rb Don't shoot at frozen tree stomps in Jan. anymore either. **it happens
A hunting buddy of mine shot me. We were chasing quail up in the panhandle of Texas (no hills, no trees). We busted a covey and watched them land and knowing they would run, we split up to cover a wider area. He flushed one and you know quail, they will intentionally circle back on you. This one went between us and he fired at it, about 10 feet off the ground. I got peppered pretty good. He came running over appologizing all the way and asking if I was OK. I said "Sure they just bounced off of me. Not hurt a bit." He stepped up to me and put his finger to my forehead and brought it back so I could see the blood. I still didn't think much of it. We finished hunting and I went home. I was in the bathroom looking at the spot in the mirror and thought 'man that spot looks awful dark, must be a small blood clot there'. I mashed it like a pimple and out popped one piece of 7 1/2 shot. I caught it before it went down the sink. The next day I went to a guy that would mold plastic around just about anything, scorpions, rattlesnake heads, just anything. I had him mold a 2" square with that pellet in the middle. Then I gave it to my buddy. He almost cried and started appologizing again. We still hunted together until the Army took me and he still has that paper weight.

Lead Freak

11-03-2013, 06:55 PM

In the early 70's I bought a Lyman .36 cal Navy cap and ball revolver that I shot for about 8-10 years before regretfully selling it in a time of need (got married, had kids, you know the story). I kept an unopened 1lb can of DuPont FFG for years, until I got a great idea to dispose of it one 4th of July after dark. At the time, I was processing my own black & white film and prints, and had a few empty bulk 35 mm film cans laying around. I filled one with all but about a 1/4 cup of that lb of FFG, duct taped it every way but Sunday and poked a small flash hole in the top of the lid. I took it out behind the house in a courtyard that was surrounded on 3 sides by other houses, poured the remaining powder in a thin line (about 6 ft.) up to the flash hole, and touched it off. I think, even before the match touched the powder, the can ignited, instantly burning all of the hair off the right side of my body. Shorts and t-shirt right? After all, it was the 4th of July. I remember that the entire courtyard lit up like daylight, and I didn't stop running until I reached the shower in the basement. The next afternoon, I was in the back yard talking to the next door neighbor about the regular stuff, and he asked me if I heard that humongous blast last night. I shouted WHAT! The hearing slowly returned to my right ear. :shock:

DRNurse1

01-13-2014, 04:50 PM

I did same thing with pellet rifle in basement.Missed caedboard box full paper hit wall and then it hit forehead didn't do that anymore. I wasn't 7 more like 40ish. Was also hit in fot with .600 rb Don't shoot at frozen tree stomps in Jan. anymore either. **it happens

Great thread. Here is my most recent addition in a LONG line of barely survivable incidents, only some of which were shooting/ reloading related:

Mr Goodsteel challenged us to a 100 yard pistol accuracy postal match before New Years...so I was on the range failing miserably. Decided to go to the 25 yard outdoor [covered] range for a little moral support...I can do THAT! So I was shooting timed fire strings (5 rounds in 20 seconds) and kept hearing thumps on the roof. Did not think much of it, fired off about 10 strings and packed up my gear. As I was making my second trip to the firing line to make sure I did not leave anything behind, I stepped on a clod...not a clod, a boolit...not just any boolit, a 225grain .451 beveled base SWC from a H&G mold!!! Hey, I shoot them. So, I walked along the back of the [covered] range and found about 20 more slightly deformed boolits of similar construction.

My best guess is the 'thumps' were my rounds returning to me from the frozen backstop.---:oops:--- I thought it was just the squirrels since they drop acorns and stuff on us during the summer and fall months. Never mind that the squirrels are smart enough not to accept these crazy challenges in the middle of a winter freeze!

So, now, I have to figure out how to catch these returns in a bucket and also to get them in any weather, since this winter shooting is for penguins and 'I used to be a Bear....'-----:bigsmyl2:

Pistol Pete 45acp

05-22-2014, 12:20 AM

Mr. Corrigan,

Sir, I have been kicking around the idea of branching off on my own and buying a pot of my own. Up til now I have been using friends equipment. You sir are my new hero, anyone who is willing to cast over 6000 wad cutters without handles on his mold has my attention. I will be ordering a LEE 4/20 tomorrow. Thanks for the inspiration.

MaLar

05-22-2014, 02:32 AM

I have a friend (I didn't do it) he poured about a quarter can of BP in an ant hole then lit it.
He had sun glasses on at he time but they didn't cover his eyelashes or his head or his bare back.
Did you know you can get a flash burn on your back from BP if it ignites in front of you?
Guess it was all the very hot dirt landing on him. He didn't want to try a second time.

LaMar

mold maker

05-22-2014, 10:12 AM

I'm so tired of battling those little tiny black ants, I'd almost be willing to try that, except the ant hill is under a finished porch. The little devils enjoy ant poison with no effect.

woodbutcher

05-22-2014, 09:07 PM

:bigsmyl2: Hi mold maker.Try Amdro(R).If that don`t do it MOVE fast,leave town or whatever.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

Lead

06-10-2014, 01:04 PM

The love we have for this hobby is awesome. Not sure if I reload to shoot any more or shoot to reload. Lol

mold maker

06-11-2014, 10:07 AM

I just found another source. About 8 years ago we cut a mature+ pecan tree that was close to the house, and dropping limbs. The stump was cut off below ground level.
I stepped on the spot today, and it caved in to a huge nest. There were literally more than a gal of the little buggers.
They're dug out and gone now. Roots from the tree, Im sure were also under the porch about 9' away.
I think I've found the source, and remedied the problem. I now have a big hole to fill in and grass over. There grading for a new construction across town and I'll bet I can get a pickup load of topsoil for free.

popper

06-11-2014, 11:16 AM

Never had much luck with Amdro but the Ortho white powdered stuff works pretty well when it's dry. Or you could do like those guys who pour molten aluminum down the hole, dig it up and sell as art. Boiling hot water works but my yard is too big. Kind of like the blob, they're everywhere.

a.squibload

06-12-2014, 08:29 PM

My Granpa used to pour a little gasoline in the hole, then cover it
with a coffee can (don't light it), fumes got 'em.

Sweeper

08-25-2014, 05:27 PM

Found a live primer in my dirty pile a couple weeks ago, of course, I found it the hard way, thank god for heeding the long shirt/gloves and goggles advice! Liquid lead really splatters everywhere even if it's only a SPP in the mix!

mold maker

08-25-2014, 07:33 PM

The wife found the one that I brought up stairs in my pants cuff. Problem is, it was the vacuum that actually found it, but it was me that got the point.

4570guy

08-26-2014, 09:09 PM

When I was about 20 or so, I decided to shoot at the cut end of a large mesquite log with my 357. Boom-Wang! The round ricocheted on a course 90 deg to the line of fire and left a nice inch long groove at the base of my parent's propane tank located about 25 yards away. I learned an important lesson that day... Never shoot at hardwood like mesquite. I highly doubt that pistol round could have penetrated the propane tank wall but it sure got my attention.

Grump

08-30-2014, 12:41 AM

Oh, man, this thread has me remembering a few things...

Buncha buds at BYU, I have a match-tuned Garand and a few rounds of AP ammo. A friend from the Engineering side has some 3x5 ish pieces of 1/2-inch scrap steel, one of them welded to a slightly smaller 1-inch chunk and impressively thick. Hey, I've shot a few matches and have some confidence in my hold offhand. But I'm SMART so I insist we put it out the paced approximately 100 yards from our roadside firing point looking up the mountainside. Beaned it with the first shot. Something bounces off my tennie-runners. It's the tungsten steel core. Still have it somewhere, used it as a center punch. It probably would not have even drew blood...

There are more, but I'll stop now. Props to the OP, that's pretty hard-core. NOT while doing quite the same thing, but I have added aluminum foil to a few things over the years for self-protection of the thermal variety.

Bentracin

12-07-2014, 08:00 AM

That is one of the funniest reloading/gun stories I have ever read! :rofl: I can't top that, but I do have a few good ones to tell on myself.

Thanks for sharing it!!

Bentracin

12-07-2014, 08:03 AM

That is something. Wow.

fast ronnie

12-17-2014, 02:34 AM

When I was growing up, my brothers and I found part of a box of 22lr's. Did you know they would go off if you put them on a big piece of steel and hit them with a hammer?

BST4227

12-17-2014, 05:23 AM

man there are some crazy stories here....WOW!! and Cashman Field too, haven't heard that name in almost 30 years now

ISME

05-26-2015, 04:09 AM

My uncle and cousin went squirrel hunting when they were younger and had seperated when they got into the woods. My uncle had gotten several squirrels and had tied them to his belt. As he was walking back to meet my cousin he felt the need to step behind a tree and relieve himself. Upon completion he gave the regular shake which caused the squirrel to "run" around the tree. My cousin shot the squirrel hitting my uncle in the shoulder. Thats a mean surprise while trying to zip up .My cousin still claims that squirrel. I say he was a foot and a half high.

g5m

07-07-2015, 01:36 PM

I can't top any of the stories but at one time I did buy some wheelweights from a metal dealer way back when and did find a live 22 long rifle round in the wheelweights. What it was doing in a batch of wheelweights from a metals dealer is anybody's guess.

gunoil

07-08-2015, 04:12 PM

detroitcharlie

07-23-2015, 03:01 PM

.. Only this one looked different than mine. It was the same mold but it had a pair of handles on it! :drinks: Wow! I never knew they came with handles. :mrgreen: All this time I was holding the mold in my left hand when I opened it to dump out the boolits and then I put it under the spout on a brick to hold it while I poured alloy into the empty mold and shook my left hand to cool off. :confused:

That might be the greatest thing I've ever read, lol.

Motor

07-23-2015, 07:07 PM

I just read the original post. I'm almost without words. Blind ambition ???

How can you read a Lyman manual cover to cover and not know moulds are supposed to have handles? LOL unreal.

Motor

Baron von Trollwhack

07-25-2015, 03:34 PM

I just read the original post. I'm almost without words. Blind ambition ???

How can you read a Lyman manual cover to cover and not know moulds are supposed to have handles? LOL unreal.

Motor

Happens here all the time, in many aspects of what we do. Such things are very good learning experiences.

I have only heard of 5 or 6 hundred newbies a year needing multiple lessons for the first few years. Although some have totally FLUNKED OUT, others keep at it and frequently learn !

BvT

glockmeister

07-30-2015, 10:32 AM

Y'all are GOOD! I'm not even going to try to top any of these posts. Like others have said, surprised we even grew to be this old, I know I am. My dad told me, ''Experience is the best teacher, someone else's is better and cheaper.'' My dad never lied to me and now that I'm 72, I'm still amazed I lived to be an adult. Take care, John.[smilie=s:

waynem34

08-24-2015, 03:55 AM

old post revisited.

victorfox

01-22-2016, 06:09 PM

I can't top this but made me remember my school days. I was into firearms since I was 8 but always tried to find my father's gun (I always was the nosy tinker of the family) and always experimented and shot from age 10 onward. I was about 14, a school friend had a book about firearms and he saw a matchlock musket and decided he would build something like that. Well he did but couldn't shoot because he lacked powder and shot/balls. I made him a gypsum mold and gave him a flask with almost 2.5oz of black powder. He cast a semi conical in the mold (he gave me the barrel diameter and I figured some proportion where the length would be about 1.5x the diameter -- little i knew about the effects of rifling doing etc). Well we hadn't internet not even landlines so I gave him the stuff on Friday so he could go home and test. Next Monday he comes to school with face fully peppered looking like he was blast with #12 or smaller shot. Not withstanding laughter I asked what happened. He told me "you sob the powder you gave me exploded in my face". "how much did you put in the gun?" I asked. "well the whole flask..." I laughed so much of him and told that powder should be used for about 40 shots!!! I asked him for the remainings of his gun and next day he brings an old tin flashlight wired to an ugly wooden frame. The gun, before exploding in his face, had a wine cork breechblock!!! Thankfully nothing worse happened to him and I suggested he stopped with his spiriments because he was too dumb... The whole school laughed about how he discovered the powder.

victorfox

01-22-2016, 06:22 PM

Another one this was me. I was about 10 or less and found in the house we moved in a nice little metal cannon. It had a open muzzle but no fuse opening. That didn't prevent me from pouring some black powder (man I need to ask my father why he had that powder laying in the house for he had no muzzleloader neither did any reloading...) and lighting it with a match to see the effects of the blast. I was having so much fun I think I got distracted and topped the little cannon mouth. When I lit it it burned all my eyebrows and forehead hair as well as my bed mattresses... Setting my bed on fire. I was able to stop the fire but couldn't scale the beating neither the shame of going to school with the hair all messed as part of my punishment. From that day on I started to respect fire and powder...

opus

06-01-2016, 02:02 PM

Sadly, my first post is in this thread.

When I was about 16 I decided to cast some bullets for my 357s to save money. I had been casting roundballs of pure lead for my frontstuffer for a couple of years with no issues. I bought a lee single cavity aluminum mould (it came with handles attached) and was ready to cast. I went to the local public range after dark and scrounged bullets from the backstop. I grabbed every bullet I saw including a lot of FMJ 45 acp bullets, jacketed rifle bullets, SWCs, etc. I went home and dumped them all in the pot and when the jackets floated to the top I removed them.

I poured some very good looking 158 gr SWCs and was quite happy with myself. I proceeded to handload 150 357 magnums with a healthy dose of 2400. I had no idea they needed to be sized or lubed. The next day at the range I fired 50 rds each through my three 357 revolvers, a Python, S&W 686, and a 3rd generation SAA. I noticed that after a few rounds the accuracy was atrocious.

Needless to say when I looked in the bores while cleaning, lead was literally dripping throughout the barrel of each one. I was devastated to say the least. This is also the point where I discovered the Lewis lead remover. I still have all three of these revolvers and they shoot quite well with proper bullets.

The really sad part is that in the 40 plus years since this incident I have not cast a single bullet other than roundballs. I gave up and have missed an important aspect of handloading. At this point the investment needed is causing me to question the value of getting a late start at it.

No, this does not top casting without mould handles, but I felt I needed to share the experience and a sore point to me having missed out on casting the right way.

Skip

Pee Wee

06-01-2016, 08:44 PM

Well Skip I can say that it's never to late. I stared casting two years ago, I am 69 now. Since I retired at age 66, I started loading and progressed to casting and in the last 6 mo. Started swaging. I am really enjoying it all and it keeps me busy. I also have gotten into competive shooting. My reloading and casting equipment cost are paid off and the savings has been exceptinal. So go for it you won't regrett it.

Chris C

06-02-2016, 04:27 PM

popper

06-03-2016, 11:22 AM

Chris -- got a few years on you and a very late bloomer also. Have fun.

Steve77

12-05-2016, 11:59 AM

This story is barely on the scale compared to some of the others, but I'll tell it anyway. When I was 11 or so, we went to stay with my widowed grandmother for a few weeks one summer. My grandma had lived alone since my grandpa died when I was 2 weeks old. Gramps had been a junk collector, scrapper and handyman for decades and grandma had never gotten rid of any of his stuff. Well my 13 year old brother and I had great fun rifling through all of grandpas old stuff and eventually found a box of 22 ammo but couldn't find a gun to shoot them from. We had been shooting and reloading with dad since we could hold a gun with a little help, so we knew that if we could squish the rims of the 22s we could make them go off. After scrounging around a while in the garage, we found a solution to our problem! A small bench vise that wasn't attached to a bench. I know you are reading this thinking that we were pretty stupid for thinking about squeezing 22 shells in a vice in grandmas garage. Nope, we were way too smart for that, we brought it outside first! Well the first couple went ok, you really gotta squeeze them suckers tight before they go off though. Well, eventually our luck ran out and one shell exploded and sent shrapnel through 2 of my fingers, breaking one and mangling another. Still have a nasty scar from that one. When grandma got home, we had everything put back where it came from and we told her that I tripped and fell on an old GI folding shovel. We never told mom and grandma the whole story til about 20 years later.

JakeBlanton

12-06-2016, 08:32 AM

You know, I always wondered if anyone had ever tried that..... Apparently more than you might think. I've known a few people who after having had a couple of beers, will admit to having tried that ONCE. The internet wasn't around back then, so you didn't have anyone to tell you how stupid of an idea it might be to do something like that.

Crash_Corrigan

09-06-2017, 05:12 PM

I'm back with another stupid episode. I moved last summer from my tin trailer into a lovely rental home here in Las Vegas. However for many reasons I have yet to fully unpack my stuff properly.

I fell in love with a Mihec mold recently and bought it. It is supposed to cast 130 gr 9mm boolits without lube grooves. It is designed to allow easy powder coating of the boolit and thereby negate the lube that smokes up so badly.

I got busy and cast about 600 or so of these babies in the 8 cavity mold. They were beautiful. I then PC'd about 500 of them in a nice Bacon Grease color coating. I was proud of myself for doing such a good job. I then set up my new Dillon XL 650 press and proceeded to load 300 or so with a loading of 5.6 Gr of AA #5 and a OAL of 1.075. After I had boxed the last of 6 boxes of new ammo I decided to put one into the chamber of my Browning Hi-Power.

It went in until the last 1/8 of an inch. There it stuck. The boolit was too fat. I had not found my calipers yet. I searched in vain for days in my overflowing garage in the miserable heat of Las Vegas. I finally just ordered a set from FS Reloading and they arrived in two days. My boolits were coming up as anywhere from .362 to .364 in diameter and as such did not fit at all. I looked for my case gauge in 9MM and my sizing dies in .357. Again no joy and I ordered new ones. While awaiting the arrival of these I put away the Browning and forgot about it.

Some days later I ran across the Browning and noticed that the slide was not in battery. I pushed on it and it was sticking. I was thinking ahead(too much) of having this weapon looked at by a gunsmith and anticipating another expensive repair when I managed to close the slide. Now I then tried to pull it open, without success. Somehow I managed to get the pistol to work.

Yes! That fat boolit worked just fine....the Browning belched out that boolit to my surprise from the business end of the barrel. The round went through the opened door of the room. It made neat little round holes through both sides of the wooden interior door and continued into the adjacent wall.

It made a neat hole in my side of the wall but a nasty hole on the other side of the wall which happened to be my kitchen. It missed the cat relieving himself in the cat box and plowed into the floor about 6 inches from the edge of a built in cabinet. The cat erupted from the toilet facility with a major yowl and hiked himself into the bedroom and was not found for hours and hours.

The boolit was not yet done...it gouged out a 2 inch chunk of the linoleum and concrete floor spattering the kitchen with pieces of lead, flooring and powder coating flakes as far as 8 feet away as it punched into the wooden cabinet at about an 1 inch altitude. It apparently stopped there as nothing exited from the base of the cabinet adjacent to the refrigerator.

Anybody got a decent way to fix the gouge in the floor and camoflauge the damage so I do not have to pay to have the kitchen refloored? The holes in the wall and the door are a easy fix with the right sized corks and spackle and paint. The floor not so much.

Hey at least I missed killing the cat...........

JonB_in_Glencoe

09-06-2017, 05:59 PM

WOW !!!
:shock: :shock: :shock:

dragon813gt

09-06-2017, 06:33 PM

That's quite and entertaining and impressive story. Now for the bad news, there is no way to patch linoleum. You're gonna have to redo the entire floor. The good thing is that linoleum is cheap.

woodbutcher

09-08-2017, 10:39 PM

:shock: Holey cow!!!!!!!!!!!!!They say into every life a little rain must fall.But you have been under a monsoon.Wishing you the best.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

09-16-2017, 10:42 PM

Simple patch for linoleum measure how big of a area that is in need of repair and match the color so it will not stand out and pick up a RUG or mat that is about it.

Atlast357

09-17-2017, 08:31 PM

Well Crash at least you have mastered the art of casting an ain't a bad writer neither.
I love short stories written years apart , cuzz well they are easy to follow....... 11 years later.
Keep em coming.

Went to my optometrist complaining about seeing double seems one eye worse than the other.He said my eyes have changed drastically, left is now near-sighted,
so turned my glasses upside down..........

6GUNSONLY

09-17-2017, 10:30 PM

..................Gee Crash, casting like that must have been about like driving a truck with a 318 Detroit Diesel. For it to work like it's supposed to you need to drive it completely pissed off. So if you see a truck driver slam his fingers in the cab door, then open it and get in screaming and yelling, you know he has a 318 under the hood :-)

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

Having driven a few Detroits, that is just too funny.

Boogieman

09-18-2017, 10:43 PM

try a 6-71 Detroit they have torque band about twice as wide as the needle on the tack . See hill coming put it to the red line ,every time you can the needle move drop down a gear till it will stay on the red line. They told me when I started just drive it like you stole it.

AKholicBubba

11-29-2017, 01:06 AM

Wow i can't even imagine casting without the handles all that time

Pilgrim

03-05-2019, 09:19 PM

I started casting way back. First WW were smelted in my electric pot. Miserable job that way but it worked. Eventually, I found a plumbers pot and a heavy gauge cast iron pot for smelting. Much better, but...small volumes of ingots. Needed another bigger pot. Had a friend weld a plate across a heavy 10" piece of pipe. Worked like a charm. Lacking a plumbers pot...go get a turkey fryer and have somebody weld a plate on the bottom of a piece of pipe that will fit with about a half inch clearance all around. NOW you can turn WW's into ingots PDQ. Much easier to flux the "mix" as well. If you pay attention you can figure out how many ingots to add to your pot as you go along casting. Saves much time in bringing your pot back up to temp. Finally, thank your lucky stars that Lyman decided to reprint their cast bullet manual. Back in the day there wasn't any casting info other than that VERY expensive out of print collectible Lyman manual, or the (also out of print) collectible Philip Sharpe book. This site provides all you could learn from either book plus much much more. Cherish it. Pilgrim

BTW - don't try to deprime old military cases you are salvaging by putting them in a shell holder of some sort and then smacking the primer with a nail, or punch or similar using a hammer for the force. Those primers will depart the case and whiz by your ear (if you're lucky) right quick. Makes removing crimped in primers real easy. If you are up to it. I tried it one time in a row. Got smarter real quick.

sailcaptain

03-07-2019, 05:06 PM

I started casting boolits by first learning to cast lead sinkers. I had a old 6 sinker metal mold I got somewhere. I was 14 or 15 at the time.
I was a junior shooter at a local club that was being torn down after the building was sold and the new owner had other uses in mind for the building than a shooting range. We're talking late 1960's here.
So, I got the idea of digging out the lead from the backstop area and selling it for cash. Now we're talking real lead now!
Well after a weekend of digging and riding back and forth on my bike, I had enough lead for all the sinkers I could use in a life time and then some.
That lead followed me around to 4 houses, always ending up in the back of the garage somewhere, because "you never know".
Then I got into casting for bullets.
I did all my melting from a 6 inch wide cast iron pot and a ladle. Sometimes over a fire, sometimes with a propane touch. That's how high tech I was at the time.
And I too, didn't have a set of handles for a .45 caliber mold that was given to me by older man who just didn't want it any more, let alone the metal sinker mold. But he did give me a very nice thick chunk of burnt cork that the mold sat in, and I used that for two years.

So we all have to start somewhere. For me it was sinkers and yes the feeling is back in my hand also.

Walks

06-12-2019, 02:50 PM

Well I go over this thread about every 4-5 months after I found it, not long after I joined.

I've finally decided my story.

I shot My Own Father.
In the butt, with a shotgun at 30ft.
We were Quail Hunting the first season after getting my first Hunting License. For some reason My DAD was on the left and I was on the right. I shoot shoulder guns from the right, he shoots shoulder guns from the left. Our old German Short Hair stopped right in front of Dad, he moved forward to flush. I shifted because they flushed straight across in front of me. My back foot hit something and down I went face forward. My 20ga went off and the edge of the pattern hit my Dad's right lower cheek.
To this day I remember the sights, smells and the sounds. The Sounds !!! I learned every swear word & combination possible in the English language and a few German ones too. We got back to the car were I proceeded to dig out 16 pieces of #7 1/2 birdshot out of my Dads hip, thigh and lower cheek. I was warned to never speak of this to anyone EVER.
But since I'm the sole surviving Family Member left , and all our Lodge Brothers from that time have also passed, and everyone else I knew at the time.
I figured it was time to tell the story.
And Dad, NEVER hunted on the left again.

AllanD

06-12-2019, 07:07 PM

good story, reminds me of the one about the guy who cut a few cords of wood with his new chainsaw before someone showed him how to start it.

I gotta say it. I'm torn...between admiration and disbelief- how could a guy go 2 years, pour 6k rounds before figuring out there's supposed to be handle involved? If wasn't the new guy here I'd call **. But I am so I won't.

I've always heard that as an Italian joke, the guy at Sears sells Luigi a chainsaw when he comes into the store to buy a file to sharpen his hand-saw and tells him he can cut down and cut up 20 trees a day, Luigi
tries his best but can only get three trees down and cut up and thinks something is wrong with the saw, the salesman starts it up and Luigi exclaims "Whatsa that noise?"

GONRA

06-18-2019, 05:25 PM

GONRA sez - PLEEEEEEZE do NOT tell Lee u really do NOT need handles on a Boolit Mould!

Old Rvr.

07-12-2019, 02:06 AM

Great stuff guys, the Kitchen Stove ,Lead on the Ceiling had me Laughing so hard I thought I would wake up my Wife ( whom cooks like that ! ) keep em coming .
P.S. Love the Detroit Explanations , luckily that is one I was never Stuck with.

Crash_Corrigan

08-03-2019, 08:28 PM

To: Pistol Pete 45acp...…...I did mold all those boolits and I shot them over those years to keep up my shooting skills and because it was such good fun. I joined a local shooting club and I was lucky enuf to be able to mine the berms for lead. I believe that I have a lifetime supply left. However I have had to move the pile 4 times and there is still another 1,000 lbs in the back of my Nissan Frontier. It costs me about 1 mpg less in fuel economy but the ride is no longer harsh on the small bumps. Stopping distance has increased and the pick up don't have much pick up any more. I am now casting and handloading for about 25 different weapons and the equipment has taken over my domicile. This hobby is a disease that has no cure. Now I am in the process of documenting all my weapons and equipment with an eye to allow my wife to dispose of it and glean the most possible when I go to meet Jesus. I have left her a lifetime supply of 45 Colt and .38 Spcl ammo for her two favorite guns. A smith 586 with a 8 5/8 bbl and a Ruger Vaquero with a 5.5" tube.

Bwana John

08-04-2019, 11:56 AM

After learning how to reload in a friend's dad's garage I attempted to do the same thing, so I bought a set of 30 cal Carbine dies, shellholder, powder scoop... and with a hammer, a pair of channel locks, and a couple of blocks of wood (but no press) I went at it. Didn't get very far.

But... No handles on mold blocks!!!!

grayscale

08-07-2019, 11:20 PM

Wah! No mold handles, Can't top that. Shot the wall and almost the cat, Maybe. When I was about 14 and home alone with an older sister we were frightened by the most god awful ruckus at the back porch. With shrieks and screeches it sounded like a murder was happening in the back yard. Sis was frightened ( so was I) so I grabbed my Dads colt new service .45 and a flash light and went outside to see, cocking the revolver before stepping onto the porch. Well the murder was two raccoons in a tree doing what raccoons do. So I came back in and had a laugh with Sis and went to put the gun back in the drawer.. But a Colt's new service is a big gun and I had small hands. As I lowered the hammer it slipped out from under my thumb and fired a round into the drawer front of my parents big chest of drawers angling down. I was on the second floor.
I panicked thinking I had shot through the chest and the floor below where our bedrooms were. I looked between the chests legs, but no hole in the floor. pulled it away from the wall, but no hole in the wall. Where was that .45 bullet? I pulled out the drawer with the big hole in the front and turned it over. The bullet had punched through the bottom and was trapped in a wad of material. How? Turns out it was my mother's pantie-hose drawer and they had stopped a colt .45 at 1 foot distance. No wonder the gals
wear those things, they'r bullet proof. I'll leave aside the rest of the fallout from when my folks got home except to say it left me wishing I was bullet proof.
Grayscale

jmorris

09-22-2019, 09:16 PM

I read this one when it was first posted. Keep coming back once or twice a year to read it again. Always brings a smile and makes me realize there are more manly men out there than me. Casting “by hand” for two years is quite an accomplishment.

Might make it harder to judge the heat of a fire on the grill cooking though. Have to push he palm down on the grill grate vs us sissy’s that hold our hands 4-6” above to judge.

Winger Ed.

09-22-2019, 10:16 PM

[QUOTE=Crash_Corrigan;: Wow! I never knew they came with handles. [/QUOTE]

Send off for that DNA family history thing.

You might be related to Chuck Norris.

Crash_Corrigan

10-18-2019, 04:52 PM

Long before I started to reload my own ammo and then cast my own boolits I was a very determined shooter. My Dad bought me a few bb guns when I was just a little guy and he taught me the rules for gun safety first. Then he taught me how to line up the sights after I had taken a decent stance and a decent grip on the gun. Working the trigger on a Daisy BB gun was a real chore. The trigger pull was awful and decent accuracy was just a matter of luck even if I did everything prior to that trigger pull perfectly.

At about age 9 Dad introduced me to his Savage model 23 bolt .22 LR rifle. It was not sleek nor lightweight at all but it did have butter smooth trigger, decent sights and a very smooth and well worn in bolt action. However the safety left a lot to be desired as if you left a round chambered and the bolt cocked a small lifting of the bolt handle would allow a round to cook off without touching the trigger.

I was then introduced into the world of rabbit and squirrel hunting by my Dad with that very very accurate .22 Rifle. I got to the point where I could accurately take out a woodchuck at over 100 yds about 80% of the time with a head shot. When I was 13 he brought out a veteran Colt Woodsman .22 LR semi auto with a 4" tube. He taught me how to shoot this pistol but it was never very accurate at all. At 14 he allowed me to shoot his WWII G.I. bring back .32 ACP Mauser pistol. This one was very accurate but the ammo was too expensive to shoot very much. He also introduced me to his Baker side by side 12 gauge shotgun. It had a sold recoil impulse that I could endure if I was standing in an a offhand position. Sitting or prone was not as much fun. At 16 I bought my first rifle a Remington model 514 single shot .22 LR. I about wore it out over the next few years.

At 21 I was accepted as a rookie by the New York City Police Department and I was restricted to buy either a Smith Model 10 heavy barrel .38 Special or a Colt in the same caliber. I opted for the Smith and I was taught by some of the best revolver shooters in the country. Guys like Al Syage, Frankie May and Jim Cirillo showed me how to the get the best out this fine workhorse revolver.

As a cop in NYC I was required to spend a whole day and got to shoot around 300 rounds at the departments outdoor range at Rodmans Neck I the Bronx during the warm months and during the winter months we were required to shoot another 50 rounds at one of the indoor ranges in the city.

My first command was the 20th Precinct on West 68th St in Manhatten. Close by in Central Park was the 22nd Precinct which had an indoor range that was open one night a week and as a cop the department gave us a 50 round box of ammo each month if we bothered to ask. I made it a habit to ask every month. A close friend had a Dad who was in the Army on active duty as a Warrant Officer and he provided unlimited amounts of US Army .38 Special 130 gr FMJ rounds in neat little boxes.

As time went by the Range Officers who supervised the shooters soon realized that I was a serious student seeking accuracy and with the large amount of ammo I provided they took pleasure in help me out to get a better handle on this plain jane Smith. One night a top shooter took it upon himself to take my Smith and work over the action and trigger.

All that work took a few hours and the results were very appreciated. Properly tuned and lubricated by an expert that Smith took on a new life and with it I really began to achieve what I was looking for.

By spending one night a month and sometimes a half dozen nights shooting off that free Army fodder I became an expert shot and developed a mastery of that weapon which gave me the confidence in that weapon that I was looking for. The only downside to that was the copper fouling those boolits put into the barrel of the Smith. Once the barrel was loaded with copper fouling a few shot of lead boolits really caused a major leading problem of mammoth proportions. I soon learned to use the NYCPD's lead boolits first and then the Army's lighter rounds. Of course the lighter rounds did not impact anywhere near where the heavier lead boolits did. However at the shorter ranges of 25 yards or less the difference did not really matter that much.

I pretty much kept up with the extra range sessions over the years until I retired in '84. For a few years I did not utilize a weapon of any kind until I moved to Vermont. Say what you want about that rural and very lightly populated state the laws regarding concealed or open carry were up at the top.

I got a job as an Insurance Adjuster and I soon was packing my beloved Smith everywhere and all the time. The only time I needed it was when I was required to dispatch an injured deer which had jumped into the bed of my pickup and broken her leg badly.

It's a big deal if you hit a deer in Vermont. I had to contact the local State Trooper and he came out to the scene and determined that the deer was hit with the rear half of the vehicle. This meant that I could salvage the meat and I had no liability. However if the deer had be impacted by the front half (meaning anything forwards of the back of the front seat) I would be ticketed and I would not be given the deermeat.

These days I still love to shoot my Smith but it has been upgraded to the 586 level with a 6" tube. This one has also been worked over and is a better shooter than my beloved 4 incher. I do miss those free Army 130 copper FMJ's.

dougader

12-27-2020, 09:00 PM

Wow, that's a first. I've never heard of anyone casting bullets with no handles on their mold. LOL.

What a maniac! I'm glad I ordered a Lee 2-banger mold for my first mold as it came with the handles. So, it would have been impossible for me to make the same mistake.

Wow!

ebb

12-29-2020, 10:12 PM

I bought a press and a set of dies to start my reloading. Several friends talked me through the process. I seems none thought to mention lubing the cases before sizing. I put all that junk in a box and never touched it for about ten years. Then a real friend had me come to his house and we reloaded on his bench and he taught me what I needed to know.

Tortoise1

01-02-2021, 11:13 PM

Glad I ran across this thread. Very entertaining.

BigJohnYup

02-19-2021, 07:28 PM

One TOUGH man, I started with a 2 quart, copper bottom, stainless sauce pan on a Coleman stove, and used an old gravy dipper spoon I had swiped from my grandmas kitchen, and I thought that thing used to be hot !!!

45-70 Chevroner

03-01-2021, 06:48 PM

[QUOTE=Bill*;445466]Yeah well,....... I got half a ton of 50/50 solder for free but had to throw it all away as I didn't know which percentage was tin and which was the lead.
No comment. I started to but it wasn't worth it.

Win94ae

03-02-2021, 11:44 PM

Now that is funny!

JAMESGR

03-15-2021, 11:02 PM

I just borrowed the solder and glasses stories and sent them to a friend.
I'll send them to my eldest son tomorrow.
JAMESGR

Alferd Packer

07-07-2021, 07:37 PM

Reminds me of the guy who went to a Tupperware party with his new girl friend and took his buddy along too.
At the party the guy won a toilet bowl brush and holder.
Six months went by and the buddy asked the first guy how that toilet brush was working out .
The first guy said the brush was
alright but said he thinks he will go back to using toilet paper.!!!!

Mike Langlois

06-02-2023, 03:54 PM

I can not top casting without mould handles, but we can come close. A Policeman friend of mine had an Accidental Discharge of his CCW gun in MY LIVING ROOM. Fortunately the Wife and Dog were not present. This is good, because the boolits' flight path went straight through the space normally occupied by my 120 lb Best Friend. We looked and looked and could not could not find a Boolit Hole; funny that. The next day, after the Wife noticed broken black plastic on the carpet, we found the 9mm Jacketed Hollow Point (Sorry, this is not a Cast Boolit story, but is does involve Pb). The path went from the dinner table, over the dogs' couch (yes, the Dog has a couch), just over the arms of three Theatre Recliners and into the side of the small drink tray on the arm of the last Recliner. The boolit went through the plastic side of the tray, hit the plywood innards, spun the tray around, ricocheted off the nice leather seat (no lasting evidence here thank God) and dropped onto the floor. Which is why I use a .357 Magnum or a .460 Magnum.

Now, you do not get away with this unscathed in my house. I had to ignore what happened in my LIVING ROOM and make sure my buddy never lives this down. To this end.... the trophy. He immediately received the West End GC Hot Shot Trophy (my brand new, first time used bullet chronograph that our other buddy had shot on its first time out of the box) which you receive when you do something with a firearm that is "Spectacularly Stupid" and no one get hurt. You keep this trophy until another buddy does something worthy. Next I made (almost finished) the Personal Trophy for CB who had an Accidental Discharge in the wrong place; that is the ADCB23 on the trophy. Since it was Spectacularly Stupid it needed LED's and flying wood shrapnel; the base is almost done:

314678

Here is a close up of the Boolit (if I attached the photos correctly), which has been drilled out lengthwise and also posses multiple side holes to let the Blue light out.

314679

God help me if the Wife ever finds out this happened, I get the impression that she might be a little perturbed by the incident. I'm trying to get the base done (it should match my recliner arm) and possibly present to this to my buddy at our Gun Club meeting next week. If I could pull that off CB will not forget the AD in 2023!
Manic Mike

P.S. If you find this entertaining let me know and I'll post pictures of the West End GC Hot Shot trophy, complete with an led outline of the bullets' path right up to the hole blown in the Chrono, which is bright RED and Sparkly inside.

Winger Ed.

06-02-2023, 04:16 PM

God help me if the Wife ever finds out this happened, I get the impression that she might be a little perturbed by the incident. .

I had a life long friend that had a accidental discharge of a 9mm. It flew out of his bedroom office, across the hall,
through the wall just above the bathroom sink faucet, through that wall, and into his wife's antique desk/secretary furniture thing.

He called me in a panic on how to fix the holes before the wife got home and put his head out in the yard on a stick.

I told him to put tooth paste over the hole by the sink, paint the hole in the antique with a marks-a-lot,
and move the potted plant bush thing closer to it.
If he ever got called out on it, tell her you thought the hole had always been there.
The tooth paste patch would be a little harder to explain, but the color matched the back splash pretty well.
The weekly maid service lady never narced off on him and 20 years later, nothing had ever been said about it.

Rapier

06-03-2023, 08:43 AM

This is a do not say a worl tail. My HS buddy calls me, can you come over, I need help. Sure, now when you get here do not say a word, OK be there in a few minutes.
I arrive in the driveway, walked up the steps and opened the door into the kitchen....it is now dark red, was white, the hole through the ceiling is also new modification. Pressure cooker full of spegetti sauce detonated, luckily no one was hurt, but the lid went right through the 8' ceiling.

Had company coming for supper, so mom added an extra large can of tomatoes and tomato paste, so at a hard boil plugged the vent, boom. About an hour into washing walls, cabinets, floor and ceiling, we started laughing, laughed until we cried. At times that is about all you can do.
That pressure cooker blew tomato sauce everywhere, living room, hallway, windows, doors, etc. We told the story for years.

Then there was the tile contractor, they took out 2,000 sq ft of our space age vinyl floors, in a 4,000 sq ft house, replaced with porcelain tile, we gave them the house for the job. Came back two days later at night at the end of the job. Turned on the lights, odd look to the inside of the house, lights were not bright, kind of dim. Brushed against the hall-way wall, left a bright white spot. Woah.
Grey grout powder coat on and in everything, AC ducts, closets, cabinets, clothes, walls, showers, etc, their crew's new guy had used my fish pond shop vacuum without a filter, with the central AC on. Incredible $30,000 insurance claim, what a mess.