cast 15# of bullets and loaded 100 .357 . . . in two hours (doesn't count time for pot to heat up)
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cast 15# of bullets and loaded 100 .357 . . . in two hours (doesn't count time for pot to heat up)
Cast a couple hundred 170gr Lee TC .401 bullets today. My first real attempt at casting. Going to post pics later so you folks can let me know what you think, and if I should keep the ones I think I should put back in the pot.
Didn't think that casting would be hard on the back! :lol:
Not in the room but for the room.
I'm working on a pile of copper accent pieces for a kitchen table. I'm going to have a lot of surplus and I read a thread here along time ago about plating cast projectiles. I rigged up an old server power supply and got some copper sulfate to tinker with:
https://s8.postimg.org/6mhggrpkl/Cu_Plate.jpg
It works well enough on one that I'll retrofit my grill rotisserie and find a home for my scrap copper. I've come into a pile of dead-soft lead and was hoping a thin copper wash and some BLL would get me to ~1700fps without much effort. This was a good read on a similar project:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?236015
Not boolits, but loaded 100 135 FTX for my 300 blackout for the WI deer season which starts in 6 days. Going to check zero this afternoon out back and hopefully put some meat in the freezer.
Wanted to load some more 30-30 but noticed I was running low on CB's. Cast about 600 311041's according to my calculation as I needed to add 15# of alloy to top up the pot when done. I then cast about 260 265gn CB's for my 444, another 10# of alloy used. Having a large casting pot and 6-cavity molds sure helps to produce a lot of CB's during a session.
Finished putting the 300BLK together and took it for a test drive. Light primer strikes and no bangs so took it back to the reloading room, took the bolt apart and cleaned then much lube. More lube on the springs and tried it again. Success! but still a couple of light strikes. With use I think it will break in.
I still have another lower and am thinking 6.5 Grendel just for kicks
Did NOT watch pro football today!
Did finish up reloading 600 rounds of 20 gauge shotshells
with home-make dribbled shot.
WHAT FUN!
Mike
495 .38 Spl plinker/practice loads. Cleaned out the last of the PC'd 150 gr. RNs. I had on hand getting ready for winter casting.
Bill
Today I found my old Ideal bronze .257 mold #257418 and due to an injured knee and bad weather I decided to see if I was still able to cast smaller bullets. The mold worked great as long as I could keep the mold hot enough but with a small lee bottom pour half full I could just barely get the corner into the melt. I could pour 3 bullets and the bullets would start to wrinkle. I still had excellent results with the mold so I filled the mold and put it aside. I don't even have a .25 caliber rifle. I decided that two things were going to happen before I put my 6 cavity Hensley and Gibbs .45 cal to work. First I will need a larger melting pot and a little help with keeping the mold to proper temperature. I remembered that I bought a small travel iron when the USMC demanded that I had pressed uniforms. I'm surprised I even found it for that was 60 years ago and it still worked. I have a 4x8x3/8 inch aluminum plate with enough room to set the mold flat down on it or an insulated cooling stand to set it on when the mold is too hot. I don't need a thousand bullets at a sitting but the multi cavity molds get very heavy quickly. The Lee's aren't too bad but the SACO and Hensley and Gibbs are killers during a long session. There is no problem here in the summer heat but this will help during the cold Texas winter.
Finished loading another batch of .303 Brit ammo , most all of my cases for that round are now full .
Jack
I loaded some deer ammo to replace the ones I've shot sighting in and grouping. Luckily just 12 rounds because when I was putting everything away- I noticed I had used large pistol primers in the 22-250 with 45 gr Barnes TSX. Yikes, thought I. I had to know; I fired 3 rounds into a 1-1/4" group with same poi. No leaks so far so I'll file this away in Things I Got Away With. I'll not do it again unless I have to!
Cleaned two revolvers and a rifle that I took to the range yesterday. My fired brass is in the back of my car and my wife took that to work today.
My efforts in the loading room awhile back helped me take a deer over the weekend so today was spent in my kitchen, not my loading room. I'm OK with that!
Cleaned and sized what I fired yesterday....
Made a ladder 36 to 39 gr of 4227 with 330 Acme for my 500 S&W. Going to try it tomorrow at indoor range - gonna be fun :bigsmyl2:
I loaded my new Lube-Sizer with Ben's Red...
Doing a lube/load session probably Wednesday - I've got several hundred rounds of various boolits to load!
Tried out the used RCBS Berdan primer removal tool I picked up at a gun show. Works really well. Pulled primers on 50 8mm mauser cases and from same source as tool I have a little over a 1000 Berdan primers of correct size. Looking at 250 1x cases that just became useful.
I may post a thread on using the tool because the YouTube stuff I found just wasn't very complete. Shows person using it, not how one uses it.
Starting to read up on slug loads for that same Lyman 525 12 Gauge mentioned in prior posts. Found a good thread on it, where else but on Castboolits. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...a-Thread/page3
0150, great night of casting. 5 new molds from NOE, now all broken in and casting great! Thanks, Swede!
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