I cast using 3 1cav ancient IDEAL molds. Slow and easy. Reminded myself how I started 60yrs ago.
Don't know how many I cast, but it wasn't many. I'll find out when I cull them.
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I cast using 3 1cav ancient IDEAL molds. Slow and easy. Reminded myself how I started 60yrs ago.
Don't know how many I cast, but it wasn't many. I'll find out when I cull them.
Today I found my grandfathers bullet mold he made. Drilled holes in maple to use for handles and poured a few .44 call balls all the while talking to him like he was present. He passed before I was born. Put a new rivet in the hinge holes. He probably made the mold in 1870 to 1890s. I still have the barrel and lock. It has five point corners instead of lands and grooves. Similar to Glock barrels.
Today I found my grandfathers bullet mold he made. Drilled holes in maple to use for handles and poured a few .44 call balls all the while talking to him like he was present. He passed before I was born. Put a new rivet in the hinge holes. He probably made the mold in 1870 to 1890s. I still have the barrel and lock. It has five point corners instead of lands and grooves. Similar to Glock barrels.
Prepped 400 .223 brass
Hosed off my scales with brake cleaner.
Powder coated and sized 600 round for 3 different calibers.
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Tried out sulfur to remove zinc contamination using a cast iron pot at the burn pit. Have XRF from before sulfur will get one post sulfur and see how much good it did. Cast some premium alloy into .310 round ball to use as buckshot. Have some soft lead already cast to use to compare patterns. See if heavy and soft or lighter weight and harder work better.
I tucked away 800+ lbs of lead ingots I scored for FREE!! They tested at 14.9 bin. My guess is they're smelted from wheel weights years ago... Woo hoo
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Received a "new to me" lubrisizer last night. Not sure of the brand. I cleaned and removed most of the old lube (what a mess!) and installed a .309 sizer die. Ran about 40 Lee 180gc just to work the rest of the old lube out.
P.S. While I know guns & bullets are not always P.C. in public, being labeled "That Gun Crank" has resulted in more than a few really useful donations over the years. This sizer as an example. If you discreetly spread the word, you may be surprised what shows up at your door.
I sized and lubed 300 pieces of 452374 boolits. Loaded a few rounds of 9mm while I was waiting for the lube to warm up(cold basement).
I was amazed when a buddy turned
Me on to these. It was his next door neighbor. She's the widow of a dedicated hoarder, and the city was doing a forced clean up of her property. Talk about a "Black Friday" deal!
He asked her what she planned to do with them. She said if you can haul them off, they're yours. Buddy isn't a caster, but wanted to use the lead for Winter traction ballast in his truck. He got 400 lbs, I got the rest! Nice early Christmas present, EH?! LOL
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I'm still trying to find a happy place CB wise for my 1-7" twist .300 Blackout. L to R C309113f, C312155pc, C309170f. I've got the test rounds going around 1700 fps across the board. The 170gr(actual 180gr) flunked out yesterday with a 5" 40yd group.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...128161e36e.jpg
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Made a bunch of Arsenal 124 TC 9mm's and a few 81 grain 32acp's this weekend. Smokes powders really do work well! I would guess around 1000 9mm's.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4900/...0ce7193132.jpgPC1 by Matt Ward, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4834/...8694424663.jpgPC2 by Matt Ward, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4853/...a4c86d07b2.jpgPC3 by Matt Ward, on Flickr
Gathered up the various spent 44 Mag brass. De-capped, washed, dried, tumbled. Maybe a couple hundred pieces.
Now to sort by headstamp, and get it back to firing condition....
Spent the morning at the range yesterday. This morning I got everything reloaded:
50 rds. 32 s&w, 50 rds. 38 s&w, 50 rds. 9x19, 30 rds. 6.5x55, 30 rds. .303 Brit., 30 rds. 30-30 Win., 30 rds. 8x56r., 10 rds. 300 WSM. Gotta love it.:cbpour:
Shipped out two boxes of stuff sold in s and s section, started boxing up some high brass 12 gauge empties, put up about 40 pounds of soft lead from some melting activity, and prep some .243’s for loading tomorrow!!! Other than that, not too much.
Room is storage and cleaning area as well. Cleaned my Remington 870 from the last hunting trip. Shelved some ammunition, de-capped about 50 pieces of .300 Blackout Brass prior to cleaning.
Had to empty the bullet trap. I'm using two 5-gallon buckets partially nested, and filled with rubber mulch. The bottom has a disc of 3/4" plywood to stop the heavy loads.
It didn't.
I was shooting loads too heavy for it the handle, and the bottom of the bucket got knocked out. I harvested less than 4 pounds out of it. Dang.
Now I have to make another. I need to go back to the drawing board on this. Perhaps come up with a duplex design, with rubber mulch to stop the lighter loads, backed by a sand trap for the heaviest.
I'll cogitate on it for a spell.....
Repurposed by bullet coating oven for the day and learned to cerakote.
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