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Thread: Fast casters, who’s got hot hands?

  1. #1
    Boolit Master Drew P's Avatar
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    Fast casters, who’s got hot hands?

    I have been working my way up in total casts per session and per hour lately. I’m able to consistent,y hit 1500 per hour with several molds. Many many mods to my casting setup have refined it to the point of perfection so I did a speed run this weekend starting with a hot mold and hot pot (Lee 4-20) I set forth on a speed run and got 1940 cast in a solid hour. Wasn’t really rushing, just stayed focused which is hard for me. These were small air gun pellets too, 47 grain, in an 8 cav mold. I don’t think my Lee pot can physically keep up with remelt if I push much faster. I tried running two of these molds simultaneously but it doesn’t really increase the rate that much and it becomes too hard to keep the molds hot enough. These smaller boolits don’t put enough heat into the mold, but that means I must drop them at a very fast rate!
    Anyway I can see that with a tiny bit more effort I can hit 2000 per hour. Anyone able to top that?

  2. #2
    Boolit Man QuackAttack24's Avatar
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    Not even close, but getting better. I started with a Lee pot and a dipper and Lee 2 cavity molds. Moving to the Lyman bottom pour furnace helped speed things up, and now I'm starting to use 5 and 6 cavity molds. Just got 3 more Lee six cavity, and 3 5 cavity from Arsenal molds. No question it is faster with the 6 cavity. I'm not yet to the point of timing my production. No question that alternating molds helps. I keep the ones not in use on a hot plate, and when the bullets turn a bit frosty, I switch out the mold and keep going with a different one. 1500 in one hour is impressive production.
    What could possibly go wrong?

  3. #3
    Boolit Master Jim22's Avatar
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    I ain't much into speed. I find going fast always magnifies the troubles. YMMV.

  4. #4
    Boolit Master Bad Ass Wallace's Avatar
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    I'm not up to that speed BUT I do cast good boolits with an extremely low rejection rate!
    Hold Still Varmint; while I plugs Yer!

  5. #5
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    An Old bull and a Young bull were standing at the top of a hill looking down at a herd of cows....

    Young bull says to the old bull, "Lets Run down there and have us ONE of them Cows"

    Old bull looks at the young bull and shakes his horns sadly back and forth and says,
    "Young bull, how about we WALK down there and have ALL them cows"...

    Moral of the story... dont get in a hurry!!!!

    PS.. hope this don't get me into trouble.
    Any technology not understood, can seem like Magic!!!

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  6. #6
    Boolit Master BNE's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Markopolo View Post
    An Old bull and a Young bull were standing at the top of a hill looking down at a herd of cows....

    Young bull says to the old bull, "Lets Run down there and have us ONE of them Cows"

    Old bull looks at the young bull and shakes his horns sadly back and forth and says,
    "Young bull, how about we WALK down there and have ALL them cows"...

    Moral of the story... dont get in a hurry!!!!

    PS.. hope this don't get me into trouble.

    When I was a young buck engineer, I was told that story (a little bit more colorfully) by one of my older technicians. I now quote that story to my young buck engineers....

    As to the OP -If I get 1,000 in a couple of hours, I am quite happy.

    BNE
    I'm a Happy Clinger.

  7. #7
    Boolit Master
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    I can remember when the first Lee six Cavity came out, I bought two a 158gr 357 and a 240 gr. 44 mag, I got the idea to use them in tandem. I could cast about 600 an hour with very good casts. Never got much better than that. Going on 80 now I can work for about two hours after heat up and can cast about the same amount now but have to quit and put things away and go rest. Age is no fun sometimes, but try to keep on plugging. I don't it as often any more either. I've got lead in my blood I guess HA HA.

  8. #8
    Boolit Master
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    Last time I cast 45ACP limited myself to 1 hr. Set my timer on my phone, cast about 540 in that time. Slow and sho with few rejects. Had some fining started to show up, so had to fix that problem.

    Keeping ingots hot and ready really helps with keeping pot temp up.
    "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government..... When the people fear their government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people, there is liberty." Thomas Jefferson

  9. #9
    Boolit Grand Master

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    OK ...You win the Sober - Clothed- Sighted Boolit Casting trophy !

    But , have you heard about the Drunk - Naked - Blindfolded Boolit Casting Competition ?
    Do some practicing at home and let us know how that goes...
    Gary

    I'm only joking ...don't get naked and drunk ...
    Certified Cajun
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    " Let's Go Brandon !"

  10. #10
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    Winger Ed.'s Avatar
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    I never timed it, or counted, but I can cover the bottom of a five gal. bucket with new .45s or .30 cal. pretty fast
    with a two cavity iron mold.

    My reject rate is almost none, and I don't want to knock 'em out too fast or I'll have to go do some real work.
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  11. #11
    Boolit Buddy
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    Makes me think of younger guys at the public range I shoot at. They tend to shoot ARs or high cap a city 9s at big targets at 50yds or 7yds and shoot big patterns real fast. If that's a person's brand of fun it takes lots of boolits that are just boolits.
    Not knocking it, just not my thing. One really good group can be more enjoyable than a hundred rounds downrange but into less satisfactory groups.

  12. #12
    Boolit Grand Master fredj338's Avatar
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    It really isnt fast hands but how long it takes for the spru to set up. At my best pace it is about 1000 per hour with a 6cav. That is 3 pours a min, about as fast as the mold lets me go. If using the Magma, its even less. You cant go faster than the spru setup or its a mess.
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  13. #13
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    I'm a lot like DonHowe, I never count how many casts per hour, I just cast at the speed my sprues set up (I have a heavy/thick metal plate I set the molds on to speed the sprue cooling)

    I do know that I've drained my pro melt 4 times in 1 casting session and have cast with up to 5 molds at one time. I prefer just 1 or 2 at a leisurely pace.

    IF the room/area is cool/cold the pace is much faster (to keep the spout from "freezing" than in the summer.

    I also love shooting my H&R single shot, I enjoy the "process" of shooting more than sticking a mag in the gun and shooting.

    I can't remember the last time I did a mag dump [too expensive nowadays ]

  14. #14
    Boolit Grand Master

    imashooter2's Avatar
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    That’s a fill every 14.8 seconds. Pretty good pace for not rushing.
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  15. #15
    Boolit Master
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    Congrats. Never pushed myself. My shoulders start to get sore after 30min and I have to take a break. I can get quite a few .357 slugs in that amount of time with a 6 cavity mold. Don't shoot pistol that much so a few hundred slugs last me a while.

    I would not mind making bullets faster, but, I run at a pace that reduces rejects. Since most of mine are for long distance rifle shooting I don't mind taking my time. The rifle molds I use the most are 2 cavity which also limits production. I usually run 15-20sec per cast, which would be 6-8 per min. 30min is 180-240 bullets.

  16. #16
    Boolit Grand Master OS OK's Avatar
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    Show us some GOOD pictures of these HiSpeed cast...show us the spruce cuts at the base of the cast...only then will your numbers impress me.
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  17. #17
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    rintinglen's Avatar
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    There used to be a guy here whose handle was "SF Liberal With a gun." He had a video of him casting 240~odd 40 cal boolits from a 6 cavity LEE in just over 8 minutes. If he could keep up that pace for an hour, he'd be banging on your heels, but I think the pot would run dry long before then. My personal best was about 630 an hour with an aluminum 8 cavity MP 9mm mold.
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  18. #18
    Boolit Master Drew P's Avatar
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    Okay I’ll send pics tomorrow. My sprues are large on these, as the mold just won’t seem to heat soak no matter what, and I like a log shape sprue so I can grab two at a time to put back in melt, every pour. This keeps pot heating at full power and limits fluctuation. I do this while letting pour harden up. I’m also using a thick steel plate for cooling most pours once up to full speed and this was a game changer for my setup. I tried again today with my 25 cal mold and results slowed a little, mostly due to the pot no being able to keep up melting sprues. Fred is right it’s largely about how fast the sprue sets up. These small pills set quickly and the thick plates on my mp molds do great at sucking the heat out of the sprue.
    To those who say slow is better quality I disagree. Casting the fastest pace possible for me means consistency, flow, and high mold temps which all leads to quality casts.
    Also important is an aluminum mold. After much experimentation I’ve concluded that I’m definitely an aluminum man when it comes to preferred block material.

  19. #19
    Boolit Master Drew P's Avatar
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    Out of the 2000 I had maybe 20 non keepers and most of those were caused by tiny water bead in the cavity. They don’t like that too much lol.

  20. #20
    Boolit Master
    a.squibload's Avatar
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    I'm not that fast but hot hands? Few days ago I had about 20 boolits dropped
    and the handle came off the ladle. Wasn't gonna waste the propane so
    used a visegrip as a handle, well it's steel and heated up, even with gloves on
    it got uncomfy. Pinned and JB Welded the handle after it cooled off, just gotta
    grind the excess pin stickin out & it'll be fine.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check