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Thread: Soon I'll be raining bullets.

  1. #1
    Boolit Master Recycled bullet's Avatar
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    Soon I'll be raining bullets.

    It all starts with staging my tools around the heat source in a semi circle organization.

    About two feet in front me is the turkey fryer with one quart stainless sauce pan heating up to cast. It is fed from a 5 gallon tank with the red regulator.

    I adjust the flames to barely tickle the bottom of the sauce pan. On my left side beside my feet there is a cardboard box raised up on two bricks. The bricks keep the box dry, the ground is damp.

    There is a super clean folded white cotton rag inside the open box for the bullet to cushion their fall from the brass hollow-point mold.

    I open the mold enough to push the pins all the way through the mold block from the left side and plunge it all into the fiery heat of the open turkey cooker and slow count to thirty seconds.

    There is a white cotton rag draped over the 2 qt saucepan sprue catch bucket to my right side. It has synth 2 cycle oil dabbed into it and I wipe the mold with it. It does not steam at all so I put the mold back into the fire for a slow 15 count then try it again.

    This time it barely smokes but the blued sprue starts to clean up and develop a polished wet look.


    I put the rcbs ladle into the molten pot slowly paying attention for any vibration or popping felt through the handle. Don't put any wet tools in the pot!!!

    Five more seconds in the fire has the mold up to temperature and I know this. Wipe all surfaces of the mold with the oily rag and behold!

    A clean mold! And a decent lubricant too for the different moving pieces.

    The rag lightly smokes but does not smolder, taking with it any and all tinning, lead flecks, burnt residue etccc. Can clean the cavities doing the same with a cotton swab and 2 cycle oil.

    Taking the mold handles into my leather gloved left hand, I click the mold halfs then sprue together all closed. With my leather gloved right I hold the rcbs ladle and it holds my estimate about four ounces. I quickly pour the molten alloyed lead, filling all four cavities in a second.

    Put the ladle down in the 2 qt pan by my right shoe so it's safe, the sprues cuttings inside are making a small pile.

    Watch the sprue harden then slap the sprue plate tab open with my gloved right thumb. The sprue falls into the metal sprue bucket. Watch the bullet bases, if they are really wet looking they are still freezing so wait one or two seconds then open the molds.

    Turn the mold upside down above the bullet box and open the mold halfs.

    With the knuckle of my folded first finger on my right hand I tap and push the e-clip retained hollow point pins of the upside down mold and the bullets fall off, into the box for a soft landing.


    Close the molds, close the sprue and get ready to repeat the pour again.

  2. #2
    Boolit Buddy
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    Congratulations!

    By the way, you've given me an idea. I never thought of a separate catch for the sprues; that will save me a bunch of time and work. Thanks.

  3. #3
    Boolit Grand Master

    Wayne Smith's Avatar
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    If you cut the sprue too early you will pull a divot out of the base of the boolit. I try to avoid this.
    Wayne the Shrink

    There is no 'right' that requires me to work for you or you to work for me!

  4. #4
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    garandsrus's Avatar
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    Just cut the sprue over the pot and it falls back in.

  5. #5
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Most all of us have developed a routine and set-up thats comfortable for us. I built a shallow wooden box out of 1 X 2's and a scrap piece of 1/4in plywood with a divider in it. My pot sits in the left side and a folded towel in the right side is the landing zone for the bullets and sprues. With just a little care I drop the sprues in the front part and the bullets in the back. The left side of the box where the pot sits is large enough to contain the molten lead if I should have a catastrophic leak.

  6. #6
    Boolit Grand Master popper's Avatar
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    If it's raining bullets, I want to be inside with a strong roof.
    Whatever!

  7. #7
    Boolit Master super6's Avatar
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    Does the 2 stoke synth oil work with brass molds?
    Give me something to believe in. Poison
    Arosmith What it takes
    A 12 step program

  8. #8
    Boolit Master waco's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by super6 View Post
    Does the 2 stoke synth oil work with brass molds?
    Yes.
    The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
    Proverbs 1:7

  9. #9
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    Winger Ed.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by super6 View Post
    Does the 2 stoke synth oil work with brass molds?
    It's pretty much everybody's first choice for all molds.
    In school: We learn lessons, and are given tests.
    In life: We are given tests, and learn lessons.


    OK People. Enough of this idle chit-chat.
    This ain't your Grandma's sewing circle.
    EVERYONE!
    Back to your oars. The Captain wants to waterski.

  10. #10
    Boolit Master Recycled bullet's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by super6 View Post
    Does the 2 stoke synth oil work with brass molds?
    It is the best for the brass molds. Make sure the rags are 100 percent cotton and not synthetic blend... cleaning polyester from the sprue plate and top of the mold sucks.

  11. #11
    Boolit Grand Master
    rintinglen's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Recycled bullet View Post
    It is the best for the brass molds. Make sure the rags are 100 percent cotton and not synthetic blend... cleaning polyester from the sprue plate and top of the mold sucks.
    More truth in this statement than a week's worth of CNN!! 100% cotton only, no polyester, rayon, or nylon need apply.
    _________________________________________________It's not that I can't spell: it is that I can't type.

  12. #12
    Boolit Master Bad Ass Wallace's Avatar
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    Very soon you will have a heap of boolits!

    Hold Still Varmint; while I plugs Yer!

  13. #13
    Boolit Master WRideout's Avatar
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    That writeup will make a good liturgy for all us boolit casters.

    Wayne
    What doesn't kill you makes you stronger - or else it gives you a bad rash.
    Venison is free-range, organic, non-GMO and gluten-free

  14. #14
    Boolit Master Recycled bullet's Avatar
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    Some hollow points we can all enjoy to look at

  15. #15
    Boolit Master Recycled bullet's Avatar
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    The quality of my castings is greatly improved since I can now repeat temperature accurately. I purchased this one from roto metals. The best hollow points happen at 850°F.

  16. #16
    Boolit Master Recycled bullet's Avatar
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    These are the Elmer Keith hollow points with chrome powder coat. They look even brighter and shinier by the eye, and easily group 3 inches at thirty yards off hand.

  17. #17
    Boolit Bub
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    Quote Originally Posted by Winger Ed. View Post
    It's pretty much everybody's first choice for all molds.
    I must be doing something wrong because when I tried 2 stroke oil on my Lee mould, it did nothing and I fear I've damaged my mould. I rubbed it on the contact rub points on the mould and sprue plate, but the sprue plate still badly scored the mould surface. I started using anti seize (I read somewhere about someone using antiseize) and that seems to be working a lot better.

    Tell me what I was doing wrong with the 2 cycle oil!

  18. #18
    Boolit Bub
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    Quote Originally Posted by Recycled bullet View Post
    These are the Elmer Keith hollow points with chrome powder coat. They look even brighter and shinier by the eye, and easily group 3 inches at thirty yards off hand.
    Those look good! What brand is the chrome PC?

  19. #19
    Boolit Master Recycled bullet's Avatar
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    Patented ultimate chrome version two from powder by the pound.

  20. #20
    Boolit Master Recycled bullet's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 93Bandit View Post
    I must be doing something wrong because when I tried 2 stroke oil on my Lee mould, it did nothing and I fear I've damaged my mould. I rubbed it on the contact rub points on the mould and sprue plate, but the sprue plate still badly scored the mould surface. I started using anti seize (I read somewhere about someone using antiseize) and that seems to be working a lot better.

    Tell me what I was doing wrong with the 2 cycle oil!
    1) If the mold is getting scratched or marked from lead smears stuck to the sprue then you heat the mold until the two stroke rag smokes when you wipe it. Heat it slightly more then scrub with the rag.

    2) if the sprue is bent or damaged or has a bur or if the tops of the mold is uneven and it's still recoverable then you disassemble the parts and polish the pieces stop when the high and low spots are the same.

    I use a wood carvers strop to polish and even out molds.

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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