First cast.. Caught a few keepers!

[Doby45]

I get home yesterday with great excitement because my daughter called me at work and told me "Mr. Brown" paid me a visit at the house.

I had ordered my 6cav 45cal 200gr SWC mold, Lyman pouring ladle and my Lee push through 452 die. SO at this time I was ready when I got home to cast my first bullet. First, I grabbed an old deep pot and got some soapy water going on the stove. All the while my wife is looking at me like I am an idiot and my oldest daughter acts like she is embarrassed. Their loss.. I have a plastic bristle fingernail brush that I keep running over the face of the molds and cavities and then put the mold back in the water. Finally, the mold is shiny and gorgeous.

I gather my "casting" gear and head out to the back patio. I don't have an actual casting pot yet, so I decided to use a small quart size sauce pan from the Goodwill store on my turkey fryer. This was both good and bad and is NOT something I will do with regularity. The fryer is WAY too much fire and had the temp going between 700-900.

One thing I have learned here is that you mold needs to get up to temp for a good fill out. But, since I literally had fire wrapping around the pot I did not want to put my new mold on the fire. Instead, I just started pouring. I poured as quick as I could paying no attention at all to what was being dumped out. I poured at least 6 sets just to get the mold up to temp and then I was kinda low on alloy. So, I would toss everything back in the pot to get my level back up and to basically clean up all my stuff. The mold dropped clean from the very first sprue cut. I had nothing at all to call sticking. I mean when you cut the sprue and started to open the mold the boolits would hit the other block if you did not open it quick enough. I was pleased.

Finally, I was dropping bullets that I would consider keepers and once I hit that mark I started water dropping them. Did not look at anything, just pour, drop, pour, drop. I think I ended up with about 25-30 when all was said and done. I can NOT wait to get my 4-20 pot. It will be nice to have something that will hold a good bit of alloy and keep it at a steady temp. I was using straight clip on WW and could have prolly used a little tin in the mix, but this was just some down and dirty quick casting.

I went ahead and pan lubed 25 of them in Carnuba Red, then pressed them on through my new Lee 452 sizer die. I will post a few pics here in just a sec, the camera battery is charging.

Here is the bad news though. I figured I would load a few of these up to take with me this weekend up to the farm to see how they would do. I also wanted to see what the weight of the bullets were, as dropped and lubed. I am bringing my scale to my loading bench (dining room table) and on the way I drop it on the hardwood floor from a height of about 4ft. Needless to say the scale works no more. Now I need to order a new scale when I order my pot.



Proverbial Group Shot



Finished Product



Unsized on the left and Sized on the right.



Bullet bases

[crabo]

Cool, isn't it!

[jmsj]

Doby45,
VERY COOL !!
Congradulations on your first cast. They look great.

[RobS]

Good work on your first shinnies. While you are waiting on buying your pot keep a look out in the Swappin and Sellin section on a good used RCBS or Lyman scale. You could also post up in the Want to Buy section and someone may have one just sitting around that they'll let go at a fair and reduced price.

My dad found a Lyman M5 here from a forum member that was practically new for $25 shipped.

[AzShooter]

You did an excellent job on those bullets. Nice and sharp edges and great color. Good luck with your new hobby.

I no longer know if I shoot to cast or cast to shoot.

[gerrycan]

Good work ,keep it up,get more molds.Gerry

[plus1hdcp]

Well done

[Bret4207]

There ya go! Simple isn't it? Way too many guys worry about pot temp and alloy types and not having a BP pot or other stuff. An old pot, a heat source, ladle and mould. You're making boolits!

[Hickory]

Good clean photos.

[mroliver77]

Sure a lot nicer than my first attempt!
Jay

[chris in va]

Those look commercially made, nice job. I still get wrinkled boolits but shoot them anyway out of my 9mm. For some reason the 45's don't wrinkle, go figure.

[RobS]

For some reason the 45's don't wrinkle, go figure.

45 cal cavities are larger so more alloy ends up in the mold block..........more heat..........less wrinkles. The smaller cavities of the 9mm mold simply require more heat to keep em from wrinkling. Adjust the pot so the alloy is hotter then the mold will come up to temp and you'll have nice bullets.

[Doby45]

My first few drops were wrinkled, but I expected that. I had to polish those up a bit to make them look that pretty. They are about like new born babies, ugly as all get out when you first see them come out of the sizer, but very pretty once you wipe them off.

EDIT: I also could not have done anything near as well as this without this forum and it's contributors. I see an accomplishment of a caster as an accomplishment of his/her instructor (which in my case would be this forum).

[Boondocker]

Very nice, now there is no turning back. You will keep doing it again and and again. Nice sharp photography.

[putteral]

That Lee mold is my favorite for .45
Nice job!!

[qajaq59]

There ya go! Simple isn't it? Way too many guys worry about pot temp and alloy types and not having a BP pot or other stuff. An old pot, a heat source, ladle and mould. You're making boolits!

You're right Bret......When you stop to think about it our ancestors did it out in the open over a wood fire. And they were depending on the bullets to get them their next meal.

[bigboredad]

pan lubing with the cr works like it worked great. Did you just push them thru the cake or use a cake cutter? I've been wanting to try the cr and only pan lube right now due to being financially challenged. Did you just order the sticks or did you buy in cake form?

[Doby45]

I got the sample pack of Lars Lubes because I am wanting to see what will be my best low smoke lube. The pack came with sticks. I melted boths sticks of C-Red in my $2 Goodwill coffee pot and then poured it in the pan. I placed that in the fridge for a while and then just pushed them through. I did not worry too much about the excess lube on the boolits cause I knew I would be pushing them through the sizing die and the excess lube would help getting them through. I did pre-heat my boolits in the oven at 200* before I poured the lube to them. I think they look great and would have loved to have shot some this weekend.

[Cherokee]

Congratulations !! Good CB's.

[bigboredad]

well if they shoot as good as they look you will be a happy man