Over the years I have been using tanned Elk hide to drop my cast boolits on out of the mold. The leather tends to get hard and burned and shrinks up, besides the fact my wife and her friends seem to always need leather for their equine hobbies. Go to Amazon and look up welding blanket. I bought one 18x24 for about 12 bucks. Its good to 1800 degrees, its soft so the boolits don't get deformed,theres no fibers that will stick to the hot boolits. I had to try it immediately after it came in the mail. I cast 300 .358 boolits and it works perfect.