Casting lead take 4

[cynthialee]

I just got finished casting some rounds and out of 225 bullets cast I had 19 rejects.
Less than a 10% throw away rate. I'd call that a success.

Thank you to all who coached me through this project and gave me pointers and admonisions to be safe.

Got my lead as hot as the coleman stove could get it, I kept my lead level high in the pot so my ladle would be full on every pour. I poured fast and I ditched the quench can. I droped them on a moist face cloth and just dealt with the hiss. (it is a lead only face cloth now) Once I got to casting I went as fast as solidifying lead would allow.
Now I need to get a proper grain scale to see if they weigh as good as they look.

Once again, thank you gentlemen for bearing with me durring my learning curve.

 

[jamesthomas]

Thats great! a scale dose'nt cost much. 225 rbs is a lot for one session. I hope they all turn out ok for you. I think you should keep them within 2 grains, any more than that an they probably will have a air pocket.

 

[cynthialee]

When I am doing repetition work I can get lost in the mechanics of it all and have long stretches of time go by rapidly. I wanted to keep going but I noticed I was starting to get a sweat going and the idea of sweat hitting hot lead snaped me out of my mindless state and I put it all away.

 

[Zonie]

Congratulations! :thumbsup:

It's just my opinion but if your new balls weigh within 4 grains of one another they will be as good as the expensive swaged Speer or Hornady balls (which do not all weigh the same).

Unless your trying for the elusive "one hole at 50 yards" groups they will all be accurate enough.

On the other hand, now that you've found out how much fun sitting there casting these things can be you might want to melt a bunch of them down and pour them again. :rotf:

 

[cynthialee]

All I care is that I can put a round into a deers kill zone at 55-70 yards. I do not care about one hole groups. That some folks can do it just blows me away when I think on it.

Once I get my scale I will keep them within 2 grains above or below. Anything else will get melted down along with the conicals.

 

[Idaho Ron]

Way to go!! Sounds like your on track. I think if you stick with +-2 grains you will be fine for now. When you get into more accuracy you can cut that down. For now your doing good. Ron

 

[mooman76]

Good going. I knew you'd catch on. Allot of us cast in the winter when less shooting and other things are going on but all is good. I bent my ladle a little so when the pot gets lower, I can still get a full scoop if needed but I rarely let it get low. I just keep adding. You can usually pick up a good used reloaders scale for fairly cheap when he upgrades.

 

[Bill Hall]

When I am doing repetition work I can get lost in the mechanics of it all and have long stretches of time go by rapidly.

I think that's why so many of us find casting to be so therapeutic. Once you get into the routine, you can let your mind go blank, but you're still productive at the same time. Kinda hypnotizing. Once you do "snap out of it", it's like a big pile of balls appeared by your side. Bill

 

[damron]

i agree with Zonie that 4g is plenty close enough for some pretty good shooting at 50 yards.

George

 

[necchi]

All Right!
Good for you Girl, :thumbsup:

And Thank You,
For being a receptive student of the group :bow:

 

[BrownBear]

Great job! Now it's time to get out and shoot them. :thumbsup:

On that line of thinking, if lead is hard to come by for you, look into recovering your lead and recasting. I just use a 5 gallon bucket of sand with the target taped to the face of the bucket. Lining the bucket on that side with a piece of innertube limits dribble through the holes in the bucket. Some guys without handy sand have had great success using the gardening mulch made from tire chunks, but I haven't tried it.

 

[Rifleman1776]

You are definitely on the way to becoming an experienced caster. I do wish you would ditch the wet stuff entirely.
No need to rush. Just develop a rhythm you are comfortable with. But do concentrate on what you are doing. Just like shooting, there are safety concerns when you mind wanders.

 

[cynthialee]

OMG!

That is like wierd you would bring that up!
I went to sleep thinking on how I could recover the majority of my lead fired down range. All I could come up with were expensive sounding solutions. I have plenty of buckets around here due to the cats I own and the kitty litter I buy.

As it stands I have a few hundred rounds of .490 and enough lead still uncast to make probably 500 or more rounds. Add to that a pile of conicals for the .50 and the .54 that will likely be anouther 200 or more rounds. I will venture a guess that I have about 1000 round balls worth of cast and uncast lead. I tend to shoot 5-10 rounds a shooting session and try to shoot at least once a week, but it averages out to probably every 10 days. At my rate of use if we go with the high end of 10 rounds per shooting session I have enough lead to last me almost 3 years.
I need more lead!

I need to put some form of stop in place to recover lead. The bucket of sand idea is just what I needed.

:grin:

Since I moved into this home about 4 years ago me and a friend (she is deadly when it comes to shooting) have been throwing lead down range at an old oil barrel. The barrel is so chewed up from the years of abuse. The area about 20-40 yards behind it should be where most of my old bullets are at as I am shooting down hill at a gentle slope at the barrel. Some archeologist a thousand years from now is going to have a field day down there. There are about 10 differant calibers and numerous makes of rounds down there.

 

[Rev_William]

Congrats cynthialee you have just set the basis for cynthias last stand that will be written about in a hundred years or so lol

 

[mooman76]

A heavy steel plate angled down would collect allot. If you're up for buying over at castboolits.co there is always someone selling lead. Going rate is about $1 a pound shipped.

 

[izzyjoe]

Congrats, i knew you'd get the hang of it, when i cast i watch old western movies on VHS out in the shop, i listen to them more than i watch them actually, but ofcourse i always watch the big shootout's. good luck on you're casting!

 

[damron]

I need to use that trick for my 577 Minies.At 560g per trigger pull it dont take a lot before its a $10 range session for bullets only.

George

 

[Shooey]

Congrats Cynthialee! I know you've been practicing for a while now. I hope to start casting next year, if Santa leaves me some goodies under the tree.

 

[hthomso]

Glad to hear of your success. When I first started 26 years ago, I had very good results right from the first try. You might think about getting a regular lead furnace where you can more closely regulate temperature. Be safe and don't let familiarity with casting breed carelessness. Good casting. :thumbsup:

 

[bassnfool]

After reading all of the great inputs I felt like trying to pour my own RB's.
A couple of weeks ago a friend had a new lyman mag 20 he picked up at an auction that smoked the electrics when he plugged it in so just gave it to me. It had a wire touching the heating coil from a manufacturing mistake. A butt splice and rerouting the wire now has it working perfectly.
Picked up 60 lbs. of pure lead from Rotometals, a Lee .530 RB mold and lead dipper from TOTW and gave it a go.
Poured about 150 balls the first go with 4 rejects thanks to all of the great input from you fine folks.
Thanks