casting round balls

[flaming canvas]

I got a propane turkey fryer for Christmas. Would this do for melting the lead outdoors?
Jim

I use my outdoor burner to melt the scrap down to make ingots and do an intial cleaning of the metal. A muffin pan with small pockets makes nice half pound ingots.

I have a bottom valve pot, but lately I have been using to melt the lead while I dip it out with a small stamped steel dipper. I have found that the ball come out with a more consistent weight and I get a larger piece of scrap on top of the sprue cutter plate. This is an advantage since it comes off easier than the little bit of lead left by the valve. :m2c:

 

[sse]

Russb - Cripe! Are you trying to add to the GNP? And here I thought all of our mfg was going overseas.

Regards, sse

 

[RussB]

Russb - Cripe! Are you trying to add to the GNP? And here I thought all of our mfg was going overseas.

Regards, sse

:crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

sse....not at all! Ask the guy's who cast a lot. This is just a bit more than what I would normally have on hand, but not a lot.
When you sometimes only get ~13 bullets to the pound, as in the Lyman 575213PH...(a .58cal, 565 gr. Parker Hale bullet)... it don't take long to get rid of a couple hundred pounds of pure lead. The hard stuff, BHN 20+, is strictly for smokeless powder which I still shoot, but just not as much as my muzzleloaders.

I would "guestimate" I easily shoot 250 / 300+ pound of pb a year. I probably "average" three range days a week, and if the weather is nice...I might get five days, it's all depending on what rifle gun I'm playing with at the time.

Of course folks are always telling stories about this or that here on the forum, and I like to kinda follow up on what they say, and see if I can get it to work for me too.
It takes a lot of powder and lead to do that!

Russ