• Mossberg Owners is in the process of upgrading the software. Please bear with us while we transition to the new look and new upgraded software.

Rookie Press Operator Prepares to Blow Things Up

I only cast two of these before I decided to shut the pot down and unplug it.

The lead I have is in a large ingots and there's no way they will fit into my little pot. To start with I had a fourth of an Ingot which I chiseled partly in half with a cold chisel and then broke in the vice so pieces would fit.

This is enough lead to season the pot but not enough to fill it or do a huge quantity of bullets. I probably could have cast a couple dozen at most.

I will need to cut some potable chunks before I can cast any decent quantity of bullets. The next time I fire it up I will try to make a hundred bullets in one melt.
 
Those are very good first time cast bullets! Still a little bit of cold mold signature but actually quite good for first pour. Congrats.
 
I was totally amazed that they came out so well.

I did those, not having a good idea of what temperature I was working at, and I was totally guessing at how long to let the mold heat.

The next time I will run the pot a little hotter and I'll probably get a better surface finish. This mold had been seasoned before, but I don't think it had been used in over 20 years.

I might buy myself an infrared thermometer so I can better judge the temps. I'm sure that it will vary when I get a full pot going.
 
Oh yes . . . for bullet Lube I used WD-40 anti-corrosion oil. :D

It was either that or Howard's carnauba wax.

We'll see how it treats the barrel.
 
Well I'm totally out of reloadable .38 brass, so I haven't tried any of the homemade wad-cutters yet.

I did go outside and cast another hundred and fifty of them, however I sorted them into A's, B's and C's and threw all the C's back in the pot.

These were both A's.
20170226_144232.jpg

A's had to be virtually blemish-free, and weigh 154 grains. C's were bullets with major blemishes and B's were everything else.

I found to get good bullets and good production speed I had to do two things.

I built a temporary little metal foundry hood over the top of this pot, out of some old steel computer cases and a couple clamps. That kept the Heat in and wind out well enough that I could easily preheat the mold on top of the pot without having to worry about variations in temperature. The second thing was to turn the heat up enough that in dim light the lead is glowing dimly red hot, under the slag.

I added some silver solder to the Melt because the first ones I made were very soft. When I was done casting I recharged the pot and I added even more silver solder for the next batch.

In the end I wound up with a hundred and twenty four and here they are boxed and lubed and ready for storage.
20170226_162239.jpg
 
CaddmannQ said:
...I did those, not having a good idea of what temperature I was working at, and I was totally guessing at how long to let the mold heat.
Click to expand...

Would a handheld infrared thermometer be of used to you here? They are about 30 bux. Make sure you get one that will measure to about 700F.

142befee-2d70-4533-ab0c-322a59f1635a_1000.jpg
 
I had thought about that myself & it would probably help getting set up.

But I think that once you have done it successfully and know how, that it's not really necessary.

The Melting Pot maintains a stable temperature because it has a thermostat. The hot lead should be glowing dimly red in the dark. The key is heating the mold up exactly the right amount each time you pour.

The key there is put it on the same spot to preheat each time and count the seconds.

After awhile you get the hang of it.
 
Last edited:
By the way I measured a bunch of those slugs that I poured and I think I will need to resize them all because they're not quite round enough to suit me.

Generally they are within one to one and a half thousandths as I measured them. That's probably good enough to shoot them but I think the sizing's going to be a very easy process.

I actually cobbled up a makeshift sizing die and punched a few of these through with a dowel and a mallet.

It turns out that if you take the cap and collar out of the Lee 9mm Factory taper crimp die, the remaining die body has an inside diameter exactly right to swage these.

I lubed them up and ran half a dozen of them through there. I'm going to load those this morning and take them out to the range this afternoon.
 
Well I didn't make it out to the range until today but I had a pretty good time. I didn't shoot any Factory ammunition today. Everything shot were handloads. There were no duds, no misfires and no failure to eject.

I was a little worried about powder contamination because I had no Alox to lube the wad-cutters. I used WD-40 anti-corrosion oil, but then I wiped everything off for just the thinnest possible coat. I need not have worried.

I had loaded two dozen 38 specials with my homemade wad-cutters, plus I took some loaded with the HSM semi wad-cutters.

I took nine millimeter Lugers which I had loaded (with Berry's bullets hundred fifteen grain.)

And I took several flavors of handloaded .223s.

Everything went very well although my shooting wasn't necessarily the greatest today, and we had quite a bit of wind until the last few minutes of range time.

Eventually it did calm down and I was able to make the few nice groups.

I didn't keep any of the targets from the wad cutters, but suffice it to say that they were not particularly accurate, even when shot from the Henry Lever gun.

I was able to put 5 of them in a 6 inch circle at 50 yards, but shooting them from the revolver I didn't do that well even at 7 yds. Anyhow, thw XDs and the Evil Roy revolver both shot flawlessly.

Shooting from the lever gun, the full wad-cutters were loaded on 5.8 grains of hs-6 pistol powder, while the semi wad-cutters were loaded over 6.2 grains. The difference in drop at 100 yards was over 18 inches.

Based on what I saw, my next wad-cutter loads are going to be 6.4 grains.

I'll post some pictures of the 223 targets in my Savage thread.

http://mossbergowners.com/forum/index.php?threads/savage-model-12-varminter.16636/page-3

 
Last edited:
Not all loads are going to perform great.

The good thing for you is, you have time and ability to try different loads. Different seating depths to tweak and find what each of your guns like. That's one of the advantages of rolling your own. When you stumble on that "perfect load" you'll know. The clouds will open and the sun will shine down in rays from above and you'll hear songbirds singing in chorus.

But not every load that you put together is going to be accurate. As fast or slow as you want. As much expansion as you want, etc. And thus, the joy, and the challenge, and the quest begins. It's better for me to concentrate on one thing at a time because it can be daunting trying to keep up with a lot of calibers at once.

I have no doubt that you'll be able to find a load that each gun shoots well and that you like. But it takes time.

I have started a multi section notebook that has my "pet load" data in it. I'll write handwritten notes so I can glance back over them about specific load data. Or any ideas that I wanted to try for the next batch to see how they compare to the prior loads, etc. And when I tweak a load until I am content with it, I write it down and circle it so I can find them easier.

Having that little book was the best thing I could've done. Especially when working with so many calibers. I may go a long time between loading a certain caliber. So, the notebook saves me a lot of time, energy and wasted components so I don't repeat "good idea's" that I've already tried and didn't work as planned.
 
John A. said:
. . .It's better for me to concentrate on one thing at a time because it can be daunting trying to keep up with a lot of calibers at once.

I have no doubt that you'll be able to find a load that each gun shoots well and that you like. But it takes time. . .
Click to expand...



Yes, thank you John. I understand entirely. There is much to recommend the practice of being methodical and focused.

Yesterday I was dealing with four firearms and 6 or 7 different loads. It's a bit much to keep track of. Some of the "senior" black powder guys were out yesterday at the club so I also spent a lot of time looking at some interesting old Ballard rifles and some lovely new Chiappa Sharps replicas, and talking to guys who cast all of their own lead.

Because of this I have a jumbled mess of field notes that need to go into a real book.

I was going to load some forty-fives and shoot them too o_O but at some point my Common Sense must have kicked in.

I know that I seem impatient, or even scatterbrained, the way I go at things. I just happen to have the luxury of time, to follow whatever happens to seem interesting. Consequently I always have a lot of things "in process."
 
Just don't get too overwhelmed is all. And it's easy to do.

I use a multi-subject notebook broken down into shotgun, pistol, rifle, and some of those little divider tabs to mark various calibers within those. Not saying that's the only way to do it, but that works well for me. Just remember to skip a bunch of pages to leave room for growth and notes to new load recipes and such.

Just costs a few bucks. Even adding a binder.

load data 001.JPG

load data 004.JPG
 
Well I made a batch of very nice .223 Target rounds. They turned out to be very accurate, but the crimp was not quite tight enough.

I tried to eject a live round and it left the projectile in the throat. Fortunately I did not dump the powder out.

I stuck the powdered cartridge back in the chamber with the gun held vertical and fiddled the bolt closed. And I shot it out.

This was the second time I had done this ( pulled one apart out at the rifle range) but after a few more shots I did it again and at that point it was time to quit so I just packed up everything and went home.

I would feel more like complaining but I got to go to the shooting range twice this week already, and my guns shot well, so I'm a happy camper.
 
I keep writing "crimped" when I should have written "sized". I didn't really crimp the .223s. I just sized them, and I only neck-sized ones I had shot in the Savage before.

I'm clearly not getting that neck sizing right for the bullets I'm using OR this rifle has a very tight throat. Here's the last round which got stuck when The case separated during extraction.

See the band of scuffing in the copper jacket? That's from the throat. I'm not onto the rifling at this point. There is no engraving at all.
20170304_050356.jpg
 
This is the other projectile which lodged in the throat.
20170304_103121.jpg
A: This circle goes all the way around and it is from the bullet seating die.

B: The scuffing is smeared on this side of the bullet because it rocked when I knocked it out with the rod. The ring goes all the way around.

C: I thought these lines were engraving of the rifling originally but they exist on every new bullet from the factory.

I also noticed that the tip of the projectile is deformed & that is from knocking it out with the rod. I used a plastic jag which pushed it sideways a little.
 
Last edited:
I have shot over 250 of my own loads now with no real mishap. I had a couple high primers, but nothing blew out. I flattened some primers a little on the hot .223s though.

I have also filled up my first field notebook and so it's time after some seventy rounds of shooting to transfer the stuff to a real book.

Of course it's all here too. Practically every step & mis-step up to this point. After so many years of preparing formalized documentation for people it will be a bit of a change to do it for myself.
 
Last edited:
oli700 said:
. . .stuck case from being in a hurry and not lubing good enough most of the time .....when you do it you will be like pissed off because its a process
Click to expand...

LOL, well Oli, I finally stuck one, after about 1000 rounds of .223, .357, .38s & 9mm.

I was trying to lube case and neck with powdered graphite instead of RCBS-2.

After about 20 rounds I skipped one and it stuck.

As you say, "it's a process" to remove.

I decided to back off the pin and tap a screw in the pocket, then pull it. I ground a special bottoming tap from a chipped tap, and got it in almost 4 threads before I snapped it.

I inverted the die and shaved the brass and tap off flush with a pneumatic grinder. Then I reverted the die and wrenched it down tight.

I screwed the pin down until the sizer bottomed out on the brass. Then I clamped a medium vise-grips on the pin and torqued it gently with one finger, so as not to snap the pin.

Then I tapped the pin with a hammer repeatedly, and lightly, as I applied steady torque. After 100 taps or so it came out. I cut into the neck with a bench grinder to get my neck sizer out of the ruined case without prying.

After that, I finished my remaining 5 rounds (with RCBS lube :rolleyes: ) and I didn't notice any damage to the die or sizer.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top