What are those bulk skeet shells good for?

[nitesite]

John.... My cupcake/muffin pan ingots I took to the US Post Office and weighed several and they average just under 2.5-lbs each. How do yours weigh just 20-ounces? I'm guessing your cupcake pan is for the mini-muffins?

Not sure, but I filled 6 of them about 1/2 to 3/4 the way full and after it cooled off, said it was 20 ounces.

I could probably fit 3 of them (maybe 4) pretty easily in my melting pot at the same time.

But I will say that this lead was a LOT cleaner than the #8 shot I melted down.

Half full and they weigh around 20-ounces would certainly make sense.

The "dirty" #8 shot smelted down was probably giving off slag from (1) powdered graphite which is an anti-stick coating on the lead shot, which ultimately floats to the top, and (2) some ammo makers have sawdust/corncob/plastic granular buffer material mixed into the shot.

It's hard to do, but you can overheat hard magnum shot to the point that the antimony will release from the parent lead and it forms an oatmeal-like slag that floats to the top.

God, I need to re-focus my life......

 

[oli700]

JA ,that stuff you melted is 100% pure lead....pretty cool huh?

 

[John A.]

This was definately cleaner Oli.

No doubt whatsoever.

Nitesite, the #8 shot didn't have any plastic or corncob or sawdust or anything in it.

I couldn't say whether it had any graphite or not, but when it was melting, what floated to the top was granular and similar to sand in texture and color (orangish) from the lack of better description.

It certainly made a mess in my pot.

 

[Poopypants]

that's the dipper I was looking at cause I don't have a bbq or camping stove, but I do have a torch and plenty of propane bottles n can melt and pour each slug just using that dipper there...

eventually I'm sure I'll upgrade to the electric melting pot... but I'm on a budget for now.

dam,,,everyone is out of stock.

pretty much have just decided when I get the money now days, I find someone who will make to order, back order(only if dates are provided like@midway) or I just don't buy at all.... I'm not going to pay retarded amounts on gun broker, Amazon or eBay and fuel peoples opportunistic greed...

might wind up doing the hot plate skillet combo or something similar, I like that idea... still first things first, getting an unavailable, back ordered mold.

 

[Itsricmo]

Hypothetically speaking regarding that video posted... What could one expect accuracy to be? (understanding that results may vary) lol

 

[Poopypants]

Hypothetically speaking regarding that video posted... What could one expect accuracy to be? (understanding that results may vary) lol

I clicked on that dudes channel, this is what I found...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FajDFoGK0A[/youtube]

Certainly a penetration test is no definitive accuracy test though...

one other guy had a reloading video similar to his.....

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXdJrJoj4Gk[/youtube]

but it was his only video in his channel, so no luck on real world accuracy tests there either...

From what I gathered through my reading last night, on a few reloading boards, lee key slugs work best with a thin nitro card underneath(if through a smoothbore) and a fold crimp, least amount of obstructions and even removal of the wad without tearing off petals. They suggest if you use a roll crimp, then use over shot cards to push open the crimp evenly and keep from tearing the wad.... seems to me the biggest problem with accuracy is proper powder load, to decrease travel time through the barrel which can cause inadvertent flyers from muzzle flip and tearing off wad petals cause they kick the slug off unevenly when they separate if one or more petal is missing...

I'm hoping that with this method just being a fold crimp turned in by hand, that it will open easy and not tear any petals off without overshot cards like machined roll crimps...

of course what might work in one barrel might not work in another regardless...

 

[Itsricmo]

I'll probably just continue waiting and purchase a setup later in life
Cheap, beating around the bush usually never works out for me haha

 

[jgwills]

Woohoo!

I made mention of this to my brother in law on the phone earlier today and he asks me to hold on for a second. He yells at my sister asking her if I can have the old cast iron skillet he used for the longest time as an oil drip pan for his 68 VW bug sitting in their garage. Any of you that have had aircooled VWs know they all tend to leak a little oil and make thier mark.

She said sure so I've got something to melt lead in now. I guess I'll have to soak it in some sort of degreasing agent before I melt something in it. It appears reading this thread and elsewhere that the cleaner the lead you can get the better the results you obtain. I'm just happy I happened to think to mention this idea to him.

Sadly everyone's out of stock and backordered on gun stuff so we will just have to wait like everyone else for the rest of the crap we need.



Also I guess instead of a propane torch I'll get a proper propane camp stove now. Probably not a bad idea to have one anyways for camping or shtf scenarios and fortunately that will not be hard to obtain at all.

 

[old mossy]

,,,,and they work,,,

 

[John A.]

A little note about cast iron skillets that may help you.

If you have an old one with a lot of built up residue caked in/on them, if you build a fire in the yard using some old wood or sticks or something and put the skillet directly in it until they're very hot, you can use a scraper or putty knife of whatever, and scrape it out while it's hot, and that will let you effectively remove most of the old gunk in them a lot easier than trying to do it while it's cold.

Naturally, you'll want to use a good welders glove or maybe a cake pan glove to hold onto the handle while you're scraping it to hold it still.

But it works better than trying to do it while it's cold.

 

[jgwills]

John, thanks for the tip. This one I'm getting just had motor oil I believe that dripped into it from his veedub motor. I guess I'll find out if theres any other crud built up on it but thanks for the campfire suggestion.

Damn guys, had a rough Saturday today. I had to go to Austin today to watch a WWII reenactment and it dawned on me we were gonna pass Cabella's along the way. Well good and bad news.

Good news was they do sell the Lyman lead dipper and the Lee 1oz key slug mold along with what it appears just about everything else you might need for casting, reloading etc.... good to know for the future as I really need to get into reloading in general.

God I love that store. So much great stuff. Prices can be a bit on the highside but its a damn good selection of alot of different things. I was willing to pay their price for the dipper and mold too as it was actually just a touch more than what most online places are asking for them.

The bad news was they didn't have either in stock grrrrrrrrrr or I would have snapped em up immediately. Damn.

Oh well, they did have a pretty good deal going on some RIO #4 and 00 buck so I snagged some of each. Also decided since I wasn't getting the dipper and slug mold to see what else I could find in there and found a side saddle. Since I already had some more ammo to populate one in the cart I figured I'd get the saddle and be done with it. Why let that ammo just sit in an ammo box when it could be on the gun so not a total loss of a pit stop on the way back.

Good to know Cabellas does sell exactly what we need and we can check back with them. Its about 45 mins to an hour just outside of Austin from my place so its not really all that far to drive. Plus all the other great crap in there to consider. It won't be long before my friend and I give this a whirl.

On to post pictures of the new side saddle in the photo thread area.

BTW, reenactment was awesome. I'll post up on that in another thread soon. Lots of pics and a few vids I took to sort through still.

Cheers for now, J

 

[Poopypants]

hey, for you guys still looking for the lee slug mold... I just put one on backorder through cabelas, standard price, not jacked up like Amazon or eBay, and it should be in on 4/30/13... so its not like it's even a long wait...

I also got the pot on backorder too considering its 20-40 bucks cheaper at cabelas then everywhere else on the web n it still be coming in on the 30th as well... looks like in a week or 2 I'll be having my go at making some bird shot conversion slugs

 

[cayman_shen]

This is one of the most awesome threads ever

 

[Malagamarksman]

SLUGS in Spain are 1 Euro 20 Cents..........one Dollar fifty seven cents US a bang !!!!

What I do is buy some 12 gauge RIO 20 brand 32 gram birdshot cartridges or some Fiocchi 28 gram Birdshot cartridges at 4.50 Euro a box of 25.

The plaswads in these are compatible with the following method I use.

Whilst sitting in front of the TV I break open the star crimps with long nosed pliers and empty the lead shot into a container. Along with some extra lead I mould this into 1oz Lee slugs and 1oz round balls with a mould made by Jeff Tanner in England.

The round balls are .670 of an inch in diameter, the same as the Lee slugs........ mas o menos.

Then you insert them into the fully intact shot cup in the standard plaswad. They are a perfect fit. The round balls are easier to insert.

Put the shell in the Lee Loadall press and re-star crimp. JOB DONE !

This way when fired the slug / ball stays inside the plaswad which acts like a sabot. My 25 and 50 metre groups with open sights are very good, certainly as good as expensive factory slugs !

I have had my Lee turret press for 28 years and never had anything negative to say about LEE products. HOWEVER the Lee 1oz mould has fallen to bits twice !

The Jeff Tanner round ball mould is custom made out of brass. Far superior quality and much more robust than the LEE.

I have a piece of cut down plastic tube to trim down the opened up shell for when I get my roll turnover tool.

I can then insert the opened up shell into the tube and then trim the cases up with a craft knife using the tube as a guide they look like they have been done on a lathe.

I have a roll turnover tool for a drill enroute from the U.K, so I am quite keen to try that too !

So for 4.50 Euro and a bit time, effort and gas to melt the lead I get a box of 25 very accurate slugs.

 

[Poopypants]

My lee molding supplies are set to arrive today... got a 100 pack of federal bulk that I'm going to dedicate to slug transformations and figure I'll change up the method slightly every 25 shells to see what works best.

Can't wait to get started!

 

[John A.]

Let everyone know how it turns out and what you think about everything after all is said and done.

I was more than happy and satisfied.

Please note that if you melt the factory birdshot down, be prepared to scoop the contaminents out of the lead that skims to the top very regularly while it's melted down.

I'm not sure what's in it, but it will make a mess in your pot if you don't stay on top of it until the lead is fairly clean/pure.

 

[Poopypants]

Let everyone know how it turns out and what you think about everything after all is said and done.

I was more than happy and satisfied.

Please note that if you melt the factory birdshot down, be prepared to scoop the contaminents out of the lead that skims to the top very regularly while it's melted down.

I'm not sure what's in it, but it will make a mess in your pot if you don't stay on top of it until the lead is fairly clean/pure.

I know many manufacturers will put graphite in with their shot to ease the loading process... I'll bet that and a few other byproducts of mass manufacturing will leave a reloader with plenty of contaminants to skim off.

I spent a lot of time reading on reloading forums and watching videos, so hopefully it will help ease the learning curve considerably... there is no substitute for real world experience though.

 

[Poopypants]

well here's the first fruits of my labor...

didn't get my melting pot today, just the lee slug mold, so I only did a few rounds... I still had some extra lead shot from when I tried making some wax slugs forever ago(really dislike them and is why I was inspired to just transform lead shot to whole slugs and start researching) and so even after leaving a bit of residue in my makeshift melting tin/ladle I had 3 extra, less then perfect slugs, that will prob just go back into the melting pot next time around...

here's an up close shot of my first choice of "finishing" my transformed rounds, was able to fold the crimp back down perfectly by hand(sometimes with the help of pliers) but didn't like the idea of extra room inside letting the slug jiggle around and so I just inverted the crimp with my thumb till it sat snugly on the top of the slug but it should still easily blow open and release the load with the wad completely intact.

here's my makeshift tools and melting set up until I get my real pot in...

hopefully I can just get out to give these a test run asap n I'll get back with my results.

 

[John A.]

I don't think the inverted crimp will cause any problems because it's seated on the slug itself and should open up normally when it's fired.

Looking forward to hearing a range report

 

[Malagamarksman]

I don't think the inverted crimp will cause any problems because it's seated on the slug itself and should open up normally when it's fired.

Looking forward to hearing a range report

+1........There will be no problem with those crimps opening as normal when fired. I have had crimps like that with the LEE slugs and round balls in some brands of plaswad cups which are a bit deeper than others.
I use the LEE LOADALL press to do the crimp.

The solution is to get a die .670" in diameter and a hammer and cut felt or cardboard discs to place in the shot cup under the slug. That takes the top of the slug up to the correct hieght. So then the crimp sits flat on top of it just nice and pretty like a factory crimp.

I have read somewhere that some people have placed a 20 gauge felt wad under the slug for the same effect ?