The bullet casting season has started for me

G

Geezerbiker

New member
I got as far as digging out my molds, cleaning out the casing furnace and casting a few bullets just to get the molds hot to burn out the oil.

Years ago I bought a bunch of Ideal molds from an estate. I sold a couple, traded others and I have 6 of those left and I haven't tried using all of them. I always thought that this round nose .358 bullet wouldn't be much use to me so I didn't get around to trying it until today. It was a much easier to get good bullets from than some of my other Lyman/Ideal molds but I only cast enough with it to get good samples for measuring and then I moved on to other molds.

Anyway the oldlady needed me so I shut down for now. But this one mold drops .362" bullets that weight 158g +/- .2g.

362-158.jpg


I was hoping to size these down for 9mm but that would be quite a stretch.

I have a lot more molds to get back to so more later...

Tony
 
M

Mike / Tx

New member
The extent of my last 4 cast sessions has been fishing lures. We've poured up tail spins (Little George) and jig heads and blade baits in prep for winter hybrid and white bass.

Now if we can just get done deer hunting and get on with it. ;)
 
B

BJung

New member
My wife's 15 year old nephew visited us from Japan so I bought the molds as a new experience for him and the chess set as a nice gift. I acquired spent bullets at a range. Everyone has heard of Japans gun control laws. So, after the set was made my wife asked him if he really wanted the set he made. His reply was "yes" because they were made from real bullets and that was cool! He has the chess set along with the brass jackets that the lead came from.
 
G

Geezerbiker

New member
I'm too cheap to buy fishing sinker molds so I hold the brass wire loop in a medical forceps and use my bullet molds. Several years ago made a bunch with my .452 RN mold and I plan to make some pretty soon with my .32 RN mold...

Tony
 
B

BJung

New member
That's funny. My oldest brother did that to me once. I visited him and wanted to cast some bullets. Seeing my mold, he came back with some looped pieces of wire and asked me if I could pour a few bullets with the wire loops in them just as you describe.
 
A

armoredman

New member
i never thought of that - could get a roll of brass wire at the hardware store and make fishing sinkers from the junk lead.
 
G

Geezerbiker

New member
I bought a bag of preformed brass wire loops. I've never seen brass wire for sale but I've never looked either. I use the same alloy as I do for my bullets. I don't need that many so I don't worry about depleting my lead stash...

Tony
 
G

Geezerbiker

New member
I used the brass loops because I wanted something that wouldn't rust. I'll keep an eye out for brass wire on a roll but I think I still have enough of the pre-made loops to last me though a couple years of fishing.

Tony
 
G

Geezerbiker

New member
I did a little casting the other night but not too much since I have some real work right now and I can't ignore work that pays right now.

Anyway I cast these.
9-45.jpg


The little ones on the left are from a very old Lee mold for a 105g bullet for the .380ACP but with my alloy they drop at around 101~102g. I used to load them in popgun .38 special loads. Since I'm low on 9mm bullets, I'm going to see if I can get a load with them that will cycle my S&W 9mm Shield.

The larger bullets in the pic are from a Lee .456" mold that I don't recall buying. It looks like I lapped it a bit and I was dropping nice bullets in no time once it was warmed up. I'm not sure what I'm going to shoot them from. I might patch them up to .458 and shoot them from my .45-70.

I can't find that Lee 9mm mold I was talking about in another thread. It might have gotten lost in the last move. If so, it's not a great loss. I seem to have all the Lyman/Ideal molds that I recall having. I thought I had a couple more but I might have sold them with plans to get others than didn't happen. I have 11 Lyman molds and I think 10 Lee but I didn't count the Lee molds.

I'll get another 9mm Lee mold when they come back in stock and hopefully before the winter bullet casting season is over...

Tony
 
H

hdbiker

New member
I as almost out of loaded .45 acp rounds and bullets, so last week I set up and cast 500+ LEE TL 230 grain bullets an just finished loading them up yesterday. hdbiker
 
G

Geezerbiker

New member
I have that Lee mold too and it's one of my favorites. I'm still tumble lubing bullets but one of these days I plan to get set up to powder coat them...

Tony
 
B

BJung

New member
Shooting Season for me

It's shooting Season for me. I tend to shoot on my birthday which is coming up. This is what my small reloading bench looks like. Attached is another photo of the RCBS neck expander die with interchangeable mandrel/flare die. Bullets tend to feed into resize cases like lead bullets into pistol cases.
 
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B

BJung

New member
Before I was married, rainy season was the best time to go to the range because I had the place to myself.
 
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