Posted this over on THR and thought those of you that don't visit both places might find something useful in it. It's an account of my re-beginnings with bullet casting. ( I cast a very few round ball for a .50 cal some years ago with an electrically heated dipper my dad gave me. This is the first time I tried to do it "properly". )
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As some of you may remember, I bought a copy of a Remington New Model Army here a couple of months back. It's one of the 5-1/2 inch barreled ones. I also asked my in-laws, who were coming to visit shortly, to deliver me the pertinent supplies to shoot the thing, since they have a cabela's near by and I don't.
Among those supplies was powder, caps, a nipple wrench, and, most importantly, a Lee bullet mold. One of the 200 gr. conical jobs.
I unfortunately didn't have sense enough to ask for a box of .454 lead balls.
Well, they arrived a couple of weeks ago with said supplies. And after some settling in, my father-in-law and I decided to try casting up some bullets so we could shoot this gun. ( He's ex-military and likes the shooty-things too )
After reading all the threads here on such, I had thought it wouldn't be too much trouble to get a few usable bullets with nothing more than a good stout wood fire and a heavy pot. Boy was I wrong.
Hildo, I don't know how you do it, but man, you're welcome to it. After a couple of hours of stoking a fire in 90+ degree heat, we ended up with maybe 5 really ugly ( but serviceable ) bullets.
These of course did give myself and my father-in-law huge grins when we shot 'em.
Still, the wood fire method proved most unsatisfactory, over all.
Fast-forward a few days to tonight:
I remembered somewhere in there that, stored somewhere in the bowels of my storage room, I have an old Coleman camp stove and fuel.
Well, after a slight wiping off, refueling and such, I got my casting act together. And withing an hour, I had about 15 pounds of molten lead, and shortly thereafter, 30 good usable bullets.
Only problem was, I ran out of daylight.
Anyway, here's a pic or three of my set-up.
No, I don't claim any expertise on the subject, but I am learning.
And here's a couple of things I've learned:
One, with a two-cavity mold, fill the back one first. Give it a little frontward lean as you fill, and "carry back" to the second one. Works great, at least for me. Also, try to keep the dipper in contact with the sprue plate as much as possible. It'll keep things from cooling down too much before you get that second bullet poured.
Two.... I use a 1 inch thick piece of plate steel over the second burner of the stove, to set my mold on to keep it hot. The piece I have is about 5-6 inches square, and can be found at almost any machine shop that's close to ya. Might cost you all of $5 for a piece of cold-rolled it's size.
Three... Plain old Vaseline is a pretty good mold lube. It doesn't smoke, burn, or migrate too much. It kept things opening and closing smoothly, with a minimum of trouble. Give it a try and see what you think. ( I didn't have any "Bullet Lube" on hand for the mold. Had to make do with what was at hand. I knew most other lubricants were out. It was the only other thing I could think of, being most similar chemically to paraffin. )
So, here's the pics. And yes, I know a couple of the bullets pictured were sub-par. I chucked them back in the pot as soon as I looked them over.
As always, comments, questions, or suggestions welcomed.
Let me know what you think, or if there's anything you can come up with that I can do differently/better.
J.C.
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As some of you may remember, I bought a copy of a Remington New Model Army here a couple of months back. It's one of the 5-1/2 inch barreled ones. I also asked my in-laws, who were coming to visit shortly, to deliver me the pertinent supplies to shoot the thing, since they have a cabela's near by and I don't.
Among those supplies was powder, caps, a nipple wrench, and, most importantly, a Lee bullet mold. One of the 200 gr. conical jobs.
I unfortunately didn't have sense enough to ask for a box of .454 lead balls.
Well, they arrived a couple of weeks ago with said supplies. And after some settling in, my father-in-law and I decided to try casting up some bullets so we could shoot this gun. ( He's ex-military and likes the shooty-things too )
After reading all the threads here on such, I had thought it wouldn't be too much trouble to get a few usable bullets with nothing more than a good stout wood fire and a heavy pot. Boy was I wrong.
Hildo, I don't know how you do it, but man, you're welcome to it. After a couple of hours of stoking a fire in 90+ degree heat, we ended up with maybe 5 really ugly ( but serviceable ) bullets.
These of course did give myself and my father-in-law huge grins when we shot 'em.
Still, the wood fire method proved most unsatisfactory, over all.
Fast-forward a few days to tonight:
I remembered somewhere in there that, stored somewhere in the bowels of my storage room, I have an old Coleman camp stove and fuel.
Well, after a slight wiping off, refueling and such, I got my casting act together. And withing an hour, I had about 15 pounds of molten lead, and shortly thereafter, 30 good usable bullets.
Only problem was, I ran out of daylight.
Anyway, here's a pic or three of my set-up.
No, I don't claim any expertise on the subject, but I am learning.
And here's a couple of things I've learned:
One, with a two-cavity mold, fill the back one first. Give it a little frontward lean as you fill, and "carry back" to the second one. Works great, at least for me. Also, try to keep the dipper in contact with the sprue plate as much as possible. It'll keep things from cooling down too much before you get that second bullet poured.
Two.... I use a 1 inch thick piece of plate steel over the second burner of the stove, to set my mold on to keep it hot. The piece I have is about 5-6 inches square, and can be found at almost any machine shop that's close to ya. Might cost you all of $5 for a piece of cold-rolled it's size.
Three... Plain old Vaseline is a pretty good mold lube. It doesn't smoke, burn, or migrate too much. It kept things opening and closing smoothly, with a minimum of trouble. Give it a try and see what you think. ( I didn't have any "Bullet Lube" on hand for the mold. Had to make do with what was at hand. I knew most other lubricants were out. It was the only other thing I could think of, being most similar chemically to paraffin. )
So, here's the pics. And yes, I know a couple of the bullets pictured were sub-par. I chucked them back in the pot as soon as I looked them over.
As always, comments, questions, or suggestions welcomed.
Let me know what you think, or if there's anything you can come up with that I can do differently/better.
J.C.
