Fun Weekend O shootin.

[A pause for the COZ]

Man did I have some fun this weekend. Much to the shagrin of my Honey do list.

Started by working up a useful load for my AR10 and cast bullets. Tried some 4227 and then A5744.
Found 5744 worked very well. Actually, I purchased 5744 as a after thought because I could not find RL-7, 4198 ect.
So I have 6 pounds of it on hand.
Lucky me

5744 is elbowing its way in and taking over my cast bullet loads in just about every rife load I try. I esp like it in my Semi Auto's.
It seems to ignite easily, Reacts well in reduced loads for cast. Seems to be real consistent with velocity.

So far it has hedged out other powders in 223, 300 Black out, 308 win, 7.62x39, 7.62x 54, 8mm Mauser, and 45-70.

Thats a pretty wide range of calibers its working in. Some times a blind squirrel finds a nut I guess.

Any who... After getting a load I liked. I loaded up a couple hundred of them.
Wanted to give the AR10 a good work out.
oh... man that was fun. No issues at all all fired, fed and ejected as expected.
Accuracy was what I term as good enough.

That was not all.... After that I got the urge to go old school and broke out the 32-20's
Took the old Smith & Wesson hand eject and my Savage Sporter.
Good weekend.
Now about that Honey do list????

 

[JeepHammer]

The most important thing about your post,

The 'Honey Do' lists NEVER get shorter, no matter how much you do.

I'll let you in on a secret,
While you are working, they are adding to the list!
It never ends!

-----

I went on a cast bullet kick for a while.
I agree, it's fun to do, especially if you cast your own.
Lot's of tinkering with the lead, mold, trimming, sizing, lubing, working up the rounds.

Are you buying bullets, casting your own?
If you cast, what lead are you using?

I know prepping old tire weights, ect. is a bit of a pain,
Nothing like trying to draw dross off lead then find something to do with the dross,
I miss the SMELL of hot lead. That sounds stupid, but it reminds me of being young and adventurous and just NOT knowing if any of this was going to work...

Overheating lead, trying to learn to cast,
prepping molds, 'Smoking' the tools so the lead didn't stick, making my own bullet molds, ect. was all a hoot.

I still do round balls and 'Mini' balls for my old antique & reproductions, cowboy guns, ect.,
I just don't get to shoot them as much as I did...
For some reason, my boss actually wants me to get something done through the week at work...
(What's his problem? )

I made a little mold for .223 Hollow points.
Remarkably accurate when I got them slowed down enough they would stick to the rifling instead of stripping.
Getting your 'Hollow' dead center of the bullet is a must, but they are a ton of fun watching them splatter when they hit a plate target.

I did the same thing with .30-30 rounds a bunch of years back.
A .30-30 hollow point is a SERIOUS hunting round, performing as well as anything off the shelf at the time.

Thanks to Ruger, I found a stainless barrel is MUCH easier to clean up when shooting raw lead.
Ruger made an updated version of the old Remington in stainless, and it was a SNAP to clean (compared to the blue steel and brass frame reproductions out there, it still took considerable cleaning)

How about posting the final loads, accuracy, and FUN factor when you get this thing cooking in 'Final' form,
It sounds like a bunch of fun and I just might do it again.
I just don't want to start from scratch working up loads...

 

[A pause for the COZ]

I buy my lead and cast my own. With out counting tool cost. ( those are recovered when i sell the tool)
I design to work with the cheapest alloy. mostly range scrap.
I do have a few I load harder for specific tasks. Hunting ect.
but generaly I get my best results from a softer alloy.

Even with buying lead a box of 500 bullets will cost me 1/2 what store purchased lead bullets cost and that is 1/2 again what jacketed bullets cost.
I probably would not be shooting as much if I were not casting.
Besides I find that the fun part of reloading.
I think I have about 1000 pounds of lead on hand from various sources. Purchased and scrounged.
Give you an idea. Thats 44,303 158gr boolits that I will always have access too regardless of market conditions or Government action for that matter.

So I may have a life time supply. Even so, I shoot into a bullet trap and reclaim my lead, re melt and re shoot.
So I most likely will never ever run out.