- Thread starter
- #41
Ok, that made my day!
I'll listen to "Hell Bent for Leather" or "Electric Eye" next time!
AA
Casting Keith-style SWCs
- Thread starter Ad Astra
- Start date
Ok, that made my day!
I'll listen to "Hell Bent for Leather" or "Electric Eye" next time!
AA
I have been casting bullets for 40+ years in calibers from .22 to .45. (.577 if you include smokepoles). My lead levels are normal. Watch ventilation and dust. And don't lick your fingers. I cast bare handed, and have the scars to prove it.
Nice casting! No critique from me! Your sprues and bullets look excellent. Most of my molds are steel, vintage Lyman and a few new RCBS. I have a bunch of Lee molds that produce excellent bullets. They're a little different to use, but work well.
I use an ancient Lee 10lb bottom pour furnace. It only leaks when it gets dirty.
I have two Lyman lubrisizers. One I use for pistol bullets, one is used for rifle bullets.
I very rarely shoot jacketed bullets in handgun calibers.
I like the old style bullet lube alox and beeswax. I tried many different lubes, including a bunch of homemade concoctions. About the best homemade recipe was Lucas Red and Tacky grease and beeswax, 50/50. Melt them together over low heat and pour into the lubrisizer. I found a Canadian distributer of alox/beeswax sticks that just drop into the lubrisizer, bought a bunch, and don't bother making the homebrew stuff anymore.
I have a good stockpile of lead for casting. Good thing, since wheel weights are getting very difficult to find. The local indoor range let's me scavenge all the range scrap I want, which smelts down to a very soft alloy ( mostly .22 bullets in the mix). It casts and shoots well in my 1911, so it gets a pretty steady diet of the stuff. The alox/beeswax prevents leading at .45acp velocities, but it is fairly dirty. That's OK, cleanup is easy. The alox/beeswax doesn't get burned into a hard residue like some of the commercial lubes I tried. It just wipes off with a little solvent. I tried the Lee stuff you're using. It performs the same. It's good stuff.
Lots of good information on this site: Cast Boolits Home - http://castboolits.gunloads.com/cmps_index.php
Nice casting! No critique from me! Your sprues and bullets look excellent. Most of my molds are steel, vintage Lyman and a few new RCBS. I have a bunch of Lee molds that produce excellent bullets. They're a little different to use, but work well.
I use an ancient Lee 10lb bottom pour furnace. It only leaks when it gets dirty.
I have two Lyman lubrisizers. One I use for pistol bullets, one is used for rifle bullets.
I very rarely shoot jacketed bullets in handgun calibers.
I like the old style bullet lube alox and beeswax. I tried many different lubes, including a bunch of homemade concoctions. About the best homemade recipe was Lucas Red and Tacky grease and beeswax, 50/50. Melt them together over low heat and pour into the lubrisizer. I found a Canadian distributer of alox/beeswax sticks that just drop into the lubrisizer, bought a bunch, and don't bother making the homebrew stuff anymore.
I have a good stockpile of lead for casting. Good thing, since wheel weights are getting very difficult to find. The local indoor range let's me scavenge all the range scrap I want, which smelts down to a very soft alloy ( mostly .22 bullets in the mix). It casts and shoots well in my 1911, so it gets a pretty steady diet of the stuff. The alox/beeswax prevents leading at .45acp velocities, but it is fairly dirty. That's OK, cleanup is easy. The alox/beeswax doesn't get burned into a hard residue like some of the commercial lubes I tried. It just wipes off with a little solvent. I tried the Lee stuff you're using. It performs the same. It's good stuff.
Lots of good information on this site: Cast Boolits Home - http://castboolits.gunloads.com/cmps_index.php
My only WW2 rifle has an OGEK cartouche on it (Ogden, UT arsenal, Elmer Keith inspector).
imgur page w/ EK history
Sounds a lot like me. I have a couple of sizer lubricators, but one is set up with lube for use with black powder cartrige bullets, the other with the beeswax/alox lube. Some people don't like it but I am partial to the scent of the Alox. Right now I probably have 300-400 lbs of casting metal, some pure lead, some alloy, some wheelweights and about 60 lbs of pure linotype. My ex brother in law had gotten the linotype and wheelweights . I spent several days melting down the wheelweights cleaning and pouring into ingots.
I also have molds from .22 to .458, 45gr to 565 gr., plus a 58cal mini ball mold. s
It just wouldn't be a day at the range without the smell of alox!!
- Thread starter
- #46
And I thought it was just me! Breathed plenty of Alox fumes yesterday!
My open tube of Alox kinda solidified, heard mineral spirits thinned it - but can of denatured alky was handy and it worked perfect!
I do envy the lubrisizer casters, with those neatly filled boolits. Alox rounds look muddy but work well - and since Lee gives you a tube with each sizing die - and I have six of those dies - might be a while.
Really happy with this mold, and the roundnose one too. Should serve my .38/.357/9mm needs into the future.
Wife did have a comment. "When the time comes, looks like you have a retirement hobby. I'm going to have to find one."
She declined my generous offer to teach her reloading ...
AA
There's a concoction named "mulesnot" described on the cast boolits site. It's a dilution of alox tumblelube designed to make a cleaner look and burn. Coupled with a clean burning powder like 231, it keeps your pistol a lot cleaner than my combination of bullseye and regular alox.
Great link!
May I suggest something from the 1984 Defenders of the Faith album, or perhaps something a bit more apropos to this site such as the British Steel album...lol
I have an early 70's Lyman 450 lubrisizer with the "twin beam" handle and even as a kid I never cared for the handle, always felt unstable. If I start casting again I am definitely going to upgrade to the Lyman 4500 or RCBS Lube A Matic.
What load are you using in that K-38?
- Thread starter
- #52
Curious too. I'm using 4 grains of Unique (which is just the Lee scoop that came with the dies! It AVERAGES 4; 3.8-4.05 is reality. Good enough for my plinking).
AA
I have no knowledge of reloading, but I have a lifetime of listening to Judas Priest....
Dissident Aggressor is my favorite Halford scream showcase and the whole album it’s on is one of my favorite.
Ok, back to learning about reloading for me.
Dissident Aggressor is my favorite Halford scream showcase and the whole album it’s on is one of my favorite.
Ok, back to learning about reloading for me.
simon1
Self Ignored by Vista
Any song with "Oklahoma" in it is a great song.
Oklahoma is OK. It's not great, terrific, or fantastic. It's just...OK.
I haven't cast in years. The only molds I have are .454 for my old black powder cartridge Colt. I may have some .357 ones, but I'd have to look.
- Thread starter
- #55
Elmer Keith lives forever!
A fine boolit, yessir. They weigh about 156 grains, so. Plenty hard alloy.
AA
A fine boolit, yessir. They weigh about 156 grains, so. Plenty hard alloy.
AA
Say that again!
- Thread starter
- #57
I definitely feel like shooting bowling pins or water buckets with these!
Something that will confer kinetic energy whence upon.
AA
- Thread starter
- #59
Fifty more Keith-style reloads.
Today it was The Monkees - and no apologies for a cranking a song like "Valleri!"
AA
Today it was The Monkees - and no apologies for a cranking a song like "Valleri!"
AA
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Huge Keith fan here. The .338-.378 KT is the reason I bought a .338 Lapua.
