The casting shed

[GunnyMack]

375 is a very accurate in most guns. Sure does Buck & snort with 300's at max charges! When I finished my 375 I was thankful Six sent me some cast bullets to get it on paper with. Then I went to 80.0 of Lilgun and WOW my teeth were looser! gotta spend some time with it but boy how I prefer the 218 Bee!!
NOT Lilgun but 80.0g of CFE223.

[Griff]

I started on replies to this thread three times... (say that real fast 10 times)... and everytime I lose my connection... and what I'd typed!

I started on my adventure in casting in about 1977, when I bought a T-C Hawken .54 kit gun. I bought both .530 & .535 round ball moulds, and a Lee "Maxi-ball" mould. They all gave adequate results... and provided a stable platform to learn about casting... if not anything about alloying for cartridge bullets! I didn't start casting for cartridges until the early '80s. I started with the 45Colt & 38 Special. Added the 30-30 when I learned that I needed lead bullets to shoot cowboy action, so 1982. Took me until 1985 to learn to shoot cowboy action, and by then the .30-30 wasn't a "legal" main match cartridge. Hard to believe that it's been 8 years since I rebuilt my reloading/casting benches in the workshop portion of my barn!




Amazing how quickly horizontal surfaces become cluttered.......


Powder coating pistol bullets (is there any other size besides .452?), is fun... but those .309 gaschecked pills for the .30-30 & .30-06 are a pain! Constantly falling over and needing at least 2 applications! I've found it's much easier to buy them already coated!

[GunnyMack]

Nice setup ya got there Griff!

[piller]

Absolutely! Leave an open space and something will fill it. It takes work to keep a space open.
I have heard Nature abhors a vacuum. I am not quite sure what Kamala Harris cleaning the carpets has to do with Nature, but it is a saying.

[Shasta]

I have a bit of a different bullet casting story:

It’s been well over two years since I lost my home and all my reloading stuff as a result of the Carr Fire here in Shasta County, California. I was able to salvage a few of my many bullet moulds, and most of my bullet casting lead. The majority of the lead was in the form of one pound bars that had been sorted by hardness and stored in labeled G.I. ammo cans. Each can held well over 100 pounds of lead, and there was twenty-five cans. You can see the cans in this picture:



The fire was so hot that the one pound lead bars melted together, so I wound up with a bunch of very burnt ammo cans each containing a huge brick of lead of unknown hardness. I went from this:



to this:





We rebuilt, and I even added a new detached garage with a 10 x 24 foot reloading shop. I am fully set up to cast again, so I decided it was time to deal with those burnt ammo cans:



I tried using a weed burning torch to melt out the lead, but after just one can I realized that method would take a lot of time and propane as the big chunk of lead did not readily melt out of the can. I decided to instead use a metal cut-off wheel in my 4 ½” angle grinder to cut the can off the lead:






It is a filthy job with a lot of soot covering everything, but the grinder does cut the can off very quickly. The biggest problem I am having now is that being 70 years old I am having great difficulty picking up and moving such heavy lead bricks:



I still need to melt down each brick individually and re-pour the lead into one pound bars. It will be a long and slow process but I am determined to get it done.

Shasta

[piller]

Hope you get it done. Glad you could salvage something.

[GunnyMack]

Shasta you have your work cut out for you! Have you thought about a sawzall ( reciprocating saw) to cut the ammo can blocks into smaller pieces? Still be a lot of work but you wouldn't have to pick up those heavy cans.

[OldWin]

If I wasn't at the other end of the country, I'd give you a hand. A lot of work for sure, but I'm glad you still have it.

[Shasta]

Shasta you have your work cut out for you! Have you thought about a sawzall ( reciprocating saw) to cut the ammo can blocks into smaller pieces? Still be a lot of work but you wouldn't have to pick up those heavy cans.

Yep, I tried using a Sawsall with a metal cutting blade, but the fine teeth quickly clogged with lead. I then tried a coarse toothed wood cutting blade, but it too clogged with lead. I am thinking my best course of action is to get one of my nephews over here and let a young guy do the heavy lifting.

Shasta

[AmBraCol]

Shasta you have your work cut out for you! Have you thought about a sawzall ( reciprocating saw) to cut the ammo can blocks into smaller pieces? Still be a lot of work but you wouldn't have to pick up those heavy cans.

Yep, I tried using a Sawsall with a metal cutting blade, but the fine teeth quickly clogged with lead. I then tried a coarse toothed wood cutting blade, but it too clogged with lead. I am thinking my best course of action is to get one of my nephews over here and let a young guy do the heavy lifting.

Shasta

Young folk definitely have their uses...

[GunnyMack]

Yes like Jay said if I were closer... You are right, use a young back for the lifting! Best plan yet

[Griff]

Shasta, think "Coleman stove", GI can as pot, and ladle the lead directly back into ingots. But by all means...

,,,Best course of action is to get one of my nephews over here and let a young guy do the heavy lifting.

Young folk definitely have their uses...

[Catshooter]

If you use a Coleman be sure to reinforce the grill. I won't hold the weight if you don't.


Cat

[6pt-sika]

Shasta you have your work cut out for you! Have you thought about a sawzall ( reciprocating saw) to cut the ammo can blocks into smaller pieces? Still be a lot of work but you wouldn't have to pick up those heavy cans.

Yep, I tried using a Sawsall with a metal cutting blade, but the fine teeth quickly clogged with lead. I then tried a coarse toothed wood cutting blade, but it too clogged with lead. I am thinking my best course of action is to get one of my nephews over here and let a young guy do the heavy lifting.

Shasta

Easiest and quickest way I ever separated big blocks of lead was with cold chisel and a machinist hammer or small sledge hammer .

[fordwannabe]

Shasta my main smelting set up is a cheap turkey fryer and a harbor freight Dutch oven. If you use the GI can on a turkey fryer then ladle the lead into ingots when your done you can use a GI can as your smelting pot you would be in the whole thing about $50. Then call your local pizza shop and order a large pie....call your young relatives and say hey buddy, I just bought a large pizza and can’t finish it myself. Once he is at your place, spring the lift this and put it here, thing on him.

[Jay Bird]

I had zero issues cutting up 22 lb Linotype bars with my Grizzly band saw using a wood blade. It cut right through them. I wore a mask and it does leave a mess......then next time I cut some up I'm going to wheel the saw out in the pasture and cut them up there instead of the garage. Then use the air compressor at 100-125 lbs to blow everything out.

With those big blocks you have I'd cut it in 2 lengthwise then cut to width.

[Shasta]

I have a large cast iron dutch oven for smelting lead (it survived the fire with just a bent wire bail handle) and I did buy a new propane turkey fryer for heating it up. My cast iron one pound ingot molds also made it through the fire. I had a very large supply of cast lead bullets (around 400 pounds) in a bunch of different calibers that all melted into a big blob in the ashes and gravel under where my old reloading shed had been. It took my brother-in-law and I a couple hours to get that lead dug up. I was able to use my weed burner around the edges to melt about 50 pounds at a time into the dutch oven. I then set the oven over the turkey fryer burner to get the lead melted and clear out the rocks, brass, and other junk that floated to the top. Then I re-cast the lead into clean one pound bars. That lead is what I am currently using for my bullet casting operations.

As for the ammo cans, cutting off the can with a cut-off wheel in my grinder is so easy that I will continue to use that method to get to the lead. My dutch oven is big enough to take a whole ammo can of lead at once, so all I need to do is get a chunk of lead melted and re-cast into one pound bars, test it for hardness, and re-pack in new cans. That is where the young guy helpers come into play!

Shasta

[piller]

The idea to pay the young relative in pizza sounds fair. If he is interested, then teach him about making bullets. He could learn a valuable and fun skill as well as feeling like he helped.

[GunnyMack]

Where did everybody go?

[Scott Tschirhart]

I went through a divorce some years ago and ended up in a one bedroom apartment above a pool here in San Antonio. I used to cast bullets on my little balcony and I was too poor to even pay attention.

Now I am a bit more prosperous and for the last few years Montanna Bullet Co has been doing my casting for me. I do miss the extra time I had back in those days though.

[GunnyMack]

Does anyone have a .22 mold? Thinking I need one for my hornet & bee. What weight / style do you guys use?

[AmBraCol]

Does anyone have a .22 mold? Thinking I need one for my hornet & bee. What weight / style do you guys use?

I've got one that I picked up at a Goodwill years ago for a buck and a quarter, IIRC. Now I need something to shoot it out of. It's a nice, flat tip, but don't recall the number off it. Can't even remember the weight, other than it's too heavy to shoot out of a 22 caliber spring powered air rifle. Have contemplated having it milled down to a shorter length and more reasonable weight for air rifle use, PCP that is, but don't own one that'd be worth the hassle so haven't gotten that round tuit yet. Sizing down to a more svelte .217 would also take some doing. I should probably take it back north and look for a Hornet or something to shoot them out of.

[fordwannabe]

What kind of a goofball would reload for a 218 bee or a Hornet ?

[Sixgun]

What kind of a goofball would reload for a 218 bee or a Hornet ?

Me. I did shoot some cast out of the bee I sold you...not many, maybe 50. A couple of grains of Unique and you have a nice backyard play load. So there Mr. Know-It-All-------know it all 006

I have the Lyman 45 gr gc.....shooting that bullet at 1000 sounds like a 22 target load. There!

[GunnyMack]

What kind of a goofball would reload for a 218 bee or a Hornet ?

Me. I did shoot some cast out of the bee I sold you...not many, maybe 50. A couple of grains of Unique and you have a nice backyard play load. So there Mr. Know-It-All-------know it all 006

I have the Lyman 45 gr gc.....shooting that bullet at 1000 sounds like a 22 target load. There!

Can I have it?

[Sixgun]

What kind of a goofball would reload for a 218 bee or a Hornet ?

Me. I did shoot some cast out of the bee I sold you...not many, maybe 50. A couple of grains of Unique and you have a nice backyard play load. So there Mr. Know-It-All-------know it all 006

I have the Lyman 45 gr gc.....shooting that bullet at 1000 sounds like a 22 target load. There!

Can I have it?

no! Get a job! I do have some bullets laying around if your interested....put one grain of Bullseye in there and you have a dead quiet .223

[GunnyMack]

Ill pay you for it! Or ill pay for a couple hunnert of em !

[fordwannabe]

I wasn’t serious
I think that mold should have gone with the gun. Just sayin!

[GunnyMack]

Tom you can have it after I cast a hunnert!

[fordwannabe]

Cool when can I expect it?

[GunnyMack]

As soon as Six sends it to me!

[fordwannabe]

Sunday will be spending several hours in the casting shed. Bullets for 25/20, 44 mag penta points, and some more 311 round balls. Anybody else casting this weekend?