Nice time in the bullet shop

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earlmck
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Nice time in the bullet shop

Post by earlmck »

Went shooting with some friends on Thursday. From the session a couple of bullets are looking promising so I thought I'd produce a batch of them today. The SAECO pot was full of Lyman #2 and I had one left-over ingot, so I got going with two moulds and poured bullets until she ran dry. Once the moulds have come up to temp (takes me a few pours to get there) it goes pretty quick -- let one cool while pouring and dropping from the second mould, then second cools while I go back to the first. This seems to keep moulds nicely hot without getting to the frosty-bullets/brittle-sprue stage. Took a bit over an hour to make 11 pounds of 38/55 and 357 bullets. And that hour was about 15 minutes longer than the old back was happy about, but I wanted to empty the pot for use with another alloy next session.

A three cavity Accurate mould makes the 245 grain 38-55 bullet.
Accurate38.jpg
And this 5-cavity Arsenal produces a cute little 135 grain 357 bullet.
Arsenal357.jpg
And here they are with a few the lubed bullets and the loaded rounds that result.
Acc3855.jpg
Ars357loads.jpg
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AJMD429
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Re: Nice time in the bullet shop

Post by AJMD429 »

I miss bullet casting....haven't done it for 40 years... :(

Maybe again sometime...!
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ollogger
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Re: Nice time in the bullet shop

Post by ollogger »

Nice looking bullets Earl!!

How ya liking the 38-55 in that cowboy ?


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Grizz
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Re: Nice time in the bullet shop

Post by Grizz »

they look great. what's the weight of the 357 ?
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earlmck
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Re: Nice time in the bullet shop

Post by earlmck »

ollogger wrote: Sat Nov 09, 2019 10:27 pm Nice looking bullets Earl!!

How ya liking the 38-55 in that cowboy ?
ollogger
I'm liking it real well Brad. I don't know why I didn't have one of these back when they first came out with 'em. I put a Williams FP on the back and a Lyman 17A on the front and am figuring on whumping some silhouettes when us boys start the shoots again next April.
Grizz wrote: Sat Nov 09, 2019 10:49 pm they look great. what's the weight of the 357 ?
It's just a little 135 grainer but out of my Rossi it seemed to be hitting the 200 yard gong pretty nicely the other day.
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Bill in Oregon
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Re: Nice time in the bullet shop

Post by Bill in Oregon »

Handsome boolits, Earl. Just have to love a .38-55.
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marlinman93
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Re: Nice time in the bullet shop

Post by marlinman93 »

How do the sizes compare on those multi gang bullet molds Earl? Especially the 5 gang? I've found some variances between bullets closer to the handles and those at the opposite end. Not enough to be an issue for my pistols, but for my accurate rifles I abandoned multi gang molds.
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earlmck
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Re: Nice time in the bullet shop

Post by earlmck »

marlinman93 wrote: Sun Nov 10, 2019 11:05 am How do the sizes compare on those multi gang bullet molds Earl? Especially the 5 gang? I've found some variances between bullets closer to the handles and those at the opposite end. Not enough to be an issue for my pistols, but for my accurate rifles I abandoned multi gang molds.
The more cricky my back gets the less picky I get -- I really feel abused if I have to cast with anything less than 3-cavities anymore. But both these moulds throw virtually identical bullets from all cavities, near as I can tell. I weighed 15 of the 38/55s after checking, sizing, lubing and they ranged from 248.4 to 249.2 grains. I'd be real happy with that variance out of a single-cavity. I weighed 25 from the 5-cavity .357 mould and they went from 134.2 to 135.2 grains. I might be able to beat that with a single-cavity, but I might not, too.

For anybody inclined to weight bullets (I'm not -- this was just out of curiosity because of Val's question) those electronic scales are really nice!
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marlinman93
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Re: Nice time in the bullet shop

Post by marlinman93 »

Those are plenty good weight variances. My concern has always been weight, but with multi gang molds I am more concerned with them being concentric. I've found the bullets out towards the end weren't as round as those closer to the handle. But sounds like yours are doing well.
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