any interest in cast boolits?

I've got a 6 cavity fat(.316) mold coming.I'm gonna be casting 180 gr lead boolits,,,,sized to buyer specs for mosins,Enfields,etc.You can't buy these easily
Any interest out there?
I'm also gonna be castin 155 gr .312 gas check boolits for my AK anSKS.

Count me in for some .312's swabb. Let me know when your ready to sale. I can't afford my casting equipment right now, all my cash went on the M91 build. But I do have what I need to cast some ingots.:sidegrin_

I'm interested in lead bullets, not sure exactly what size bullet I need for my Mosins. Try to slug the bores, maybe?
Trying to find 7.62x54r reloadable brass too.
Researching loads for 7.62x54r for lead bullets, any help would be appreciated here, Swabbie.

here's the deal fast strike..I'm lookin for 3-4 buds from this forum to chip in to help me get the rest of the eqip I need to cast,or to send me lead to cast boolits with.
I'm retired and got nuthin but time.I want to be set up and castin/sizin/lubin by end of March.I' still need sizing dies/top punches/lube,etc.
those who go in with me will have a source of custom sized boolits for their Mosins as well as bullets for their AK/SKS.

I'm not lookin to make a profit..I wanna cover my costs.it will probably be 60 days before I get the custom mold.but I could be castin AK boolits before then.
I also don't wanna be castin in July or Aug if I can hep it.Mississippi=HOTT&HUMID :laugh_sma
so far I've got a Lee bottom pour pot and a Saeco sizer/luber/gas check installer

BTW..if any place near you sells gas checks .30 cal buy em..we're gonna need em!

OK, Thanks for the info.

I've reloaded ammo for years, just no experience with lead bullets. Looking for an alternative to ammo prices getting higher.

this is the alternative

Fast srtike; Try Graf and sons @ www.graf.com (http://www.graf.com) for 7.62x54R brass. I've reloaded about 100 rounds using Graf, It's good stuff.

The graf PRVI 7.62 x 54 brass at $40 per 100 count are good. I've been using them and have no complaints.

Thanks for the info on the 7.62x54r brass guys!!!

Got 200 on the way from Grafs.

Now I'm gathering up lead I've had laying around here for years.

Swabbie

Do you have a line on sizer dies that are bigger than .314? If not do you know a machinist who can bore/polish a .314 to .315 and .316? I am leaning toward the Lee sizer offerings for my own use.

I think Saeco makes a 316 for my luber/sizer.I think any competent person could take .0002 off of a sizing die.it's not alot of mat'l.

Hey Swab! I have'nt forgotten the lead ingots. I think my employer is trying to kill me, 105 hours in 8 day's. I gave up on the cast iron muffin pan, none to be found locally? Dad and I are going to go ahead and order a mold this weekend. I will let you know when I have an ingot or two for you.:)

what mold are you gonna order.I may can be of help decidin.gettin a 6 cavity lee mold for a 314.155 gr for use in AK,SKS,and Mosin up and goin at Cast Boolits.We get a few more orders,we could have the mold by Sept or so!

one/two cavity molds are slow!..course ur a much younger man thanI am :laugh_sma

Hello Swabb! We are looking at the Lyman #314299 bullet mould and the Lee #90029 ingot mould. We are going to take the bullets we dug up at the range and pre-melt them to remove dirt and trash and pour ingots for use in the casting pot. Check out my pic's on the M91/30 sniper build, she's ready for the range! Notice my dad's isn't together yet, he can't wait to get over and put it together.:tongue_sm By the way, we have 4" of snow on the ground and it is still coming down. My old fat beagle sank up to her belly and did her business quick!:laugh_sma

Mosinnutty.u are the man!

Have you slugged ur barrel? u may not need 314299 altho it's an excellent ,old.If u need larger than 314 I'll be glad 2 cast u 316 when my mold gets here ..sept :cry_small .Also pimpin for a 314 -155-2R AK/SKS boolit on cast boolits.gunloads .com.I wanna shoot till I'm dead then turn the items over to my son.

Lee makes a 312-185 if ur Mosin isn't worn out..

PM me.my fax an ur fax will do lunch! :laugh_sma

M-91's slugged at .312 so a .314 cast bullet will be good. M-44's slugged at .314 so the fat .316 will work in them. I haven't slugged my M-38 yet?:huh_small We are going to cast for the M-91's 1st, and then the 44's later on. It's cold and nasty outside this morning, but we are going to the range anyway, Ive got to see what the M91's will do now that they are scoped.:D If all goes well I will post some target pic's.

you can actually use the 314299 in the M44 as well as the mold will probably drop oversize or can be lubed and fired without sizing.ur good 2 go.
yeah I wanna see pix of the sniper.
sending off for my 91/30 scout mount this week.

Got out the old coleman stove and casted some ingots this weekend. My stepmother graciously gave up two of her cast iron muffin pans. We had a bucket with about 33 Lb's. of dug bullets from the range. It was really weird seeing the copper jackets float to the top. We ended up with 30 lb's. of really good looking ingot's. My girlfriend is pissed because I put the ingots in some of her decorative holiday cookie tins she had stored in the barn.:mad_small I should receive all my casting equipment this week and maybe cast some bullets soon!:smile_sma

you go boy!

I'm about ready to cast ingots.Got one puny Lee single cavity mold :( . need to build up some cash to order a couple more Lee molds until my nice ones arrive.

You are an exact example of how to get into this.You also need to get in on this mold buy.I predict we'll send in order by end of April at rate we are going.

Swabbie

Do you have a line on sizer dies that are bigger than .314? If not do you know a machinist who can bore/polish a .314 to .315 and .316? I am leaning toward the Lee sizer offerings for my own use.

If you can't find what you're looking for, give Buffalo Arms a call, they'll be able to help, pretty keen prices too.

Here's a link to their bullet sizing gear and custom lubrisizers. :)


http://www.buffaloarms.com/browse.cfm/2,71.html

Exile


Thanks for the link.

No problem, hope they have what you need.

I received all my casting equipment from Lee, but have yet to see my mold and handles from Lyman. Called Lyman to see what was up and they told me the handles are on back order. I'm starting to get impatient, I want my stuff!:mad:

I have been shooting Lyman 311291 and a Lee 303 bullet. Best results have been with 311291 sized to .311. Being shot out of a Chinese and Romanian carbines 1/2-3/4" groups 50yds. Finnish Rifle shoots 1/2" at 50yds. Guess I'm lucky to have some smaller diameter barrels than most. The Lee bullet will size out to .314, only found it useful in 303 British. Also used to have a Russian carbine that really liked the Lyman bullet one ragged hole at 50yds. The only powder that I have used so far has been Unique. I anyone wants charge weight I can go look it up. Good luck to the rest of you in finding a combination that works! Also Midway has Winchester 7.62x54r for $19 a box of 20 loaded, I have 20rds of win. brass that has been loaded 5 times so far and hasn't needed to be trimmed.

glad to hear from you Gunny! stick around...ur brass should be able to be used up to 25 times altho you may want to anneal the necks at some point.welcome to the files!

GAgunny -- Welcome aboard!

I'm always interested in hearing about a load that worked well. :) So if you don't mind looking back and sharing your recipe -- I have some unique.

Thanks for the welcome! The charge of Unique was 12gr. with a light crimp, I am still experimenting with OAL.

Hello GAgunny! Welcome! I finally received my Lyman 200 grain 303 mold today. I have every thing I need to cast and load this weekend. The data I have is for Accurate 5744, but I really need more data if anyone has any. I have allot of data for jacketed rounds that I have been playing with for awhile, but no data for cast bullets.

look for 30-06 data for the powder ur plannin on using.reduce the load at least 10%.are u plannin on poop,mid range or full house loads?

We are thinking mid range Swabb. We know that our accuracy on the M91's will greatly improve with the cast bullets, or should I say, We expect wonderfull things will happen.:huh_small Our local range only allows us to shoot 100 yards, although we can get about 300 yards at the old farm, but not a flat 300. We have some Lee data for 185 grain lead using Acc5744 even though our cast bullets will be 200 gr. we will start here I guess. Being that we have never cast bullets before we have allot to learn and allot of questions.:confused: For example, we have read about gas cutting if your alloy is to soft or your load is to hot, but will we be able to see the leading in these old bores? I know I can see it in my 1911 .45 auto, but it may be difficult to see in these rifles. I guess we will learn as we go. We are going to start casting this afternoon, I hope our Lyman mould is a good one. Have you ever heard of smoking the mold before using? The directions that came with the mould says to only remove the oil with a degreaser, but nothing about smoking like I have read, like with a candle or match. Ok I'll shut up now!:rolleyes:

yeah..Cast boolits recommends it.I think they said use a piece of scrap pine or somethin to smoke it all up.
I don't think ur gonna have a leading problem with lino in the mix.you will need gas checks over 1500 fps(mid range) so you may wanna start with 10 gr of red dot or 16 gr of 2400 for ur first load up.you won't need gas checks and it's an OK 100 yard load.

We finished casting our first bullets today. At first it didn't go so well, we had to cast about 6 crappy ones until the mold got to the right temperature. We found that 7.5 was a good temperature setting on the Lee production pot. Once the mold and lead temp. got right, it was on. We casted about 60 bullets and then lubed them with the alox. We will attempt to size and add the gas checks in the morning then load and maybe go to the range.:rofl_smal We never expected to get the results we did being our first time.

if it's a low vel load,u don't need gas checks
I love it when a plan comes together...seems like I heard that somewheres?

Only 6 poor boolits? dump em inna pot and keep on truckin :small_gri ..you and ur Dad r my heroes...I'd give anything if my Dad was around to participate,since my son moved to nashvillle :cry_small

MosinNutty

How are you going to lube your projectiles? I have used wax with (Dexron Transmission Fluid & Lithium Grease) 60%, 20% and 20% as a pan lube) and Johnsons Paste Wax as a tumble lube. Either of these will work good with the reduced velocity loads that swabbie told you about. Only need to think about gas checking if your going to drive velocities over 1000 feet per second.

jklein, We are using Lee alox to lube, worked real well, lubed last night and it was dry this A.M. Swabb, I have a problem with my bullets. When I loaded them this morning I noticed after adding the 30 cal. gas checks, sizing, and seating in the case that the bullets were not tight in the neck. I put a heavy crimp on them to get'em tight enough to take to the range but they were pretty loose. They shot real well at the range, 2 inch group at fifty yrd's. When I got home tonight I discoverd the problem. My .314 Lyman mold is producing .313 bullets. The gas checks after sizing with the .314 sizer are of course larger than the bullet. When I seat the bullet the gas check expands the case and is causing my bullets to be loose. Did I get a bad mould? I did not alloy the lead when I casted, Is it possible that a different alloy will produce a larger bullet? Will a hotter mould produce a larger bullet? Help me out guys!:confused:

are u seating the gas check last?I wouldn't bother sizing either if they're dropping at 313...simply lube em,seat the gas check and shoot em.
what powder and charge are u using?remember you only need gas checks over 1500 fps.
you may want to try the 17 gr of 2400...it's a great 100 yd load until your experience level casting moves up. no gas check needed
alloy mix will affect the bullet weight,but I'm not so sure about casting diameter.
save ur gas checks for mid range and hot loads

As far as I am aware, running the mould hotter will not produce a larger bullet, it's the alloy you cast with which will give you a bullet the maximum size the mould is capable of throwing. Generally, the harder the alloy the larger and lighter the bullet, the closer you get to pure lead then the smaller (and heavier)the bullet will be.

As swabbie says, if you can get away with just shooting them as cast that's generally considered to be better. A bullet straight-out-the-mould is as perfect as it can ever be. Once you start running them through sizers etc then it will suffer some deformation no matter how small.

:)

My load, 200 gr. cast bullet-25.2 grains of Accurate 5744-1,873 FPS. My sizer is a .314 and I sized after seating the gas check. The gas check's mic. at .320 before sizing, so basicly with the bullet at .313 all I am sizing is the gas check. But the sizer is sizing the check .001 larger than my bullet which is causing the problem of loose seating in the case. I wanted to make sure that this was the problem so I took my Dremel tool with a small sanding drum and sanded down the installed gas check to .310. When I seated the bullet it was super tight! So my only option with this load is to increase the Dia. of my cast bullet by alloying hopefully. It wasn't that difficult to Dremel the installed gas check, but I bought a .314 mould that should produce a .314 bullet! We e-mailed Lyman an asked why the bullets were coming out undersized but got a generic response. I shouldn't get discouraged being that it was our very first attempt at casting. We will try again with the lino mixture and see what happens. Also we quenched the hot bullets in water straight out of the mould, this wouldn't affect the Dia. would it? Thanks for the help fellows!

you may want to post this over at Castboolits.com.I know that mould designs are different depending on whether the bullet is designed for a gas check or not,but I can't imagine gas checks being bigger because the driving bands are usually larger than the gas checks?

Good idea Swabb I'll give it a shot.:wink_smal

Pat- don't drop your bullets in water that will make them smaller in diameter and slightly ecentric. just drop them on a towel in a cardboard box and let them cool. that should help with your problem.

Thanks GA, I'll do that. I did'nt get a chance to pick up my linotype last weekend, so I'm going over to pick it up today. Dad and I are going to cast some more Sunday using the Lino alloy. Maybe the new alloy and the slow cooling will give me the .314. Swabb, I went to the Cast bullet assoc. sight and posted, Everyone is telling me that a harder alloy will give me a larger bullet diameter. Thanks for the advice guys, I'll let you know how it goes Sunday.:)

I hope I can cast some this weekend. I have to do a minor repair to my lee mold 312-155. The work life balance is way out of kilter. I need less work and more life :)

Can't work myself up to do anything :( .got 2 Romy kits to finish demilling,coupla hundred 7.62x54 to tumble,size and prime,125 new cases to prime and load.Range 20 min N of me,and I just can't seem to get motivated.Got lead and am ready to cast ingots,but can't seem to go do it.
Did hookup with a young fella from the Mosin forums who has been collectin but never shot any of his rifles.Maybe we'll get out and fling a few boolits downrange.
Got one lousy single cavity mold ....I did comit to buy an M1 carbine on Gunboards and will have it 1/3 paid for by end of this month.
Wish I had a shootin buddy...

Swabbie,

Snap out of it! Fire up the lead and go have some fun. I wish I had a couple of hundred 7.62 x 54 cases to worry with. I'm down to around 65 -- need to buy some more. Got an active duty Army fellow who just moved in down the way and he wants me to take him to the rifle range and get him set up with a membership. I may have a new shooting partner for a while. :)

Casted some of the linotype I received from my sister last night into ingot form and then into bullets. I under estimated the amount she said she had. She gave me 3 small buckets all about the same weight. We casted about half of one of the small buckets today and ended up with 28 one lb. ingots. So I estimate to have about 110 lbs. of lino, and she said she has 3 times more that amount. Anyway it took care of the below mould diameter problems I had with the range lead. We casted straight lino and our bullets were exactly .314, and really looked good. They have alot more shine than the range lead. Next we are going to try and mix some of the range lead to see what mixture we need to still get the .314 diameter. Can't wait to hit the range next weekend and see how they shoot.:cool_smal

Wow nice set up. I did not get around to casting. Let us know how they shoot. I'm thinking about getting one of the Lyman .314 molds..

http://usera.imagecave.com/fatpatty/100_0868-copy-copy.jpghttp://usera.imagecave.com/fatpatty/100_0874-copy-copy.jpg

http://usera.imagecave.com/fatpatty/100_0871-copy-copy.jpghttp://usera.imagecave.com/fatpatty/100_0872-copy-copy.jpg

Thanks jklein, It has taken over a year to get it all together.:rofl_smal

I'm jealous!I am gonna start casting ingots tomorrow,and try to come up with some bux to order some double cavity lee moulds to hold me until my custom molds get here at the end of this year :mad_small .
Mosin...from what I know, 9 lbs of lead and 1 lb of lino will give you the mix you need.

Thanks Swabb! We wanted to try lino alone to see what we would get, but next time we cast we will try the 9 to 1. We loaded 50 rounds awhile ago, Dad wants to go to the range Thursday after work if the rain will hold off. The first cast bullets we shot were .313 and shot good, we are hoping that will improve with the .314's. I found also that I was seating the bullets to far into the case. This time we loaded at 2.875 overall length which gives us plenty of room for the rounds to cycle through the magazine and at that length the gas check is still in the neck of the case so they seated very tight. I'll let you know how they shot if we get to go.:small_gri

did some more readin....ratio ranges from 1-9 to 50/50 for harder bullets.I'm inna middle of primin cases.got about 400 ready to load!

even with a fan runnin,this is stinky shit!My ingots are too big to fit the bottom pour pot :mad_small .Oh well.
All I got is one single cavity Lee 309-180 mould,so no rush. :sleep_sma
I guess fugly ingots melt as well as :small_gri shiny smooth ones

Both times we have casted ingots it has been raining so we had to cast in my small back pole barn. We did'nt use a fan the first time and I wonder how much of that crap I sucked into my lungs?:skull_cro We have decided that from now on we will only cast scrap outside in the open air.:wink_smal I'm thinking about even melting over some camp fire coals this summer, after the hot dogs are done of course!:p Pass the mustard please!:small_gri

even with a fan runnin,this is stinky shit!My ingots are too big to fit the bottom pour pot :mad_small .Oh well.
All I got is one single cavity Lee 309-180 mould,so no rush. :sleep_sma
I guess fugly ingots melt as well as :small_gri shiny smooth ones

Swabbie I picked up a 3M maks that was good for gas and lead abatement work. I would consider one to keep the yuck out of your lungs when reducing scrap to usable ignots. I find that good ignots are not obnoxious when casting from the casting pot.

Casted some 50/50 lino to range scrap bullets saturday. Before we started I picked up a Lyman casting thermometer. It looks like we were casting way to hot. We set the production pot to the setting we had been using and then installed the thermometer and it read 900, Wow! Backed it off to 650 and the bullets actually started looking better. We started to get a void in one of the 2 cavitys about half way through the session. Can't see anything in the mould, allthough we did notice the mould started to get sticky on one of the alignment pins. May be the cause of the void, don't know? I'm going to clean the mould real good this morning and try again to see if the problem will go away.

sounds like ur well on ur way to successful casting! congrats

mosinutty,

I think I should pick up a thermometer also. Temp maybe one of my problems. I've got a Lee Pro 20lb bottom pour pot and have been running around 7.5 to 8 on the dial. Can you push a few pictures of your last batch?

I can't explain it, But the sticky mould was causing the deformation in the second cavity. Before I casted again I took the mould apart and scraped the inside of the 2 alignment hole's with an exacto knife. I don't know how but a small amount of lead finds it's way into these holes. After casting about 6 deformed bullets to heat up the mould they started coming out perfect. I casted 120 total and then could tell the mould was starting to get sticky again. It looks like from now on after 100 or more drops I will need to stop and clean the alignment pin holes. I found that 650 to 725 is a good temperature for casting the 50/50 lino to lead mix. Jklein: I have a 10 lb. Lee production pot and with the dial on 5.5 I had a temp. of 750. I also found that linotype will melt at a cooler temp. than range lead, The range lead ingot would be setting solid in the pot while the lino ingot beside it would melt away. I will take some pic's of the last batch when I get a chance. Cast...load...shoot...cast...load...shoot...cast...load...shoot.:AR15firin

Mosin, are you lubing the sprue cutter at all?

Are you using any mould prep on the mould?

eXile: No lube or prep. The only thing I do is oil with WD-40 after use and degrease before use. What type of lube would I use to hold up to the high heat? Have you ever heard of or experienced the alignment pin problem I'm having? I did notice the spur plate getting tight as the mould heated so I adjusted during use.

I use Rapine Mould Prep on my moulds, I guess you should be able to get it easily, if not Buffalo Arms always have it in stock.

http://www.buffaloarms.com

It is a graphite preparation which can really help with the release of your bullets, keeps the moulds in top condition. When using this prep I have found that there is no need to lubricate the sprue plate hinge. You could also give NEI handtools a try, they sell both lube and mould prep.

http://www.neihandtools.com/mold_info.html

Yeah it's an art getting the sprue plate tension right, once you hit on the right place though there will normally be no need to adjust it during a casting session.


The mis-aligned pins could be just a bad mould or if it's been heated up too quickly or cooled down too quickly the blocks can actually warp! A common mistake is to dip the corner of a cold mould into the melt....bad idea as this can cause warping. Dropping the blocks on a hard surface can kill a mould instantly.

The pins could be peened over? See if they are perfectly smooth with no burrs or flats on them which could cause the mould not to close properly. Sometimes just popping the mould open (we all do it) without keeping a piece of wood pushed up against one block can cause this to happen.

Lyman are great moulds, but I have had example which were virtually useless from the word go. I have one here at the moment which must have have the lube grooves cut wrong as the bullets will not even drop out without a real smack...not good! But I have another that I have had for the last 15 years and it's still going strong.

Your bullets look pretty damn good from what I see in the pics by the way, looks like you are making some high quality casts there. :)

Thanks eXile! The pins of the mould aren't mis-aligned, It is the pin holes that get a build up of what appears to be lead. When I clean out the pin holes the mould works flawlessly for about 100 or so drops. I wonder if the graphite you mentioned would prevent this build up from occuring? Thanks again for the help and the mould prep information.:wink_smal

No problem, I'm enjoying this thread immensley! :cool_smal

Yes absolutely, once you have the mould prep on your blocks the lead is less prone to stick to them. I can't say that it will never stick, you always get a few splashes from the furnace sticking to the bottom of the blocks, but it really does help. You will find that one bottle will last forever, plus it really does give the blocks a super shiny finish which also helps keep rust at bay. That won't bother you though as you are already treating your block to a good oil bath when you put them away.
If you have aluminium blocks it's something that you should never be without.

To be honest, if you can drop 100 flawless bullets at a time you are doing just fine. Having to stop a while just to clear the pin holes out is not that bad, you can be re-filling the melt while you get the mould ready again.

Rapine Mould Prep is awesome, if you apply it per the directions. Also you can try smoking the mould with a wood match. Not a lot of soot, just a little. degrease with hot water and smoke the whole thing, but concentrate on the cavity. And stop spraying them with WD 40. If you are worried about rust store them in ammocans with rust inhibiting chips and silica gel in them.

I put an order in for some mould prep that I will try next time. Is WD-40 a bad thing?:uhoh_smal

I think it is for most things firearms related, but folks still continue using it. If it's left in a rifle for long enough it ends up in a gooey mess for some reason or other. Lots of the black powder boys use it, but I think it's not the best choice for long term mould storage.

If you only have it on there for a couple of weeks or so before the mould comes out again I guess you shouldn't have a problem with WD. :small_gri

I'm proud of my new mould and couldn't live with myself if it were to rust.:cry_small What could I put on the mould to prevent rust, if anything?

I just use any quality gun oil on mine, keep them in ziplocks and so far never had a problem, even long term. Many manufacturers suggest you coat the blocks in oil before storing, even for shorter periods of time.

The problem with coating blocks in oil, especialy a penetrating oil like wd40, ( which by the way is a water displacing oil and not a rust preventative) is that it gets into the pores. Then you have to cast a buch of bullets to get them to fill out right, esentialy burning the oil out of the mould. Even if you boil the mould before use, you will not get all the oil out of the pores like a 750deg lead pour will. It just takes longer to start casting good bullets.

I store all my moulds in usgi ammo cans with silica gel packs and Rust inhibiting chips in them, mine never rust and remember I live in South Louisiana, very humid. However if you come across some with some surface frost on them, rub them down with steel wool, then put some cold blue on them, in the cavities too. ITs heavy pitting that ruins a mould, not frosting. I had to do these with all my grandfathers moulds that I found. They still cast great.

I suspect that I had better store my Mold(s) using Akajun's method as well.

No more WD on my mould. I'll have to start saving all the gel packs I come across.

I read where pharmacies give them away..the medicine comes packed in them....

Good idea Swabb, I'll check out some of the local pharmacy's. Dad is coming over this morning to load some of the 50/50 lino-lead bullets we casted last weekend. If the rain will hold off we are going to visit the range and give them a try.:small_gri

those are going to be hard bullets!

hey you lurkers...join the forum and tell us what urdoin with reloadin!

That's right!.....Quit sluggin around and lay your fat fingers on the keyboard. Well Swabb we went to the range and shot our 50/50's. We decided after we shot our first cast bullets at 50 yards about a month ago that we would only shoot 100 yards from then on. last time we shot we noticed that our first 2 or 3 shots would always fly high about 8 to 10 inches before the guns would settle into a good group. We asked about this on several forums, but no one could give us an answer as to why the 1st shots fly high. But one guy told us about an old solvent mixture called Ed's red that seemed to help his mil surp shoot better, so we made some and gave it a try. He said to wet the bore when you put the gun away and then run one dry patch through at the range before you shoot. We shot some of our old castings first and then our new ones. We did'nt experience any flyers? All of our shots hit the 8 inch bull at 100 yards and this was with a poor rest. We don't have a good rifle rest yet. For these old Mosins we were very pleased! If you don't already have some Ed's red here is the recipe. Mix equal parts of kerosene, mineral spirits, acetone, and dexron transmission fluid. But remember to put out the cigar before mixing!:uhoh_smal

did you shoot paper at 100 yds as well? any tumbling or such?

I'm happy that you are making such progress with casting and reloading.My scout scope mount should be here by the end of the week :small_gri .

I'm seriously thinkin about the drill and tap trigger spring mod for my 91/30....it's a $60.00 rifle not a museum piece. I'd really like a better trigger.

gettin ready to try some of that Katrina drowned powder in my 9mm and 38 super. first I guess I'll see if it will burn :laugh_sma .if it does I'll do some trial loads :small_gri .Don't reely need the ammo,but I got nuthin else that needs loadin right now.

http://usera.imagecave.com/fatpatty/100_0901-copy.jpg

excellent job!

Thanks Swabb! Without the rifles setting in a good rifle rest, We really don't know what they are capable of. I know we were both moving while we were shooting. When I get some extra cash I am going to buy something like a lead sled rest. I would expect at least a 3 inch spread at 100 yards.:sidegrin_

http://usera.imagecave.com/fatpatty/100_0901-copy.jpg


What was your load and rifle? This looks good for cast lead @ 100 yards.

mosin's doin a hell of a job with those molds!

jKlein: 200 grain bullet .314 Dia.(50% range lead 50% linotype) from a Lyman 314299 mould loaded with 25.2 grains of Accurate 5744. Seated at a O.A.L of 2.875 using Graff brass with Win. magnum large rifle primers. Shooting from a scoped Izy and a scoped Tula M91/30.

I need to load some 200 yd 7.62x54 before I change my press over to another caliber.

I can use approx 30 gr of 4895,but I noticed ur load of 25 gr of 5744.You know I'm a cheap bastard..I may need those extra 5 grains someday? :laugh_sma

wonder what the drop is?

I don't know what the drop would be Swabb. Beartooth Bullets has an external ballistics calculator on their sight, but I aint smart enough to use it.:huh_small The 25 gr. of 5744 we are using is way more than we need at 1875 fps. I would like to back off to about 1100 fps, But I don't have the equipment to clock my bullets. We only have a 100 yard backstop at our local range, But we are going to go out to my dad's farm where we can get 300 yards. We know we are sighted in right now for 100 yards with this load so it will be interesting to see how much they drop.:small_gri

I'm now the proud possessor of approx 25 cast CTL 160 2R boolits.

after mucho trial and error,and ably assisted by Mosinutty and the cast boolit forum,I'm here to tell ya it can be done.It's sorta like a ballet...usin 2 molds..it's apparently all in the timing.

it probably doesn't float ur boat,but it's way cool for me...I'm freed from bullet supply problems :smile_sma

when my 6 cavity Lee molds get here this fall and winter,I'll be in like flynn :small_gri

Congrat's Swabb, It's a wonderfull thing ain't it!:smile_sma

only problem is the boolits are droppin at .306 even tho they are 160 grains.cast boolit forum sez lead too hot?

What is your mould diameter Swabb? I know that with my .314 mould I was getting .313 diameter bullets with range scrap and had to alloy with linotype to get them up to .314. Temperature wasn't the answer for me although once I achieved the diameter I wanted by alloying, I reduced my production pot temperature from 900 to 650 and the bullets came out looking much better, not frosty. :wink_smal Add some lino to your melt and see if you get the diameter you want. Also I found that lino melts at a higher temperature than lead.

Mosin...I wasn't measurin the tumble lube grooves,cause they are so small..not like regular lube grooves :laugh_sma

I think the boolits are gonna be ok. I did add some lino..thanks

No wonder the guy sold this pot on ebay...the spout is almost/now completely clogged.

my new shootin buddy came over,and we couldn't get but a fast drip out of the pot...that's why the bullets were turnin out poorly. :cry_small

we did get some decent ones and tried our best to unclog it..no joy.my ladles are too big to use with the pot,he's got a smaller ladle he's gonna bring back next week.

I see a new pot in my future :laugh_sma

Swabb. I only put clean ingots in my production pot, that may be why I haven't had much trouble with my spout. When we melt our scrap we do it in a cast iron pot to keep the trash out of our production pot. If you are melting scrap in your production pot you may want to melt it in something else.:) Also we leave about 1 inch or so of lead in the production pot when we finish casting for the day, this helps keep trash out of the spout, we never run the pot dry. Try removing the spout stop rod and clean the rod and then clean the spout with a small bore brush and use your pot as described above, maybe this will help.:smile_sma

we tried all that , and I am melting my ingots in a dutch oven..not the pot..I guess I just got screwed..oh well :sad_small

have you tried a small dia. drill bit? I wonder if a gas port tool would work?

If there really is no hope of getting the bottom pour system to work Swabbie you can always run a self tapping screw up into the spout and just use it as a dipping pot with your ladle.

I gave up with my Lee bottom pour mould and did just that, removed all the bottom pour junk and my Lyman ladle fits just fine now.

If you still like the bottom pour idea try what 6526 suggests and run a drill bit through it, it may just get it going again for ya! :)

I've got an e mail in to lee to see how much a replacement pot is.

a new 20 pounder is only $70.00.....Father's day is comin :small_gri

I looked on their web site and to replace my heating coil, pot, and valve is about $20, I aint real fond of the valve assembly on my 20 pounder

they don't call em drip-o-matics for nuthin :rofl_smal

I'd reeely like to spring for one of the RCBS's, but they are pricy.

they don't call em drip-o-matics for nuthin :rofl_smal

I'd reeely like to spring for one of the RCBS's, but they are pricy.

That drip-o-matic feature works great on my Lee 20lb pot. It does not create any problems for casting. I just push the drip sculptures into the sprue pot and remelt. No biggie.

Drip sculptures......Hmmmmmm.....Any of them look like the holy father, We can put them on evilbay. No problems yet with my Lee 10 lb. Production pot, But it is still new.:cool_smal

I had been crimping my 54R cast bullets when I load even though there is not a crimp groove, kinda silly I guess. Then I read on Cast Bullet Assoc. that crimping without a groove can cause accuracy problems.:uhoh_smal So I loaded some this weekend with and without a crimp, shot, and compared. I really couldn't see any difference in accuracy between the two, so I guess in the future I will not crimp to save time.:wink_smal

Drip sculptures......Hmmmmmm.....Any of them look like the holy father, We can put them on evilbay. No problems yet with my Lee 10 lb. Production pot, But it is still new.:cool_smal


Most mine look like cousin It from the Adams Family. The others look like soft serve ice cream. Do you think there is a market? If so we should exploit it. :)

most of mine looked like cypress tree knees....

it's not a problem anymore since the _(&% drip spout doesn't work..........

We might be on to something here. I can see us now.... at some fancy uptown art gallery.... sipping champagne from dixie cups while watching the mass of socialites admire and pour over our abstract drip sculptures.:laugh_sma

roughly 250 cast 160 gr Lees have been covered with Alox,and are drying on the dining room table..my wife hasn't spotted them yet :laugh_sma

gonna coat them again tomorrow,and then try loading some for my SKS

gotta move my 550 from the upper man cave (without AC) to the lower man cave(with AC)...finish loading some 38 super for a match this Sun,set press up to allow my new castin buddy to load some 9mm

then I'm gonna swap the primer feed mechanism from small to large primers, and go hog wild..well 250 rds anyway :D

Swabb, were do you get your brass for 7.62 x 39?

I bought most of mine once fired from evil bay..I'm also sittin on approx 500 rds of Fiocchi ammo and some random Winchester,etc...

It lessens the pain to buy new brass ammo knowing I can reload it approx 5 times..I don't know what to tell you about finding it now. :cry_small

I would like to be able to reload for my AK's and SKS. I wonder if Graff has 7.62 x 39 brass?:huh_small

I would like to be able to reload for my AK's and SKS. I wonder if Graff has 7.62 x 39 brass?:huh_small


Graff and MidwayUSA both carry shiny new brass. I started reloading 7.62 x 39 recently and bought some Igman rounds that were reloadable brass. They have been down range 3 times now and seem to be holding up.

most semi auto rifle brass is good for approx 5 loadings.probably more with reduced power loads.

let us know how many loadings your last Jim

most semi auto rifle brass is good for approx 5 loadings.probably more with reduced power loads.

let us know how many loadings your last Jim

Sure will had the day off work today so I took a trip to the range with the Chinese Mosin Nagant. :)

You guys have any load data for 7.62x39 :huh_small What is the average bore diameter for AK's and SKS's?

You guys have any load data for 7.62x39 :huh_small What is the average bore diameter for AK's and SKS's?


I've got some load data for them. The bore is nominally .311 for 7.62 x 39. I've not slugged an AK or SKS so I don't know if you should expect them to run larger.

I've found that a 123 grain SP projectile over 15 or 15.2 grains of 2400 has been a good load. I would have to go to the book for some other loads that I have used in the past.

Thanks, I've got some .310 jacketed I bought for some of my first 54R loads before I started casting .314's. I'll use them. How important is it to have a crimp groove on the bullet when loading for an auto loader like the ak?

Mosin....if ur 7.62 jacketed stuff is for the Mosin.it's probably too long for the 39 case.I found this to be the problem with the 147 gr rooskie bullets.couldnt crimp them properly.
Maybe you won't have that problem.If you do,I'll send ya some of the Lee CTL 312 160 2R boolits I'm castin..they are designed for that cartridge.

You've already got gas checks ,so you'll be good to go.