IN_Varmntr
Marksman
Went rather well today. I received my Lee 6-cavity .452" 230grain Tumble-Lube bullet mold, mold handles, Lee .452" sizing and lubricating die, Lee Liquid Alox lube and Frankford Arsenal Drop Free spray this past week.
I melted down a bunch of lead today and came out with just over 750 bullets. The lead I used was primarily once-fired Missouri Bullet Company lead that was previously molded into their "Softball" bullets. I used a home-made sifter that I made out of hardware screen and 1x1 boards with corner bracing.
I have some experience with lead molds as I mold my own jigheads for smallmouth fishing in the rocky shores of Lake Erie. Just a little different as this time it was for bullets.
My first thoughts of the Lee aluminum mold was disappointment. Out of the first 125ish bullets, I only had about a 4 out of 6 bullet success rate. But after giving the mold a little more time to break in and get really good and hot, all 6 bullet cavities began filling out quite nicely with 1 here and there that went back into the pot to be ran again. I am fully satisfied with this mold for the money.
I cleaned the mold prior using it then coated the mold with the Frankford Arsenal Drop Free spray and went to town.
It was a rather slow process as I used 1 melting pot to melt down the used lead and skim the top of impurities with a spoon, while using another pot to do the pouring. I filled a large coffee can with impurities skimmed from the top of the Hot Pot. I utilized this process to try to keep as much of the impurities out of the pouring pot as possible. The pouring pot is rather deep and is hard to skim impurities from the surface so skimming from the Hot Pot is much easier. So from the time it took me to fill up the Hot Pot to pouring either ingots in our homemade ingot mold or pouring the lead directly into the melting pot, I produced ~750 bullets in just less than 5 hours time.
Complete setup.
Hot Pot with lead ready to be melted down.
Hot Pot with melted and skimmed lead ready to go into the pouring pot.
Our Lee pouring pot.
Bullet drop tub with water.
Bullets fresh from the water.
Bullets all ready to be lubed, sized, relubed, then loaded.
I'm really excited about casting my own bullets from now on. I'm sort of kicking myself for not doing so awhile ago, but I haven't had the time to do so until now.
I melted down a bunch of lead today and came out with just over 750 bullets. The lead I used was primarily once-fired Missouri Bullet Company lead that was previously molded into their "Softball" bullets. I used a home-made sifter that I made out of hardware screen and 1x1 boards with corner bracing.
I have some experience with lead molds as I mold my own jigheads for smallmouth fishing in the rocky shores of Lake Erie. Just a little different as this time it was for bullets.
My first thoughts of the Lee aluminum mold was disappointment. Out of the first 125ish bullets, I only had about a 4 out of 6 bullet success rate. But after giving the mold a little more time to break in and get really good and hot, all 6 bullet cavities began filling out quite nicely with 1 here and there that went back into the pot to be ran again. I am fully satisfied with this mold for the money.
I cleaned the mold prior using it then coated the mold with the Frankford Arsenal Drop Free spray and went to town.
It was a rather slow process as I used 1 melting pot to melt down the used lead and skim the top of impurities with a spoon, while using another pot to do the pouring. I filled a large coffee can with impurities skimmed from the top of the Hot Pot. I utilized this process to try to keep as much of the impurities out of the pouring pot as possible. The pouring pot is rather deep and is hard to skim impurities from the surface so skimming from the Hot Pot is much easier. So from the time it took me to fill up the Hot Pot to pouring either ingots in our homemade ingot mold or pouring the lead directly into the melting pot, I produced ~750 bullets in just less than 5 hours time.
Complete setup.
Hot Pot with lead ready to be melted down.
Hot Pot with melted and skimmed lead ready to go into the pouring pot.
Our Lee pouring pot.
Bullet drop tub with water.
Bullets fresh from the water.
Bullets all ready to be lubed, sized, relubed, then loaded.
I'm really excited about casting my own bullets from now on. I'm sort of kicking myself for not doing so awhile ago, but I haven't had the time to do so until now.