Adventures in bullet casting

[Jamie C.]

As some of you may remember, I bought a copy of a Remington New Model Army here a couple of months back. It's one of the 5-1/2 inch barreled ones. I also asked my in-laws, who were coming to visit shortly, to deliver me the pertinent supplies to shoot the thing, since they have a cabela's near by and I don't.

Among those supplies was powder, caps, a nipple wrench, and, most importantly, a Lee bullet mold. One of the 200 gr. conical jobs.

I unfortunately didn't have sense enough to ask for a box of .454 lead balls.

Well, they arrived a couple of weeks ago with said supplies. And after some settling in, my father-in-law and I decided to try casting up some bullets so we could shoot this gun. ( He's ex-military and likes the shooty-things too )

After reading all the threads here on such, I had thought it wouldn't be too much trouble to get a few usable bullets with nothing more than a good stout wood fire and a heavy pot. Boy was I wrong.
Hildo, I don't know how you do it, but man, you're welcome to it. After a couple of hours of stoking a fire in 90+ degree heat, we ended up with maybe 5 really ugly ( but serviceable ) bullets.
These of course did give myself and my father-in-law huge grins when we shot 'em.
Still, the wood fire method proved most unsatisfactory, over all.

Fast-forward a few days to tonight:
I remembered somewhere in there that, stored somewhere in the bowels of my storage room, I have an old Coleman camp stove and fuel.

Well, after a slight wiping off, refueling and such, I got my casting act together. And withing an hour, I had about 15 pounds of molten lead, and shortly thereafter, 30 good usable bullets.

Only problem was, I ran out of daylight.

Anyway, here's a pic or three of my set-up.
No, I don't claim any expertise on the subject, but I am learning.

And here's a couple of things I've learned:

One, with a two-cavity mold, fill the back one first. Give it a little frontward lean as you fill, and "carry back" to the second one. Works great, at least for me. Also, try to keep the dipper in contact with the sprue plate as much as possible. It'll keep things from cooling down too much before you get that second bullet poured.

Two.... I use a 1 inch thick piece of plate steel over the second burner of the stove, to set my mold on to keep it hot. The piece I have is about 5-6 inches square, and can be found at almost any machine shop that's close to ya. Might cost you all of $5 for a piece of cold-rolled it's size.

Three... Plain old Vaseline is a pretty good mold lube. It doesn't smoke, burn, or migrate too much. It kept things opening and closing smoothly, with a minimum of trouble. Give it a try and see what you think. ( I didn't have any "Bullet Lube" on hand for the mold. Had to make do with what was at hand. I knew most other lubricants were out. It was the only other thing I could think of, being most similar chemically to paraffin. )

So, here's the pics. And yes, I know a couple of the bullets pictured were sub-par. I chucked them back in the pot as soon as I looked them over.




As always, comments, questions, or suggestions welcomed.
Let me know what you think, or if there's anything you can come up with that I can do differently/better.



J.C.

 

[ccyooper]

Jamie,Your set up looks pretty close to mine and I've been using it since the 70's. I learned to cast from magazines and experience..Didn't have these fancy computers back then. It looks and sounds like you are well on the way to keeping your firearms fed. Just remember to avoid liquids while around your melted lead...You don't want even a drop of water to hit the surface of your melt. Stay safe! Have fun! Thats what its all about.

 

[Jamie C.]

Hey, ccyooper... Yeah, I'm learning, slowly but surely.

And yes, I know to keep the water and such out of the pot... and man, is that a chore when it's 90 degrees and I'm sweating like a pig. Gotta peek into the pot very carefully.

I'll probably have another go at it this evening, and see if I can't do a little better before it gets too dark to see. I started too late yesterday and it got dark about the time I had gotten everything up to speed and I had to quit.

Of course, I had mostly just wanted to make sure the old stove still worked, but once it did, I couldn't resist throwing the pot on it and seeing what I could turn out.



J.C.

 

[Gunfixr]

In the pics it looks like all your corners are rounded. If you look at the molds all those corners are sharp. The bullets aren't "filled out", which is to say your mold is still a little cool, or your filling too slow. You know, for about $40 you can get a melting pot that just plugs into the wall and has a little spout that pours the lead out the bottom. Then you can move into the shed or garage and use the lights, just make sure you building isn't tightly sealed. Looking good overall, though. Casting will take some time to figure out the quirks, just remember to be careful and have fun.

 

[Jamie C.]

Gunfixr... Yeah, those were the first few I poured and the mold was still a bit cold. All but 2 or 3 of those in the pic went back in the pot. The rest of 'em came out much better, but as i said, it got dark about the time I started getting into the swing of things, so I didn't get a lot done.

When I first started pouring them, only one cavity of the mold was filling completely. By the time I turned off the burner, both were filling, and the backs of the bullets were flat and sharp.

I still need to turn up the heat on the melt though, 'cause the drive bands still look a little "soft" to me, even when the bullet base is sharp.

As for the electric pot... well, I've already got the stove and the fuel for it, and that $40 you mentioned will buy an awful lot of powder and caps. So, rather than spend money on something I don't really need, I think I'll just learn to use what I've got.

Also, there's a bit of a problem with the shed or garage, too: The first one is full, and doesn't have electricity, and I don't have the second.

So it looks like I'm gonna be out on the deck playing with the camp stove.


J.C.

 

[Vermonter]

Is that drops of splashed lead all over the back of the stove?!?

 

[Gunfixr]

Whatever works for you. I melted lead on my camp stove one day and found it more difficult than it was worth to get it hot enough. I was just trying to help. But at least you knew about the bullets and have rectified the situation. They would probably still work fine in the Remmie, but for seriuos accuracy, it wouldn't be acceptable. Most of what I cast is for CAS, so I don't need perfect bullets.

 

[Jamie C.]

Vermonter - No, that's not lead. It's either mildew or something of the like from the stove being stored for so long. I wiped the outside of the thing off when I pulled it out but didn't bother with under the lid.

Gunfixr - I didn't have any trouble getting the lead hot in that steel pot. Even had it trying to boil, there on the end. Looked a lot like silvery pea soup or something, bubbling and "blurping". Figured I needed to cut back on the heat at that point.

And make no mistake, I do appreciate any and all attempts at help. Hell, what little I know about this stuff came from either here or one of the other forums. If it wasn't for these places, I'd probably still be turning out misshapen lumps that wouldn't even fit in the gun.

I fired half a dozen of what I'd cast today, and the better ones all seemed to hit where I aimed. I'll have to cast up some more and see what their real accuracy is. So far, I'm guessing they're running about 2 to 3 inches at 15 yards right now, fired one handed, and backed by 28 grains of FFFG American Pioneer Powder.

Was planning on doing a little more casting this evening, but a little rain shower rolled in.
Much more of that and I'll have to set up a table under our back breezeway.

Next order of business is to buy a mold for round ball. Hopefully I'll have better luck with a more simple shape.



J.C.

 

[Dithsoer]

Boiling lead

Be carefull around that lead if it's boiling. You know how when water boils all that steam goes into the air? The same thing will happen to lead when it starts to boil. Of course you're not going to see fine droplets of lead in the air but the vapours produced GREATLY increase you're exposure to lead. I read in an old Gun's and Ammo magazine about one fella who had this happen in his garage, the lead was boiling and he was just merrily casting away. A few hours of this put him in the hospital and messed up his life for a long time.

 

[Jamie C.]

Yeah, I'm aware that I don't need to let the lead boil.
I was outside, however, and didn't let it get going, so I was okay.
It could have been real trouble if it had been inside though.


J.C.