First Bullets Cast!!

Discussions of powders, bullets and loading information.

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Rickd
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Joined: Thu Oct 09, 2003 7:18 pm
Location: DeLand, Florida

First Bullets Cast!!

Post by Rickd »

Thanks to you guys (you know who you are) for your tips on casting for rookies. My Shiloh won't be ready til (January .. Kirk???), and I've got a Steve Brooks mould on order. But it was HIGHLY recommended that I get some practice on an "off the shelf" mould first. Got a SAECO mould for my Winchester 38-55, a Rowell ladle, and a Waage pot, along with an RCBS thermometer, and some 30:1 from BA. Want to go to the range tomorrow and shoot MY bullets, and had a casting session. YEP, mould temperature is critical!

Started with a mould not up to temp .. rejects and very clear what mould temp means. Up to temp, the SAECO was throwing very nice looking bullets, all within a very close 252 grain range. After finising another Pale Ale, I'll get the double boiler going to pan lube these 50 rounds, and off to the range in the morning, to compare these bullets to some BA and Specialty bullets. Come on Shiloh!!

Thanks again guys!
Rick

PS. Definitely need to order 150-200 pounds of 30:1. The 50 pounds I
bought to 'test' won't last long once the Shiloh arrives (in January??)
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Lee Stone
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Post by Lee Stone »

Rickd,

Look around, ask around your area to see if there might be a battery making company. Or some other industry that uses a lot of lead.

One of the kind gentlemen on this forum told me of Exide, in Baton Rouge. I called and made arrangements to go to their smelter plant where they sold me 480 pounds of pure (make sure you always specify PURE lead) lead in 60 pound ingots at only 50 cents per pound. I had been paying 80 cents per pound to buy lead a hundred pounds at a time plus UPS freight charges, which are significant. Then you can buy pure tin from a number of sources, such as Buffalo Arms or Antimony Man.

If you can find a local source of pure lead you will save a lot of money in that it will be cheaper, and you won't have to pay shipping charges on it.
Lee Stone
Rickd
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Post by Rickd »

Omaha. Contact Harrel and ask for the 'Black Powder Kit', which consists of an aluminum hopper and a drop tube (replacement for the stock plastic one I believe). It's $25.00

I just ordered the Harrell, $220 + the Black Powder Kit $25.00 Very nice people. I offered my credit card or to send a check with shipment on receipt, but they said "no, that's OK, I'll ship it and you send me a check against the invoice in the box".
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Lee Stone
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Post by Lee Stone »

Yep, that is the way Mr. Harrell does it. Oh, and they will also send the smokeless hopper as well as the special order aluminium black powder hopper.

Oh, one of the gentlemen here on the forum also gave me the hint that if you go to your local friendly pharmacist and ask for the empty large plastic bottles that their bulk pills come in that these bottles have the same threads as the Harrell smokeless powder hopper, so you can have a number of different hoppers with different (smokeless) powders in them. I happened to have a large plastic bottle I bought some vitamin C in from Sam's and it also fits. Too bad it is not a good idea to have black powder in those plastic hoppers. It would be convenient to have Fg in one, FFg in another, and so forth. Then switch powder would be a simple matter of switching hoppers, just like for smokeless. Oh well, can't have everything I suppose.

I am sorry I cannot remember who passed on that neat idea to me here on the Forum.
Lee Stone
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Omaha Poke
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Post by Omaha Poke »

Lee, do you perchance know why Swiss powder comes in plastic bottles? Isn't Swiss powder subject to static electricity as well as all other BP? If there is no danger with Swiss in plastic, what is the danger of having your pill bottles for BP? This has been on my mind for a while, and just got around to posting a question on it. Thanks, Randy
Randy Ruwe
nohorse
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Post by nohorse »

Omaha Poke: Yeah!! Good point! And Schutzen comes in plastic bottles too. Makes ya wonder about the "never use plastic" theories, static charges and such. Will be interesting to see the response to this one.

Lee: Hi Pard! How's those functional alcoholic cats doin'? Been a while since we had a chat. Take care Breaux, hope to hear from ya soon.
Shiloh #1!
Guns:
45 - 70 #1 Sporter, 30 inch heavy octagon with MVA mid range soule and MVA spirit level sights
45-70 Hartford Model, 30 inch heavy octagon with Axtell Hartford Transition and MVA combination sights [the hunter!!]
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Lee Stone
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Post by Lee Stone »

Hey fellas.

Randy, I was a little taken aback with the last case of Swiss I bought when I saw the "plastic cans". I checked into it, and they are using a plastic that has an anti-static treatment that prevents any problems. I feel confident they have it well worked out. I would think that the actual filling of the the cans at the plant would be a prime source of static charge and would be the last thing they would want at their gunpowder plant. I have read of the anti-static treatment of the plastic before. Not knowing anything about plastic composition, I have no idea if this is a special type of anti-static plastic or if it is regular bottle plastic with some sort of anti-static treatment.

Don,

My boys are both doing fine, PoohBear still likes my martinis and Tigger does not. However, Saturday evening while at my computer, I caught Tigger drinking my glass of burgundy. :roll: So I guess he has his own tastes. Those two are going to be something else when they get grown. They wont be 10 months until the end of this month and Tigger is allready 13 pounds and PoohBear is 11 pounds. They are begining to get a little expensive to feed. :lol: I can't take them to the range with me though. Neither one of them likes loud noises. :shock: The both get real upset if and when I accidentally set of my house alarm. :shock: :shock: :lol:

Clarence is going to pick me up another four ingots of lead from Exide. Casting these .511 650 gr P.J. Creedmoors goes through lead awfully fast. I feel a little guilty putting him to that trouble, but I do appreciate it. That way I wont end up on the other side of the danged Mississippi again. :roll: Taking that "TOO SOON EXIT" still embarrasses me when I think about it. :oops: Oh well, we got there. And we got our lead. :wink:
Lee Stone
Bo Alley
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Post by Bo Alley »

We use black poly (plastic type bags and containers) all the time to protect electronic parts from ESD. You'll also see pink poly but that only protects from External ESD, not anything internal.

There's a post somewhere on the web that shows a bunch of lab experments with artificially created electrostatic discharge and black powder. Starts out with a 1/4" arch (about 35,000volts) - NOTHING, then progresses up to a mulitple blast of several hundred thousand volts, still NOTHING. If that was for real, Im not too woried about static.

Bo
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Delizar
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anti static plastic

Post by Delizar »

I think I can shed a small light on the subject of anti-static plastic.
It is NOT Normal plastic that is then treated afterward. It is doped during the melt to add conductive impurities. Anti-static plastic is also known as conductive plastic. To date it is mostly used in the electronics arena. Anti-static bag for circuit board, conductive plastic for computer vacuums, ect...


Mark Hanson
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Lee Stone
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Post by Lee Stone »

Delizar,

Thanks for the enlightenment. All I knew was that they are using the anti-static plastic for the containers. Now I have somewhat of an understanding as to just what anti-static plastic is.


Bo, I have also read of some experiments involving attempts to ignite blackpowder with static discharges and the difficulty there-in. One of the reasons cited for the difficulty in ignition is a lack of heat in a static discharge as opposed to sparks from, say flint on metal. However, ignition could be accomplished (and was) if the gunpowder was pulverized into a fine dust with a particulate size similar to flour. This of course is a pretty obvious situation. Look at the grain dust explosions that have happened in grain elevators. We had one of those here in New Orleans several years ago while a ship was being loaded with grain. Terrible damage, Horrible loss of life.

Anyway, even though I feel perfectly comfortable with the anti-static plastic packaging of blackpowder, I still feel it is wise to be prudent in handling it, and I plan to follow the traditional cautions.
Lee Stone
Bo Alley
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Post by Bo Alley »

Lee,
Yep, Delizar's right, the key to ESD, anti static etc. is the CONDUCTIVITY. Used it for years but never knew how it was made.

And main thing is like you said, is the form of the potiential ignition. Man have I heard all kinds of horror stories about dust and power of all sorts, including sawdust! We tend to think its got to smell bad, taste bad etc. but them fine particles are killers.

Bo
A craftsman makes his own schedule!
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