New to me Shiloh Sharps

[powderburner]

A chainsaw works well , and while I haven’t done it some claim a wood splitter works.
A light touch and water worked for me with a sawzall I used a demo blade and gave the teeth a heavier set.

[Woody]

Paul,

 I noticed the "lifetime supply" too. I have no clue how many tons I have shot in the past 50 years of casting. I only have 1500 lbs on hand at present.

My dutch oven will melt several 100 lbs at a time, but lately I have been just cutting the 27 lb bricks on my band saw. Aggressive blade and soapy water for lube. Just make sure you dry them before adding to a pot with melt already in it.

Woody

[doug_bailey]

I made my first bullets. Shiny!

First bullets.jpg

[doug_bailey]

.... but there's a problem. The weight varies from 512.2 grains to 520.3 grains, which is a heck of a spread. The main distribution seems to be between about 516 and 519. I think the very light ones were the first ones I made and the mold was cold. I think I need to re-melt this lot and have another go under more controlled conditions. Even so, I can make very shiny bullets!

This weekend looks nice so I'm going to head to the range and pretend my 100 yard target is a 200 yard chicken. That will "make brass" and I'll have some empty cases to put my shiny bullets in.

[powderburner]

Preheat your mold and develope a cadence.
Set them in order cast , then when weighing them you will get an idea of when the mold levels out and the bullets start being consistant.
You can cast too slow or too fast. Get it right and consistency follows.

[gunlaker]

Well they do look nice

Did you ladle pour them or bottom pour? When I first started I used a bottom pour for a couple of years and never got decent consistency. Now I use the ladle and wouldn't think of ever switching back. It's pretty easy once the pot and mould are warmed up to get +/- 0.3gr.

I preheat my mold on a hot plate to get it up to temperature once the lead in the pot has started to warm up. 800 degrees is a good place to start with the BACO molds. On cold days I will go to 825 or a bit higher. The key is a consistent rhythm to keep temperature of the mold constant. I fill the mold and wait for the sprue to harden. Then I'll hold the mold closed and wait for a count of as little as 15 seconds on a below freezing day, to 25 seconds on a spring day. After the count is done I cut the sprue by rotating the sprue plate with a good leather glove on my hand. Then dump the bullet and start again. Contrary to what a lot of people recommend, I immediately put the sprue back into the pot. It won't hurt as long as your pot is big enough. Make sure it holds at least 20lbs.

Oh and when filling the mold I hold them both horizontal and rotate the mold with the dipper in contact with the sprue until the mold is filled. I take about 3 seconds to slowly rotate the mold & dipper to fill the mold cavity.

You'll know when the mold is at the right temperature because the bases will look perfect and filled out right to the edge of the mold blocks. Once you get to that stage, and the rest of the bullet looks good, cast a hundred of them. The first few ( depending on how well you preheated the mold ) will be light. Maybe 5-10 bullets depending. Past that it should be very rare that you get a reject for the rest of the batch. I almost never find one outside of +/- 0.3gr once the mold is at the right temp.

I don't use a PID, but it's not going to hurt.

Chris.

[doug_bailey]

I'm using a cast iron ladle with a built in tube so that it pours from the bottom of the ladle. I let the pot temperature stabilize at about 820 before starting, but I did not pre-heat the mold. I'll get a hot plate and try that with the next batch.

[Woody]

Chris just detailed some very good advice.

Woody

[doug_bailey]

The hot plate is the key! $16 from Amazon (and mysteriously accompanied by a film of sand - a return from a beach vacation? Was supposed to be new. Whatever - works and I'm not putting food on it).

I made 20 bullets this evening - lightest was 518.5 and heaviest was 519.9. Most are in the range 519.3 to 519.7 grains.

I think I can reject and re-melt the outliers and still get reasonably efficient production of a population in the 519.3 to 519.7 range - one per minute.

Get everything thermally soaked and stable - ladle and mold on the hot plate, lead to 820. Let it all sit for 15 mins to stabilize.

Then a minute cadence: Pick up mold and ladle. Dip, pour, wait until 30 seconds, crack mold, drop bullet, put mold and ladle on hot plate until full minute. Repeat. I can make enough for a day of shooting in an hour and a half. Thanks all for the advice.

[gunlaker]

I'm glad its working for you! You are off to a good start.

Chris.

[Luke]

This is a great "new shooter" thread. It ought to be stickied somewhere for a quick link reference.

[doug_bailey]

I made some more bullets this evening. By playing with the temperature of the lead, I can control the center of the distribution. Colder and the average bullet weight goes up. The 457-125 is supposed to be 520 grains. By setting my temperature at 820 F, the center is about 520.2, so close enough. The spread appears sensitive to mold temperature, timing consistency and technique.

[doug_bailey]

I made some more bullets. I targeted 520 grains, and weighed them as I made them to see/control what I was getting. I cut a sorting board to keep track of what I was making. In the image, 0 is 520, and then the plus and minus numbers are fractions of a grain from 520 - the board spans 2 about grains - 519.1 to 520.9.

It's not easy to be accurate, and I ended up with the center at about 520.7, so I was tossing heavier bullets away (back in the pot) - this looks like half a normal distribution with perhaps some measurement quantization (some columns are rarely filled). Anyhow, it is what it is, now I need to decide what to do with the information, or just forget about the details, chuck them all in a pot and load rounds at random. What's the wisdom?

Bullet sorter small.jpg

[powderburner]

Unless you are shooting 1000 yds in competition all them are keepers for practice and getting to know your gun. Shooting 1000 rounds of that spread will do you more good than casting analily
To get 2 or three tenths.
The more you cast the smaller the spread will be. You are off to a good start.
In the picture 5 thru 9 could be shot in a match. See how they are concentrated?

[doug_bailey]

I kinda like making bullets.

But I have discovered that I really hate lubing bullets. So far I have managed to get more SPG on me, the bench, various rags and the inside of the jar I melted it in, than into bullet grooves. The grooves seem to be teflon coated with lube-rejecting (ejecting) properties that make them impossible to fill, or keep filled. Everything else in my garage is, on the other hand, attracted to lube. I have lube-magnet fingers and a lube-magnet bench top. I also have a lube-magnet nostril, where I tried to scratch while forgetting that my finger had lube on it.

What's the trick to pan-lubing? Or do I need to buy even more equipment?