My tester in action.
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My tester in action.
A helpful video on telling whaf wheel weights are made of.
From Youtube channel "Ruger Old Army Girl", now sadly deceased from an illness which is evident in the video.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7htLBgWxkp8
The thumbnail test is all you need, Lead Wheel weights can be marked with the thumbnail the others can't, After sorting a few thousand you can identify them by sightQuote:
Originally Posted by Cordite
if you don't want to use your own nails a any nail will do
I gave up on the idea of wheel weights. Had a few chances to grab monotype and there's a fella in Onehunga that sells big Toblerone looking bars of regular lead
Hey does anyone make their own gas checks? Any tips on who to get flashing from that comes in .015" thickness?
Ive been emailing a person on ebay (Matteson Eng) who make a set of dies. Looking at getting a custom set to make checks that actually fit the shank of .460 cast bullets. Around .430" x .05" deep cup size will be good i reckon. The hornady ones are for 45acp i assume as you have to snap them on.
Im gonna keep using them as i blast out my cast projectiles as fast as i do jacketted ones. Even though ive dug out non gc bullets from the clay and not witnessed melting or defamation. GC are still neater into the neck when seating, and they help minimise contact with powder / pc on the bullets. They say they clean the barrel but who knows
What material? Mate was making them out of Lion Red cans. Not sure if it had to be Lion Red, but that's what he used. Note he refused to participate in the act of emptying the cans... The method of making the checks was rather crude, a hole punch to make discs and a punch and die that produced a cup that fell straight through into a cup and was ready to be used. Hammer-operated, and I recall it was a mind numbing job. Probably the kind of thing a Lion Red drinker would enjoy to be fair...
@T.FOYE: I am using scrap litho plates which I bought from a metal scrap dealer. The plate measures 0.012" in thickness. I believe that is the standard thickness for litho plate in NZ. There is a member on the cast bullet website Castbullits.com who has been making/selling gas check makers for some years. That is the system I have begun using. I bought the gas check maker second hand from Trademe. The aluminium cans are a bit thin for the tools I have, 0.004". I tried a double layer but did not have any success in making gas checks from the 0.004 x 2 layers.
Yeah, I recall that the one I encountered was made to use the can material as the shim stock. You can buy steel and brass shim stock from engineering supplies outfits by the sheet or the pack, possibly not the cheapest. If you make the punch/die set to suit the stock you have available, that kind of gets around the sourcing issue for shim stock. I don't think there was any functional issue with the can material as far as I can recall, but the die and punch clearances needs to fit the shim stock.
Hey look, I made a firecracker...
OK so I made an error and needed to pull my first batch of 308s put into 30-30 cases. Got 19 out no issues but the last one shed its bloody gas check.
Absolutely no way to safely get that out so it's gonna get a viking funeral
Attachment 233229
I had some like this in 308, just pushed one edge down with screwdriver so it rotates and can then pull out with needle nose pliers. May depend on how much airgap there is
I've been doing a lot of casting and powder coating lately
Belted Balls for the Dickson
Attachment 233231
Three different flavour of bullets for the 32-20
Attachment 233233
And I made a custom pass through sized and push rod to finish some 44 bullets for M.D.
Attachment 233235
What variety of powder are you using for powder coating? It looks good.
Eastwood from Resto Supplies in AucklandQuote:
Originally Posted by rupert
That very nearly worked. Then plop. in it went. Ah well, no worse off and at least i can save the powder and primer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Squirrel
the needle nose plier trick may still work if i can get purchase holding this all upsidedown. Grrr how FREAKIN annoying.
This all happened as i decided to use somebody else's quickload readout. How can GRT and QL be so far apart on this???
But for me, i'll err on the side of extreme caution as firstly, I'm crimping and that adds who knows how much extra pressure. On the other hand, this is a PC soft lead round so it might behave with less pressure (less friction) down the barrel but initially it might not. None of that is considered in either program. So I'm setting my target of 2100ft/sec, estimating 22.8gns of 2207 to get me there and starting with 20% less. I can see i need to find some 2208 asap
Bugger so close but at least not a total loss! Holding upside down you should be able to flick it around and get hold of it with the needle nose pliers. An extercise in patience!
Ive checked against quick load but found speeds were 150-200fps different, pressure who knows.
I guess it's no substitute for real world testing but is a pretty decent starting point especially if you compare with other known recipes
them .44s look awesome thankyou again bud...I refer to them as piggy viagra....small blue pill that makes em go stiff
And here's a good tip for bullet casters
I mainly powder coat my bullets and use pass through sizers
Haven't used my Lyman lube sizer in a few years
So I made these dies bodies to take the lube sizer dies
An 1 1/4" dies body for my big press
Attachment 233284
And a 7/8" one for the normal press
Attachment 233285
I made a couple of push rods for the various calibers I wanted too size
Attachment 233287
Had a trip to Waiuku to test a new magnifier 3x with my red dot. Gotta say I really like it. Never budged and the dot was easy to use at 100m
Attachment 234144
Attachment 234138
Attachment 234139
Attachment 234145
Looks a bit funny but it does work. Much easier than pulling the 1-4 scope off in the field. These are 352gn NOE mould coated in clear. 45.15gns of 2207 and med crimp
Attachment 234147
by golly they are pretty hollow points....I definately would use them on animals I intend to eat.....nice big hole and fast kill appeals to me. small amount of discarded meat is small price to pay.Quote:
Originally Posted by T.FOYE
Been doing a little bit of work to try and powder coat bullets without making them look silly
I shoot vintage rifles for the most part and there’s something about red and blue or any other colour that doesn’t sit well with me
So I bought some eastwood cast aluminium powder to try and I think they are almost invisible from a distance
It coats nice but you can’t tell when putting it on lol
More obvious once cooked Attachment 234656
Attachment 234657Attachment 234658 coated left uncoated right
Oh sure that's fine for those little lumps of lead you throw around.Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo-6mmrem
But the big bright ones go faster and are easier to see in flight !
Attachment 234669
They get there faster because they start out closer to the target
:thumbsup:
Those are only .510’s ive got a .600:P
I will raise your .600 to a .710 musket ballQuote:
Originally Posted by rambo-6mmrem
And I have a 1" cannon ball on my desk
See camouflaged as lead is catching ( for small bullets )
Attachment 234677
I have 2 pound fishing sinkers in the shed
Seriously looks alot less out of place Attachment 234678 especially to camouflage experimentsQuote:
Originally Posted by akaroa1
Like the 458 groveless 542gn
Bullets in dragQuote:
Originally Posted by rambo-6mmrem
Attachment 234716 45-90 with the experimental 542gn groveless
Time for some more cast lead
I finally got a mould I've often thought might be useful to have in the mould hoard
Lyman 457 330 grain hollow point Gould mould
My new old Army & Navy 45-60 was the primary reason to get this mould .
That rifle just loves a case jammed full with Black Powder
This mould might also be useful in some of my British 450 Express rifles
Despite the extra nose plug and single cavity it turns out good bullets at a reasonably steady pace
Attachment 255738
Off to the powder coat oven and tried the Ford Blue ( coats best ) and blend of grey and white ( grey alone is quite difficult to get a decent coating )
Attachment 255739
The hollow point is 12.5mm deep
elm wide tapering to 1.75mm
Attachment 255740
The PC needs to cure for a while and then I will load a few cases and devise a practical expansion test to compare the hollow point and solid bullets
And of course an accuracy test
Do you have a picture of the 45-60 rifle you are shooting?
https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....s-when-104097/Quote:
Originally Posted by Friwi
Did some expansion testing today on the 45-60
This is my bullet baffle box
12mm MDF with 25mm gaps
A pretty brutal test medium but good to test two different bullets with
The solid nose 360 grain went through 10 baffles
The Hollow point 340 went through 9 baffles
The hole size was identical through the first few baffles and then the Hollow point left a bigger hole
Attachment 256436
The Hollow point is shorter and fatter
Attachment 256438
Wrong photo
This is the bullet box Attachment 256441
I really think either bullet would be good to hunt with
But wanted one of these Lyman Gould hollow point mounds
Oooooh they do look great. They will be awesomeness on game going by how your .44ones went.these are just more of a good thing.
Anyone casting for 223?
Surprised how close in size they look. Is the HP worth the effort? How about cupping the flatpoint like you can get in 32-20? With a large drill bit on a depth stop. Be interesting to see that alongside these two.Quote:
Originally Posted by akaroa1
When you see them in the flesh there is a little more difference than the images show.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jhon
My bullet box is maybe not a very good comparison to a decent sized game animal though.
That is the next test to be done
I make my own moulds for 45/70, and im using lead at around 10 to 14BHN depending on the mould also use the pencil check method it works fine, shooting out to 960 yards with open sights
