Shooting my own cast bullets

I got a chance to shoot some of my own cast bullets at 80 yards.  There were some of the first ones I cast and I have not weighed them.  My shooting position was sitting on a stool using my shooting sticks. Prior to this I had mostly been shooting from bench which is a more stable hold and my groups were better.  Today it took me quite a fer shots to get back into it after not shooting for a while and in finding a hold which was fairly stable.

Here’s the results, it could have been worse I guess.  My load was 70gr of 2f KIK, my cast Lyman 457132 Postells and Winchester Large Rifle Primers seated behind some copy paper.  I had adjusted my sight for the wind the other day which in retrospect probably is the reason everything is to the left…there was no wind at all today.

I’m also going to try veggie wads instead of the card wads I’m currently using to see if that tightens up my groups a bit.  I read that veggie wads are the least likely to stick to the base of the bullet.  I ordered a drill press punch and some .030 veggie gasket material.

I also cast a few more bullets today and sorted them into 1-1.5 grain groups.  I tossed about 7 outliers back into the pot.  I ended up with three distinct groups, 535gr being the most prominent and the weight these bullets are designed to cast.

The is the end of a 1:30 tin/lead alloy I had, the next batch will be from wheel weight lead so the weights will probably be quite different.

UPDATE 6/1/12

I just finished lubing these bullets.  I made a mix of 50/50 beeswax and mutton tallow.  I let the blocks harden a bit and removed them easily from the pans while they were still warm because they shrunk and released themselves from the pans.  Then after the bullets were cold to the touch, I flipped the block of wax and bullets upside down onto the white foam pad you see in the pic below and whacked each bullet base with a dowel and hammer to break them free from the wax.  This sheered the bullet from the wax and left the grooves full of lube.  I then took that same dowel and pushed each bullet free of the wax block.

My plan is to put the blocks back into the pans and fill the holes with my next set of bullets, then heat the pan to melt the wax.  They are still separated by weight.

Beeswax/mutton tallow lube

-Willy

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1 Response to Shooting my own cast bullets

  1. Willy says:

    Post Updated

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