She is finally back in my arms and thanks to Doug and Cedric

Looking good!

I tired it ONCE when stationed at Charleston AFB back in the early 70’s. 😯 And I never recovered! 😯 😆

Great looking gun Joe! Now the fun begins 😀 😀 😀

PS Be careful with that lead around the little ones. Sorry dont mean to preach, but Im a Dad to and I worry 😕

Tofazfou,

There is nothing wrong with vodka and cranberry juice, with a little orange liquor in it, it is the drink my wife drinks, Cosmo’s, but then she is a little girl.

I drink chilled Stolichnaya straight myself.

35 yards is well…..35 yards! 😆 😛

RC

Joe,

RC and Doug explained a lot. But, i would clean your barrel for sure before you take it out for its maiden outting.

Now, i haven’t ever fire lapped any of my barrels but, i do JB bore paste them with good results. In the past, i have tracked the cleaning process and have noted that cleaning is MUCH easier with using JB BORE Paste and i would assume it would be even EASIER if fire lapped. Lubing the bullets tend to also help with cleaning.

I will inspect my bore with a bore light when i first get a gun. That’s just to see if i can see any VISIBLE MACHINING MARKS. If i don’t, i just JB BORE Paste it to seal and smooth out the bore much smoother than it already is. Following the instructions on the bottle of paste precisely. It satisfies me mentally cause i know how rifling is cut inside of a barrel and you can’t really see “FINER” details of a bore with the naked eye and a bore light. You would need a bore scope. But instead of spending more money, i just bore paste it. Again, i’m mental….lol!

And like RC said, if fire lapping is something you feel you need to do, RC IS THE MAN TO EXPLAIN IT TO YA! Just look at his 260 yard results 😀

I shot your gun recently at 55 yards in super high winds and your gun did just fine. And that is with the NOE bullets. I did not bring any LYMANs along. And your barrel does not even have the LEAD IN cut for the NOE bullets. But they fit flushly in your bore just fine with no seating problems. So that speaks volumes all by itself.

Have fun with gun!

Tofazfou

Joe,

Wait to fire lap your barrel and see what your lead fouling is like, mostly fire lapping is just polishing the bore of the TJ barrels and of course others that may be a little rough on the inside to smooth out lead catching imperfections.

And if you do Fire lap, use the two finer grits, but we can talk about that one later.

Casting is all about consistency, finding the best technique and consistently using that technique.

First set a bench mark with RJ’s bullets, see what your gun will do at your longest range that is readily available, so you can repeat your test often.

Shoot ten shot groups while testing, now these are not “forum bragging” groups, the ten shot groups will tell you how the different techniques your using while casting are influencing your accuracy, ten shot groups will always be bigger, but more informative while testing. If you pull a shot while testing, record where it is, this is not to test your shooting ability, but to test your bullets.

Then fire up the pot, get it to around 700 to 725 degrees and make around 10 casts to warm up the mold. Flux about every ten casts, with a ladle pot it is more important to flux often than with a bottom pour pot, the dross will get inside your cast bullet and cause a void. Dross is the most toxic part of casting, then comes fumes. I use a special flux I get from midway, but paraffin will work. Put a small amount in the pot, it will smoke, but if you light it, it will burn off and decrease the amount of smoke. Stir the the grey dross with a spoon and skim it off and put it in a can or something to throw away once it gets cool and full.

Make sure your lead puddle is hardened each time, you will see it change color or flash when it sets. If casting without a thermometer, if your taking more than 3 seconds to get hard, your too hot, if only our love life was that way . 😛

Buy a wooden hammer handle to hit the mold sprue plate with, if the bullets do not come out of the mold, hit the hinge bolt on the handles, never the mold.

You will need to experiment with alloy and the force that you fill your mold to see which type of fill gives a full base and does not flash the base, meaning give it a lip from too much pressure and overfill.

I like to put the ladle nozzle right on the fill hole while the mold is slightly sideways and then rotate the mold upright and hold the ladle against the hole for a spit second, then remove it to give a slight puddle on the sprue plate over the hole, then repeat for the second hole.

As the mold gets too warm, you can then add lead back from your cut off sprues to the pot and flux while your mold cools down a few degrees.

You will notice that the mold I gave you has a little indentation on the cavity farthest away from you, this was done with a light strike of a spring loaded center punch.

It was done to index the bullet. I learned to do this while casting black powder cartridge bullets, it allows you to use the same cavity and put the bullet thru the sizer and load it into the gun in the same way each time, if there is a imperfection in the mold cavity, and all have some imperfection and in multiple cavity molds they are never exactly the same, it allows that variable to be taken out.. It is time consuming, but will give you your best accuracy if you want to get anal.

Try shooting with and without sizing to see what works best. And remember ten shot groups while testing for information on technique and alloy and sizing.

Don’t worry about making poor bullets, you can shoot then or better yet add them back to the pot, they hurt nothing other than your pride.

Do you have any kind of scale? I weigh mine to .1 of a grain so on that mold with 20-1 that means I keep 72.3, 72.4 72.5 and the rest go back to be remelted.

I have a cheap scale that will give you a vague idea, meaning within .3 grains, I can send it with the ladle if you need it. I eventually had to get a 200 dollar scale to get better accuracy, but for 100 yards or so a cheap scale will work fine.

You will be shooting bullets that cost you around $1.50 per hundred by casting, it is hard to beat that.

Now things to remember:

HF sells welder gloves if you do not have any.

Lead build up on the mold is best removed with a leather glove finger by wiping it while very hot, sometimes I just pour a puddle of lead over it and then tap the hinge pin to remove it. if that does not work, I use very fine BRONZE wool to lightly remove it, but only on iron molds and never on aluminum or bronze molds.

Never get water or moisture in your lead pot, it will explode and empty the pot in your face, an experience you will never forget, trust me on that one, which brings up the point, use safety glasses with adequate covering, I also wear a leather coat and a hat.

Never get oil in your mold cavities, it will cause wrinkled bullets for days.

You can clean your mold of oil or light leading, or if new and or aluminum with alcohol and a toothbrush, then hot soapy water and then pour boiling water over it and let it set, the heat from the boiling water will dry it. Aluminum molds should always be cleaned this way to remove lead.

In a high humidity climate if your putting your iron mold away for a long period of time , oil it with a rust preventative oil like Breakfree, then be sure to clean it and wash it before using.

You should use a sprue plate lube under the sprue plate to prevent galling, I use a minute amount on a Q tip and wipe off the rest, I will send you some with the ladle.

The spure plate should be set to just barely swing free.

Alignment holes should be very lightly lubed with a very very light touch of wax on the male pin while hot, be sure not to get it in the cavities.

Never use scrounged lead, range lead or wheelweights for air guns or black powder cartridges, you want soft lead.

Sometimes you can pick up zinc or aluminum in your alloy, tire weight manufactures change the recipe of the alloy and could care less about us casters and as Leadbetter pointed out they have put toxic crap in the from time to time, all this restricts flow on your alloy and you will need to throw it all away and get more alloy. Scrounged Lead pipe lead is one exception to this rule, as it is pure.

RC