new caster learning

[Mark Davis]

You done good shopping for lead.

I just use snips to cut the solder joints from flashing. Pipe is going to be a different story. I would set the pipe on a piece of wood, take a single bit ax, set the blade on the pipe near the joint and beat on the axe with a 2 or 3 lb hammer.

The solder joints end up in alloy used to cast .45 auto, a little more tin doesn't worry me for blasting ammo.

My accuracy was up today, put a folded over strip in aluminum foil between the pin keepers and the block. The micrometer said it was .0025 thick. The mold closed better, can still see light through the closed blocks but now more of a hairline.
About 35% rejects, mostly for flash on the bottom of the skirt. assuming just one pin is now too loose.
Many careful measurements with a 1"-2" micrometer told me one pin keeper was high by about .0019. Removed the tinfoil from under that keeper, Results after tomorrow's casting session.

Tumbled the pellets in a small, slow rotary tumbler for 5 minutes with stainless steel pins, water, and dawn.
Next time, 15 minutes, the pellets were de haired but still had flash.

[scion19801]

so I put sandpaper on a piece of glass and did the bottom of my sprue plate. It was pretty decent. So I then did the top of mold to see what that looked like. Ouch. Took a bit of work to get flat. Success, no more meplat flashing. Got another tin of pellets done in pure lead. Had a little flash on the bottom skirt of some. This session was so easy. Pellets were dropping out of mold with only an occasional tap or two here and there. Still having to check them all as I was still getting my infamous bubble defect. Lost maybe 25% to the bubble. Meplat now also looks a lot rounder. did my normal towel tumble and they look pretty good. Can't wait to test for spiraling and accuracy. Gonna check weight and heads to see if my outta round issue cleared up.
I think my other mix some how got way too much tin in it. Now I just need my temp probe to come in as I couldn't seem to keep a happy temp on my lead tonight. Was getting some pretty colors developing on the top of the lead, so that would tell me it was way too hot. So I'd turn it down and then it would start freezing up.

[scion19801]

yea!!!! No spirals. Did attempt to measure heads. Calipers say they are still slightly outta round. 3/4" group at 28 yards, and getting hole-in-hole's. So, so , much better using known pure lead. Weighed in at 28.6 average. Getting 28.4- 28.8 on the shortest skirt, not the solid pin. looks like i'm currently at 832 fps but i did also just bump up from 1900 psi to 2000 psi. so I know my tune is off and needs tweaking.

[Back_Roads]

 Them small 4# pots can get to too high of temp I reccomend getting a pot thermometer, I think about a 4-5 setting to be best temp. I see you found Waynes trick to using a presure pour ladle, a matter of lining up the mold sideways and then flipping upright with the ladle to get a solid even pour, takes practice for sure, glad to see things improving, yes pellet casting is much harder than slugs.

[Wayne52]

Mark has the right idea about the lead pipe and joints, those joints work good for hard ball slugs for 45 ACP whereas the pipe itself is about as pure as you're gonna get for airguns and muzzle loaders.

[scion19801]

yeah i tried my best to keep joints out of my lead.  Things are improving greatly. I was even able to run my Rocker1 LDC again. Did a quick two shots to check sight in after re-installing LDC. Hit 1/2" 28 yard group.

[Mark Davis]

Scion, Good to read about your fixing the top of your mold.

I'm starting to make some good pellets too. My cull rate is near 12% after visual but now I'm going to start weighing them. They still don't shoot as good as JSB's

My two distinct groups were caused by pellets cast with the mold not closed completely, and pellets cast with a closed mold. I shot a lot of cull pellets today to see what defect is permissible. Absolutely no flash on the skirt,
and it's a waste of time to cut flash off. Pretty obvious. But had to try anyway.

Back_Roads, could not get any good pellets until I started running the pot on the highest setting. It's so hot that the lead turns straw color right after scooping dross off the top. Using the sinking ship method of filling the ladle and working briskly, I can get 15-20 pours before the dross causes a problem to casting.

The 5 or 6 setting works pretty good when pouring .720 round balls, or shotgun slugs.

[scion19801]

I did a short run on the lightest pellets tonight. Threw 30 back for remelt. As far a flashing on back of skirt goes. I found it best to try to catch it and roll it to the outside of the skirt, as the flash is usually on outside of skirt then press is down while twisting on a piece of glass. Then tumble in a towel. This has worked for me to get rid of skirt flashing. But as you know getting the pins set to correct depth with mold hot works best to eliminate it.
I melt in a 2 quart cast iron pot on a propane burner. I know my lead is on the hot side, and hard to keep temps regulated. Clean dross and get the straw color quick. Then blue and purple are a few minutes behind. I only clean dross off when my dipper starts poring slowly.
I managed 275 keepers.

[Back_Roads]

 OK yeah I spaced out the fact you are using dippers, so there can be a cool down time between dip and pour.

[scion19801]

just weighed my last pellets on the longest pin. 25.2-25.4 grins. hmmm. why they coming in short in length and 1 grain off or so. should be dropping 26.7.
my length is .283" spec is .300"

checked my prior batch of the heavies and they are the same length measurement as well. odd. I bet that is why mine are coming in a full grain short of what the spec should be.

[Back_Roads]

Make sure you are getting full skirt fill, I have had some get past me that looked perfect, but on closer inspection saw the skirts had almost filled, looked good at first , but had loose fit in the breach, and uneven balance.

[Mark Davis]

just weighed my last pellets on the longest pin. 25.2-25.4 grins. hmmm. why they coming in short in length and 1 grain off or so. should be dropping 26.7.
my length is .283" spec is .300"

checked my prior batch of the heavies and they are the same length measurement as well. odd. I bet that is why mine are coming in a full grain short of what the spec should be.

Mine mic from .281-.285.
Have not weighed any yet. I really don't care what the number is, as long as it's consistent.
I'm pretty sure your mold and mine came from the same lot.

[scion19801]

could very well be from the same lot. looking at the specs,and what i'm getting. it appears both my heads and skirts are under length. but, hey, who cares as long as they are accurate and consistent.

[scion19801]

wind was down today, so decided to try dialing in my setup. had to pull action and tight my bolt handle. go figure. Also dropped my fps down a touch. probably around high 870's to low 880's and things tighten'd  up alot. may go a touch more.
bottom row were at 888 fps
lower center i backed off a hair on fps the two lower shots were me. just as i squeezed off, i felt the gun shift.
the upper left was after trying a windage right adjustment. didn't move much.
upper right was another two clicks added. too far. lol. so i moved back one click left.
All shots of one fill. there are 40 shots on target, with some left before i actually fall off regulator. .38L bottle.
these are all basically un weighed NOE 250-27-RF cast by myself.
pellets are weighing in at 25.0-25.4 grains on the longest pin, lightest weight.
I'm happy with what i'm getting, and they are deadly at range. i think my bc calculation is off on them and i'm hitting 1/2 mil high at 72 yards out.

[triggertreat]

If those are at 72 yards, you have done really well at first casting attempt.  My first attempt are shotgun at 25 yards, but are BBT slugs, not pellets, which are more finicky.  I'll try them again in a better barrel at many different diameters in .25 cal coming up and see if I have better luck with that.

[Wayne52]

Looking good for sure !!! Those meplats work really well IMO, I even get better accuracy with the Magnum hunters than I do with the Hunters, they a considerably longer pellet that seems happy in the low to mid 900's.

[scion19801]

If those are at 72 yards, you have done really well at first casting attempt.  My first attempt are shotgun at 25 yards, but are BBT slugs, not pellets, which are more finicky.  I'll try them again in a better barrel at many different diameters in .25 cal coming up and see if I have better luck with that.

LOL. opps. the pic is my 28 yard groups. I have a steel gong out at 72 yards. According to Chairgun given my setup, I should be holding 2-1/2 mil dots for 72 yards but I have to hold at 2 mil dots to connect. I can even consistently ring my 100 yard gong with my NOE 250-27-RF's.

Looking good for sure !!! Those meplats work really well IMO, I even get better accuracy with the Magnum hunters than I do with the Hunters, they a considerably longer pellet that seems happy in the low to mid 900's.

i was thinking in the beginning to get the Magnum mold, but wasn't sure if I would like them. I did have some of the JSB heavies, but could only get my rig to push them to 52 FPE at the muzzle. That was prior to the adjustable regulator and larger bottle. I did see that I could get the hunters into the 900's, but didn't test accuracy.

[Mark Davis]

I have been getting similar groups at 25 yards. Careful inspection wearing the optivisor, plus adjusting the pin keepers is cutting down on the two flyers, like a couple of your groups show.

Several days ago each nine shot group had two or three flyers. Now the groups are better, did quite a bit of casting yesterday.

I have been in the habit of giving away empty pellet tins, suddenly I just don't have enough. I have about 1000 pretty good cast .25 cal pellets now, and may not cast any again until fall.

Going to focus on the .17 and .22 to empty a few tins.

I chose the 27 grain mold for less energy carried down range, if longer range shooting is called for, there's powderburners handy.

[Wayne52]

These are my real favorites these days, excellent for hunting.

[Back_Roads]

 They sure do let a critter know you tapped them out for sure Wayne
I will have to find time if I get rained out soon , to set up the NOE Wad Cutters molds I just got in .22 and .25, along with a light weight95 gr. .35 cal. BBT HP