Better than nothing, but I prefer a mold made from cast iron for better heat retention in the mold. Throws better more consistent bullets.
Better than nothing, but I prefer a mold made from cast iron for better heat retention in the mold. Throws better more consistent bullets.
Show me. Cast iron molds are hens teeth right now, at least what I could find.
Last edited by CrowCommand; 12-20-20 at 19:44.
You need to tumble lube or powder coat. He mentions using the toilet flange for tumble lube in an upcoming video.
I would think you could order a drill bit and make a mold by drilling a block of aluminum, brass or steel. Drill the mold short and then drill a small hole through the nose end of the mold , cast, weigh, drill a little deeper, cast, weigh until the weight of the bullet is close. You pour into the base end of the mold, and puddle the lead. Use a wood chisel or knife to cut the base flush with the mold and a punch through the hole in the nose to extract the bullet. Trim the nose. It will take forever and accuracy may suck. Roll the bullet between a file and a flat surface and tumble lube.
Alternatively, make the mold undersized and paper patch the bullets. That may be the best bet because cheap bulk shot is almost pure lead.
You are still hurting for powder. In a very general sense, a lot of "shotgun" powder has load data for pistols. The burn rate range is correct.
But - it is nearly impossible to determine which powder is used in your shotshells, and even if you could, powder sold to reloaders may be a little faster or slower that the particular lot in your shells.
Proceed with extreme care, please.
Andy
Last edited by AndyLate; 12-21-20 at 07:38.
My concern would be how much chamber pressure is generated when you discharge one of your improvised cartridges. In a large frame steel revolver it may not be a problem. In a semi-automatic pistol it could be a big problem.
Train 2 Win
For starters they’ll make more. Also a lot of molds are special order only, just not a regular in stock item.
Graf and Sons stocks some.
https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog...categoryId/450
In a pinch you might consider the purchase of available larger diameter lead projectiles and use a bullet sizer to size them to the correct diameter.
Train 2 Win
Thanks to everyone for links and info. I've been scouring the web and local places for an in stock mould.
Got the last .452" 160 grain mould, some lube and a sizer die from the Graf link. Wasn't needing anything fancy for this experiment so a $60 investment is super sweet.
160 grain is lighter than I'd prefer but it may be the universe's (....universes....universe'... whatever...you know what I mean...) way of giving me a little more leeway inside the safe pressure range.
So this project will definitely be moving forward.
Stuff is happening. Still waiting on my Graf order but I did find a 140 grain roundball mold locally. Taught myself a little metallurgy and we're off.
Decided to go with 4 grains of powder as a base. I wanted to see where the unknown powder would fall between Unique and Longshot. I was not happy with the case fill percentage at 3 grains of Longshot so here we are.
Check out muh shiny balls.
Shot some WWB to verify chrono and started making data. All were fired with magazine removed (incase of big boom) from a G21. Barrel was brushed between loads.
LPP, 4.0 grains Unique;
483, 495, 497, 527, 475 FPS.
Had a bit of unburnt powder on shot #3. No extraction. Shot about a 4 inch group at 15 yards. Is a fun load for sure.
LPP, 4.0 grains Longshot;
253, 211, 320, 147, 326 FPS.
Lots of unburnt powder on every shot. 2 bullet holes and 1 dent (lol) in 14x16 target at 15 yards. No squibs.
45 Science- 209 Primer, 4.0 unknown powder;
Freaking overcast day cost me my velocity readings. Had chrono under an awning and it worked fine on everything else. Didn't realize the issue until I fired all 5.
Definitely hotter than the Unique load based on recoil. Each case extracted enough to fall down the magwell. Target was about an 8 inch group.
We may have an issue with the 209 primers though. All 5 cases show a .004" bulge at mid-case. I assume this is due to the snout of the primer not being flush with the web.
I'll add more later.
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