so waht ya doin today?

hporter

hporter

Active Member
I have been casting the past few days in this lovely cool front coming through Houston. I have cast a bunch of different .32 handgun bullets, round nose, SWC and 3 different wadcutter types.

I ran them all through my Star to size and lube them, and then put them in small bags of 50 each. I was pretty pleased with the efficiency of the process.

But yesterday, before the wife and I took our daybreak bicycle ride, I fired the pot up again to use when we got back. This time I dug out my Lee .38 cal 148gr tumble lube 6 cavity. It never ceases to amaze me how many bullets you can produce with a 6 cavity mold.

But what really impressed me was that tonight was the first time I tried my Lee APP press for bullet sizing. I had lubed those wadcutters with Bens Liquid Lube earlier in the day. The tube I selected held 27 of those wadcutters. I was emptying the tube in 45-50 seconds at a manageable pace. As fast as my Star lubesizer feels compared to my old RCBS lubesizer, that really blew me away.

I am happy with Ben's Liquid Lube, and I have dabbled with powder coating and HTC coatings. I think I will be spending more time improving my technique with these coating technologies. I really liked the speed and ease of that press for sizing bullets.
 
fiver

fiver

Well-Known Member
nope,, maybe 2-3 minutes at tops... LOL

G-boys birthday today [well, his party anyway]
4-5, 4 y.o's and a bunch of related to each other somehow or other adults.
kid got more stuff than I got in 10 years worth of Christmases.

somehow a bunch of us guy's ended up having an impromptu weigh-off on a bathroom scale and everyone guessing at everyone's weights and recalling when they weighed that same amount.
I ain't been on a scale in a couple of years, and the wife got told to shut up by about 6 people when she guessed, and swore I was at least 40 lbs. heavier than I am.
I weigh 7lbs. more than when we got married [and I been eating a bunch of junk the last few days]
she, nor any of the other girls, would go anywhere near the scale.
 
Ian

Ian

Notorious member
Yesterday I took the wife, kids, and MIL to the state arts & crafts fair. Wife bought a ceramic snack bowl, I doubled my money by folding it over and sticking it back in my pocket.

Today I cleaned out and primed the boy's room, then took advantage of the cool, dry weather to start construction of what will be my 100-yard backstop. It's 1/3 of the way up the side of a steep hill and will be an 8' square (outside) crib made of butt-and-pass utility poles roofed over and filled with sand. I managed to get the footing dug for the downhill side foundation log and back wall log with a pick (2' side slope over 8') and drug the 12"x8' logs up the hill and into place.
 
Bret4207

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Thoughts and prayers to your Mrs Smokey!


Woke up this AM to rain and horses out. One of them at least got into the grain in the barn, so I'll be watching to see if any look colicy. Ought to be fun fixing fence in the deluge...

Gordy goes for his road test tomorrow. I have never seen a kid that cared less a bout getting his license. I know 2 guys that don't drive- one is a nieces husband who came back from Iraq and Afghanistan and was terrified every time he got in a car. I get it. The other was guy 35 years my senior who just didn't want to drive, so his wife took him everywhere. In truth, having a DD was a good idea for him! But Gord just doesn't seem to care much one way or the other. Odd.

Have a mess of parts to order today for tractors, a skid steer, UTV and some other stuff. I hear of an impending "rubber shortage", as in for tires, so I may order some of those too. This shortage of stuff thing seems to be getting worse and concerns me.
 
Rick H

Rick H

Well-Known Member
My thoughts and prayers are with you and your wife Smokeywolf. Some of the longest days of my life were spent waiting for loved ones to come out of surgery.
 
JonB

JonB

Halcyon member
Bret4207 said:
John Havilands blurb in his RCBS article wherein he states, "The number of handloaders who cast their own bullets is dwindling. About the only bullet casters remaining are those who do so for cartridges that lack commonly available projectiles."
Click to expand...

Meanwhile,

Long weekend,
Local gunshow,
It was crazy busy, parking lot overflowed into the streets. It's a large parking lot on the County fair grounds where the gunshow is held...that should say a lot. One of my friends told me, he never seen so many people carrying guns and bags of stuff out to the parking lot. My receipts were quite impressive...I'd post some numbers, except I don't what to be a braggart.

Of the 370+ plus tables, many did have molds and other casting related equipment.
My table had 4 molds, and I sold one of them (a Lee 309 180, that dropped a .311 @ 167gr) and the fella that bought it (for more than "Before times" retail) said, the .311 size was the deal clincher for the high priced mold.

One dealer who had 5 tables, had one table full of casting stuff, including a large collection of vintage, used, smoked Lee 2 cav molds and one 6 cav mold w/handles. A couple of those lee molds were custom, there was also a couple lube sizers on the table, I asked the seller if there were any sizer dies? He said, "what are sizer dies?". So I guess that fellow was just a flipper, not a caster. I bought a 22 bator mold and a lightweight 35 SWC BB mold from him...besides the smoke, at least the molds looked like they were NOT abused...BTW, I did pay more than "before times" retail for the two molds.

Now, I didn't see any RCBS molds...so that's why I quoted Bret. Maybe the old time manufacturers aren't seeing the sales, that the new manufacturers are seeing? Although, I still read of desire to buy/order Pro Melt pots from my online cast bullet friends...and also there is almost none in stock anywhere...Maybe RCBS just cut production?

Well, that's all I have for now.
Minnesota's weather predictors say it's gonna be a picture perfect Fall week, so I hope not to spend too much time online and maybe test fire the 6 7/8 target Ruger Mk 2 that I bought this weekend...Let me tell you, Ruger's 22 semi-auto's are now crazily priced...CRAZY I tell ya! Seen a new 10" bull barrel on a table for just over $700, right next to it, was a couple other shorter barreled models for $600+ :eek:
 
Rick

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
smokeywolf said:
She’s in recovery now.
Surgeon said it was textbook.
Amiodarone (sp) anti-arrhythmia Med was doing considerable damage to her lungs. Doc says, no more of that!
Click to expand...

Happy-small.jpg

Good news indeed . . .

BTW, John is also at the hospital this morning getting tests. Sticking a camera down his throat. 6:30 AM appointment, haven't heard from him yet.
 
JWFilips

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Smokey, Yes very good news Hope she has a speedy recovery.

My little lady goes in for knee replacement surgery on Wednesday early morning. She is pretty calm and cool about it but I'm all out of sorts...a nervous wreck. Shot like crap today ...just wanted to come home and make her breakfast
 
smokeywolf

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
We were at the Arkansas Heart Hospital. Just got home about 30 minutes ago. Not a real bad drive from Little Rock; 3+ hours, but tiring. This was the second round trip in 2 weeks.

Hope John is making out okay.
 
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J

JustJim

Well-Known Member
Bret4207 said:
Gordy goes for his road test tomorrow. I have never seen a kid that cared less a bout getting his license. I know 2 guys that don't drive- one is a nieces husband who came back from Iraq and Afghanistan and was terrified every time he got in a car. I get it. The other was guy 35 years my senior who just didn't want to drive, so his wife took him everywhere. In truth, having a DD was a good idea for him! But Gord just doesn't seem to care much one way or the other. Odd.
Click to expand...
I was almost 18 before getting my license. Rifle range was an hour's walk away, and I walked --and hunted--through some of the best upland game country around. Waterfowl hunting on the Central Flyway was, again, the same hour's walk away. I carpooled to rifle matches with some folks from our club.

Then I got a girlfriend who lived 80 miles away, and 2 weeks later was a licensed driver.
 
Bret4207

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I get the girl thing Jim! Gords pushing 19 1/2. Just as happy with his ATV, a bicycle or having someone drive him. Getting old for me though!
 
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