Into Shooting?

[colcolt]

I use to buy noting but Lyman molds but after I got into casting more as a science I found out several of my older ones would drop undersized bullets and that's not good for accuracy and created leading problems. I didn't know much about sizing for the throat dimensions until I started going to a forum that deals solely with casting and found you need to size bullets to whatever the throat diameter is. for instance,My Model 29-3 has a throat diameter(cylinder throats) of .432". My older Lyman 429421 mold for the 245 gr bullet drops bullets at .4295-.430" which is too small for the throat of this particular pistol. I bought a mold from Accurate Arms that would drop the bullets at .4345" when I use wheel weights and I run them through my .432" size die...perfect match.
My mold for the .38-.357 from Lyman has the same problem. It just makes bullets too small. The problem that creates is that it causes gas cutting and creates lead streaks in the forcing cone/barrel and doesn't do anything good for accuracy. A .356" bullet used in a revolver with a .358" throat and .357" bore(groove diameter) is not going to do anything for you but lead the barrel.
The Anaconda looks like a BIG revolver. I haven't seen any up close but it looks huge...bigger than I thought. Being a Colt, I'll bet the action is slick. I still lust heavily after a Python but they're too much for me.

 

[pstlpkr]

Colcolt
I think you need either smaller targets or bigger bullets. :D

Nice shooting.

 

[bentmike]

That's interesting. I've not got into casting yet just gathering supplies and think it is something my son and I can do. My dad made bullets and fishing sinkers so I have got some of his equipment and first hand knowledge of the process. Because I ride bicycles I see lots of wheel weights along the road on my rides so I have started collecting them. I've read that because they contain antimony and are not pure lead wheel weights should not be used for bullet casting because they can produce fluctuations is weight and the alloy can shrink while cooling. I don't know but I have a .54 cal Lyman round ball mold that I plan to use for my Rocky Mountain Hawken. since it's a patched ball I thought a round made from wheel weights would be fine.

 

[colcolt]

Probably bigger bullets! Thanks. Love that 44 Magnum.

 

[colcolt]

Mike-wheel weights don't contain enough antimony if any to make any difference. It has a BHN or 11-12(Brinnel Hardness Number). Pure lead is about a BHN 5-8 depending on it's purity if that gives an idea as to the softness. Elmer Keith use to use a BHN11 when he developed the 44 Magnum and used 1 part tin to 16 parts lead. That's hard to duplicate today due to tin being so expensive today at around $17/pound so, you can get close using pure lead and Linotype. Linotype makes for a much too hard and brittle bullet to be useful in of it's own but when mixed it does well.
Muzzle loaders require pure lead, as you probably know, so the shallow rifling in most rifles and pistols will grasp the soft lead and spin the bullet to give better stability in flight. If I were going to use a Hawken or Civil War replica I'd use pure lead. You can mix pure lead with wheel weights about 50/50 and still give a good bullet. The problem with pure lead, I can testify, is that it's hard as hell to cast for it. You really have to bump up the temperature to get a decent bullet without voids and wrinkles...especially bullets with a hollow skirt like the ones I used in my 58 cal Zouave-a 510 gr mini ball with a hollow skirt.
All bullets will shrink a little, depending on alloy, but it takes time. That doesn't happen overnight.

 

[colcolt]

One last caveat to the foregoing is that ww's today can contain zinc and all other forms of junk. Some are actually iron. You can tell by putting a magnet to them, of course. You have to be careful what you get anymore. WW's are getting hard to come by in pure form in my neck of the woods.
This is probably the best cast bullet forum on the Internet.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/index.php

 

[martiniman]

Sorry for the lat reply but a 17hmr is basically a standardized wildcat round of a necked down 22 mag to .17.

The ultimate plincker, dead flat.

 

[baronsamedi]

I'm waiting for the Chiappa Rhino to make a 6" version in .45 Long Colt. Just because I like the Anime series Trigun. They have a .357 but I like big bullets I cannot lie.

 

[sjpipesmoker]

I only have one, a ruther 22
If you want to be entertained, check out fpsrussia on YouTube... He's wild

 

[bigvan]

"I only have one, a ruther 22"
Is that a combination Ruger/Walther?

 

[irishflake]

INTO SHOOTING? Hell yeah!! I shoot insulin. I've even done it in movie theaters. Since I live in the United States, insulin costs $450 a month. It really cuts into the tobacco budget.

If I could afford one of those fancy-ass firearms, I'd stick up a pharmacy.

 

[colcolt]

$450/mo?!! Good grief, that's more than my Plavix that's about $530 for a 90 day supply but that's with the med supplement I have. I shutter to think what it would cost if I didn't have a drug supplement to my Medicare.
I was diagnosed two years ago with "borderline diabetes" but swore I wouldn't take any more pills or take shots. I take two pills daily for cholesterol, one for high blood pressure and two blood thinners-Plavix and Warfarin. I was able to control it with diet, lost 35 pounds and my fasting blood sugar is around 92-110 each morning.

 

[tslex]

@barons; The Rhinos are very interesting. They fire from the bottom chamber of the cylinder. Never saw one until I was SO-ing at IDPA Worlds this year. Nifty.

 

[baronsamedi]

They really are cool and supposedly more reliable than the old Mateba revolvers, which ere designed by the same dude. Aside from being like Vash the Stampede's revolver, I think one in .45LC would be the perfect balance in thump (about the same as .45ACP with standard pressure) and easy handling for that thing.

 

[colcolt]

That's a new one one me...never heard of a Rhino before. If it ain't Colt, S&W, Ruger or SA they must be new...well, maybe Kimber.

 

[baronsamedi]

Google the Mateba revolver. As a gun guy you'll find it interesting. Quite revolutionary in design.

 

[wayneteipen]

Just bought me one of these: S&W 642 Centennial Airweight Revolver .38 Special. I'm a big fan of S&W handguns. I had a S&W compact 9mm years ago that I've since sold. I can't remember the model but it was a really nice weapon.

 

[colcolt]

That is one weird pistol, baron. Quite unconventional in that it uses the recoil from firing to rotate the cylinder and cock the hammer. That's not a bad feature at all...sort of like an auto except with a cylinder. I'm too much a dinosaur for that sort of thing though. I'll stick to Colts, Rugers and S&W firearms and HK autos.

 

[simnettpratt]

The Rhino to me seems like simple genius; it ain't purty but shooting out of the bottom of the cylinder makes a lot of engineering sense.
baron, I like my .357 125gr JHPs, so I guess I'm a light and fast guy, but I still want a .44 Special
tslex, I like the way your instructor is looking at you instead of the target. Nice group, too.

 

[bentmike]

Think like the instinctive archery shooter. Point and fire. The Rhino puts the barrel in line with shooters index finger. From a defensive pistol standpoint this idea is revolutionary.