Praying for Doug and Family

I just got an email from Doug.  His wife passed away yesterday, she has been battling cancer for several years now and has gone home.  His sons are with him now.  Let's keep Doug and his family in our prayers.  

Swamprat

NOE Bullet Moulds

Swamprat really helped me out concerning ideas for fixing my "truant" Ruger's chronic leading problems. His recommendation was to check out NOE Bullet Moulds. He has a couple of their moulds and had high praise for them. A quick look at their web page had me sold. They offer both brass and aluminum moulds in a bewildering variety of sizes and configurations, and I found a mold that may just solve my problems.

The mould I chose is a four-cavity aluminum listed as being .432" and 258 grain SWC profile. The cavity design looks virtually identical to the Lyman 429421 that I currently own. I went with aluminum not for the lower price, but for the lower weight of the four-cavity design. Friday morning I emailed the company asking about "as cast" diameter and handle selection. I received a reply within minutes and a follow-up call about a couple other details was handled in a courteous and friendly manner. I was sold and placed my order online. Imagine my surprise when my new mould and handles arrived Monday morning!

The moulds are works of art. Following the company's suggested breaking-in process, I was soon casting bullets. Bullets dropped from the mould with a gently shake rather than the pounding on the handle hinge-bolt needed with my Lee and Lyman molds. With my alloy bullets weighed 258-259 grains and were sharp and clean on all edges. Diameter measures an average of .43270" (borrowed a friend's five-place digital micrometer for precision - which also proved my bore and chamber throats are .4322" rather than the .4325" my mic read - not earth shattering but helpful) which would allow for a quick pass through a .432" sizer (special ordered from Lee and not on hand yet) to clean up and uniform the bullets.

The handles are very well made and are pinned to keep the wood from working off during use; a very welcome idea.

Once I get my sizing die I'll let you know how things work out. In the mean time I will be sizing a few to .430" to try in my other .44s. I strongly suggest anyone looking for reasonably priced quality moulds to check out NOE. I think you will be as impressed as I am.

Problem Child Tamed?

I have been working on a project similar to Swamprat’s latest post. Nothing is more frustrating to me than having a firearm that is less than useable. Most people run across one or two in the course of their hobby and either trade it off or stick it in the darkest corner of their closet. It is always satisfying to come up with a solution to whatever problem is present.

In my case the problem child is a Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum that a friend gave me many years ago. When fired with cast bullets, this revolver has always been the worst leading firearm I have ever had. Jacketed bullets worked acceptably with fair accuracy but I have always preferred cast for economy, performance and reduced wear and tear. We all know that most, if not all, firearms will show varying degrees of leading over extended shooting periods, but none of the rest of mine do so as badly as this one. Unfortunately as few as a dozen shots with cast bullets from a large assortment of styles, suppliers and etc. would lead to the point that often the rifling was buried. Slugging the bore revealed that it was .432”. Obviously even .431” bullets weren’t bumping up enough to properly engage rifling and were causing leading. I figure that the only reason jacketed bullets worked is that they had softer cores, depending on the jackets to engage the rifling, and bumped up easier. As a result I seldom shot it, preferring to use other .44s instead. As it had been a gift, thoughts of trading it off were never considered.

In the course of re-building a Ruger Blackhawk .45 Colt I decided to try my hand at casting bullets. Rather than investing a lot of money in moulds, pots, sizer/lubricators and etc., I ordered a couple of Lee .452” 255-grain RNFP molds, .452” sizer kit and a Lee Production Pot. Though this mould design isn’t one of the “tumble-lube” designs, it turned out that Lee’s liquid lube worked splendidly on bullets pushed in the vicinity of 850-900 fps with excellent accuracy and virtually no leading other than a faint “wash” apparent after 40-50 rounds. A quick pass with a bronze bore brush followed by a tight bore mop erased nearly all of the traces and accuracy never fell off with buildup. Dropping from the mould at an average of 262 grains and having an extremely generous flat nose, this bullet is now my standard for the .45 Colt at velocities up to 1,100 fps.

Since things had worked so well for that .45, I began to wonder if a combination of bullet size and lube might make a difference in my problem with the .44. I was lucky enough to win the bid at a very good price on a gently used Lyman 429421 mould (one of those thought to be most closely of original Keith SWC design), ordered a Lee .430 sizing kit and started to work. Initial bullets dropped from this mold at 258 grains and averaged .4315” diameter. Bullets weren’t perfectly round, but considering the excessive bore diameter, I thought to try them unsized using fairly liberal amounts of Lee lube to coat them first.  Results were mixed but encouraging. Groups (using my normal full-house loads) were adequate, if not impressive, and leading after 24 rounds was negligible.

Encouraged, I decided to try sizing a few bullets to .430” and backing the load to around 1,150 to 1,200 fps (a load I commonly employ for general use in order to reduce stress on my firearms). After sizing and re-lubing, these bullets were loaded and taken out to my range. Success! Groups averaged 2” or less and only the faintest trace of lead could be found after 24 rounds. This was easily removed merely by running the bore mop through. My S&W 629 (which doesn’t know what leading is) was used to finish the rest of the box of 50 and resulted in groups running 1” to 1 1/2” (from the bench) with absolutely no sign of leading. Another batch prepared the same way but pushed to roughly 1,400 fps actually tightened the groups slightly from both revolvers with very slight leading in the Ruger and the 629 bore looking like a mirror.

Now that I was rolling, I decided to try those commercially cast bullets after tumble-lubing with the Lee lube. I lubed some of LeadHead’s excellent 270-grain LBT and 250-grain SWC bullets without removing the commercial lube in the grooves and allowed them to dry. Each weight was pushed by the hunting load I commonly use for these weights. The Ruger (which had previously leaded hideously with both styles) shot both weights well, but did show a little more leading than with the Lyman bullets. The 629 shot them the same as it does with just the commercial lube that LeadHead uses and again the bore was clean.

I have several other variables I still want to try, but it is nice to know that sometimes that light at the end of the tunnel isn’t a train!

LONG TIME NO POST

I know I have been lax in my duties on here.  Things have been kinda crazy at  my house.  For one thing my back has really been giving me fits and I haven't been out.  Not even to the range.  I got another round of shots in there and hope I feel more like moving again soon.

I just read an article from the Shot Show on popular deer rifles.  They list AR's first of course.  I have nothing against the AR platform, I own one and am in the process of building a couple more, one for Sue and for me.  Sue shot mine a while back and put in her order for one.  Mine is probably going to be for home defense, hers to hunt coyotes with and just to shoot.

But in all the hoopla over the AR-15, I still lean to the bolt gun for most of my hunting and shooting.  For whitetails though what I never hear about is the time honored 30-30 Winchester.  The old Model 94 or the Marlins.  Where I grew up in Louisiana they were hard to beat and I think they still are.  My old Model 94 is one I found in a barn while cleaning it out for a farmer.  It needed some tlc and I bought it for almost nothing.  I replaced a couple of broken parts and cleaned it all up and probably killed more whitetails with it than all the others combined. 

Lately I have been casting pistol bullets out of wheel weights and bought a mold for the old 30-30.  It is a gas check bullet, casts about 165 grains.  My eyes aren't what they used to be and I ordered a Williams Peep Sight with a Fiber Optic front sight and installed them on the old 94.  Bill and I took it to the range a while ago to sight it in with the new sight and I took some reloads with the cast bullets.  We were shooting other rifles at 100 yds and I decided to shoot at a target already set up with the 30-30, just to see.  Bill was watching through the binoculars, I never expected to hit the target much less the bullseye.   I fired 3 rounds and he told me to put the rifle back in the case, it was done.  I hit the 3" bull with all 3 shots. Done deal.  

I plan on using this rifle again if I ever get back east in the woods.  Plus I always figured that it was a darn good rifle for home defense also.  

Swamprat

HAPPY NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR

BE SAFE AND MAY GOD BLESS.

Swamprat

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.

A Merry Christmas and safe Holiday season to all of you!

 SSL

Staying Busy

I have been busier than a one armed paper hanger lately.  Seems Christmas always does that.  Got several projects going at once.  One of them is this holster and mag pouch for my Great Nephew, Tucker who is in the army.  Hope he likes it.

Merry Christmas to everybody.

Swamprat