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Thread: Emptied the 9mm bucket

  1. #1
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    Default Emptied the 9mm bucket

    I have hit the bottom of the plastic bucket I keep 9mm reloads in. Went to crank out some and realized I was out of slugs. Now I have the electric pot heating up and am trying to get my mind set for the handling of hot lead. Last time I did this it took me a month for the burns to heal! You'd think I had never cast bullets before.

    Time for some of the "work" part of shooting. I'll be back around dark.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?


  2. #2
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Keep a fan on the fumes..........
    Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
    Evoking the 50 year old rule...
    First 50 years...worried about the small stuff...second 50 years....Not so much
    Member Wahoo Killer knives club....#27

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    Resident Wildman Wildthang's Avatar
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    Wear thin leather gloves when pouring the lead!

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    Senior Member natertot's Avatar
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    Be safe and have fun!!!!
    ”There's nothing glorious in dying. Anyone can do it.” ~Johnny Rotten

  5. #5
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    I always cast outside and after my mishap in the fall I am a glove wearing bullet caster for the rest of my days. I dropped a wet wheel weight into the pot and it exploded lead over my left hand. It took over a month to heal and left a gnarly scar!

    I have the bucket about half full thanks to the all day rain yesterday. Once more I am out of slugs but I left the pot on the porch so I can run a few today.

    I now need to shoot up all my old stash because I increased the charge in my plinking loads. The P95 wants a bit of punch for proper functioning and my old load was a whimp built to cycle my old Hi-point junk gun.

    My practice loads are now closer to the old U.S. spec load, but still under the NATO or European standard and nowhere near a +p. I am now getting just a bit under 1100fps with a 121 trunchated cone. It is still very managable and you can double-tap like a machinegun and stay in the K zone if you aim low of centermass for the first shot.

    With two 15 shot mags and one 20 this P95 can eat some ammo in rapid secquence. One cycle through the magazines and you have burned up a box of commercial ammo. I may have to get a bigger bucket!

    When I bought my first 9mm back in the day no one was shooting 9mm. The Illinois State Police had not even accepted the old M39 S&W as their duty weapon yet. I had to scrounge for every empty and spent more time looking for my brass than shooting. that was one of the factors in my decision to go to the .45. Now I go to the range with 100 rounds, shoot them all up and bring home 150 empties and the box they came in.

    Now it is time to order powder and primers. Anyone know a good place with deep discounts? I have been using Powder Valley.
    Last edited by kyratshooter; 05-14-2012 at 11:20 AM.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

  6. #6
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Are you using a dipper or a bottom pour pot?

    Done a little pouring for time to time...couple of comments...not nessessarily for you, Krat,....more for the general public.
    (BTW the .35 200 gr round nose mould works just fine, thanks)

    Keep a soup can near by, in case the spout get plugged a bit and doesn't stop on a bottom pour pot........saves a big puddle of molten lead all over the bench.
    This can should be large enough to hold a 'batch" pot full.......but small enough to fit back in the pot when things settle down......don't ask me how I know.

    Oh yeah, don't pick out wet sprue pieces from the drop bucket and toss back into the hot lead......will explode and stick to the window on the back side of the bench....especially in the winter, as the glass is cold ....and will crack.....just saying.

    Gloves/apron are good,... but gives you a false sense of security....and hard to get off when a hot drop flies into the cuff....you just kinda have to wait till it stops burning, while "Doing The dance."....Oh yeah pants legs OVER the boots.

    Same rules as bacon....Don't fry bacon..naked.

    6 cavity mould.... good on small bullets.
    Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
    Evoking the 50 year old rule...
    First 50 years...worried about the small stuff...second 50 years....Not so much
    Member Wahoo Killer knives club....#27

  7. #7
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    All true and benificial info hunter.

    I think I need to change to the large capacity molds for my pistol bullets. After 40 years I have pretty much settled on my favorite shapes and weights. I am glad that mold is working for you. It needed a good home. I was not shooting 200gn loads from the .357 any more and it has been years since I owned a .35 rifle.

    I do my pouring with a dipper. Odd, since I heat the lead in a bottom pour pot. I had so much trouble tin the puddling problem and clogging that I threaded a screw in the spout and removed the lift handle.

    If anyone wants to know, I use a Lee production pot I bought some time back in the late 1970s. (before that I heated lead in a small cast iron skillet over the coleman stove) It has spent a good deal of its life on the porch partly exposed to the eliments and it still works! If it stops working tomorrow I will order another one. I officially got my money's worth. I used this pot for casting back when I was shooting competition and I have officially worn out at least 4/ 1911 pistols with bullets cast from this pot. For several years I was averaging 50,000+ rounds a year. Through that time I was casting every slug I fired, all pistol rounds and a lot of rifle stuff. This pot might just have 1,000,000 slugs run from it.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

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