tarawa
AH veteran
After receiving my "corrected" conical bullet mould for my .72 caliber kodiak, I set up my melting station on my back patio. Casting lead is always a fun thing here in Florida. Nothing like adding fuel to the fire. The new Brook's mould is a beautiful piece of machining and it attached to my Lee handles with no problem. After checking the fit of the mould and melting about 5 pounds of soft pure lead, I cast the first bullet. It looked ok but not perfect so I dumped it back into the pot. After the mould was at the right temperature and I adjusted the heat on the pot, the bullets came out perfect. My goal was to cast 50 conical bullets. I think that is all that I would be able to carry to the range.
On bullet 46, I squeezed the handles on the mould and one broke clean off. 45 bullets would have to do. The bullets are slightly longer than they are wide, but that shouldn't cause a problem even with the slow twist of the barrel. I would have liked them a little shorter. I checked all the bullets for sizing. Bottom rings .724 - top rings .729. Close enough. I threw the test bullet sent by Brooks on the scales and it weighed in at 56 grams. This was with a 30-1 lead to tin (?). Mine were pure lead and weighed in at 58 grams. Conversion is 895 grains!
Realizing that I only had bore butter, which becomes a real mess in the Florida heat, I went into my shop and found a stick of machine tool lube wax. Since it said on the tube that it fought corrosion, I figure that it would be ok.
Although I was ready for the range, I was a bit skeptical about shooting a bullet that was almost twice as heavy as a round ball form my gun. I tossed and turned all night thinking about what the pressure may be in the gun trying to push 2 oz of lead out of the barrel of the Kodiak. I didn't want to hurt myself or even more anyone else around me.
Range report in Part 2.
On bullet 46, I squeezed the handles on the mould and one broke clean off. 45 bullets would have to do. The bullets are slightly longer than they are wide, but that shouldn't cause a problem even with the slow twist of the barrel. I would have liked them a little shorter. I checked all the bullets for sizing. Bottom rings .724 - top rings .729. Close enough. I threw the test bullet sent by Brooks on the scales and it weighed in at 56 grams. This was with a 30-1 lead to tin (?). Mine were pure lead and weighed in at 58 grams. Conversion is 895 grains!
Realizing that I only had bore butter, which becomes a real mess in the Florida heat, I went into my shop and found a stick of machine tool lube wax. Since it said on the tube that it fought corrosion, I figure that it would be ok.
Although I was ready for the range, I was a bit skeptical about shooting a bullet that was almost twice as heavy as a round ball form my gun. I tossed and turned all night thinking about what the pressure may be in the gun trying to push 2 oz of lead out of the barrel of the Kodiak. I didn't want to hurt myself or even more anyone else around me.
Range report in Part 2.