Bullet Casting, anybody do it?

I got a few gift cards these last couple of weeks (won a couple at some work events) and spent them this week.  I bought several more bullet molds (some really cool ones too) and put more money down on that gp100 match.  I think I might be taking that gp100 match home with me today.  I will post pics if it happens.  Would love to break it in over thanksgiving with a few hundred rounds.  As for the bullet molds... I found out that the NOE bullet mold maker is located here locally and stopped by their shop last night.  I ended up leaving their shop with some really cool .30 molds (a 150 gr plain base spire point and a 200 gr plain base spire point).  More blackout fun!  That 200 gr bullet looks like it will probably be able to cycle the action in my AR's at subsonic speeds.  With the bolt/single shot I can do whatever.  I might also try using the 200 gr bullet in some of my .308 semi's and see if I can get a decent load to cycle the actions and be decently accurate. It would greatly reduce my .308 plinking costs. Anyways, I am super excited to try them out.  I also ordered about 6 lee molds too.

?SO is it time to quit your day job and start a shooting consultant business. ?Or gun mag columnist.

Dang Corn. If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times. You come up with the coolest stuff.

I'd pretty much talked myself out of casting, but this thread is making me reconsider that.

I loaded up some plinker loads for the 30-30 to test out this holiday weekend.  They are from the 113 gr lee "soupcan" mold (round nose flat point).  With about 7 gr Unique, they should be pretty light, and safe on steel at whatever distance.  My cousin has wanted to practice shooting his 30-30 on sub 100 yard targets using iron sights--so this should be perfect (as long as they shoot straight).

I haven't had time to break in/season the NOE molds yet.  Costing close to $100 each, I want to make sure I do everything right with that process.  The lee 2 cavity molds are only $20, so they are perfect for learning on.

I tested the 30-30 loads this last weekend over the thanksgiving break. They were super soft shooting and decently accurate loads. We were only able to shoot 100 yards at the place I was at, but we were able to consistently hit the steel plates at that distance. They look super odd though, I will try to post a pic later.

If you have been considering a mould from NOE them this 20% off coupon may help:

Our end of the year sale is going full swing!
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Check out our "Specials" section for additional 5% off items - changes daily!

Sale closes 12/07/14

noebulletmolds.com/NV/index.php?osCsid=n...bjdhnumpgrv6kc84vn03

Yeah, I got that 20% off coupon in my email... I think I spent too much money on molds this week. I sold some old AR parts I didn't need and used all the money on molds.

I just bought some expander plugs before the 20% off sale ended last night. I love how I can order from them and then drive over to their shop and pick them up. Those guys are good people.

I had some fun with 34gram (524grain) Foster type slugs in the 12gauge today:


More of a write up about it here:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?261975-Payload-substitution-12ga-bore-diameter-Foster-type-34gm-slug-fun-first-result&p=3040582#post3040582

Pretty good fun throwing those big lumps of soft lead down range.

Looks like fun, seems like you do some real cool stuff with casting/loading. Also, do you get any leading in a smooth bore shotgun barrel when shooting soft lead slugs like that?

Nice target. I note a little keyholing, but considering it was fired by what appeared to be a fairly old SBS, and it's a smoothbore, one cannot expect tremendous ballistic stability.

The general rule, as I understand it, is that you shoot lead slugs from a smoothbore and sabot slugs from a rifled bore. I suppose that's because the sabot will grab the rifling better while not leading the barrel in the process. I presume the smoothbore doesn't lead significantly.