Perfect Boolits! The Joy of getting it Right!

After speaking with a few members of Cast Boolits, I got a few ideas on how to fix the voids I was getting in my boolits from my new to me SWC mold.



The first idea was to pour with my spout in contact with the sprue plate. I tried this and the voids were still there.

The next thing I tried was to use a larger puddle on my sprue plate. Somewhat better, but still no cigar.

At this point I was a little perplexed, so I tried both of those at the same time. The problem was I couldn't get a large puddle with the spout in contact.

So, I started thinking about it, and remembered that someone had mentioned the possibility that the sprue could be cooling before the boolit, and so I stopped cooling the sprue plate on the wet towel as I do with my 2 cavity mold.

Viola! Perfect boolits afterward. I found that the mold likes to run hot, and cast slow.



Very pleased with the outcome.

New to me Mold, More learning experiences.

I bought a new to me mold from a member of Cast Boolits who goes by the handle of dk17hmr.

The mold is a Lee 140 gr .358" SWC single cavity.



When I received it, rather quickly I might add, I noted that the sprue plate was excessively tight. I immediately loosened the sprue plate just enough that it would open and close under it's own weight and a little motion.

Other than that, the mold is in perfect shape. By the looks of the box this mold is more than a few years old, and I noted that the vent lines on this mold were much deeper than the ones originally on my newer Lees.

So, I cleaned it up, and decided I would cast myself some boolits and see how this thing fared.

After getting it heated up, it started casting some decent boolits, though I noted it requires quite a bit of heat to keep this thing happy. Understandable, as the mold blocks are smaller, it loses heat at a more rapid rate than it's larger 2 cavity cousin.



I also caught myself cutting the sprue entirely too quickly, which caused me to tear the sprue.

Later on, I started getting voids in my boolits which were visible to the naked eye.



I got 90 acceptable boolits from my hour of casting. The average diameter of my finished boolits is .3595"

Overall, a good mold, for a good price. Now I just need to work out what it likes.

Of Wal-Mart and Open Carry.

I have been posting on Opencarry.org for quite a while now, and have noticed a distressing recurrence.

It seems that every other day, somebody posts the opinion of some Wal-mart manager, either supporting or not supporting open carry and gun rights.

Why is this such a distressing occurrence? I will tell you why. This occurrence is so distressing, because all of these people are wasting their time with this Wal-mart bull shnit!

What conceivable gain could we as gun owners possibly receive if Wal-mart was pro gun? What I ask you will be the benefit to the state of gun rights in this country?

Sure, maybe we could open carry with impunity in Wal-mart and reach a large cross section of the country with our message.

But Wait! We already do that! Holy hallelujah praise the lord! We can Open carry in Wal-mart!

Pat yourself on the back, and pay attention to things that really matter already!

Help elect pro gun officials. Keep in contact with your congressman and legislator, let them know where you stand on gun rights, and demand that they as servants of the people vote the people's will!

If as much time and effort was put into these activities, instead of fruitlessly chasing the Wal-mart fairy, I could only imagine how much better off we would be.

Stand up and be heard! And if you believe Wal-mart doesn't support your gun rights, don't shop there.

Simple, Easy, Done.

Black Powder from Literally Nothing. Part 3

Now that we have our ingredients, we can actually make the powder.

I know, some are going to say that I am missing an ingredient. That is true, but a simple 70/30 mix of charcoal and saltpeter will make a much less smokey, if slightly less powerful black powder.

Aside, this is being written in the assumption that you are in a SHTF scenario, and sulphur may not be readily available, and is difficult to make.

SAFETY NOTE: WHEN MAKING BLACK POWDER, WEAR SAFETY GLASSES, AND DO NOT USE METAL INSTRUMENTS. USE STATIC FREE TOOLS. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

So, to begin, you will need a mortar and pestle. These are easy enough to find or make, a rock and a stone bowl is all it really is.

Now, take your charcoal, and grind it on the pestle to get a fine powder. Powder should be as fine as possible.

You can make a ball mill out of a rotary rock tumbler and heavy decorative rocks. This will result in very fine powder, but will take 72 hours to do.

Now, your black powder should be around 70% saltpeter, and 30% charcoal. The burn rate can be increased by increasing charcoal, and is maxed at approximately 33%, whereas the burn heat can be increased by reducing the charcoal, and is maxed at about 23% charcoal.

Obviously, burn rate will be more important for our application.

Now, take your measured saltpeter(measured by weight, NOT volume) and add to boiling water and stir, until all of the saltpeter has dissolved into the water. Try to get saturation, as too much water can be detrimental.

Once you have your solution, sift in your charcoal, and mix. You will get a wet greyish sludge.

Be careful not to slosh onto heat, it may ignite.

Now remove the mix from heat and pour into another container full of rubbing alchohol. Stir the mix, this will help the saltpeter bind to the charcoal.

NOTE: KEEP THE ALCOHOL AWAY FROM HEAT SOURCE!

Once it is thoroughly mixed and cool, pour the mixture through a paper filter. Coffee filters work well.

Allow to drain until an impression can be made in the mixture with your finger.

Place the mix into a sieve and rub through onto cardboard, this will cause the mixture to seperate into granules. Very important.

Allow mixture to dry in the sun, or wherever it may dry properly. Dry for at least 24 hours.

Once dry, pour the powder through a sieve of finer mesh than the one previously used, doing this will remove any ultra fine powder, which can later be used for fuses.

You now have black powder. But what is the burn rate? You may want to know this.

In order to measure the burn rate of black powder, you will need a stop watch, and a 12 oz pop can cut in half. Calculate the volume of the half can using the formula

v = h*pi*r2 V=Volume h=height r=radius Use Metric measurements.

Fill the half can to the top with powder, UNCOVERED, and ignite with a fuse. Once the powder starts burning, time how long it takes to burn.

Take the volume of the powder and divide by how many seconds it takes to burn, and you have your burn rate.

Remember to use smaller loads until you test the powder you have made. It will tend to be less powerful than commercial black powder, but you never can tell until you have tested it.

Also, this mixture has a higher ignition point than traditional black powder. This is fine in caplocks, but may not work so well with flintlocks.

If you are working with a flinter or a matchlock, using the same procedures as above with the addition of grinding the sulphur, mix 100 parts saltpeter, 18 parts charcoal, and 16 parts sulfur.

BE CAREFUL, AND FOLLOW ALL PRECAUTIONS. THIS IS A FLAMMABLE SUBSTANCE.
ALSO, CHECK THE LEGALITY OF MANUFACTURING BLACK POWDER IN YOUR AREA.

Black Powder from Literally Nothing. Part 2

Charcoal, the next thing you need for your self made black powder.

No, you can't just use commercial charcoal briquettes, they are not the same as the charcoal we are going to make. Don't ask me why, I don't remember why, just that they don't work. Something about them being compressed.

Anyway, you will need a 55 gallon drum for your fire. Cut a 12" wide by 10" tall hole in the bottom of the drum so that you can tend the fire you will build in there.

Drill four holes in the drum 90 degrees from each other about 8" above the bottom, and put rebar through the holes as a support for a 16 gallon steel drum. Cut the top off the 55 gallon drum.

Cut several 3/8" holes in the bottom of the 16 gallon steel drum. Fill the 16 gallon drum with dry wood. Build a fire in the bottom of the 55 gallon drum, and place the 16 gallon drum, with lid on in the 55 gallon drum.

Place the cut off top of the 55 gallon drum on top of the drum, but supported about 3/4" off of it. This will keep the heat in and allow the fire to vent.

Allow the fire to burn until the gasses escaping the 16 gallon no longer burn.

Open and you will have charcoal.

Black Powder from Literally Nothing. Part 1

Will the American Dollar fail? Hope not. But if it does, it may not recover for a long time. If that happens, chaos will ensue. And you may not be able to get ammo anymore.

If this happens, how will you protect yourself? The answer, is black powder weapons.

But how do you make black powder from literally nothing? Make the ingredients first.

Saltpeter. One of the three ingredients of Black Powder. Easily attained, but requires a little work.

First, you will need manure, or fertilizer. Large quantities are good.

Then, green plants, dirt, and wood ash. Potato leaves contain a lot of potassium, and are good for the mix. Mix all of these ingredients together to make a salt peter bed. The pile should be about half manure and about 6 to 7 feet tall. Also, it must be placed on something like a piece of plywood to keep the saltpeter from soaking into the ground.

Cover your bed with a tarp suspended over it. You can use cinder blocks or a shed wall to do this.

Next, you pour Lant, or stale urine, over your pile. This should be done at least once a week, until yellow crystals appear. This is what you want. Once the yellow crystals appear, stop pouring the lant on the pile, and wait for the crystals to get to 6-10 millimeters thick.

Collect the crystals and save as these crystals are saltpeter. The pile will create more for a while, and when it stops, filter the pile using the following technique, then replace the pile.

In order to filter the rest of the saltpeter out of the pile, make a filter by poking holes in the bottom of a five gallon bucket, and covering the holes with cotton cloth. Cover the cotton with about 1/2" of fine wood ash, then cover the ash with another cotton cloth. DO NOT USE A CHARCOAL FILTER, IT WILL REMOVE THE SALTPETER.

Fill the bucket with dirt from the heap, while boiling 2 gallons of water. Place a pan underneath the bucket, and pour the boiling water into the filter.

Let the water drain into the pan, and pour the contents through a paper filter, such as a coffee filter. Boil some of the water off, and then put the water into black containers.

Once the water evaporates, viola, saltpeter.

Review of Reloader's Reference

I recently came across a program created by a wiljen of Castboolits.

It's called Reloader's Reference and can be found here.

At first, I couldn't get it to work. But this was my fault. Remember while installing that if you don't have Microsoft Access, you must select that during install. Doing this will then install Access runtime so that you may use the program regardless.

Then I got it open, but couldn't access any of the metallic cartridge data.

I spoke to wiljen about this, and was informed that since I have Window's Vista, I needed to adjust the security permissions. An explanation on how to do this can be found in the files at the previous link called Vistareadme.txt

So I corrected the issue, and now it works flawlessly.

All of the data found within has been checked against reputable sources, and is quite extensive.

It has many features that I absolutely love, including inventories for your reloading components and firearms, and several different calculators such as a trajectory calculator, and twist rate calculations.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this program so far, and would suggest it to any reloader to use as a handy reference.

On Gun laws and Open Carry

When I was 19, I discovered that my long held belief of open carry being legal in Utah, was correct. I had recently inherited a Smith and Wesson Model 10 I .38 spcl, and a few holsters for it from my father.

Being under 21, open carry was my only legal method of carrying a firearm, and I had a wife and a baby daughter that I was responsible for, so I immediately studied up on the law, put my gun on my hip, and began carrying it everywhere legal.

At first, I was nervous. I thought that somebody would call the police. I thought I would get kicked out of stores, I thought I would be harassed. And yet, I continued on my course.

Because of the research I had done, and thanks to the help of the guys over on www.opencarry.org I knew that what I was doing was perfectly legal, and in fact a God given right.

Over time, I became much more comfortable with it. People didn't freak out, nobody called the police, and the few times anyone said anything about it, the outcome was positive.

To date, nobody has ever asked me to leave a store, and only once was I detained by the police. This resulted in a disorderly conduct charge that was promptly defeated in court.



All the while I have had the reassurance that I would at least have a fighting chance should the unthinkable happen. This is worth all of the very limited hassle I have received.

While living here in Texas, I have gotten my concealed carry permit, and have learned how much I hate concealing my firearm. It's dishonest, it's uncomfortable, it just plain sucks.

I feel that I need the permission of the government to exercise a God given right. This of course is not acceptable if you ask me.

Why exactly is it that I have to prove that I can legally own a firearm when I buy one? The Brady Law may appear reasonable on it's face, but when we I looked even deeper, I realized that it is completely useless.

From the Merriam Webster online dictionary:

Criminal:

1 : relating to, involving, or being a crime (criminal neglect)
2 : relating to crime or to the prosecution of suspects in a crime (criminal statistics) (brought criminal action)
3 : guilty of crime; also : of or befitting a criminal (a criminal mind)
4 : disgraceful

Take particular note to number 3. The individual by definition is guilty of crime. If one is already guilty of crime, then what is to stop the criminal from committing another crime? Trust me, it would be far too easy for a criminal to purchase a firearm illegally. And how traceable are they? They really aren't.

So what exactly does the Brady Law do?

It inconveniences the law abiding.

And how about banning fully automatic firearms? Lemme ask you, have you ever fired one? I have, plenty of them, kinda part of being a soldier.

And what I have found is that they are NOT good at killing many people quickly. As a matter of fact, they are hard to keep on target, you run out of ammo quickly, and overall are just inconvenient.

I submit that given the horrible inaccuracy of most mass shooters, combined with the difficulty involved with staying on target with a full auto, I would expect the mass shootings would actually end up less deadly were the shooter to elect to use a full auto.

So again, what does this law do? Keeps fun weapons out of the hands of the law abiding.

Prior to all of the gun control in this country, how was it? I can only guess as I am nowhere near old enough to know.

Though I hear stories from those old enough to remember. And the overwhelming theme of the stories has always been, peaceful existence.

I have found that while carrying a pistol, I tend to avoid altercations at all costs, knowing that any fight I cause could end up in a deadly altercation. This of course would usually end up with me at least being dragged through a long process of trying to prove my innocence, and at best leaving me broke and missing some time I can never retrieve, and at worst I may spend a life in prison.

Thus I firmly believe that an armed society IS a polite society.

I do acknowledge that there will always be the criminal element. For whatever reason, some individuals feel that the laws do not apply to them.

The way to deal with these kinds is clear, if they commit crime, they will be swiftly and severely punished. Of course, I am not speaking of the death penalty liberally applied for minor offenses, I submit that with harsh punishments that inflict not only pain, but public humiliation would be highly effective at reducing crime.

Now, again, I am not speaking of shooting somebody for shoplifting, though a public whipping may do wonders.

We really do need to pull our society back from this backwards “progress” We need to understand that the life of a repeat criminal is not worth what society pays to feed and house them.

Prison is an ineffective punishment. It is almost as much a reward as anything.

America needs to be taken back from the brink of socialism and returned to it's former glory.

Adventures in Boolit casting. Part 2

After spending a long time away from my family and all of my hobbies due to my military obligations, I have finally managed to get back into at least one of my hobbies.

Just a few months ago, I decided to get back to boolit casting and bought an off brand two burner camp stove. A cast Iron skillet pulled lead melting duties, and a small decorative cast iron skillet attached to vice grips was used as a ladle.

I bought a bucket of wheelweights from a local tire shop for $20 and began sorting the wheelweights.

After reading a lot about zinc wheelweights on castboolits.gunloads.com I started sorting the wheelweights a little at a time. I did it at work when I had nothing better to do, I sorted them at home, and little by little I got them sorted.

And much to my surprise, I ended up with less than a 1 lb coffee can full of zinc and iron wheel weights.

I got about 80 lbs of clip on wheelweights, and 25 pounds of stick on wheel weights.

I thought I got a decent deal at around .20 cents per lb.

After getting them all sorted, I began melting the lead and casting them into ingots. I used a large muffin pan from wal mart as an ingot mould, and these ingots are slightly more than 2 lbs a piece.



Once my new Lee mould arrived, a 125 gr round nose boolit of .356” diameter, I started casting boolits.



Well, I fluxed with wax from another scented candle (also pilfered from the wife, she caught me this time) and poured with a ladle.

I was getting rounded bases on my boolits, and couldn't figure out why. After appealing for help, I was informed that it was likely my alloy was too cool.

I tried and tried to get higher heat transfer into my melt, but just couldn't seem to get the temperature high enough to give me good boolit fill out 100% of the time.

So, after once again pleading my case, a member on castboolits suggested I invest in a Lee melter.

I did some research and ordered a new Lee Pro 4-20 pot. (I cringe at that designation every time I read it) The pot came rather quickly from Midway USA, and cost me $70 after shipping.



The pot has bottom pour capability, which is really good as my ladle is too large to fit in the pot.

I quickly pilfered a spoon from the kitchen (wife doesn't know, we have lots of spoons) and attached it to the vice grips.



Works quite well for fluxing and skimming purposes. I set the pot to high and it quickly melted my lead, so quickly that I was thoroughly surprised.

And I was able to get mould fill out much more often. But everything was not fixed. I was still getting what I felt to be a high reject rate due to improper fill out.

Once again, I brought my issues to castboolits, and was advised that Lee moulds tend to suffer from poor venting. So to improve this, I took a sharp knife to the aluminum mould blocks, and traced over the vent lines to just noticeably open them up.

Then I loosened the sprue plate just enough to allow it so swing open using it's own weight.

Viola! I now able to cast perfect boolits 90% of the time.



Now, after casting 1000 of these little boolits, I decided it was time to figure out how I was going to lube them.



Lee Liquid Alox was suggested, but is about the consistency of mule snot, and tends to remain sticky for quite a while after application.

Well, a member by the name of geargnasher on castboolits suggested a mix of Liquid Alox, Johnson's paste Wax, and Mineral Spirits.

After a small misunderstanding, he agreed to send me a small sample. These guys are great. They want each other to be successful.

I received the sample, a couple of boolits lubed with the mix, and instructions on how to use it.



Well, I tried some and am quite impressed, all you do is place the boolits and some of the lube in a ziploc bag, and massage them around, then pour them on wax paper and dry them.

The result was a light coat of brown on the boolits with a barely perceptible stickiness, which may have had something to do with the humidity around here.

So now I am waiting on a Lee Semi Wad Cutter mold for my .38 spcl and still don't have the tools to load completed rounds.

So we will see how that goes when I get the equipment, until then I'm just enjoying creating these little lead things.

Adventures in Boolit casting. Part 1

Nearly 2 years ago, I took a trip down to the local Cabela's (Lehi, UT at the time) and purchased a brand new Colt 1851 Navy reproduction in .44



It was a wonderful experience, walking in and buying a gun without having to have a background check. Ah to have lived in the 30's.

I immediately purchased the required items to fire the weapon, and a holster in which to carry it.

I went out to shoot it within a week or so, and found it very enjoyable to shoot. It would hit the bullseye on my target at 50 yards so long as I did my part. Can't remember the load though.

But something hit me, the price of 100 round ball for the thing was crazy. $20, I couldn't believe it, I could buy 100 loaded rounds for my 9mm for that price.

So I started looking into ways I could shoot this thing for less money. The most immediate answer was found in a round ball mould from Lee Precision.

I purchased this mould for $20 at Cabela's and my Father in law provided me with a small bag of lead shot.

Well, I got together a Coleman Camp stove, some propane, a stainless steel pot, and a ladle made out of a stamped steel measuring cup and a pair of vice grips.

Well, I melted that lead down knowing nothing of lead alloys and hardness, and I was able to create some nice round ball.

Then I went out and shot a few of these. Well, the accuracy was excellent, and I got NO leading. There was just one problem, they were a real bear to load.

Well, I went out and joined in at castboolits.gunloads.com and immediately figured out that what I had was a bag full of magnum shot, which has high antimony and arsenic content, resulting in a hard alloy.

So I bought a few pounds of plumber's lead and cast several more round ball. Loading problem solved.

But I seemed to have to skim off a lot of dross, turns out I needed to flux the pot.

I pilfered a scented candle from my wife(she still doesn't know it's gone) and dropped a small amount of the wax in the melt, sure enough, the dross returned to pure lead.

Well, I went on active duty for quite a while (I'm still on active duty) and was unable to continue until just recently, More on my leap to boolits for smokeless weapons later.

R.I.P Meleanie Hain

I remember a while back there was a particular buzz around a soccer mom who open carried her loaded handgun to her daughter's soccer game. Much was said about the rightness of this, and several of the other parents filed complaints against that soccer mom. They revoked her license to carry concealed, and she appealed. Needless to say, her license was returned.

She then went on to file suit against the judge who revoked the permit. Though she would never see the outcome.

Meleanie Hain and her husband Scott Hain were found dead in their home on Wednesday October 7 2009. The cause of death is being touted as a murder-suicide.

Here is one of the articles, this one from Fox News.

Gun-Toting Soccer Mom, Husband Shot Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide

It is never happy news when a person is murdered, but this case is especially tragic, as the couple left behind 3 young children, ages 2, 10, and 6.

It seems according to CNN,

"The little boy said, 'Daddy shot mommy. That's what Tyler said to Mark," said neighbor Aileen Fortna.

Tyler is the couple's oldest son and Mark is the neighbor."

And according to JayBell, a super moderator on www.pafoa.org, and acquaintance of Hain,

"this sucks.

she was telling me at the OC dinner in Collegeville she was planning to discuss divorce with her husband, but was afraid he'd react violently....

RIP Meleanie.. and rot in hell Scott Hain"

So, everything I have read would suggest that Scott Hain did react violently, so violently in fact, that he murdered his wife. All just speculation of course, but sounds quite likely.

My heart goes out to the children of this unfortunate couple.

It is sad to think of the likelihood that the media will take and spin this story in a way that puts all gun owners in a bad light.

I would like to echo the sentiment found in the signature line of pafoa.org super moderator Pa. Patriot.

To Meleanie: We love you, we miss you and most of all we thank you. Thank you for being you. A strong woman who stood up for what she believed in and in the process brought so many of us together even closer. We will use what we learned from you in continuing to contribute to the cause. Farewell my friend.

Update: I just found this video from CNN which lends more credence to the idea that Scott Hain shot Meleanie Hain.

Gun Toting Soccer Mom Killed

Lament of the younger generation.

So, ever since I was 16 years old, I have been supporting myself, and I have gained a certain sense of responsibility from my experiences.

I have been a proponent of personal responsibility ever since then. I have a hard time with the younger set of today, as they don't seem to understand the concept of personal responsibility.

I joined the army a while ago, and my service has been an eye opening experience. I learned quite quickly the lack of accountability that our 18 year olds have.

I spend a lot of time with members of the younger set (keep in mind I'm not too old myself) and have become a bit disillusioned when it comes to their parents.

How is it that these individuals equate talking trash with being a man? I was always taught that a man never caused a problem if it was not necessary. I have never seen the need to pick fights with others to make myself feel better, I guess I have just always had a certain measure of confidence. Some of these other soldiers tend to try and degrade others while speaking with horrible grammar.

What are schools teaching children these days? And since when did it become acceptable for teachers to teach children to hold a certain political idealogy? Are not the moral and political lessons for children best left to the parents?

It seems to me that if the parents don't step forward and take over the moral teaching of their children, we may go the way of the Roman Empire.

I hope that I may be adequate in the teaching of my children's moral lessons. I want them to live a wonderful life and hope they don't relegate themselves to the immorality of the masses.

I believe were it not for the current attitudes toward discipline, my generation would have a much better start at life.

I cannot see how a child can learn right and wrong without real consequences tied to their actions.

Many in my generation are fixated on sex and worldly goods. I cannot stand every time I hear the word "bitch" used when describing a woman, and especially when they use it without malice.

Since when did it become acceptable to treat women in this fashion? I feel that I am lucky to have my wife, as she is a sweet and caring individual, and I feel that I am a bit of an ass.

Shorty, bitch, ho, all being used in non malicious conversation. And half of these guys can't enunciate a single word they speak. Whatever happened to the english language?

Another soldier went against doctor's (LT Colonel's) orders and lifted a refrigerator the other day, after trying to get out of it because he was hurt.

His reasoning? The fridge went to his room in the barracks. I made the comment, Ah, so you have a vested interest then eh?

His response? Wha? He had no idea what I was saying, then he started talking as if I had insulted him. It's quite a frustrating situation I assure you.

Welcome to my Blog.

So, it seemed that everyone and their dang brother has a blog nowadays, so I figured to set one up for myself.

This blog will follow my experiences in the military, with my family, in casting boolits and various other things.

I am a young father of two beautiful daughters, and the husband to a very loving wife. I feel that self reliance and responsibility are the corner stones of a successful life.

So, hope you enjoy my blog, I'll write it whether you do or not.