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.