Starter pot question.

[A pause for the COZ]

Ok, I have pretty much killed my budget for a while but still want to cast some Boolits.
I am going to order a Lyman #311291 die set to get my 30-30 and Mosin fix.
I do have a couple Colamn stoves out in the shop.
Can I get buy with a used stanless or aluminium pot from the goodwill and use that for a while?

[Bill*]

yes with the stainless, but don't use aluminum, it can fail at the temps you're dealing with

[A pause for the COZ]

Thanks Bill!!!
Off to the GW I go.

[cbr]

Coleman stove and a cast iron pot from a thrift store is all I have ever used. Keep thinking one of these days I will upgrade, but I guess if it aint broke, dont fix it.

[Sonnypie]

Stainless would be my choice.
And not too big, unless you want to use it for smelting later.
I guess you will be ladle pouring?

Welcome to cast boolits.

Oh, and you'll have to take your finger out of your nose.

[mongo]

My smelter is an old Coleman white gas stove with a big old stainless pressure cooker pot. I plan on getting a propand burner but agree with cbr, If it aint broke, dont fix it..

[mpmarty]

Turkey fryer and a five gallon propane tank work for me with a few cast iron pots.

[A pause for the COZ]

Stainless would be my choice.
And not too big, unless you want to use it for smelting later.
I guess you will be ladle pouring?

Welcome to cast boolits.

Oh, and you'll have to take your finger out of your nose.

Yes ladle pour is the plan for now. At least until I know what I want.

You know what they say. Have to concentrate on the task at hand.... D'oh!!!

[10 ga]

For years I used a Coleman 2 burner and a GW stainless steel deep skillet. Then I worked in a yardsale cast iron dutch oven. Now I have several yard sale fish cooker/turkey fryer burners and cut down freon tanks. Have several SS pots from GW and the junkyard that I use for casting. Other than 40 years ago in college at VT casting with the infamous Ed Harris, I've never used a bottom pour. Ladle all the way, from smelting to casting. Smelting and casting are too much fun to do in a hurry! 10

[Bret4207]

A Coleman and a steel pot is fine. I used a camp stove and a bread pan for some time and an old soup ladle to pour with. This isn't rocket science. At this point you should be concentrating on learning to cast. Some of the finest boolits ever poured were produced using little more than a woodstove, a cast pot and a ho'made ladle. Old Harry Pope and CW Rowland didn't have Master Casters and bottom pour pots. You will produce as nice, if not nicer, boolits with a yard sale stainless pot and a ladle as you will with a #350.00 RCBS BP pot if you pay attention.

BTW- if you want to feed a M-N you'd be better off with a 314299 than a 311329.

[Jim]

Boy, Bret, THAT brought back some memories! A single element stove on top of one of those small bottles with the plastic flange base, an old pot my wife said I could have and a gravy ladle with the handle bent straight. Man, I was somebody!

[leftiye]

Think Potty!

[A pause for the COZ]

Thanks guys I appreciate the advice. I have found a couple Stainless pots for .50 cents for both and a soup laddle and some sort of wisk for taking things out of a deep fryier. All for less than a buck.
I decided to wait on the 30 cal mold for now. Not sure what I want yet. I do have two LEE molds coming
LEE DC MOLD 358-158-RF
LEE DC MOLD 452-228-1R

I shoot these by the 1000's so should give me casting to do. Now I am reading up on Pan Lube

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

I'm one of those who started with a gas stove and pot, tried a bottom pour and returned to the pot and stove never to look back

Get yourself a Rowell bottom pour ladle, a cast iron pot that holds 40 + lbs and you and the gas stove can really turn out the boolits.

If casting for the handguns, I like to team cast running 4 - 5 molds and prefer the 4 cavity or larger molds.

Two of us can cast a lot of boolits fast, and the big pot and the gas stove are big enough and hot enough to allow for adding back the sprews and fresh ingets all while still casting.

For my rifle boolits, I cast alone trying for boolits of a bit closer weights.

On the handgun boolits, few of us can shoot good enough to ever see the difference of a slight wt. difference.

Check out the bottom pour ladles before you spend money on a Lyman or RCBS casting ladle. The bottom are a huge step better then the side pour.

By the way, Bruce - BABore - here on the forum is a maker of great quality molds. Talking better here then anything Lyman, RCBS or Lee ever turned out. Of those three, I prefer RCBS and wish they made something bigger then 2 cavity molds.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[A pause for the COZ]

Well Gave it my 1st try today. Set up my Colman stove with a stainless steel soup pan. set up my water quench, My slag pan. Cleaned and pre heated my molds. Took me a little while to figure out how to get a LEE mold to throw good lead. Cant be too hot, Cant be too cold, Cant be to hot in one spot and just right in another. Once you do hit the sweet spot they come out pretty nice. I ended up with 100 good ones for the 45.
Didn't have any luck with the 357 boolits. I didn't smoke the mold 1st and was just messing around with it. Will do better next time.

[Bret4207]

Don't even bother smoking the mould. That's just a bandaid on the problems that are usually realted to not enough heat in the mould and oils left int he mould from machining. No need to quench for a 45. You can if you want, but it's hardly ever needed.

[GP100man]

If ya gonna try 1 mould for both rifles don`t over look the 311041

The 311041 does excellent in the dirty-turdy ,but the 314299 is the cats meow in the Mosin.

I chamber cast my Mosins & found the throats were long & the long nose on the 314299helped alot .

On equipment , it really does`nt take alot to start but takes $$ to have production !!!

I think most here started with a fire, pot & ladle ????

Myself I started because I bought the Lyan manual to load with & started reading the casting section & said Hummm . - - - - - My name is GP100man & I`m an addict ,it`s been 16days7hrs 43 minutes 27 seconds since I last melted lead !!!!

Gotta get a FIX !!!!

[A pause for the COZ]

If ya gonna try 1 mould for both rifles don`t over look the 311041

The 311041 does excellent in the dirty-turdy ,but the 314299 is the cats meow in the Mosin.

I chamber cast my Mosins & found the throats were long & the long nose on the 314299helped alot .

On equipment , it really does`nt take alot to start but takes $$ to have production !!!

I think most here started with a fire, pot & ladle ????

Myself I started because I bought the Lyan manual to load with & started reading the casting section & said Hummm . - - - - - My name is GP100man & I`m an addict ,it`s been 16days7hrs 43 minutes 27 seconds since I last melted lead !!!!

Gotta get a FIX !!!!

For me it was the chapter in ABC's of reloading describing papper patched cast bullets.
That got me wanting to cast. I will learn paper patching.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Haven't been there and done that, so could be dealing with false info here --------

But, it sounds like the paper patching is a factor in shorter barrel life. As said, haven't been there, just going on what I read.

Truely other then making the rainbow arch of the 45/70 a bit flatter, from the killing aspect, can see no reason for needing greater velocity and up to the 2300 - 2500fps lubed boolits did just fine.

Figure that with velocity in that range and providing I was still shooting my current 465gr boolit, recoil just may not be to my liking!

Quite happy in the 1600 - 1700fps range with that boolit and it kills like crazy!

Was benching a friend's 30/06 and his wife's 270 yesterday, and after a summer of load development with the 465gr in the 45/70, those rifles were kitten soft in the recoil department.

IMHO, If your hunting for game, use a proper boolit design and caliber and you'll not need the higher velocity and/or paper patching.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[cbrick]

a yard sale stainless pot and a ladle as you will with a $350.00 RCBS BP pot if you pay attention.

Yikes, now there was an eye opening shocker. Must have been some time since I priced the RCBS pot. I remember being shocked when they hit $100.00 and thinking how lucky I was that I bought mine when I did.

I thought it was a typo when Bret said $350, had to go to Midway and see. WOW . . . No typo.

Rick