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DATE FIRM, May 22nd . . . 2010 Spring Cast Bullet Workshop - Shirley Rod and Gun Club

I'm still hoping to make it but as I said earlier I might have to work. If I'm able to attend I could take 2-3 riders from the So Shore area. My car gets 32-35 mpg on a trip so I wouldn't need any gas money. I'll know either way tomorrow night about this time.
 
I am out. Good excuse though. Just left the hospital after spending what seemed like an eternity in pain due to kidney stones. I feel worse now that I am home and will be home bound for a few days.

Guess I will have to go to Maine for the next one.

If someone wants to come by for WW there's around 25lbs. in a box in the back of my truck.
 
Fixxah said:
I am out. Good excuse though. Just left the hospital after spending what seemed like an eternity in pain due to kidney stones. I feel worse now that I am home and will be home bound for a few days.

Guess I will have to go to Maine for the next one.

If someone wants to come by for WW there's around 25lbs. in a box in the back of my truck.
Click to expand...

Wow. I hope you get better soon John.
 
Sorry to hear about the stones. I have had them TWICE now, and it isn't any fun at all. The pain meds make it tolerable though.
If you're feeling better in the AM, stop by anyways.

Fixxah said:
I am out. Good excuse though. Just left the hospital after spending what seemed like an eternity in pain due to kidney stones. I feel worse now that I am home and will be home bound for a few days.

Guess I will have to go to Maine for the next one.

If someone wants to come by for WW there's around 25lbs. in a box in the back of my truck.
Click to expand...
 
Fixxah said:
I am out. Good excuse though. Just left the hospital after spending what seemed like an eternity in pain due to kidney stones. I feel worse now that I am home and will be home bound for a few days.

Guess I will have to go to Maine for the next one.

If someone wants to come by for WW there's around 25lbs. in a box in the back of my truck.
Click to expand...
Hope you feel better John.
 
I guess I should have checked this site yesterday, I gave up on it earlier in the week. Reading the last 4 or 5 pages, I asssume that everything that needs to be brought, is. Not that I have much time but is there anything that is needed? Of course we'll bring a few bucks to chip in for food.
Bob
 
Don't forget your wheel weights.....
My presumption is that food is being taken care of.

I didn't get out to Staples (35 minutes from my home), to get NAME TAGS. If you're near one of those places, could you pick up name tags fopr about 20 people (small package)?

See you tomorrow!

highscore said:
I guess I should have checked this site yesterday, I gave up on it earlier in the week. Reading the last 4 or 5 pages, I asssume that everything that needs to be brought, is. Not that I have much time but is there anything that is needed? Of course we'll bring a few bucks to chip in for food.
Bob
Click to expand...
 
DukeInMaine said:
Don't forget your wheel weights.....
My presumption is that food is being taken care of.

I didn't get out to Staples (35 minutes from my home), to get NAME TAGS. If you're near one of those places, could you pick up name tags fopr about 20 people (small package)?

See you tomorrow!
Click to expand...

If I see something on the way up I will. Weights are already in the trunk! Anyone know if there is a local WalMart?? See you in the AM.
 
Outstanding day. A big thank you to Duke, Bob, Mark, Jim et al.I thought I new a little about casting bullets turned out I was right, very little. We turned wheel weights into bullets and covered a lot before and after. Good weather, a nice group of guys and I found found out once again that everyone is a little different in person than on line. Glad I went and can't wait to use some of what I learned. Thank You
 
The workshop was a BLAST (and nothing blew up). I had a great time and learned a lot. I am continually impressed with how great NES people are. Thanks to all.
 
Thanks to Jim and Shirley R&G for letting Duke, Bob, and Mark put on an excellent workshop. Definately a great refresher for me since I haven't cast one bullet since last fall. Pluss, I got to see some great ways to use muffin tins. To those who would have liked to go but might have been a little shy I highly recommend attending the next one. Assuming there is one.[wink]

A special thanks to Manomet for supplying the sausages and doing the cooking, it looked pretty hot from where I was standing.
 
I'm sure today's workshop has averted at least one future ER visit for one of us - maybe me! This smelting stuff and all the molten lead... I had a chance to try almost all the steps with people on hand to say "don't DO that" just in case!

Thanks to DukeInMaine, Bob_J and Marcus5Aurelius for sharing their experience and EddieCoyle for providing the place!
 
Patriot said:
...[pics] ...
Click to expand...

I saw a couple people snapping a few pictures so hopefully they will be posted to the forum soon. Thanks again to everyone who came and made it such a great day. Thanks again to EC for hosting us and DukeinMaine for taking such a long drive down here from Maine to join us. No matter how much you think you know, these workshops always seem to prove that theres always something new you can learn from each other. Especially when you're working with molten lead there's plenty of things that could potential go wrong if you're not careful and it makes it signifcantly easier and safer to be guided through by others who have done it all before.
 
The lubing and gas checking of those HUGE .500 bullets (ready to load into cases!) was surely the highlight for most people. I mean, taking raw wheel weights and smelting those down into ingots was a start. And, then bringing the ingots over to the bottom pour pots, and casting into bullets was interesting. But seeing that the final result (the lubed and gas checked bullets) was REAL........

There was only one casualty, a broken bolt on one of Bob_J's molds. He says it's fixable.

My personal thanks for all who expressed enough interest to help make it happen:
  • The dozen or so people who took a beautiful Saturday off from busy things, to come and learn about casting bullets
  • The people who brought and prepared food to feed the hungry masses
  • Bob_J and Marcus for bringing all that gear, especially the dozen of molds, virtually a mold for every interest. My personal thanks to you two!
  • Thanks to Eddie_Coyle for the hospitality and the water, the use of the club, and the genuine interest in the casting subject. He's a guy who needs a new hobby (ha ha ha ha ha). The facility was PERFECT for what we were doing. I'll send a letter off to the Club, thanking them for their generousity.

This event was bigger than the last one we did, and I am sure that there were people who would have attended if they weren't otherwise obligated elsewhere. There were things we did better than last Fall's event, and some things we could have done better this time around. We should document all the suggestions, and make sure we implement the changes for the next time. Yes, I hope the next time comes before too long (next Spring?)

Like the last event, we'll post follow up details, here... For example, I owe Bob_J and a few others the source for the bottom pour ladle I was using.

And, Curley_Maple promises that he will post pictures that he took, as soon as he can get them on his server.

I hope that everyone got ingots and bullets for the lead that they brought. Let me know if anyone was shorted.

Finally, if anyone wants follow up questions answered, feel free to PM me or Bob_J, and we'll do our best to answer.

Some of us cast a lot, and would offer to allow you to join us at any time. Especially if you now have the "bug" and don't have a mold yet, but want to make some more bullets. We can "fix you up".....

Thank you ALL!
 
These were taken with cell phone cam before I got so involved I forgot to take more!

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I would also like to thank everyone who made this possible, I learned a lot. I can't wait to shoot the 25 or 30 9mm bullets I took home and see if they load the barrel on my XD-9.

Duke, I believe it was your mold that produced the 9mm hollow points. Can you tell me what the "as cast" diameter of the bullets are? I forgot to take a unsized one home for comparison. The sized bullets are .3551 diameter and weights are very consistant, better than many bullets I have bought in the past. One was slightly lighter than the others but I can see that the pour was probably interupted or the mold slightly too cool as there was one wrinkle in the bullet and I attribute that for the 1 grain lighter weight.

The other Bob J (highscore)
 

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