Almost ready to go with my shotshell reloading

[RooftopKorean]

Today I deprimed and resized hull/brass on 500 shells.



Also received my Redneck Gold in the mail, nice clean 5lb lead ingots.



Just waiting on some other tools to arrive in the mail.

Lee Pro Melter pot
Lee 690 round ball mold
Hull roll crimp clamp vice
Hull trimmer
Roll crimper

 

[RooftopKorean]

My pot, mold, and roll crimper arrived today.

 

[Beerman]

I’d love to be lazy and see a list of what you got, where you bought it, and how much $$ all in.

 

[RooftopKorean]

I'll put together a list for you but I also had basic reloading tools already from doing rifle cartridges.

The formula I'm using is a non-typical reload you would not find in a reloaders manual. Fortunecookie45LC made a video reply for me on his Patreon based off an older video he had made.

So the reloading materials were a mish mosh of stuff I purchased from @Thomas for a good price.

Red Dot Powder
Winchester AA 12ha hulls
Claybuster CB 2118-12 wads
Cheddite Primers

 

[kev74]

Looks interesting. Be careful straying off the reservation!

 

[RooftopKorean]

@kev74 Fortunecookie45LC did tests on the loads he did, they worked fine and pressures were well within norms. I will also be sending out the first five reloads I make for testing.

@Beerman

This is what I purchased to do my Shotshell slug reloading

Amazon - Lyman 51st Edition Reloading Handbook - $31.50
Ebay - Lee Load-All II 12ga Shotshell Press - $79.83
MidwayUSA - Ballistics Products Roll Crimper - $30.99
MidwayUSA - Lee 690 Round Ball Mold - $39.99
MidwayUSA - Lee Pro Pot 4 Lead Melting Pot - $89.99
Etsy - (2) 12ga Reloading Tray - $19.00 each
Etsy - Shell Hull Roll Crimp Vise - $25.00
Etsy - Shell Hull Trimmer - $20.00
Etsy - (3) 5 lb Lead Ingots - $5.00 each

Inline Fabrications - Quick change top plate for Lee Load-All II - $24.95
This you don't need unless you already have an Ultramount.

I will be using my RCBS Chargemaster powder dispenser since the powder drop bushings for the Load-All doesn't drop 19.1 grains and it doesn't seem accurate.

 

[RooftopKorean]

Here's the video response he made for me

 

[Beerman]

Thanks for the info. This looks like a reasonable way to cast slugs and reload your own. I’m really interested. Cheers!

 

[Acer-m14]

don't forget to flame soot your mold too

Soot in Mould

My father told me that when he was growing up he and his friends made toy soldiers by melting lead pipe and casting them using a mould that his father passed on to him. He recently passed that same old mould on to me. It has 3 World War I soldiers and one soldier on horse back. It has a...

www.muzzleloadingforum.com

and get the mold up to temp too .

i used to cast Lead Sinkers with my dads mold and just a Coleman gas stove and a pan ..

get lots of duds till the mold is up to temp and not sticky ..

 

[Acer-m14]

@RooftopKorean

PS .. on that lead from Etsy ..

i would melt it on a stove first and toss some wax or wood chips in it to Flux it

to get any impurity's to float to the top to skim out

before putting it in the lee melting pot ..

 

[RooftopKorean]

@RooftopKorean

PS .. on that lead from Etsy ..

i would melt it on a stove first and toss some wax or wood chips in it to Flux it

to get any impurity's to float to the top to skim out

before putting it in the lee melting pot ..

This lead was already cleaned. The seller said there should be low carbon because he used wood to flux it. He said for low velocity projectiles like slugs it should be fine.

 

[RooftopKorean]

@Acer-m14 do you have to soot it every cast or just initially?

 

[Acer-m14]

@Acer-m14 do you have to soot it every cast or just initially?

initially from what i understand of it ..

it keeps the lead from sticking to the mold .. like a mold release agent ..

you will get some malformed slugs until the mold get up to temp ..

not a issue .. just toss the bad ones back into the pot ..

 

[RooftopKorean]

Got the last of my shotshell supplies in. Gotta love Etsy for all these small little things, and I get to help support small 2A businesses.


Nice little organizer for the Lee Load All-II bushings. Makes it a lot easier to find the proper sized Bushing.

Also picked up four 12ga shell trays.



Now I have to find a day where it isn't freezing where I can cast some round balls. It sucks not having a garage. I wonder if I can do it in my gun room in my apartment as long as I have a fan blowing air into the room and a window fan exhausting.

 

[Acer-m14]

I wonder if I can do it in my gun room in my apartment as long as I have a fan blowing air into the room and a window fan exhausting.

don't make to much air flow across the room .. it will mess with the lead pot trying to keep temp and your mold

just find something to put under what your doing that will keep any spilt hot lead from catching something on fire ..

and have a fire extinguisher in the room too .. just in case ..

no liquids in the area ... hot lead and water and such do not mix ..

 

[Zerex]

Regarding costs..............MEC reloaders are getting expensive.
I have a 660 jr

600 Jr Mark V

The 600 Jr. Mark V reloader is adjustable for 3" shells, available in 10, 12, 16, 20 and 28 gauge and .410 bore. Die sets are available in all gauges.

www.mecoutdoors.com

 

[RooftopKorean]

Kind of useless for me since I never have the intention of loading shot.

 

[Acer-m14]

Kind of useless for me since I never have the intention of loading shot.

you could do shot with what you have for slugs .. don't need the star crimp .. just a over shot card and roll crimp it ..

so if you wanted to get into buck shot and making your own lead balls .. all you need is another mold and some wads and over shot cards ..

you have all the rest now ..

 

[Zerex]

Trap and Skeet and Sporting Clays all require plenty of ammo..............100 day minimum. I have shot 1000 in a weekend at Cicero NYSATA home grounds. All reloads.

600 shooters typical at big meets.
Local trap, skeet and SC clubs abound..are not Fudds, they are shooters. Best shooters are shotgunners....plenty of practice at flying targets.

https://shootata.com/portals/0/pdf/2023EmpireWeb.pdf

 

[RooftopKorean]

Utilizing this shitty weather day to make some Lee 690 round balls.

 

[RooftopKorean]

Here are my first few roll crimps.

The top row left to right was my progression. You can see it's significantly improved.

Lee 690 round ball 1oz with 19.1 grains of Red Dot in Win AA hulls, overall length of shell is 2.1405

Since these were previously shot hulls, the best thing I found out after the first one was to crimp it empty and use the hull trimmer to cut it down so it had a smooth edge before crimping.

I'm going to be sending these out to be tested for safety. Fortunecookie45LC used this formulary safely but I'd rather err on the side of caution.

 

[Robin]

Very cool RTK!!!!!! Do you use any kind of bullet lube? I'd be tempted to seal it in with a touch of Alox or some home made bees wax and crisco mix.
Robin

 

[RooftopKorean]

Very cool RTK!!!!!! Do you use any kind of bullet lube? I'd be tempted to seal it in with a touch of Alox or some home made bees wax and crisco mix.
Robin

Nope.

 

[Beerman]

This is a really cool thread. Love it!

 

[Shoots100]

I'm going to be sending these out to be tested for safety.

View attachment 229284

Send out for testing ?
It's a shotgun, not a howitzer !
Load one up, put a heavy glove on and let it rip Joe Biden style out the backdoor.

 

[repete]

Utilizing this shitty weather day to make some Lee 690 round balls.

View attachment 229259

Looking good, if I may make a suggestion, place an old towel folded up in the bottom of that pan and drop your balls on that. No pun intended, the towel will keep the balls from getting flat spots and you can save time by dropping the balls hotter keeping the mold hot.
Do you know the BRN of the lead you bought? All lead is not created equal, some is dead soft , other alloy's can be very hard.

 

[RooftopKorean]

Looking good, if I may make a suggestion, place an old towel folded up in the bottom of that pan and drop your balls on that. No pun intended, the towel will keep the balls from getting flat spots and you can save time by dropping the balls hotter keeping the mold hot.
Do you know the BRN of the lead you bought? All lead is not created equal, some is dead soft , other alloy's can be very hard.

Thanks for the tip, I do not know the BRN of the lead, I purchased it from Etsy.

I posted my reloads on Shotgun World and received some pretty critical feedback, mainly that my roll crimps are not sufficient enough. With having the do a crimp on the empty hull and using the trimmer to cut the top off so I can roll crimp on an unfolded hull yielded the best results for me.

I guess I can try doing a few without doing that but I feel that it would not roll right and would be messy.

 

[Acer-m14]

Do you know the BRN of the lead you bought?

that is one tool i have not got yet and it has been on the things to buy list for years ..

 

[kev74]

Lee makes a hardness tester - cheap!. It seems to work well enough, especially for relative hardness comparison.

 

[Robin]

Rooftop, Being in a medical field, keep an ear out for when they are remodeling an X-Ray room, its lined with pure lead in sheet form!!!!! Also plumbers rehabbing all the time are always ripping out pure lead piping. Most times they'll give it to you.
Robin