More Tips For Making, Loading, and Shooting Cast Lead Bullets

Getting Ready For A New Shooting Season

Since it is now close to sloppy season, and I have a fair bit of time on my hands, I started thinking about preparing for the upcoming shooting season. Here is the routine that I follow; it is pretty basic but there may be a useful tip or two in this write-up. For this article the primary focus will be on my experience with long guns.

I take a do nothing day (cold or snowing) and open up my cabinet that has been closed up all winter and remove all the guns. This is a great time to wipe off excess oil, do full cleanings, mount and bore sight a new scope, or do other projects I want for a particular rifle.

While everything is out, I take some time to do a mental list of the guns in the cabinet -- paying particular attention to the ones that have found their way to the back -- and deciding which rifles I am going to focus on for shooting at the start of the season. Doing this really helps when putting things away -- to make sure that the guns I want to work with at the start of the season are first out. Like many of us that have a “few” rifles it is easy to forget about one I wanted to do some testing with.

With the rifles now out, cleaned or wiped, scopes mounted, list made and returned to the cabinet, I follow a three rifle rule when heading out shooting. This selection is usually made up of a large, a medium, and a small caliber rifle -- both for variety and to give my shoulder a break. It is an entirely personal choice. I know people that bring out one rifle at a time to focus on, and others that bring out as many as ten plus to get in a good day of variety plinking. I just keep in mind that the ones that are brought out, and then are not used, are also more to haul back in when I get home.

As I mentioned above with my three rifle rule, generally for two of the three I am working on their load development.

Spending quality time at the reloading bench is the best thing I can do during the long winter to prepare for the new shooting season. If I were only a factory round shooter, I could still make use of the free time by looking at my supply, making a list of what I need, and then scouring the Internet or local gun shops to find the best rounds for my rifle or the new latest greatest round that I want to try or can find in stock. This list also works well at the gun shows as a reference, to mark off some things as I find them.

As a bullet caster and reloader, the following items have been covered in greater detail in other articles but some of the most important items in my opinion are worth repeating.

I get out and cast a variety of the bullets I shoot whenever weather and time permit. I focus on one bullet mold at a time so the bullets are done at the same time from the same batch of alloy. The number of bullets I do is based on how many rifles I have that use that projectile and how much I plan on shooting those guns. For example, my typical casting session with a 314299 mold will be at least 200 to 400 bullets because I use that caliber bullet in two different cartridges. After sorting and keeping only the perfect bullets for load development, I expect to lose about ten percent as unsatisfactory. This percentage varies depending on how well I did my part during the casting session.

I weigh and separate my bullets. I do this step when the bullets are as cast and easier to handle, usually bagging up the two or three most common weights (biggest piles of bullets). The ones that are way high or low get remelted. When this sorting is complete, it is the time to apply gas checks, lube, or powder coat and lube.

Working on only one cartridge choice at a time, I do my reloading only with exact published data from a shooting industry respected manual. For the particular cartridge listed, and for the particular bullet type and weight, and for the particular powder choice as listed in the manual, I find it wise to start at the manual's minimum listed powder charge -- and never ever exceed the listed maximum charge. I only load enough cartridge cases at each charge for testing. I load six at each charge for two groups of three shots. I never fall into the trap of: "I read on the Internet that this is the best load." or "My friend uses this load." Neither of those two sources constitute reliable, safe, information. If any reloads are unsatisfactory for any reason, I immediately stop using them; then I might have to properly and safely disassemble those unsatisfactory rounds.

I mark my reloads. I put the cartridges with the exact same charge and loading details into a small plastic bag -- along with a piece of paper detailing the bullet weight, powder type, the powder charge, and the overall length written on it; and then all of those small bags go into a larger Ziploc bag for the rifle I am working on.

At this point, I start again with the next rifle I am working on, following the same steps.

When complete, I have everything ready to go for the first range day -- after having made good use of the crappy cold weather.

One last thing, I use a new page in my log book to record data for a new rifle or powder that I am working with. That data will come in handy when refining the load.

My reloading data is preferably put into a bound journal so pages cannot get lost. I have written a ton of data on cigar packages over the years and lost good information.

Happy Shooting!