Loose Ends

Dang.

Here it is almost Christmas, and I have not written a jot since November. You will be wondering what has happened to me. No, I did not fall into the alligator pit in front of the gun locker. No, Scooter the Intern, did not go berserk on Oxy’s and shoot up the Black Hole Institute. Thanks for the email, but no. There is no truth to any of the rumors. It was cold. I’ve been busy at the day job with a big project, and all the bad weather has kept me kind of low-energy.

However, I have not been wholly unproductive. For one thing, it hit me the other day that it might be a good idea to start casting my own deer bullets. I started researching the idea, and I have found out it is quite feasible. I am still investigating things. However, once you get over the idea that you NEED a guilding metal cup protecting your bullet , or protecting the barrel from leading, the rest is just a matter of investing the time and energy into making it happen.

What got me thinking of this idea was the 357 Magnum Marlin lever gun I got from SuperCore. I was carrying it this year when i was away from the farm house as a coyote deterrent. I had not really thought about it as a deer rifle until one day I was out pre-season scouting with my son, Angus, and we had the rifle along in case one of the coyotes or feral dogs showed up– they’ve been a problem lately. Angus asked me what would happen if the CO showed up– would he cite us for hunting deer out of season? I said that I didn’t think so. He then asked me if the rifle would be useful for deer. That’s what got me to thinking.

So far, I’ve been on CastBoolits.com and Paco Kelly’s Leverguns.com asking questions. What I’ve learned is this

I should be able to load the .357 Mag lever gun with a decent load that will take deer out to 100 yards. A 180 grain bullet cast from wheel weights should work
My 35 Whelen would probably work as well with a 200 grain cast bullet.
Just about any deer rifle can be used with cast lead. There are a bunch of tips and tricks that I will have to master. However, another candidate might be the 8mm Mauser that I have yet to find a good load for.

I figure I have until the weather gets better to research the project. Casting indoors with bad ventilation is a fast ticket to lead poisoning. Meanwhile, SuperCore says he’ll drop off some wheel weight alloy that he’s got laying around. It’s funny, I got to casting pure lead bullets for my muzzleloader a few years ago. Somewhere along the way I mentioned it to SuperCore and our mutual friend, Fitz., SuperCore grabbed the idea and ran with it, and now he’s casting the same Lee R.E.A.L. bullets I am. Fitz sees this and starts thinking about cast bullets for his 458 SOCOM project, and now I’ll probably rely on their help getting going with my rifle bullet casting– it all comes back around, do-nit?

Here is a great reference I found while asking around. It is free and it is highly informative:

From Ingot to Target

Some time over the next week, I will be going through the deer rifle collection and giving them the last once-over before they get put up for the winter. Back around Thanksgiving, I gave them all a quick once-through with Ed’s Red and a bore snake. Besides being cheap and effective, the one nice thing about Ed’s Red is that it does not take a whole lot of work. I leave it in the bore for a couple of weeks and then go back through. It does a good deep cleaning. I’ll use the 50/50 gun oil that’s mentioned in the link I provided along with some Eezox for long term storage without rust. When I pull these rifles out next summer, I’ll run the dry bore snake through again, and I’ll be good to go for the next deer season.

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