That's funny, Daryl.

I was going to start working on load development today, so I could get the front sight finished, but I woke up to pouring rain, so I'll have to wait till it clears up. The upside is I won't have to worry about setting my pasture/Rifle Range on fire for a couple days.

I spent part of yesterday casting balls for this thing, learned a few things, like it takes a lot of lead to make any quantity of balls, I know that seems kinda obvious until you start pouring from a 20 pound pot and see how fast it disappears. When I cast the proof balls a while back I only cast enough to get the proofing done, so I wasn't really paying attention to how long it was taking to cast. Yesterday though I was trying to get an idea of what kind of production could be done and get a smooth rythme going. What I discovered is you can only cast about 1 ball about every 1.5 - 2 minutes and about every 5th ball you have to set the mould down and let it cool for a good 3-4 minutes. So the average is 1 ball about every 2.5-3 minutes. The mould is so massive and the amount of lead is so great that it would almost be worth it to machine a mould with cooling fins. I also learned that a soup ladle makes a pretty good pour, since you need a pound of lead or so at a time, so you can not only fill the mould but also keep over pouring the sprue for at least 15-20 seconds.

Colin