Now to roll crimping trimmed hulls that have been fold crimped. To put it simple you not gonna get that pretty roll that a new hull with have, but with a little practice you can get satisfactory results. These monarch’s are on their last firing so no big loss, cause this will be the 4th load. The top(red) hull is a new cheddite.
You got me thinking reloading costs having lunch. What do your 12 ga bog stock skeet loads run out to a box? If I steal wads and lead back from toads I load Eurotrash for $3 a box your coin.Factories in Eurotrash are $9 to $10.50 a box your coin. Biggest hurdle just now is our one and only powder factory ADI has decided to close doors on sporting powders and only focus on military powder supply. Very unusual business decision to turn your back on a total monopoly supply situation. Also since Covid the last shot tower and local shell loader manufacturer has pulled down the doors permanent. Things are going to be tough for a while till somebody else picks up and starts importing shot and powder along with primers. With bit of luck have enough to weather the storm for a while till it blows over.
Auzzie: last time I did the numbers you are inline with my cost also. I usually buy in bulk and I’m always looking for the right deal, so I may be a little cheaper, but not much. Shot has been going up here in Texas. I ordered 2 bags from brownells last week cheaper then I could buy local. Someone screwed the pooch and lost one bag so I had to order again. They were out of the eagle brand( cheaper), so ended up buying Lawerence brand at about 33 more. I did get free shipping. My local reloading store gets all their shot from Peru. That say that’s what is driving the cost up here. I know the US has 2 shot towers, but assume it’s all going to ammo manufacturing. I have been getting federal for 7.49 box Winchester universal( suck) for 22.00 per 100 from Wally World. The monarch are 6.99 box
Auzzie: I have pondered making my own shot. The machine is about 500. I can get 200 lbs of pure lead for free. The plastic drums would be free from work. All I would need would be a smelting pot, build some sort of troft to roll the shot down and then something to cool the lead. Some say automotive coolant, transmission fluid, which I can get pretty much free from work. And I have read that laundry softener is the way to go. I could set it up outside in my shed, but not sure if it’s worth it. And then you would have to add some Antimony and graphite.
Well something I finally know about ,Done lots and lot of this in my time. Best off shelf Machine out there is a Littleton which is made in US. Model it off this and you can’t go wrong. My shooting buddy has one. It works very well and he makes excellent shot. Depends what scale you want to go. You will find raw antimony with anybody that does lead light glass industry use it to harden lead for extrusions. 4% works well and cost effective. Antimony is actually becoming very expensive additive as a demand for high tech batteries. About $1 of your $7.94 us per box of factories now is for antimony. Peru and Argentina stuff is 2 to 3% at best. Watch this space I bet your US factories soon begin skimping on antimony instead of the 5%. Diesel fuel works good medium to drop in and so does soluable oil used raw. You will need to cool your drop tank as gets hot quicker than you think. Scavenge an old AC evaporator and condenser parts out of car and set up a refrigeration circuit is the trick. Graphite and cement mixer works perfect for final step. If you get onto good source of cheap lead very worthwhile. Long time ago when starting apprenticeship designed and built a reasonable size commercial machine that between 2 teenagers could do 3/4 ton a day. It was very labour intensive and lacked any real automation. Howeverboth funded our later schooling and shooting / travel and buying guns etc off the contraption. Eventually sold it. And got a start in life. Nearly 40 yrs later it’s still out there now making dive belt and race car ballast.
Auzzie: Sounds like I will be picking your brain if I go this route, not like I need another project, but sounds like fun. As far as the Antimony, I think we are down to 4% here for most shot that comes from Lawrence, some of the cheap stuff(thats not cheap)like you said is at 2-3%. I'm guessing, but the price between the two different shots that I ordered from Brownells last week was all the Antimony. It was an additional 33 dollars for the good mag shot. Its just for clays on the skeet field so don't have to be the best. If they would have had the eagle brand I would of just got it, but its on back order now. I am pretty much stocked up, so that completed that.
Couple notes on rolling the monarch shells. I noticed tonight that the roll crimper that I was using(precision reloading), heats up quite a bit faster then the gaep one, using a drill press. When the plastic heats up to much is gets very soft and with prior fold crimp shells that have been cut( some of the crimp remains), so you will be able to see almost an octagonal shape on the inside of the roll. The key with these hulls is to roll it with light pressure, no fiddling around. It should only take about 2-3 sec to roll the edge against the shot card. The more you spin the tool on the shell the more it heats up and deforms the plastic. Once again little practice goes a long way. I spin my press at about 400-450 rpm.
