After a very productive weekend session casting bullets for the 32-20s, yesterday's attempt was quite the opposite! Spent two + hours and only produced five marginally good 454429 bullets. Apparently the ingots used to replenish the pot were contaminated as the surface tension went sky high. Couldn't get a good fill with any of the three moulds tried. Fluxed the pot multiple times, ran the heat up well past the usual, made sure the moulds were heated well and degreased, all to no avail. Even added some known good linotype which seems to be a waste at this point.

But the worst part was after accidentally dumping the new .43 Spanish mould assembly into the melt. First time for that! More or less encased the mould and the outer portion of the handles in lead. Bother! Finally pried the mess off, only to discover that the lead had grabbed the tip of the handle well enough to break the cast iron off at the screw hole.

And it's the only large set of Lyman handles I own for some odd reason! (Three small handle sets about, which don't seem very feasible to convert, so no help there.) And none in stock for any of the usual suppliers.

Anybody ever attempt repair on a set of Lyman handles before?

All of this recent bullet casting activity has actually been due to the anticipation of getting the .43 Spanish caliber rifles up and running, but it's been one delay after another...

Now to purge the pot and hunt up a more reliable source of lead...Never have considered paying other than scrap prices, if anything, for the stuff, but it's another commodity in short supply it seems due to the ongoing feeding frenzy in the US.

Gratutitous photo from an earlier, happier session:

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