First run casting 30 cal NOE pellets.

Well I started out baking the mold for an hour, mounted the mold on the handle, cast up 154 premium pellets sorted with not a single reject, made a lable for the tin and wallah I'm done. I sure was happy with the way these pellets came out however the bigger the pellet the easier it is for a good successful run. I cast these up using the lead from the lead pipes. I've got a nice UTG 3-12X Bug Buster ordered, when it gets here I'll mount it on my Challenger SL 30 cal and off to the woods I'll be going. I still haven't even taken the gun out of the box yet because I've just been having so much fun hunting with my other AEA guns. I swear the AEA's are the best darned hunting guns you can buy for the price. I'm also very happy with a plan that's been turning out so good so far. I just checked the gun out and the air in it is still right where they shipped it at so the gun is most definitely holding air excellent.



 
I'm using an old Lee 4lb casting furnace I've had for years using the pressure pour method, it's the only way I've ever had good luck casting for years, I show a short video of how I do it basically, it takes a while to get use to doing it this way but works well for the smaller calibers to fill the skirts out good on a pellet, I use only pure lead and the lead pipe after cleaned good in a 20lb pot tests 4BHN and that's about as soft as you're going to get.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GhOVDGmdRQ&ab_channel=Giant056
 
I did buy a newer temp control Lee 4lb pot however haven't really gotten use to where I should keep the temperature set I think that old pot actually keeps a better temperature consistency though but don't really know for sure because I've never bothered using a thermometer. The last bunch of pellets that I cast up before casting the 30 cal pellets were from NOE-217-WC which are 22 cal wad cutters for my collection of old co2 pistols that I shoot indoors quite often during the snowy winter months, especially when the snow gets too deep for some good squirrel hunting. The little wad cutters I can't say I didn't get any rejects but it was still a very good run with probably only about 20 of them that I rejected because of bad skirts. With the wad cutter mold the sprue plate hole is so tiny the lead doesn't flow as good but if they made the sprue plate hole any bigger it would deform the head of the pellet when cutting the sprue, I may try using a little tin in the mix sometime when I'm casting the wadcutters for a better fill out with the newer temperature controlled 4lb pot, I also made a label for the wadcutters as well.


 
Wayne, I just got into casting some of the NOE 30's as well using one of the 4 cavity. In order to get the best representation for testing I culled quite a few of mine mostly due to poor skirt filling. Some of my last casting sessions turned out a whole lot better, a lot less culls. I'm using a Lee pot with a bottom nozzle and I think the main reason for some of the early rejects was a slightly plugged nozzle. I guess when you refer to "pressure casting" you're just saying the extra head pressure of the what the ladle of lead produces?

Have you had a chance to shoot the 30's for groups yet, results? Mine are actually shooting pretty good, Not a JSB but a good cheap alternative.

Jking
 
I haven't had mine out yet, I did get out today with the Challenger .22 but only seen one squirrel at probably 75 yards that I couldn't get a shot at. I probably should have took my 30 cal Challenger instead, at least I would have got it sighted in anyway. The weather is going to be a lot worse for the next several days but I might still get out long enough to get her sighted in anyway.
 
Here's some testing groups of the NOE 30cal. The deep skirt being the lightest at 46.0gr, the medium skirt at approx 48gr and the shallow skirt at closer to 51gr. Shot out of my MKII Impact 700mm at 50yds through both the Superior Heavy and then again with regular Superior. Since then I have run most of my castings through a sizer and sorted by weight but haven't had the time or good enough weather to rerun the testing. Overall, so far it was pretty much a wash between the two liners. The Superior liner does have a CF liner on it and today I received a CF liner for the Heavy tube. I also shot two groups of 5 shots of JSB 44.75's during this test just for comparison. It's hard to beat the JSB's but for plinking and pesting the NOE's should work fine.

Jking

NOE 30cal group 1.1640148695.jpg

 
I just did a 9 shot chrony string with the 30 cal pellets, by the looks of it starting at 3600psi it should give a good shot curve, I'll top the gun at 3800psi before I leave the house so by the time I get out to where I'm going to shoot it, it's probably going to be close to 3600psi.





I did adjust the power to the 10 o'clock postion, it turned out to be a half way decent guess to where I wanted it however I may still see about getting a different hammer spring for it because I think that would get me close to the zone where I'll conserve more on air with it. When the BBT mold is available again I can always set it up for slugs, I might even cast some heavier pellets for it too.