Fellas,

I just got a call from Doug, the mold master at Lee Prercision. He was cutting the molds as he called. He expects to have them done today and will ship at the latest by Monday. I'll send them out right after Christmas. I'll include an order blank for the .22 viper with them when I send them out.

It looks like it will be a Merry Christmas.

Mike < !--color-->

Mike; Good news, thanks for the effort ya put into this.

jim

HU-RAY gettin the 'ole lead pot warmed us as we talk.

Mike,

Thanks for the update, now if the rest of my X-mas shopping was done life would be really great!

Happy Holidays,

Finished off the WW metal in my pot and loaded her up with stright lead. I'm casting minie slugs now and waiting for the viper. I am getting a Gamo shadow 1000 for Christmas and should have it broken in on pellets by the time the viper gets here. Does anyone know of a set of see-thru mounts for air rifles that will allow me to use the iron sights without dismounting the scope? I was thinking of setting the sights up for about 10 meters and the scope for the vipers sweet range.

Ed B

Ok so now we can almost taste the mold. What kind of lubrcant are we going to use on the 'slugs'? k2 in orygun

I was going to try some powder coated with dry moly powder but thought better of it -- the "bad" being the mess they would make out of the breast pocket on a shirt.

Upon somber reflection, the light silicone oil as sold by Beeman as Beeman Chamber Oil might be the very best thing. It will not diesel on you, it is already all throughout the chamber and it actually coats the inside of the barrel already. You need to have some of this stuff anyway to lube your spring cup down inside your chamber so it won't dry out on you.

This light coating of oil on the "as-cast" air-dropped pellets should be enough, as the big pellets are going to be on the slow side velocity-wise and it will only ride on the very tips of the two engagement peaks (after mashing them in a thou or so per side as you push the boat-tail in flush to the barrel face with your finger).

Besides, I think Pameula Anderson always looks her very best with a light sheen of "matching" silicone oil smeared all over those big curves.

Light swelt muscular Brittany however, she seems to lubricate herself with a natural sheen of body sweat as she spins and dances and rips -- BTW, who do you think would win a foot-race staged between these two lovely girls?

<g> Oldfeller

oldfeller: not me. k2 in orygun

Oldfeller

Foot race!!!! you have too much time on your hands.


Ed B

Ed, it's a simple male-oriented visualization of the performance criteria of the two slightly different pellet designs. I think the swelt, tight, muscular Brittany pellet would easily win any velocity-based contest, hands down.

Besides, you are right -- I am on a two week Christmas vacation and I finished my honey-do list already, built me a better computer up from a barebones box (complete with pretty case lights) and have loaded up a danish cookie tin's worth of .40 S&W for my daughter's stocking stuffer. "Not enough to do" is a very accurate statement of where I am sitting right now.

Oldfeller

Ed and Kelly,

You know Pamela would black both her eyes if she really tried to run. She should stick to washing cars.

Mike

PS Not here yet.

Thanks for the update. Looks as if it will be a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too! My lady mentioned, just the other day, that she wanted an airgun so she could go out shootin with me. Looks like Santa will be delivering a nice .177 caliber airgun to her this year:-) I hope there are enough people interested to go through with the viper .22's as well. Now that really really interests me, as I have a Korean airgun capable of shooting 28g pellets at around 1000fps. Those pellets are round nose/dome with a BC of .035. Imagine what kind of a BC those viper .22's will get @ 1000fps. Wow!

Don't forget, the .22 Viper Pellet does double duty -- it is a properly configured HBC airgun pellet AND a .22 centerfire rifle squib bullet.

If anyone actually shot any centerfire .17 caliber guns, they would find the .177 viper would size down to .172"-.173" just fine and the lubricated Pameula Anderson pellet would get good land support over the .170" body section from the top of the rifling lands. The .22 Dolly Parton does the exact same trick with a .22 centerfire rifle. Just lubrisize it in your standard .22 sizing die.

But actually there are very, very few centerfire .17s are out there in any of the cast bullet person's gun safes. No molds. Very few sizing dies. Not much chance of squibbing the .177 Viper pellet, not very much at all.

However there ARE a WHOLE LOT of .22 centerfire rifles in our gun safes, lots of molds and lots of sizing dies, so the .22 varminter guys will buy the .22 Dolly Parton pellet just for the sqibbing giggles of it. Think of a solid HBC wax checked pellet with a solid lube band going the entire body length of the pellet. It ain't going to leak any blow-by gas and it ain't going to lead your barrel any at any speed you choose to drive it at (not with a primer and a few grains of bullseye anyway).

Sit there in the comfort of your own house with your nicely scoped centerfire .22 varmint rifle sandbagged on your kitchen table quietly sniping away at the alley cats raiding the neighbor's trash cans over three blocks away through that big clear 12-24x scope. Just crack the door just a little bit so you can see the kill zone clearly through the crack.

Phuutt .... (pock!) Yerrrowwrrrrr !!! ..... (cough) (cough)

Now my idea of the ideal tomcat shot would not be to kill him, mind you, just clip him a little bit so he won't sing so much late at night ...

<g> Oldfeller

Oldfeller;
I'm sure that when you get good at neutering cats you can be subsidized by some of the cat lovers. Don't tell them how many you put down getting your methods down pat.

Now we have Dolly Parten mold coming on line. My wife is wondering about how much time I spend on the computer, if she sees Dolly and Pamela on here I'll spend a lot of time I could be casting explaining these are names of bullet molds. <GGG>


Ed B

Max: I don't have anything (air or powder; wish I still had my old Martini Cadet in .17 Ackley Bee) that could use the .177, but the .22 would be a neat "plinker" well matched to my #44 Stevens relined to .22 Maynard. Let us know when it comes available for ordering. floodgate

I think Mike has been taking .22 Viper interest orders for some time now. Hard "send me a check" orders, I dunno. He hasn't said to send him the checks yet (although he is including an order blank with the Pameula molds).



Good news is that the .22 Dolly Parton Viper spins good in all airgun twists up to and including 18 twist air guns. This one will not have to be agonized over for spin or size at all as we all know Dolly Parton in her prime was as big as it EVER got (and still be able to walk good) period.



And that crack about "blackening her eyes if she ever had to run" that my friends was repeatedly joked about by Dolly Parton herself concerning the size and weight of her equipment. She would also cut a joke about the cost of just one of her custom constructed bras or just one of her custom supported outfits -- or about her wigs or her height (quite short). Dolly could laugh and joke at herself in such a unself-concious way that she became beloved of many for her good natured humor.



In any case, a kitty cat that has been embraced by Dolly is a truely blessed kitty cat and is surely bound for kitty heaven shortly after having had that once-in-a-lifetime experience.







For those of you who forgot what the .22 Viper (Dolly) looked like. And again, a direct URL listing for when the picture above times out on us.



http://images.ofoto.com/photos493/7/55/93/2/92/0/92029355705_0_ALB.jpg



Big 'un ain't she? If all else fails just copy the actual address just above into your go bar and hit <GO>, this generally works irregardless.



<g> Oldfeller

I don't know what it is but whenever I try one of your links I get the following error message:

"Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /photos493/7/55/93/2/92/0/92029355705_0_ALB.jpg on this server.

Apache/1.3.27 Server at im51.ofoto.com Port 80"

Later,

http://images.ofoto.com/photos493/7/55/93/2/92/0/92029355705_0_SM.jpg

Let me try again.

ES IST NOCH GANZ VERBOTEN!

I get the forbidden message too. Is this some Dolly Parten porno site or something? <G>



By the way Santa did bring me the new Gamo Shadow 1000. Now I'm chompping at the bit for the Viper/Pamela mold. I won't get to try it, with the pellets I have now, until Friday. My other 1000 fps airgun I bought used and it has seen better days. I will have to get a scope and mounts now.



Ed B

I'll try again. You may want to hit F5 on your keyboard as you try to get this thing to work, sometimes your computer caches an image on your local hard drive and just goes there to get its response to your request. Hitting F5 forces it to go out and get the image all nice and fresh. I can see these images (until they time out, anyway).

http://images.ofoto.com/photos493/7/55/93/2/92/0/92029355705_0_ALB.jpg

Oldfeller

"Sit there in the comfort of your own house with your nicely scoped centerfire .22 varmint rifle sandbagged on your kitchen table quietly sniping away at the alley cats raiding the neighbor's trash cans over three blocks away through that big clear 12-24x scope. Just crack the door just a little bit so you can see the kill zone clearly through the crack."

Nice Narrow Vew through that crack, Don't forget, If you shoot someone it's your fault.

OF: Nope! F5 just set my computulator into a fit of the giggles, and I had to shut down and re-boot. Can we try it on AIMOO? They seem to handle pictures better. floodgate

Now this is odd. The exact same link is working just fine on Aimoo right now (I just tried it) and all my links that didn't work yesterday are up and working late on Christmas day right up above this post. This is odd, maybe something was just broken on the web server for this list on Christmas Eve. You got me, I haven't got a clue why Accurate Reloading is sometimes stubborn about posting pictures and picture links.



And in America, as far as shooting through 4" cracked open doorways off the kitchen table goes, we'll say it like our old buddy Ralphie's mother used to say it to him every Christmas season for the last 15 years or so ....



"No Ralphie, you can't have a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas -- you'll shoot your eye out"



<g> Oldfeller

Ok, you got me interested in finding a new photo host since I can't get the old one to cooperate for more than a few minutes before it times out.

This is a click link to a picture.

http://images4.fotki.com/v50/free/cb86b/1/156172/564186/6twistcorrectedViperPelletsJPG-vi.jpg?1072442589

if it works well then maybe Fotki.com is a usable site to post pictures. It is 100% free and allows you to post "specifically to be publicly accessable" pictures. Ofoto has turned into a "sucks" place to put a picture -- too many freeloaders out there like us I guess.

Oldfeller

Maybe this will work:



http://www.hunt101.com/showphoto.php?photo=62410&sort=7&thecat=500&password=

Max

Have you gotten the molds from Lee yet. I'm getting "antsy"!!


Ed Barrett

Ed and all,

The molds came in last night but I have to pull a twelve today and it's off to the "Roost" for New Years. I'll get them sent out this week.

Boy is that a little bitty hole in the mold.

Mike

Mike,

Take your time, we've waited a while now, we can wait a day or two longer if you have to burn the candle at both ends at work. I'm as antsy as the next guy, but I got plenty of other things to cast if I get that irrepressible urge.

Plus, I need to go to the store and buy some cat litter first.

They're on their way.

I mailed out all but two of the molds today. Priority mail is no longer as easy as it was. It now requires the envelope to be flat or under a pound. Molds aint flat and two weigh more than a pound.

The only molds remaining have to go across the border.

Mike

Mike, I betcha that your local postmaster just made up those rules. Ask to see it in writing in the postal regs.

Mike,

Did the postmaster charge you more postage than you had planned for?

I agree with Grumble, Felix just shipped us all bulging packs of lube at the normal "going rate" cost of the mailer.

Your postmaster may have his head on sideways -- how much $$ did he cost you?

Oldfeller

Oldfeller,

They didn't hurt us too bad. I sold all the molds for the same price whether you bought one or three. If I shipped two in an envelope it was just short or long depending on where they were going. It all worked out.

Mike

Mike,

Thanks for your efforts in this endeavor! I'll be waiting with meltin' pot in hand!

Mark

Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I checking the mail box.

The kitties in my neck of the woods are gonna hate this!!!!

Thanks; Max, my molds arrived today, the pot is heating as I type. I will let you know how the work as soon as I try them.

Ed Barrett

Ok, here is the report so far. I cleaned the mould with detergent, water and a soft brush. Then dried and cleaned with brake cleaner and a tooth brush. I heater mould by dipping corner of mould in molten lead for 15 seconds, (actually slow count to 15).

First bullet I got too quick on the trigger with the bottom pour furnace and didn't fill.
Second cast came out perfect and dropped free after opening, the sprue was 5 times bigger than the bullet. I cast up about 100 and pulled the plug on the furnace. Visually inspecting them was hard with my 62 year old eyes. Had 9 I didn't think looked perfect and set them aside.

Got out my Gamo Shadow 1000 and set up a target with two by sixes two deep for a backup. Seated Viper flush with the back of the chamber. You can sure feel her engraving into the rifling! I was shooting in the basement at approx. 10 meters. The first was noticeably louder, almost like a .22 LR standard velocity. The point of impact was about 1.2 inches above point of impact with Beeman hollow point pellets the bullet had completely imbedded itself in the piece of hard yellow pine, you could see the back of the bullet about .3 inches below the surface. Feeling like "let's shoot a bunch of these" I put 12 into a new target, when I went down to look I could see that 3 of the hit the target sideways. I tried another target and about half of them keyholed. I setup a piece of pure lead about 4 by 8 by 1, that I got from a hospital Xray room remodel. About half buried almost flush with the surface and half hit sideways. I looked at the barrel and it looked pretty cruddy. I will try to clean the lead out of the barrel and give another report.

What I think is happening is the bullets not being lubed at all are fouling the rifling enough that the bullet is shearing off those two little skirts on the bullet. I can't do any more testing, I'm supposed to take my wife out to a little function tonight. Let me know how the rest of you are doing with different make of air rifles.

It looks great for "cat sized animals"

Ed Barrett

Ed, use some silicone oil on those pellets, same stuff you use in the chamber of your air gun. That should stop the leading.

Oldfeller

You know, reading Ed's first Viper Pellet report makes me sort of sick (like I want to throw up).

It's not like the potential for this issue wasn't discussed enough times when I posted the shorter Britany version of the pellet and told you guys it needed to get shorter and lighter to spin right.

(remember, back BEFORE the order was placed, back when there was time to CHANGE it by Mike simply faxing my new drawing to Doug at LEE).

It was like talking to a stump - "we like the original design better". Mike made the mistake of put it back to you guys as an executive "contact him" decision-making process and you did -- you told him you wanted the original pellet.

Not a single one of you spoke up saying you wanted the design change that I recommended that would spin right in 14-16 twist barrels. You didn't listen when I told you 14 twist barrels were marginal. You didn't pay attention when I showed you the data IN EXCRUCIATING DETAIL that there was a problem here.

Hell, did you even take the time to read the posts that showed the different spin-test results for the two pellets?

Faced with a 100% feedback of "we want Pameula Anderson", Mike did what you asked. Mike felt like he was working for you guys, so he did what you wanted.

So Mike ordered it for you.

I sure hope Ed is right that it was just his lack of silicone oil on the surface of his barrel and on the pellet itself that made it tumble on him.

But I got this sinking yucky feeling in my gut that it isn't.

Oldfeller