The horses had been fed and were snug in the stable. The cows were bedded down, the sun had set and the cold was seeping in every crack in the cabin. I added some oak to the wood stove and poured me a cup of coffee. Sundown came early. It was barely 6 o'clock by my watch. And the nights were long this time of year. Thankfully I had plenty to occupy my time.

I dug out the old cast iron skillet and set it on the stove. As it heated up I opened the wooden box by the door and started pulling out 1 pound lead ingots. I had cast these almost a year ago in this same little cabin on cold winter night just like tonight. There had been twice as many last year but I still had a goodly pile of 'em left.

I set the ingots in the skillet and went to the cupboard and got the lead dipper. After searching for a bit I found the mold I wanted and took it and the dipper over to the stove to heat up while the lead melted. Then I sat down and enjoyed my coffee.

When the lead was melted I began casting bullets. The dipper and the mold had gotten pretty warm while waiting for the lead to melt and I was have good bullets drop from the mold in short order. To use a lead dipper casting bullets, you scoop a dipper full of lead, and then, holding the dipper level so none runs out the spout, you turn the mold on its side and shove the sprue hole onto the lead dipper spout. Then you tilt the two thereto so the lead runs into the mold with the weight of the remaining lead in the dipper adding force to fill it out well. After a short wait .. seconds only .. you tilt them back and pull the dipper away keeping it level. You don't want hot lead spilling out and splashing into your boots. Or other places. Put the dipper back in the lead, pick up whatever you are using to cut the sprue on the mold and knock the bullet out on a rolled up old pair of levi's or whatever. After you do this a few hundred times it becomes habit and you don't really think about it much. And it don't take too long to run a hundred or two bullets. By the time I quit casting and clean everything up it's time to hit the hay. Tomorrow will come before sunrise and there is plenty work waiting.

By the next evening I was back, messing with the bullets I had cast the night before. It had been a long hard day. I found one of my good momma cows with a busted hip. She had gotten out on the frozen pond, probably looking for water, and somehow “did the splits” with her back legs on the ice. Her legs were not meant to go that way and she was broken down real bad. My old .45 put an end to her suffering, but not mine. I had to get her body off the ice and away from the herd. That took a bit of work but I got it done. I have a good horse that pays attention to where and how he puts his feet. He slipped some. We both did. But nothing serious and we got the days work done. Now I was gonna have to lube and size these bullets.

The mold I used was an Ideal double cavity mold #454190. It is the old Colt .45 bullet, around 250 – 255 grains depending on the alloy. A lot of people don't think the old roundnose Colt bullet is very good, but my experience has been different. Oh, there are “better” bullets in some sense. The Keith semi-wadcutter #454424 being my choice if I was to choose. But the old 190 bullet will do everything I want to do with a .45 sixgun. I used it to put down that cow this morning and she never knew what hit her and ended her pain. I know of an old cowboy who got into a bit of a fuss with another gentleman, who, feeling he was losing pulled a .45 and shot that old cowboy. The bullet hit his belt buckle at an angle and did not penetrate, but it sure did knock the fight out of that cowboy. He said it made him physically sick! How much of that was realizing he could have had a hole through his belly I don't know. But he did not give that other old boy any more problems. I have used this bullet on deer and elk and I had many a fine meal from 'em! No, it was not a long distance shot and I managed to put the shots where they should be and made meat. So I don't worry about it not being a good bullet to use.

I stood all the bullets on their bases in large cookie pan. Then I melted my bullet lube. It is made up of beef tallow and beeswax. When it was melted I poured it onto the cookie pan until it was up over the grease grooves in the bullets. Then I got out the Good Book and read out of the Psalms until the lube cooled and hardened. The Psalms are always interesting reading. Some of them are really happy. Some are very sad. And some are really angry! They reflect life. I was told by a preacher that the Psalms were an ancient song book and that the people of Israel sang them. I wonder if they still do?

Anyway, when the lube had cooled and hardened I got out my bullet cutter. It is made from an old .45-70 case soldered to a canned milk can opener, which is now the handle. There is a plunger coming through the flash hole in the primer pocket. On the inside on the end of the plunger is a flat washer soldered. I push the .45-70 case down over the bullet standing the lube, lift up and the bullet comes out inside the cartridge case. I push down on the plunger and the bullet is pushed out in to the box I have waiting. It doesn't take too much time until I have cut all the bullets out of the lube. Once I have them out, I scrape all the lube off the cookie pan and put it back in the lube can. I lay the cookie pan on the stove for a minute and the residue of lube on it melts. I pour that back in the lube can and clean everything up before I go to bed.

The next evening after all the chores were done I was ready to start loading ammo. The week before I cast the bullets I had deprimed all my fired brass and I neck sized them all, belled the case mouths so a bullet would start in them and primed them. It took some time. All of it was done by hand using an old Ideal Loading Tool. It looks like a nutcracker. Sorta works like one. Except this is made to take dies that do everything needed to load ammo. Everything except full-length size the brass and size the bullets. If I wanted to full-length size the brass I have a sizing die that you drive the case into to resize it. Since I am using the cases from the same gun and they are not so heavy that they swell the cartridges a lot, I just use the depriming die that sizes just the neck. My old Colt has generous size chambers so I don't size the bullets. I load them just the way they come from the mold. I have another die that I can push the bullets through to size them if I need to. I don't do that often.

I set up to load using Unique powder. I have a dipper that throws 8 grains of Unique and I have found that this load is just right in my old Colt. Old Elmer likes 10 grains with his bullet. I once tried 9 ½ grains and hoo boy! That old gun reared up like mad bronc! No sir I says. I didn't have a halter on it and I ain't gonna try riding it. My 8 grain load does just fine.

I get an assembly line going. Powder the case and set a bullet in it. Stick it in the loading tool and squeeze the handles. Pull the loaded cartridge out and set it in the box. The dies have been adjusted for this load for a couple years now and stay that way. In no time I have a hundred rounds loaded! That's gonna keep me shooting for a few days.

After it's all cleaned up and put away I get things ready for morning and climb into my bunk. A couple more days and my turn at Line Camp will be over for a month or so. I need to cast some more bullets and get more ammo loaded before I go back to the ranch house. And I am thinking about a blonde headed gal that has been looking my way. And then there's that big old Mule Deer that teases me every once in awhile. I am gonna get him one of these days. If that gal don't tie me down too much.......

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Note: I mentioned a canned milk can opener earlier. It looks just like a beer can opener. Has that sharp end for punching a hole in the can of milk so's you can pour it out. Just like the old cowboy poem about canned milk vs milking cows.

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.