Rainy Saturday Project: Ham and Bullets.

I was planning to hit the range this afternoon and test a bunch of my second batch of cast bullets, but was not to be.

So instead I started the ham early. I'm in the habit of buying hams in the aftermath of holidays because you can get them on great sales.


The ham was done at 20min per pound (total of 3 hours cook time), at 325F. Had the ham make its own sauce as I cooked it. So have the bottom of the pan filled with 1/2 in of water adn all the juice from the bag, added some white pepper, black pepper, cumin, Lee & Perins sauce, dash of rosmary, and some Lousiana Hot Sauce.

Put a bit of aluminum foil over the ham in a loose "tent" to keep most of the moisture. Every half hour or so remove the ham and baste in its own juices.

An hour out remove the foil cover. Half hour out make the glaze and put on. Then done.
Also a trick I found to help the spiral ham retain it's shape (important for staying moist) is to use toothpicks and the big cooking "pins" to nail the ham into shape.

Also in the picture you can see my other project. Once the ham was up and running, I started up my lead melter. This time I stood it up on a wooden crate in the edge of the garage so I had ventilation, security from rain and I could work from standing up.

Last week I had cast my spare lead into 1 lb and 1/2 lb ingots. Found the 1/2 lb melted much faster (go figure SA/Vol). So when I was done I recast the leftover lead in the pot into 1/2 ingots.

This was the first time casting 255 grain roundnose flat top, and it went rather well. I cast 25 of those and a further 55 of the 230 grain. Quality control was done much better. Took a bit of time for the lead to get to the right temperature, and had interesting fun seeing what happened if you tried to cast with too hot of a lead, but was good learning and productive.

Also care should be taken to wash your hands between handling lead and making food.