First attempt at casting

[greg916]

First attempt at casting. Don't think I did too bad. These are the  Lee 452-252-SWC cast from wheel weights, My next project will be some Lee 452-200-RF to see if either will shoot well out of my S&W 1917.

[hillbill]

how are you lubeing them?im currently use tumble lube lee bullets that work pretty well in my 45 acp.

[greg916]

i haven't yet. I'm wanting to use lee liquid alox, just tumble them. i don't know if that is appropriate for this style bullet. I was given a recipe using paraffin, vaseline, and stp. melt together, stand the bullets up in a small pan, pour the mixture in deep enough to cover the groove, let set up, then push the bullets out.  Don't know, just learning! Open for suggestions!

[bilmac]

When you use the pan and melted lube you need to cut them out of the lube. If you just pull them out the grooves will probably be mostly empty. You can make a "cake cutter' out of a case. I would probably cut the base off a 45-70 case. If the fit was too sloppy maybe just bump the case into your ACP die. I suppose you can probably buy "cake cutters" from Lyman if you can find a supplier that sells the small ticket items.

[Lloyd Smale]

not a big fan of tumble lubing but in your application it will probably be sufficient and even though i dont care for it id sure do it vs pan lubing. To time consuming and messy for me. If i didnt have a lubsizer id be trying to get by with tumble lube.

[mdi]

Not all pan lubes will allow "punching out" the bullets from the lube cake. Some are too soft and won't stick in the grooves. A cake/cookie cutter is a tube slightly over bullet diameter that is pushed over the bullet, cutting it out of the cake. I made mine out of stainless steel tubing,  drilled/honed out the ID a few thousandths over bullet dia. and about 6" long.
 
Tumble lubing is OK but 99% on new users will use too much alox. I thin mine with mineral spirits and it goes on a bit thinner and dries faster. For lots of good info go here and check out the stickies   http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?58-Boolit-Lube-!

[hillbill]

in my limited experience in casting for revolvers, it seems the dia of the cylinder throats are a much bigger issue than the lube.if you can drop a lubed  bullet in your cylinder and push it thru or lightly tap it thru the throat with a wood dowel, you will be fine to shoot that bullet with no leading.however if yu have to pound it thru or it goes thru with little resistence yu may have leading problems.
 
is this what you guys have found also? i realize pushing a cast bullet too fast can also cause leading as well.i try to keep mine under 900 fps.

[Lloyd Smale]

no doubt bullet fit and the quality of your barrel and the fitting of your gun are the biggest factors in leading and accuracy. A well fit gun shooting a bullet fit to the gun is very forgiving on alloys and lubes. A pourly fit bullet or gun wont shoot the hardest bullet without leading and will never shoot a one inch 50 yard group.

[stimpylu32]

A trick I use for the few bullets that I do pan lube is to warm up the bullets , put them on a metal pie pan ( not Mama's good one ) and put them in the oven @ around 170 for a bit , then pour in your melted lube . It takes longer to set up but the lube holds to the bullet much better .
 
stimpy

[rugerfan.64]

I am no expert by any means, I've only been casting bullets for about a month. I cast some 45 HP's the other day and pan lubed them. After the lube cooled I was able to just rock the cast bullets to one side with a pair of needle nose pliers. The bullets could then be just lifted out with the pliers. When I grabbed them with the pliers it left a small marred place on the bullet on some of em, and some of em it didnt leave anything. I suspect if a stretch of rubber tape were wrapped around a set of needle nose pliers for traction on the lead any type of bullet could be "rocked" to break the wax and just lifted out with the extra traction of the rubber tape and leave no mark at all on the bullet. I will find out next time I cast some up. I like pan lubeing. Its cheap. I like cheap.

[bilmac]

I pan lube only one of the bullets I cast. Way I do it is when I cut the bullets from the pan I don't remelt it, instead I put the next round of bullets in the holes left by the previous batch. THEN, I remelt the lube, over low heat. I use a little electric heater designed to heat potpouri. Cool the lube, cut the bullets out, place new bullets in existing holes, repeat, repeat.

[Land_Owner]

I cast a 6-cavity Ranch Dog TL358-100-RF and shoot the resulting 104 gr., 50/50, lead/WW, air cooled, Truncated Round Nose bullets by the thousands in a pair of Walther PPK (one Blue; one Stainless).  I now like IMR 700X as a very clean burning powder.  Small bullet, small case, small charge, and a pound of powder goes a long-long way, so I shoot a lot more.  The "ping" of shooting into discarded hardened discing plow discs is only less satisfying than the near vaporization of the lead bullet at impact.  Any remaining "mushrooms" of lead are picked up and recast.  No leading, very accurate, and fun-fun-fun.  Those litle "pills" have got to sting while going through the bad guy...

I tired pan lubing once.  Too messy.  I purchased an RCBS Lub-A-Matic II and never looked back.  For the thousands of bullets and multiple clibers that I reload, the LMII was a must have.  There are other lube-sizers that are just as good and perhaps some are better.  The capability to swage a lead bullet from 0.358" down to 0.356" to fit the barrel diameter is a good thing and somthing to consider, since the mould is a set diameter and, as it cools, the bullet is subject to change in diameter over time.