Lott speeds are possible with good accuracy using lead bullets. You'll need a good bullet design, and LBT bullet lube. (If there is any other bullet lube that will stand full throttle, no one has ever told me of it.) Our blue soft will be the one to get. You'll do well to get a mold from LBT also, as I don't know of any good ones for high velocity use from other makers. I design all LBT bullets to take what no others can handle, so far as pressure and velocity, and still deliver accuracy with no leading. Bullets MUST me gas checked. Here are your production steps.
Use wheel weight metal just cleaned up, or with no more than 1% tin added, best tin source being silver bearing no lead plumbers solder, which is available from all plumbing stores.
Don't start saving bullets till the mold is hot enough that all are frosty, when dropped on a pad. An old bath towel folded is great. When you are up to temp, start dropping them into cool water. In 24 hours hardness will be higher than linotype, and will be more stable than lino, so far as long term hardness loss goes.
The lee sizer will work great for anyone on a tight budgit. Put a gas check on the bullet, then push it through the sizer nose first. The pusher punch must be a fairly close fit to the sizer to prevent wrinkling of the checks. No more than about .020 smaller than the hole for best results. After sizing, apply the Blue soft lube with the forefinger of your master hand, hold that finger out of the way, and push the bullet through the sizer again, to wipe the lube smooth and clean. When you have a batch lubed up, use a cotton rag, or paper towels to wipe any excess off the bases and nose. They are ready for loading.
If you chose an LBT design, I will have walked you through all the important factors so far as seating depth etc, and will have made the bullet specifically for the rifle(s) you want to use it in. Use jacketed bullet data, for the bullet weight you have, preferably the slowest buring BALL powders listed and start with the lightest loads given. Work up to max or until accuracy becomes unacceptable or leading becomes a problem. The latter is very unlikely with LBT bullet lube, if your rifle bore is reasonably smooth. Accuracy will degrade, as you work up to max loads, as the bullet gets too much pressure for the lead to rifling engagement to maintain a precise fit. In other words, when lead begins to smear away or strip on the leading edges of the rifling edges.
Read everything in this forum which you think might give you more insight, and by all means get my book, Jacketed Performance with Cast bullets, which is available from LBTMoulds.com
Bullets this hard will not expand but will break down on impact with game at full Lott speeds. But you don't need expansion if you get an LFN, and with that bullet I don't recommend shooting them faster than 1500 fps for fastest kill speed. If you want a good flat trajectory, run them up to 2100 fps or so, and they will normally not break down in game, even if they hit heavy bone. At 2600 fps and higher impact speeds, 20 bhn and harder bullets will break up into almost powder on impact when temperatures are around 0 F and colder. Best to keep velocities at no higher than 2400 fps if you expect to hunt in very cold weather. A softnose will soften impact and allow them to stand higher impact speeds, but we are getting a bit too techy for a beginner, and out of line for your budgit, with softnoses. And they aren't needed if you stay within the speeds I'm recommending.
If you want expansion, you should be able to get good hunting accuracy with the above bullet/lube/information, except use air cooled WW bullets, which are cast in fairly cool ambient temperature, say no warmer than 70 deg F, and spread out on a pad a little for good air flow around them. With a small fan blowing across them, hardness will come up to about 14 bhn, rather than around 12 if not cooled with forced air. Keep velocity at 2400 fps max, and they will perform on game like standard jacketed bullets, as long as impact speed is at least 1400 fps. This means, if you are quite certain you'll never shoot game at over 100 yards, a start speed of 1800 fps will be enough to insure expansion at 100 yards, if the bullet is fairly heavy for the caliber. Like 450 gr plus in 45 cal, 180 gr plus in 30 cal, etc, etc.
Last but far from least. When you run into any snags, I'm here to answer any questions, and save you endless experimentation. I've trained many hundreds of new casters in the past 30 years, so it's hard to find me without an answer that will work for you. Best to pop personal problem questions at me by email, but if you think they are good for everybody to read, write them here.
