Casting my own question

[Casey 44Mag]

I've been casting for a while but it was all front stuffer related to basically round balls and maxi balls.

Now i'm interested in casting for pistols and a few rifles, I really dont have alot of space for equipment so is there a mold that i can just cast, alox, and load? the leather and tack man in my town use's Lee molds the style with many small bands on them, he says he doesn't size them at all just cast,alox,and load.

My guns are all rugers .308, .44. and .357 all moderate loads for play and hunting no real magnum stuff in plated bullets. I just want to become more self reliant. So can i get molds to my bore dia. and just load and shoot? or do I have to get a sizer and possibly a gas check installer?

 

[DeletedMember275]

You can use liquid alox on any bullet from any mold. How successful it will be in your application remains to be seen. I'm not a huge fan of liquid alox, but some guys use it for everything. You can pick up a used Lyman 45/450/4500 lubricator/sizer for about $75 if you shop around - sometimes less. If space is an issue, bolt it to a piece of 2X4 with the bolt heads countersunk, and c-clamp it to your bench when you need to size bullets.

 

[legend 550]

Any cast bullet can be tumble lubed. With that being said Lee makes molds to cast bullets with micro grooves made for tumble lubing with Alox. They can be loaded as cast but I like to run them through a sizer die just to be safe.

 

[Clovishound]

My buddy and I have done some casting. We used the alox and were not happy with it. The bullets are sticky, and everything in the world sticks to it. Pet hair, dust, grit. It also gets on your seating die.

We have since gone to purchasing cast bullets. They are sized and lubed, and are a good alloy. If we purchase bullet alloy ingots, the cost per thousand bullets is too close to purchased bullets to justify the trouble.

We may reevaluate at some point, and try wheel weight lead. My understanding is, it is not ideal, but works OK for a lot of people. The down side is we will probably have to spend the money on a luber/sizer to be happy with them. He already has a sizing die, but lubing will require a machine. Of course, we could pan lube for a try out, and then purchase a luber if happy with them.

Not trying to throw a wet blanket, just relaying our experience. We have been having leading and accuracy problems with our home cast, likely due to a too soft alloy. The Dardas bullets we have purchased have been very nice looking, and work well for us.

 

[mikld]

Yes, you can cast/load/shoot Lee's micro-band bullets, with just alox tumble lube. I started with a tumble lube .44 SWC a bunch of years ago. Shot them w/alox as cast. Alox will work fine and is just as messy as you are and 90% of new users use way too much. I cut my alox about 25%-30% with mineral spirits and this lets me coat the bullets and they dry quicker with less stickieness. Go over to Cast Boolits and look in the Lube section for a lot of info on bullet lubes. One you might try for tumble lubing is Recluse's 45-45-10 which works great. Easy to make and works quite well. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?f=58 Cast Boolits forums will give you tons of info on casting, lubing, swaging, shooting boolits/bullets.

The key to shooting clean, leading free bullets is proper bullet to gun fit. To get started, slug the cylinder throats and measure the slugs. This will be the best size for your cast lead bullets (95% of modern revolvers have cylinder throats larger than groove diameter, so bullet to throat fit will be ok). Harder is not better, you can reach magnum velocities without barrel leading with just about any BHN bullet (mebbe 9-15 BHN, harder ain't necessary) as long as it fits the cylinder throats and is a few thousandths larger than the groove diameter.

 

[Bryan]

For my 327 and 44 i shoot them as cast with l/a for lube with no problems but for my 357 i size them,just have to try it and see how it works for you.

 

[gregs45auto]

I have no problems with Lee molds and liquid alox. I use a milk jug cut in half, put bullets and squirt a little alox on them. swirl to coat and run them thru a Lee sizer. I put them on a piece of plastic to dry. Clean up is a paper towel and some lighter fluid to get residue off my hand. Let dry for a day. Not as sticky. hth greg

 

[volshooter]

I'm with Gregs but I have never sized a Lee cast bullet. Been reloading since the 70's without any problems. I like the Lee lube. You may have to warm it or thin it but it works. Set em on wax paper for a day. Unless you are trying to achieve max fps you will find the bullets shoot where you aim.

 

[Casey 44Mag]

I understand that there is a process, I should and will slug my cylinder bore. Space is limited for now but until then I still guess I'll experiment a bit with the micro band lee molds I don't necessarily have to use alox lude I can play around a bit with other lubes

 

[kevin seyer]

as mikld mentioned 45/45/10 works very well,look it up over at cast boolit. with alox key is to use small amounts as mentioned most over do it by far. i find a large ziplock bag works well then on wax paper to dry. lee also has the push thru sizers that go on your press so no need for more room.
Kevin