My first random 10 out of my first casting

[tayous1]

So I wanted to see how well my new mold cast and so I put some lead in the Lee to try my casting hand. These are made from range scrap and are 230gr 45 acp. I picked these 10 out of about 30 that I made they are not as pretty as many as I have seen on here and kind of ashamed to post the photos of them but there is no better way to get better then to hear what you did wrong and how to fit it!

The weight of the 10 ranged for 229gr to 235gr most where around the 234gr area. Now how is this going to play on how much powder I use? That might be a long way off so for right now please tell me what you all think and what I can do to make my boolits better! Sorry photos take with my cam phone only cam I have.

Edited to add the mold is a LEE


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/blackgrub0331/0424111757a.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/blackgrub0331/0424111758a.jpg

[HangFireW8]

A good first outing!

Fill out can be challenging with Lee tumble lube groove boolits. Get the mold really hot and add a little tin to your mix and you'll be good.

Small weight variations (like yours) are no safety problem. You may want to check the light ones for shrunken sides or voids (air bubbles).

[biker_trash_1340]

I just showed someone how to cast on that same mold last week. From the look of your you did better then him. lol

[mold maker]

As long as ya stay well under max loading, those weights are OK.
Your well on your way to a full fledged addiction. The quality will improve with practice.
Welcome to the asylum.

[RugerFan]

If your camera has a macro or super macro setting, you might want to try that to sharpen up your pics

[frankenfab]

Those don't look too bad at all for a first casting. You are having a little problem with base fillout. I have that mold in a 6 cavity, and it is fairly easy to cast with, and boy will it crank out some boolits fast.

If you have a "macro" mode on your camera, you can get better pics, but it is possible to get too close even then. Arrghh! RugerFan beat me to it!

[tayous1]

I remelted more then a few as they looked messed up to me then I remember what I read on here just keep casting! When you run out of lead then see how they look! That is so true the longer I took to cast the next batch the worse they looked but when I just made boolits until I ran out of lead they looked a lot better. Also but I'm not sure placing the mold on a hot plate did not help out as much as I thought it would.

I'm going to take my boolits lube and size them and load them and see how they shoot! Any advice on reloads with Win 231 powder?

[gray wolf]

Excellent beginning, Stay with it and ask questions.
Now you can gather up everything you don't use so you can sell it to feed this
new hobby. The hobby that never ends.
But hey! look at all the money you will save. --better look at it quick

[HATCH]

in the beginning you will get maybe a 50/50 (good ones vs bad)
I haven't cast alot (maybe 2K) and I am about 90/10 for the most part.
With my Mihec mold its closer to 98/2

[lylejb]

Hodgdon is the distributor for hodgdon, winchester, and IMR powders and they have their reloading data online.

http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp

while they probably won't list your exact boolit, look for a comparable ( ie a 230gr LEAD, not jacketed) and work up your load from there.

I'll caution you to not start at max. It's usually not the best accuracy anyway.

[runfiverun]

your base fill out needs work.
more heat in the sprue plate or a light honing along the mold corners.
anyways the start low and work up applies to all loading, not just slightly over weight cast boolits.

[captaint]

Just last night I was down at the loading bench doing something and I knocked over a small container that had about a dozen of the first boolits I ever cast. The Lee H&G 68 "clone". I can assure you mine looked worse than yours, Tayous. And they shot quite decent!!! A little practice and you get a lot better at this.. Keep that hot plate. enjoy Mike

[Cherokee]

Good start, try to get the mould hotter.

[mdi]

Hard to tell from yer photos if the bullets are bevel base or flat base. I've got Lee molds that were listed/pictured as flat base, but the mold I got had a bevel base. The pics on the Lee site show your bullet as a bevel base (TL452230 2R)

[44man]

NO SHAME IS ALLOWED HERE! [smilie=s:
I think you did very well so go shoot.

[tayous1]

Thanks everyone! I cast a few more today and they came out great only had to really throw back about 5 of them. I lubed up the new and the last batch going to size there ASAP and load them as soon as I can! I have some steel plate targets coming in on Wed that this lead need to be tried out on!

I did cast hotter this time also left the mold on the hot plate longer and it did seem to make the boolits come out nicer. Thanks for the help everyone!

[Blammer]

watch your sprue plate, if you start smearing lead, slow down on the casting speed and reduce the temp a little to help.

Looks good so far!

[ItZaLLgooD]

I use the same mold, with wheel weights they cast at .453 and 238 grains. As you get the hang of it the weight will get more consistent.