New to Casting

[The Last Boyscout]

Due to the current rise in prices of reloading components, my buddy and I are starting to ease into casting. We own reloading outfits already. I have scrounged up about 125lbs of wheel weights. I have purchased a couple of moulds off e-bay to use in a .38. I still need mould handles.
One question I have, do most people use one of the Lubri-Sizers from RCBS or Redding to size there bullets OR do you just cast them and shoot them with no resize.
If it helps any the moulds I bought are (1) Lyman #358495 148gr SWC and (1) RCBS Mould # 38 - 150 - KT.
Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated. I am currently shooting Oregon Trail bullets with good success.
Thanks
Dave

[leftiye]

The lubrisizer is the most common way to resize. Lots of guys use Lee liquid alox, and tumble lubricate. Others pour melted lube around boolits standing in a pan and cut them out with a Lyman Kake Kutter. Still others spray lube on their boolits.

Unless you're making loads that are the unparralleled best they can be the LYman, RCBS, and Saeco lubrisizers are probably the best choice. The Star lubrisizer pushes the boolit nose first (pushing on the base of the boolit) through the die as does the Lee sizincg die, thus avoiding deforming the boolit nose (aids in obtaining accurate results).

If you get lucky, and find a mold that casts boolits .001-.002" dia. above freebore or chamber mouth size, then to not resize is better ("as cast"). sizing is a swaging operation, and smears the lead somewhat. All of the lead thus displaced becomes soft as pure lead, and leads the barrel more readily. This is in addition to whatever possible deformation of the boolit occurs. You still have to lube them however, by your method of choice. If in a lubrisizer, just use a die that is big enough that it won't size the boolit.

[454PB]

The Lee LLA works, but is a little messy. Pan lubing is a slow process. The answer depends on how much shooting you and your buddy do. If it's only a few hundred rounds a month, the Lee method will keep up fine. If you go through thousands of rounds per month, you're eventually going to want a lubrisizer.

My philosophy is to "learn cheap", then upgrade your equipment as your enthusiam increases.

[mag_01]

:coffee: ----Welcome to the Forum Dave--Glad to have you aboard. There is a lot of good usable information here-and to answer your question here is that dreaded response " It depends". I do both I have an RCBS lubersizer as well as Lee liquid alox which is simply a varnish like coating applied to the boolits without sizing---Boolit fit to your gun would probably dictate which method to use as well as which one you find easier or better suited to your needs. As you will find some throats will require a certain size boolit or it will not chamber. And I would say the largest boolit you can chamber will usually give the best performance if you do your part.-------Mag------:castmine:

[The Last Boyscout]

Thanks to all, I am still reading all the old threads and learning. And yes I want to get started as cheaply as possible. Looks like the lubri-sizer is going to be the biggest investment.
Thanks Again....