My First Casting Session!

[RikyRacr]

Well, with much help and advice from the awesome folks here I have embarked on my casting adventure.

I used a Lee .452" 230 grain, two cavity mold and a Lee 4-20 bottom pour melter. Both brand new out of the box. It took a little while to get the hang of poring decent boolits. I took some advice from a friend I met on this forum......"most issues people have with Lee molds is not following the instructions. Follow the instructions". This mold worked very well. I also tried my new .358 140 grain SWC but it was not acting the same. The cavity nearest the handle did not want to fill up. I will do some research on this.
I had ZERO drips from the melter in the 2 hours it took me to pour 250 keeper boolits. I made a couple of modifications to my melter before I even plugged it in. It worked flawlessly.
It will be a week or so before I can get to the range. I get to pick up my new Ruger Blackhawk .45LC/.45ACP Tuesday so that will go long as well.
I am excited to test these boolits! Thank you everybody for the wealth of information here.

- SK


73725

[mdi]

Hmmm, I got a 1911 that would love them boolits. Good work...

Are you hooked yet?

[Echo]

Lookin' Good!

[gray wolf]

Nice job on the casting, keep us posted on how they shoot.
Great forum Eh.

[bangerjim]

Now powder coat those bad boys and you will be ready to go!

bangerjim

[RikyRacr]

Thanks everyone and, yes, I'm hooked. I really like being as self sufficient as possible. Also, factory .45LC is pretty much impossible to find and very pricey when it can be found. Nice to be able to roll my own for a fraction of the cost.
I'll keep you posted on how they shoot.

Here are some out of the Lee .358" 140 grain that gave me trouble initially. I recleaned and resmoked it. Still not good. Loosened the spruce pivot screw a little and it poured great out of both cavities. The spruce cutter loosened up a few times so I kept going a little tighter each time. Ended up pretty tight and still pouring good.

73749

Ok, who wants to send me 50 pounds of lead, haha!

[Larry D.]

Looks great.
If I ever get some Lyman 4 cavity handles (and the back-ordered molds ever show up) I'll hope for results like that.

[torker]

Those boolits look great, Good job... Welcome to the jungle...

[captain-03]

They do look GOOD!! The "hook" will be set deep then the first round goes downrange!!