New casting want advice

[jwk1]

Hi,

I am both new to bullet casting and to this forum. I have some equipment already. I would ask for some general information and advice concerning moulds.

I want a 38 WC mould of some type. What are the advantages of a Lee tumble lube type mould v a more traditional cast / size / lube type mould. With the tumble lube design, what is a reasonable top end speed before you start getting leading assuming proper bullet alloy?

I want a .357 SWC mould. Please provide suggestions and reasons for such suggestions.

I want a .44 Keith style bullet mould for use in a .44 Special and .44 Magnum. Please provide suggestions and reasons for such suggestions.

If you feel that there is a better .44 bullet for use in .44 Specials and or .44 Magnums for hunting and plinking in the 240 - 280 grain range than a Keith style bullet (ie WFN or similar), please provide suggestions and reasons for such suggestions.

I am going to need moulds for casting .45ACP bullets in 200 and 230 grain weights. Please provide suggestions and reasons. If a Lee tumble lube is the easiest way to go, please say so. In this question, my issue is going to be based upon ease of casting, not particularly what is the best if that distinction makes sense.

Where is the best supplier to order moulds? I have looked at Gunbroker and found that many prices are higher than on the manufacturer's website before the shipping is added. Looking for reasonable cost, reputable, fair shipping costs. Accepting credit cards and a website is a plus as it makes ordering easier.

In making suggestions, please keep in mind the following:

1. I am new to casting. Try to indicate products that are easy to use.

2. Reasonable cost is not an objection however being new to this and not sure if I am going to find casting bullets rather than simply buying them worth the time, please be reasonable in your suggestions.

3. In my instance, I have more money than time to throw at this hobby. I may well find that I don't really have time to cast and may be better off buying cast bullets. Reason for casting is wanting some particular type bullets not available locally and not wanting to look at dealing with ordering cast bullets since shipping costs get in the way rather quickly.

4. I have met a gentleman here in my area who is a very experienced bullet caster. He is helping me get started in this process. I learned more in one afternoon from him than I have in hours of reading on the subject. He has some definite opinions that I respect on moulds. What I am looking for in part is varying opinions that I can consider to see what makes sense to me after considering different points of view. If you have a strong opinion on one of the questions above, don't be afraid to throw it out there because that is a big part of what I am looking for.

Thank you in advance for your advice. I realize that I am asking for a lot of thought in a reply to this post.

Jim K

[racepres]

I cast My first Boolits in 1979 and have done so "just cuz" ever since Currently However [and for a few years] I find time is harder to come by! I was lucky to find a gentleman who casts for the joy of it, and to sell at gun shows and flea markets. He is also quite good at it! I buy from him all I can! Heck If I get the mold he will make anything I wish, at [close to] the alloy I desire!! Can't beat it. Hopefully you can also find such a person!! But, I will say that when ya get time.. at least learn to do it, and keep the "makin's" at hand! Just in case! Big help Huh? MV

[1Shirt]

Suggestions:
1. Buy the latest Lyman reloading book, and read/reread the section on casting.

2. Start with Lee Molds, and order from either Midway or Midsouth. Double cav
Molds are less frustrating than singles, and you can wait awhile befor
getting into multi cav. molds for a number of reasons.
3. Don't overload your self with all that you mention at one time, or you will
stand a good chance of burning yourself out. I would start with the 38/357
run a thouand or so, load and shoot a percentage of them. By that time
you will get the hang of things and either have the bug or not. Also
you get a lot more of the 38/357's out of a pot than with the 44/45 weights.
4. I recommend water dropping as a routine practice.
5. Size within the first few hours from the time you cast befor blts.
start hardening.
6. Pay attention to the threads on Lubes. I like Lars White Lable for handgun,
but lubes are a matter of choice and preferance.
7. See the threads on Bullplate. Wish I had had it years ago.
8. Pay attention to safety, wear glasses when you cast. You will someplace
along the line burn yourself, so casting barefoot with shorts, and a tee
shirt is just asking for scars and blisters or worse.
9. Have decent ventilation, or cast out of doors. I cast in my garage with a fan
blowing behind me.
10. Wash you hands any time you are handling lead.

Good Luck, Happy Casting, and even Happier Shooting!:-D
1Shirt!:coffee:

[Wayne Smith]

Tumble lube or not depends on how you plan to lube your bullets. If you plan on a lubesizer the tumble lube designs are not necessary and are only available in Lee molds. Read the posts on Lee molds first, then decide if you want to go that way. RCBS and Lyman and other iron and other alum. molds are of higher quality. You mentioned that cost is really not an issue, so my suggestion would be to avoid Lee and go to the higher quality. Sizing is an issue you didn't cover, so I would suggest you educate yourself about the options before you decide which molds to get. You can do this on this site.

Auction molds are frequently discontinued and so demand a higher price or they go up because of auction frenzy. I have seen current production molds go for more than current prices at Midway. Know what you are bidding on and it's value before you bid. Set a maximum that you will bid and don't go over that. Either that or buy new.

There's not a lot of difference between wadcutter molds. RCBS, Lyman, Saeco, etc. all have them. The bigger issue is the fit to your gun. Slug your barrel, measure your chambers and get a sizer that will cause the bullet to fit. My .357's like boolits sized .358. Mine are Smiths.
You need to fit your boolit to your gun. That is usually done by sizing.

[yeahbub]

jwk1, welcome to the farternity! I read the replies to your post and second them, so I'll add just a few comments on a couple of things:

Tumble-lube boolits are for the convenience of lubing many quickly and work well in my experience. Even sizing and lubing in a lubri-sizer works well. The thing about them that stands out with me is their lube-to-driving-band ratio of approx 1/1. In .41, .44 and .45, this makes for nice clean bores, rather than with some of those commercial cast 8/1 lead/lube groove bullets designed for easy lubing in automated machinery. A certain 405gr .458 dia. with one stooopid lube groove comes to mind. Shooting it was like rubbing a crayon on a sidewalk. If you like SWC, Lee makes a 200gr tumble-lube SWC in .45 that has been accurate and tends to remove leading left behind by less generous designs.

Semi-wadcutters get good results for most folks and do cut a nicer hole in paper. I no longer favor them as much for three reasons. 1) I often swage my cast boolits to other shapes and lube tends to hide in the corner where the nose joins the shoulder which offends my sense of propriety. 2) My round-nose flat-points cut a nice enough hole in paper to score accurately and they feed more reliably through lever actions. 3) When sizing a RNFP, any off-center condition will be immediately visible as a wave in the line where the sized portion meets the ogive curvature. If you see that, the boolit has been sized off-center and is now out of balance. With a SWC, it's impossible to tell without a runout gage. A visual check vs. extra equipment. I chose visual check. They often have a larger meplat than SWC's and wallop game that much harder, a la LBT's WFN design.

Six-cavity Lee molds make for a big pile of bullets in a short time. They beat the pants off filling the mold, cutting the sprue and getting one (!) boolit at a time. Any more, I get the six-cav right from the start. If it doesn't work out, someone else will want it.

Flux. Actually it's not flux, it's "reducing agent", used with the intention of taking the oxygen away from the metallic oxides, leaving the parent metal behind. This will keep the antimony in solution which is dependent on the presence of tin. The most convenient one that produces fast and consistent results that I've found is stearic acid, http://www.chemistrystore.com/stearic_acid.htm is the link. It gets cheap fast as the quantity goes up and $20 worth is a year's supply for me. There's also California Flake Flux, a favorite of some on the site, but I've no experience with it. There are others I've used that turned out to have virtually no discernible effect, like parrafin, bee's wax, motor oil, cup grease and some others that my experience tells me is more old wive's tale than science. Candles work sometimes, IF they contain stearic acid - some do these days, usually the no-drip variety. A couple of tablespoonfuls of wood ashes on top of the melt goes a long way toward keeping oxygen off the alloy, preventing further oxidation.

Hardness tester. Very important. I use one from LBT, but Lee and a couple others make them. This is how one knows one is getting consistent alloys. I stopped having those "NOW-what-th'-#&%@-is-wrong?" experiences on target once I was able to do quality checks to determine whether I had the proper hardness for a given appilcation.

Good Luck and much success!!