Shot my own cast today

[compass will]

255 grain Lee flat nose, in a Puma 45 colt 24" barrel.

Standing, just open sights at 25 yards.

Store bought 250 grains with Blue lube = 4" group
My own with Lyman Orange lube = 2" group

Even at 50 and 100 yards I was equally impressed.

This was straight wheel weight, no tin (but it needed it) Some were shiny, some frosted but no flyer's.
Same load of Clays I was using with the store bought lead.

Why do they shoot better? could it be the lube? or just the fact I made them :-D ?

Yes, I am officially addicted now.
Lever gun silhouette next week, I don't even plan on changing the load!

[Doble Troble]

Why do they shoot better? could it be the lube? or just the fact I made them ?

The lube is a real possibility. Are the store-boughts the same diameter? The weight difference means the bullets are different designs. Maybe your bullets were seated to meet the rifling more favorably?

So many possibilites. The real good news is that with some additional fussing you're bullets will likely become even more accurate!

[Bass Ackward]

My guess is the bullet design was probably different too.

The two biggest factors for cast are bullet fit and bullet design that matches conditions.

Design not only considers lube carrying capacity, but how it enters and transitions locations where it has to. This is especially important with PB designs cause anything that slows the front of that bullet, amplifies pressure effects on the back. Some designs clearly are more flexible than others. And this is also why we have so many lube choices too.

A good thing to look at is an older Lyman manual that has a history of mold designs. Here you will see bullets vastly different from one another and wonder .... why? While guys will bad mouth one design or another today, the realization is that they shot for someone. That someone was a guy that had conditions that matched the designers intent.

What we don't do well today is "look at what we ask" a bullet to do well. If you learn to do this, you will be ahead of the game plus save on mold costs and time.

The sad thing is that we will never have the thought processes that the designers used when went the came up with these designs.