Laser Cast Birthday; Leading with BB bullets?

[Brother_Love]

Hi all,
I received a birthday present from my sister consisting of 1500 Oregon Trail Laser Cast bullets. There were 500 each of 357,44 & 45. They are all bevel base bullets. I seem to remeber reading something about leading problems with BB bullets, is that so? I am anxious to load and shoot some of these but wanted ask for your input about the BB bullets. I got a great sister, huh?
Malcolm

[Calamity Jake]

It's not the BB that causes the leading but the hardness, improper size and lube you will just have to shoot some and see if they lead.

[Newtire]

I had alot of leading with those only because they were undersized. I had some store bought moly-coated bevel based bullets that really shot well.

[Dale53]

I have shot tens of thousands of bevel based bullets (mostly .45 ACP's) without any leading whatsoever. I cast them myself and sized to .452".

Dale53

[handyrandyrc]

...and if they lead? I guess they can just go back into the melt and become something else! GREAT birthday present!

[Echo]

The main knock on BB boolits is that they tend to be less accurate than PB boolits. As long as they are the proper size, and have good lube, leading shouldn't be a problem.

[44man]

I bought a sample of the laser cast and that was my problem with them, they were undersize.
I have found most BB boolits are not as accurate as PB. For the length and balance the BB takes away from the drive area and shifts the balance. It was designed for production only, jam the boolits in the case fast.
That is far different from a boat tail rifle bullet made for stability at long range where the initial velocity is very high.
Over the years of varmint hunting, even FB rifle bullets were always more accurate for me though. A few inches more drop with accuracy with the FB did not make the less accurate but flatter shooting BT a better choice.

[Heavy lead]

Cool sister, cool birthday present. Myself I never had any luck with them, too hard. That doesn't mean you won't though. If you have to remelt, don't tell her, just say thanks, it was a very thoughtful gift.

[Larry Gibson]

Brother Love

i've shot lot's of Laser cast bullets, they do normally lead. However it is not because of the BB or even being undersized. It is because of the wac lube. Sometimes there is only a little leading which seems to be acceptable to many. It is not to me. I've found that simply by tumbling the bullets in LLA there is no leading at moderate handgun velocities. However, I mostly just soak the bullets in some Coleman fuel and most of the lube comes off. I then relube in a Lyman 450 with javelina. There is absolutely no leading then even at real magnum (1400+ fps) velocities. I never had the undersize problem as the size comes as advertised, i. e. .358 is .358.

I also get over to Baker City now and again and have managed to get some unsized and unlubed from them. I had to buy a minimum 5,000 but back when I did that the prices were about half of today's. Sign of the time but then Obama is going to make all well isn't he.....ooops, he'll try to do away with guns and lead.......

Larry Gibson

[yondering]

I can't speak for the Laser-Cast stuff, but before I got into casting, I shot a lot of commercial hard cast stuff, made by a local company called Aardvark Bullets. These were all bevel based, cast very hard, with a hard semi-transparent green lube (don't know what lube that is?). These have shot well in my guns, with little or no leading. In fact, it's been an effort to get my own cast boolits to shoot as well as these. With luck, maybe the Laser-Cast will shoot well for you.

[FieldShunt]

When Cabela's had a sale on Laser Cast a while back, I bought 2000 .45s and 1000 .38s. The .38s were a nickel apiece, about as good as it gets these days.
I promptly loaded up a couple hundred of the .38s since I wasn't casting that size at that time. I think I used Unique first, about 4.5gr or so.
I headed down to the club and let loose in a Python. After the first 50, I thought accuracy might be not so good. I'm a lousy bullseye shot, so if I noticed something, that's something.
A glance down the barrel showed huge chunks of lead strips literally hanging off the lands, most of the way down the bore. I honestly have never seen such leading before.
I tried a box of lighter loads, with 3.5gr WST, and if anything, it was worse.
On the Brian Enos USPSA-oriented forum, I posted this experience and was told that such hard bullets needed to be loaded hot. Okay, but 4.5gr Unique in .38 Special is right at the book max.
I put up a hundred in .357 with 6.6gr of Unique, still pretty stiff, and they acted the same way.
It wasn't just the Colts, either, as my lonely Smith 686 showed identical symptoms.
I learned to fire fifty, then put two cylinderfulls of Berry's plateds down the bore, and go back to the Laser Casts, always making sure to finish up with a few more Berry's.
The .45s weren't so bad, but still much worse than my Lee 230 tumble-lubed wheelweight specials.
The .45s were pretty accurate, so I used them only in clean barrels, only for matches, where the round count seldom exceeded 150.
Sorry to be a wet blanket, because the gift is indeed an excellent one.
Bill

[dwtim]

The only LC bullets I ever had the opportunity to measure were for the 38/357. They were 125 grain TC-like, bevel base. They measured .360" on the base band, which surprised me. I did not test hardness. However, I don't think a sample size of two is statistically valid.

I didn't load them because I have so much cast lead in that caliber, that it's practically coming out of my ears. My brother did shoot them out of his 686+, and said leading was light to moderate. I'm not sure what he put under them--perhaps it was Red Dot.

I have other "commercial" BB bullets made by hand casters, and I don't see anything terribly different about them, (especially inside of only 25 yards.) I realize these were a gift, but with the way things are right now, I'd rather cast my own 158 grainer for 4.6 cents, than buy a 125 grainer for 8 cents.

[Dale53]

You've "heard" me say it before, but I think it bears repeating AGAIN. Just break down, get a casting outfit and be completely independent of the variables of the
commercial cast bullet world (plus, and this is a BIG plus - do it for MUCH less money).

I'm a certified "old fart" and I still find it MOST advantageous to cast my own - and I shoot a LOT in several different calibers.

Dale53

[Heavy lead]

You've "heard" me say it before, but I think it bears repeating AGAIN. Just break down, get a casting outfit and be completely independent of the variables of the
commercial cast bullet world (plus, and this is a BIG plus - do it for MUCH less money).

I'm a certified "old fart" and I still find it MOST advantageous to cast my own - and I shoot a LOT in several different calibers.

Dale53

I am a long time reloader, but a short time caster. I read Handloader (still do) for years with Mike V, Brian Pearce, and Dave Scoville preaching about casting for years. Finally broke down a year and a half ago and couldn't be happier. It's easy and enjoyable. However if in fact you could buy good quality cast, not sure I would have ever started. I used the super hard Laser Cast and others believing the super hard-no leading promotions and got sick of taking a pound of lead out of my guns everytime I shot. Then I went back to the old fashioned Speer, and Remington swaged boolits with LLA on them for light loads, still use them for real light 45 Colt and 38 Special wadcutters, but gave in and cast for 357,41,416,44,45, and 475 now. Wish I would've done it years ago. I have a good source for pure lead, so I still have lots of the hard cast stuff I use as a good source of tin. I sure do love making my own boolits now.

[mooman76]

Never used them myself but heard good thing from some other folks about Lazer Cast.

[Alvin in AZ]

Only have one experience but it has been a good one...

Laser Cast 250 grain flat nose in a Uberti 45 Colt SAA.

My two loads are...
8.3 grains of old Hercules Unique (880fps? 5+1/2" barrel)
8.8 grains of 800X (840fps? 5+1/2" barrel)

One of my little dandy rotors has been ground-out and polished to
dump either one of those.

Someday might polish it out some more and go up to 9.0 grs of 800X,
which I guess would give me about 8.5 grs of Unique.

What got me started with un-jacketed bullets again was a guy gave me
some "factory shells" 45 Colt, Remington brass, 7.0 grs of 231 and the
250gr FN Laser Cast bullets.

They shot real good and didn't lead up the bore any I could tell, so up and
bought 1000 of them. :)

YMMV and you won't know until you try 'em! :)

Alvin in AZ