Wanting to get started in casting (again)

[Mr. Chitlin]

Hi, new guy here. I've been a lurker for a while, decided that I need to register and get back into casting.

Around 15 years ago, I was into a little casting. I was casting the 45ACP Lee Tumble lube 200 grain bullet for USPSA shooting. At that time, it seemed that commercial bullets were cheap enough that I drifted out of casting and sold most of my stuff. I have about 30 years of loading experience on a large number of centerfire rifle and pistol cartridges, and shoot ~15K reloads per year in my 40SW and AR in competition. Equipment is a Dillon 650 for the high volume stuff, a Dillon 1050 dedicated to 223 and a Lee single stage press for the rounds that I just load 50 or 100 at a time on. I also had ~600# of wheel weights that I gave away when I got out of casting. I wish I had them back...

Now, I have acquired a Redhawk 41 mag and a SRH in 44 Mag and 480 Ruger, and bullets are expensive. I have priced commercial lead 480's at just under $100 for 250 bullets. I have about decided to get back into casting again, but have no idea where to start. I really didn't care for the tumble lube process, I want to size and lube. The only thing I have left from way back when is my Lee furnace, I think it holds 20# of lead.

Since I have never sized and lubed, I was looking for suggestions on where to get started. I need to get a mold for the 41 mag and 480, preferably not a gas check, as that's something else that I have no familiarity with.

I am still buying 44 mag HC 240 gr SWC's for ~$50/K, so casting those isn't as high priority as the 41 and 480. What I am considering doing is buying the 44's in bulk (3-5K at a time) and melting them down and recasting them in 41 and 480. I figure I can cast ~600 400 grain 480's out of every 1000 44's that I melt down.

I figure that by the time I cast 1000 bullets for each caliber I will have saved the cost of the equipment I need to buy.

Does it sound like I am even on the right track, or should I give up and buy commercial.

Thanks for any help of suggestions.

[JIMinPHX]

Welcome to the board.

The first thing that you will want to do is slug your barrels & chambers so that you can decide what size dies to purchase. Then you need to order a lubrisizer, dies, lube & moulds. I'll assume that you have gloves, glasses, a mallet of some sort & stuff like that kicking around somewhere.

You probably want your sizing dies to be about .0005-.0010" larger than your revolver throats (or the largest throat if they vary a thousandth or so). If your groove diameter of your barrel is larger than your throat sizes are, then you have serious issues to consider. That would be a discussion for another day.

A lyman 4500 is sort of the standard lubrisizer for the home caster, but there are a few other fine quality pieces out there. Nobody really makes a bad lubrisizer that I am aware of. The Stars are much faster & much more expensive. They take different dies than the Lyman or RCBS units do. Cabella's usually stocks the Lyman unit in their retail stores. You can get anything you want mail order. Midsouth & Midway are usually the first places that most people look for that stuff, but other places carry them as well.

If you stick with a soft lube, you can get away without buying a heater for the lubrisizer. My lubrisizer came with a tube of Super Moly (soft) Lube & I've been using that happily for a few years now. It's probably a good place to start. There are a bunch of other good lubes out there. Many people here have many opinions on what lube is the best. I'm sure that you will pick up on that as time goes by. The hard lubes hold up better if you bulk store your cast boolits. The moly stuff makes a big mess if you do that. Hard lubes require heater.

As for moulds, you will need to select what boolit style & weight you want. After that, look around to see what is available. Lee makes aluminum molds for about $20 each with handles. They work fine & are the cheapest way out. Lyman, RCBS & a host of other more expensive manufacturers make their molds mostly out of iron or steel, with a few being made out of brass. The bare blocks from any of those guys will cost more than the complete mould from Lee. You also need to buy handles separately for the non-Lee moulds. The expensive ones are a little nicer to work with, but good boolits can be made using any of them. The Lee moulds sometimes (Ok frequently) need a little bit of touch up work before you use them(search for "leementing" here on the board for more on that). The more expensive ones are usually good to go right after you clean them. Most guys use 2-cavity moulds for general purpose, moderate volume casting. one hole moulds are a bit slow to work with. 6-hole moulds can be a bit cumbersome.

Your pot should be fine.

It seems like a shame to waste finished boolits (even store bought ones) as a source of material, but that should work if you want to do it. Commercial cast boolits are frequently a little on the hard side unless you are loading them up near the top end of what you find in the reloading manuals. If you are going to load more modest powder charges, then you may want to cut in 25-50% soft lead, like plumbers lead, lead pipe, or recovered .22lr slugs.

[Bigjohn]

Plus one.
Jim has about laid out what I would suggest. Shopp around for best prices and even check out the garage sales in your area.

Oh! And a big welcome to the site, and no question is too dumb.

John.

[Mr. Chitlin]

Welcome to the board.

The first thing that you will want to do is slug your barrels & chambers so that you can decide what size dies to purchase. Then you need to order a lubrisizer, dies, lube & moulds. I'll assume that you have gloves, glasses, a mallet of some sort & stuff like that kicking around somewhere.

Yep, I have the safety stuff. I am employed by a large electrical utility company and am involved with the systemwide safety group. Safety will be my #1 priority when casting, just as it is with everything I do.



The first thing that you will want to do is slug your barrels & chambers so that you can decide what size dies to purchase.

You probably want your sizing dies to be about .0005-.0010" larger than your revolver throats (or the largest throat if they vary a thousandth or so). If your groove diameter of your barrel is larger than your throat sizes are, then you have serious issues to consider. That would be a discussion for another day.

I hadn't thought about that. I may work on that tomorrow.


Then you need to order a lubrisizer, dies, lube & moulds.

A lyman 4500 is sort of the standard lubrisizer for the home caster, but there are a few other fine quality pieces out there. Nobody really makes a bad lubrisizer that I am aware of. The Stars are much faster & much more expensive. They take different dies than the Lyman or RCBS units do. Cabella's usually stocks the Lyman unit in their retail stores. You can get anything you want mail order. Midsouth & Midway are usually the first places that most people look for that stuff, but other places carry them as well.

If you stick with a soft lube, you can get away without buying a heater for the lubrisizer. My lubrisizer came with a tube of Super Moly (soft) Lube & I've been using that happily for a few years now. It's probably a good place to start. There are a bunch of other good lubes out there. Many people here have many opinions on what lube is the best. I'm sure that you will pick up on that as time goes by. The hard lubes hold up better if you bulk store your cast boolits. The moly stuff makes a big mess if you do that. Hard lubes require heater.

Since this is hopefully going to be a one time purchase, which way is the better way, or is it just personal preference?? I know that the bullets that I purchase now have what seems to be a hard lube in the rings, mostly red and blue. I'd rather pay a little more and do it right the first time than to wish I had gone the other way. What I did back then, and plan on doing now, is to cast 500-1000 at a time, process them and put them in boxes ready to be loaded.



As for moulds, you will need to select what boolit style & weight you want. After that, look around to see what is available. Lee makes aluminum molds for about $20 each with handles. They work fine & are the cheapest way out. Lyman, RCBS & a host of other more expensive manufacturers make their molds mostly out of iron or steel, with a few being made out of brass. The bare blocks from any of those guys will cost more than the complete mould from Lee. You also need to buy handles separately for the non-Lee moulds. The expensive ones are a little nicer to work with, but good boolits can be made using any of them. The Lee moulds sometimes (Ok frequently) need a little bit of touch up work before you use them(search for "leementing" here on the board for more on that). The more expensive ones are usually good to go right after you clean them. Most guys use 2-cavity moulds for general purpose, moderate volume casting. one hole moulds are a bit slow to work with. 6-hole moulds can be a bit cumbersome.

My initial plan is to use the Lee mould if I can find what I need. I am wanting either a flat nose or SWC bullet. I really like the Keith style bullet, but haven't researched moulds enough yet to see if they are available in the .475 diameter.



It seems like a shame to waste finished boolits (even store bought ones) as a source of material, but that should work if you want to do it. Commercial cast boolits are frequently a little on the hard side unless you are loading them up near the top end of what you find in the reloading manuals. If you are going to load more modest powder charges, then you may want to cut in 25-50% soft lead, like plumbers lead, lead pipe, or recovered .22lr slugs.

I may try to contact the bullet company since it isn't too far away and see if they would just sell me a hundred or so pounds of lead. That might be cheaper than buying finished bullets just to melt down and recast. I still wish I had my wheel weights back...

Thanks for the info. Off to the Midway site again. :mrgreen: