First good casting session!

[autopilotmp]

Previously I had cast a few boolits using a Lee tl 200grn SWC .452 and some scrap bullets. Being my first attempt at casting I had issues w/ pot temp and mold temp, lots of wrinkled boolits. The few that did come out fine I loaded as long as I could and they were a little short for my factory Para mags but ran fine in my CMC mags.

In light of this I got a Lee 200grn SWC non-tl mold and used it in my recent casting session. I really got the hang of it this time around and can't believe how fast 8# of WW goes from ingot to silver stream then to boolits. I had a few wrinkled ones to start with but I figured I would so just dropped them right into the sprue pile. I also used saw dust to flux w/ and I must say that I like that better than the stuff I purchased to flux w/ just wish I had read the book From Ingot to Target (Thanks Glen Fryxell!) before shopping. I dropped all of my boolits onto a wet towel as I am shooting them at target velocity.

Now for lubing, as stated before I used a tumble lube bullet before and lubed them w/ LLA. I really don't care for the smell (when lubing or shooting), I also don't like the tackiness of the exposed part of the boolits (I shoot uspsa single stack and occasionally I drop a mag w/ 2 rounds or so and the tend to pick up dirt and grit). The bullets I started loading with were Missouri Bullets 200gr SWC and I was happy with them so I picked up some Thompsons Blue Angel and melted it into a 8" round cake pan and put it in a little toaster oven I had for a previous project. This worked great and in a matter of 5 hrs from set up to clean up I had 8# of boolits cast and lubed ready to shoot. I purchased one of the Waxmeister pan lube tools that a user here is selling and it worked great (my solution to the sore thumb was to wear a heavy glove). Now just have to put them over 5.4-5.7gr unique and see what happens. Thanks for all the help here and sorry for the long rant. I am definetly addicted to casting now.

[troy_mclure]

try dropping your sprue and rejects back in the pot, itll last a bit longer.

[Lizard333]

Look up using Kroil. That stuff is awesome!!

[garym1a2]

Previously I had cast a few boolits using a Lee tl 200grn SWC .452 and some scrap bullets. Being my first attempt at casting I had issues w/ pot temp and mold temp, lots of wrinkled boolits. The few that did come out fine I loaded as long as I could and they were a little short for my factory Para mags but ran fine in my CMC mags.

In light of this I got a Lee 200grn SWC non-tl mold and used it in my recent casting session. I really got the hang of it this time around and can't believe how fast 8# of WW goes from ingot to silver stream then to boolits. I had a few wrinkled ones to start with but I figured I would so just dropped them right into the sprue pile. I also used saw dust to flux w/ and I must say that I like that better than the stuff I purchased to flux w/ just wish I had read the book From Ingot to Target (Thanks Glen Fryxell!) before shopping. I dropped all of my boolits onto a wet towel as I am shooting them at target velocity.

Now for lubing, as stated before I used a tumble lube bullet before and lubed them w/ LLA. I really don't care for the smell (when lubing or shooting), I also don't like the tackiness of the exposed part of the boolits (I shoot uspsa single stack and occasionally I drop a mag w/ 2 rounds or so and the tend to pick up dirt and grit). The bullets I started loading with were Missouri Bullets 200gr SWC and I was happy with them so I picked up some Thompsons Blue Angel and melted it into a 8" round cake pan and put it in a little toaster oven I had for a previous project. This worked great and in a matter of 5 hrs from set up to clean up I had 8# of boolits cast and lubed ready to shoot. I purchased one of the Waxmeister pan lube tools that a user here is selling and it worked great (my solution to the sore thumb was to wear a heavy glove). Now just have to put them over 5.4-5.7gr unique and see what happens. Thanks for all the help here and sorry for the long rant. I am definetly addicted to casting now.

The Leed 200swc is my favorite also. I started with 5.8 of Unique and good preformance yet dirty. Last batch was 4.2 of Bullseye. A pleasure to shoot and good accuranncy. Just barly major power. I think ideal 45 load will be 4.5 grams of bullseye and the 200swc.

Of course it seems Unique does decent in almost everything.

[Lizard333]

Unique, dirty, no way!! Just kidding. Between shooting cast and using Unique powder it was way too dirty for me. A great powder for starting out because a double charge is pretty obvious but it made my guns filthy. I shoot win 231 or HP-38. With my set up they shoot a lot cleaner.

[autopilotmp]

how does the 231 meter compared to unique? Would really like something a little more user friendly when it comes to metering and cleanliness. I really noticed after the last match how dirty unique is, not that I mind cleaning my gun. Seems like now I have less time to clean after melting WW, casting, lubing, sizing, loading, dryfire, and shooting the match, plus all the normal day to day stuff that goes on.

[Jailer]

how does the 231 meter compared to unique? Would really like something a little more user friendly when it comes to metering and cleanliness. I really noticed after the last match how dirty unique is, not that I mind cleaning my gun. Seems like now I have less time to clean after melting WW, casting, lubing, sizing, loading, dryfire, and shooting the match, plus all the normal day to day stuff that goes on.

231 meters like water and burns very clean. It's been my go to powder lately for pistol loads enough so that I bought 8lbs of it.

[dverna]

Yep, 231 is a great pistol powder. I get +/- .1 gr accuracy.

Don

[autopilotmp]

I've been debating trying bullseye but if my local guy has 231 I will get some and use the unique for .40 s&w, since i just bought another lb of it.

[mroliver77]

It is a good feeling casting, loading, shooting and hitting the target with your own creation! Good for you! I like Unique powder even though it is a bit dirty. The Alox leaves a lot of crud and ash I do believe. With Felix lube my gun stays pretty clean. The only reason I don.t use Unique for IDPA is that I got "Titewad" much cheaper.
Jay