I just cast my first boolits in 25 years or so. I used to cast bullets for my 44 mag with a Lyman 429421, 4 cavity mold for my Ruger 44 and shot many of these bullets for practice rounds and plinking. I got away from shooting and reloading for many years and just started again. I've looked at past post on this group to try & get back up to speed.
I just bought a Lee 6 cavity mold ( TL401-175-SWC) for my new XD40 pistol. I've been shooting it quite a bit using store bought clad and lead bullets. I remembered how much fun I had casting wheel weights so decided to get back into casting. The Lee mold worked very well and in no time, I cast 700+ boolits (Gotta remember how to spell "boolits" when posting on this group, I guess). My boolits are measuring .401 to .403. I think I'd feel better if they were all .401 so am figuring on ordering the Lee Lube & Size kit. I have Alox for a lube and would like to stay with this, if possible. I used to have a Lyman sizer/luber but loaned it out and lost track of it so would like to avoid this expense again.
Do I need to tumble lube the boolits before sizing or can I lube after sizing? If I can lube after sizing, would it still be a good idea to feed a lubed boolit through the sizer every 2,3,4 or 5 rounds to lube the sizer die. I won't be loading these boolits very hot. They will be used for target practice and shooting steel targets so a mild load with lighter recoil seems like it would be a good idea. Am I on the right track? Any suggestions?
Thanks, Cloudpeak