Getting ready to cast my own

[stu925]

New guy here figured I'd say hi and try to get some input. Ok so I've decided to start casting my own boolits, I've got about 150lbs of lead shot I'm not going to load anytime soon so I figured I might as well turn it into something useful. I need to do this on the cheap so She Who Must Be Obeyed doesn't have a fit, so I went out today and picked up a few things. My shopping list consisted of a 2qt stainless steel pot, a stainless steel ladle and spoon, a pair of welding gloves, and a full face shield. I was also looking for a single burner electric hot plate but couldn't find anything close to what I was looking for, I'll probably use the side burner on my grill until I find what I'm looking for. Now I need to order a mould or 2. I'm going to start casting for my S&W 25-5 in .45 Colt I know that these guns were known for oversized throats and mine seems to be no exception, a factory .452" bullet will drop right through the chambers. So now I need some advice on moulds, since I need to do this cheaply I'm looking at the Lee Precision moulds and 2 of them in particular the first being the 452-252-SWC and the second being the 452-255-RF. I've always had better luck with SWC bullets in my gun so I'm leaning towards that mould and I'm hoping that I can use these bullets as dropped without sizing them. Anyone tried these bullets in a 25-5 and if so how did they work out for you? Any preferrence for one mould over the other?

I know that the lead shot bullets might be a bit soft. Water dropping them should help there correct? This is all new territory to me, I read "From Ingot To Target" and feel like I've got a pretty good grasp on the basics but any pointers would be great. I also have some .38 caliber lead semi-wadcutters (about 500 or so) I'll never load so I can melt them down too. I guess I'm wondering about the quality of the Lee moulds since they are so much cheaper than everyone else's moulds, I see lots of guys are using the Lee moulds which sets my mind at ease a bit but is there a steeper learning curve with these moulds?

Stu

[RobS]

Well you are shooting a 45 Colt and where as your S&W is stronger than a SAA it won't take the beating a Ruger will of course. Regards to that you will be looking at shooting the majority of your loads at 20K or less I assume. I don't know what shot you have there but if it's magnum shot then you definitely have hard enough alloy. You are right many of these revolvers had oversized cylinder throats but the real story will be what the barrel slugs at and go from there. You are likely to have barrel that will be fine for a .452 boolit but it will be a guessing game unless you slug your barrel. Of the two Lee designs you mentioned the 255 grain RF nose is probably your better boolit accuracy wise, I've shot both in several guns. The SWC isn't a bad one either but I just had better results from the RF nose. I would talk to Lee directly as they are in the process of changing over there two cavity molds to regular alignment pins and I believe the aluminum will be 2024 a much better quality mold. I don't know if these two designs are being changed over at the Lee factory but if they are I would buy direct from Lee if they are.

Make sure to clean your mold when it comes in and I prefer Dawn dish soap and hot water then I put it on the edge of the melting pot or I use a hotplate to evaporate the water and heat the mold up prior to using it.

Another note you may be able to sell that shot and pick up some wheel weight (WW) alloy and be better off.

[runfiverun]

if it's target shot #7-#9 it is quite a bit harder than ww's will be.
it will also have more arsenic,and no tin.
if i were close i'd swap ww with tin alloy straight across, as i need some shot to load.

[Boondocker]

I have never used shot so no input on that. Just please put a prop under your side burner as even a quart of lead gets heavy fast. Udder that that it wont take long to get bit by the casting bug.
Yoe will be showing SWMBO the thriftiness of casting ones own ammo and the savings will commence with buying more gear. Happy New Year

[palmettosunshine]

As you can see it doesn't take a lot of expensive equipment to get started.

[stu925]

The shot is Lawrence #8 Magnum shot, I bought it when I was shooting trap and loading a lot of shells. I've got somewhere in the neighborhood of 5000 shells loaded and not shooting much trap anymore so I might as well use it up. I'm actually formulating a plan to build my own electric hot plate so I may not even use the side burner, we'll see how it goes. Think I'm going to start with the 255gr RF bullit mould and see how that goes, if I can't get those to shoot well I'll go to the 252 SWC.

Stu