My First Casts

[Joel Chavez]

I just wanted to share with you folks my results of my first cast. I used a Lyman 357466 DC mould and a Lee 457 220gr DC not sure of the mould number. The Lyman casted a .358" boolit weighing 159.4-160.00gr. and the Lee casted a .456" boolit weighing 229.8-229.0. These are straight WW dropped in H2O. I haven't sized them yet. Hope they work ok. If they don't, I can always melt them back again. I'll try again later this week and see if there is any difference. Both moulds worked with little to no problems once they reached working temp. If you guys have any insight, please share. All info. is greatly appreciated. Thanks for all the advise and hope to continue to learn from you folks. Take care. :-D 2752

[dk17hmr]

I would lube and size those and shoot em. They look good to me.

With semi light loads and WW quenched I have found some of my cast that I could relube and load. Makes a nice hard bullet.

[Lucky Joe]

Joe,

Welcome to casting, I've been casting for a lot of years and once I found this site I realized what a beginner I was. Your boolits look real good and probably do not need resizing IMO. You did real good with the weights being so close keep it up and keep posting. Your type of post is encouraging for all of us.

[44woody]

Joel looks like you have a good 38/357 and 45 cast bullet there one thing you really don't have to water drop your bullets to get good bullets out of ww I air cool mine all the time unless I want a real hard bullet for hunting or what ever reason keep up the good work :castmine: 44Woody

[GP100man]

good job joel!!!
lube em ,load em ,then go shoot em!!
like ive said in the past nothing like gratification in ones efforts!!

GP

:castmine:

[Joel Chavez]

Thanks for the encouraging words guys. I feel the love man! HEHEHEHEHEHE. The 38/357 might be good as is as far as sizing is concerned or should I size it to .357? The 45 I think should be sized to my gun right? My gun measured .451. It is a Para P12-45. The 38 is a S&W M64 with a 3" tube and measured .3566. Both are a blast to shoot. No pun intended. I know you guys have your own magical potions of lube. Can you guys direct me to something easy and efficient? Again, thanks and hope to chat more tomorrow. Take care and hope it's warm and dry where you are. :-D

[ANeat]

Your bullets look great. For my 45's I use a 50/50 mix of WW and pure lead water dropped and get no leading. I use Lars Carnuba red lube. It works great and I cant imagine trying to make something that works better.

.452 is a common size for 45 cast bullets and I believe .358 is the size for 38/357 cast. I actually use a .453 sizer, the softer alloy I use doesnt spring back as much and I end up with .4525 bullets.

Adam

[Hunter]

My only question is sizing from .456 to .452 going to be a problem.
According to my Lee hardness tester air cooled w-w bullets are a bhn of 14.3 while water quenched are 17.9. I like mine water quenched but a friend of mine explained to me that to find out the psi to acheive the best preformance from your cast you should multply your bhn by 1420. That number is your general psi range. Anyone else heard that?

[mag_01]

Joel----nice looking bollits----.358 should be fine and the 45 will depend on the throat---try a .452 ---If it wont chamber or is hard to chamber then ..451 will do the trick-----shoot em up---Tom

[Charley]

Joel, the .456 Lee mold is designed for the Ruger Old Army percussion revolver. if sized down to .452 or so, no reason it shouldn't work in a .45 ACP. Good choice on the Para, a P-12 is my carry gun. BTW, I'm just down 35 in SA. If you need some hands on help, let me know.