Found a mold in .452 and need advice.

[t_dickinson]

Been hoarding lead for a few months now and learning the art of casting ingots.

I like to go 1 step at a time.

Now that I'm confident with the acquisition and processing of my chosen metal, I will move on to gathering a few molds and a furnace.

I found a LEE 6-Cavity .452 230gr TC (Tumble Lube) with handles for $40 shipped.

Questions...(I am set on the 6 cav as my first so please don't try to talk me out of it)

1. Good price or great price?

2. What is this boolit good for? I will shoot very light cowboy loads, hard hitters for pins, and target practice. Will this boolit excel at any of these?

3. I'm srue that I will eventually move up to a STAR but will tumble to start. Will the Tumble grooves work for me down he road or should I buy all my molds with lube/sizer grooves and tumble those until I get a sizer?

Thank you.

[Potsy]

I've got that same bullet except as a 2-cavity and conventional lube groove.
Tumble lube grooves will work fine in a Lyman size/lube press.
Price sounds reasonable enough.
You talk as though you are planning on shooting it in a .45 Colt even though it was built for a .45 ACP.
It'll work in either. It shoots very well out of my Kimber.
I've dabbled with it just a little in my .45 Colt (Ruger Bisley). If memory serves (it's been a while and I really didn't make any notes on that load), I dumped 9grn. H-Universal and used my .45 ACP Taper Crimp die. It shot reasonably well enough for me shooting offhand, but it shot considerably lower than my 286 grn. SAA's with the same charge so I really didn't pursue it. Recoil was pretty light in that heavy gun. Guessing it was making close to 1000fps. With the flat nose on that bullet, it ought to give a bowling pin (or anything else) a pretty good slap at that speed.

[runfiverun]

that boolit will do what you want, with a bit of experimenting.
but the star will usually wipe those little lube grooves away.
if going with a star go with one larger lube groove. [especially if you want volumn]
i use the stars and have only one mold that has tumble type grooves and it took some work to make them work in the star.
i just go with one to three square lube grooves in the stars, [and usually just one if possible] especially for handgun boolits.
and try to only get two [max] for rifles.
sometimes the style of boolit i need isn't available except with multiple grooves the star will do up to three easily but the extra lube isn't always needed or wanted..

[MtGun44]

Go with conventional designs.

Bill

[Artful]

Go with conventional designs.

Bill

+1

My experience is that Tumble Lube boolits are harder to get working (not that they can't)
and for a newbie I'd say get conventional and pan lube if you don't own a sizer.

[45-70 Chevroner]

I have that mould, actually 2 of them both 6 cavity Tumble lube. I shoot that boolit in my 2 Ruger Vaqueros for the cowboy shoot. I have been using that boolit in my Rossi 92 lever gun. I've been shooting the cowboy shoots for about 12 years and that boolit is the only one I have ever used for that purpose. I really like it, no reason to change. Two 6 cavity lee molds will pile up boolits very fast. In one day I can cast up enough to last about two years.

[MikeS]

I would say go for it. That's a great boolit design, it's a better match to the original GI hardball ammo than Lee's conventional lube version. There's nothing wrong with tumble lube, and if you do get this mould just remember that it's designed for tumble lube, so even after you get a Star, this boolit would still need to be tumble lubed. One nice thing about the tumble lube boolits is that the lube grooves can all be used as crimp grooves if you're shooting it from a revolver cartridge, so you can try seating it deeper, or shallower, and still have a crimp groove you can use!

Is that price for a used mould? Remember you can get a NEW one from Midway for around $38.00 or so, and the handles for around another $12.00 so the price for a new mould with handles would be around $50.00, and shipping would probably run around $11.00 I would imagine, bringing the price up to 61.00 or so, basically 50% higher than the price you mentioned. So, if that's a price for a used mould, and that mould is in good condition, I would say go for it, or if it's in unknown condition, than I would say try and see if it can be returned if you don't like it. If that's a price for a new mould, and they have more of them, please let me know where that is! :)

[dragonrider]

" or should I buy all my molds with lube/sizer grooves and tumble those until I get a sizer?"
Yes.

[cbrick]

Go with conventional designs.

Bill

+2

Rick

[Blammer]

if you get a conventional lube groove design there is no reason why you can't tumble lube it and use it that way.

[t_dickinson]

Thanks guys. Will go conventional.

[cajun shooter]

My first suggestion to you would be to tell you to do some reading before posting as you did in your post. That is about buying the 6 cavity and nothing else and don't try to talk you out of it.
That type of standing your ground regardless of what you hear or read will only cause you problems. We have men with thousands of years of combined casting time that can and will help a person with an open mind.
I will start by saying that I myself started casting in 1970 with moulds of iron in the 2 and 4 cavity. I was quite lucky to have as my mentor a man who owned a gun store complete with all forms of reloading and shooting products.
He taught me how to alloy my metals and prepare my moulds so that they dropped the correct bullets without problems.
I will tell you that the only 6 cavity mould being sold is the Lee in aluminum unless you find a old out of production such as the H&G. You may find and have great luck with Lee bullets but if you go to any big shoots , they will not be anyone that wins with their bullets. If you read on this forum for information you will will find many a person who has had a problem with the lube or moulds.
The best purchase that you could make to start with is the Lyman Cast Bullet Hand Book. It will provide you with tons of information for years. The next reading point would be all the information by Glenn Fryxell . Glenn has a book that is in the sticky section.
You are going to be told many different things by many people including myself that are both correct but different in the way it is done.
One of those is your idea of lubing your bullets by the use of Lee's Alox. You may buy a lyman, RCBS moulds and pan lube which is easy and fast and will give you the same results as a bench mounted tool.
Don't misunderstand my post and feel that I am putting down on all that you posted for ideas.
Lee makes some good and not so good products. I sent 4 out of 5 of my last special order dies back for problems that were never fixed. For about $20 more on each of them I could have purchased a mould from Tom at Accurate Moulds which are 1000 times better than Lee.
I am just trying to help you out by suggesting that you might want to rethink some of your etched in stone ideas before spending money you could have done better with.
I hope that you enjoy your new found hobby and have many good hours of shooting those bullets made by you.