Aluminum or steel

[Sure Shot Rick]

I am going to cast for my .50-70. I'm looking at LEE and Lyman moulds that throw .515 and .512 450gr military style bullets. Which mould material casts good bullets the easiest and which produces good bullets the quickest? Is either preferable over the other?

[Buckshot]

..................I've not used those 50 cal moulds, but I have every 58 cal mould they make. I find Lee moulds very easy to get good boolits from pretty quick. Are you going to be using pure lead? If so, crank the pot up wide open and go to casting :-) Since you're not going to be shooting hundreds of these in any small amount of time, go ahead and take the time to let the sprues cool of their own accord before cutting and dropping the slugs. You'll be rewarded with beautimus gleaming well filled out hunks of lead.

...............Buckshot

[EDK]

How much will you use the mold? ( I ordered a SHILOH SHARPS and got LYMAN 515142 from Buffalo Arms at full retail and then ordered a Steve Brooks custom at about $150.) The price on the LEE makes it more attractive if you're not competing in BLACK POWDER CARTRIDGE RIFLE SILHOUETTE or LONG RANGE.

You might also want to go to www.shilohrifle.com/forums and do some searches on 50/70 and 50/90. There are some "tricks of the trade" posted there; some brands of dies are set up for .515 bullets and others for .512, for example. Mike Venturino wrote SHOOTING BUFFALO RIFLES OF THE OLD WEST and it has a lot of reloading info, both in general and specific to calibers. Order it from Mike and get it autographed too. The SPG BLACK POWDER CARTRIDGE RELOADING PRIMER is another book that will help, although somewhat dated.

Loading black powder has some quirks. Get the black powder lube from LARS. A lot cheaper than SPG, etc and works as good or better in my 50/90. A petroleum based smokeless bullet lube will give you some horrendous and hard to remove fouling with black powder loads.

:castmine:

[dubber123]

I have 5 molds for the 50-70, and much to my chagrin, the 16$ Lee 450 gr. has so far out shot my 140$ customs. I keep the Lee's well lubed with L.B.T.'s mold lube and close them very gently, and have gotten a few thousand out of one single cavity with no dicernable wear. The extra care is a bit of a pain, but that 450 gr. can shoot, and for the price is worth trying.