Thanks to all from a past lurker

[xd4584]

Hi guys,
I am a new member, but I have been reading posts and searching posts on this forum for a couple months learning to cast.

I was VERY hesitant about getting into casting for my XD 45 because I was worried about leading. The info I found here made me take the plunge.

I currently am casting with a lee 2 cavity tumble lube mold with mixed wheel wieghts and some range lead. I dip lube them, run them through the sizer and load them. No second coat of lube needed. They have fired great from my XD and from a friend of mines springfield 1911.

Yesterday I was able to get away from the kids long enought to load up almost 300 rounds in my Lee Pro 1000. Right now I am using Unique, 6.8 grains with the lee 230 trunicated cone. I know that may seem hot but I have checked every piece of brass for pressure signs and I have not seen any.

Some things I have found out:

I dip lube, with the sizer If I feed the bullets upside down (since the nose is flat) I don't get a big clump of lube on the tapered part of the bullet.

I really don't like the liquid alox, because its sticky. I wipe every loaded bullet off with a little paint thinner on a rag, its time consuming, but I am anal about these things.

The lee press does have a bad rap, but with a little tinkering I have not had a problem since my initial set up, and this was with a used press missing a ton of parts. Right now I am manually feeding the cases. I made an adapter to use my RCBS powder measure manually instead of the one lee offers which I have heard nothing good about.

So thanks to everyone!

Right now my delima is the 50 rounds of small primer brass I have and can't use. I found out that a number 5 drill is the right size for the large primer. I am debating trying to drill them out...

[44man]

Hi guys,
I am a new member, but I have been reading posts and searching posts on this forum for a couple months learning to cast.

I was VERY hesitant about getting into casting for my XD 45 because I was worried about leading. The info I found here made me take the plunge.

I currently am casting with a lee 2 cavity tumble lube mold with mixed wheel wieghts and some range lead. I dip lube them, run them through the sizer and load them. No second coat of lube needed. They have fired great from my XD and from a friend of mines springfield 1911.
You are doing great.
Yesterday I was able to get away from the kids long enought to load up almost 300 rounds in my Lee Pro 1000. Right now I am using Unique, 6.8 grains with the lee 230 trunicated cone. I know that may seem hot but I have checked every piece of brass for pressure signs and I have not seen any.

Some things I have found out:

I dip lube, with the sizer If I feed the bullets upside down (since the nose is flat) I don't get a big clump of lube on the tapered part of the bullet.

I really don't like the liquid alox, because its sticky. I wipe every loaded bullet off with a little paint thinner on a rag, its time consuming, but I am anal about these things.

The lee press does have a bad rap, but with a little tinkering I have not had a problem since my initial set up, and this was with a used press missing a ton of parts. Right now I am manually feeding the cases. I made an adapter to use my RCBS powder measure manually instead of the one lee offers which I have heard nothing good about.

So thanks to everyone!

Right now my delima is the 50 rounds of small primer brass I have and can't use. I found out that a number 5 drill is the right size for the large primer. I am debating trying to drill them out...

You are doing great.
One suggestion, sort the SP brass and use it. The SP has proven to be very accurate.

[Echo]

Hi guys,

Yesterday I was able to get away from the kids long enought to load up almost 300 rounds in my Lee Pro 1000. Right now I am using Unique, 6.8 grains with the lee 230 trunicated cone. I know that may seem hot but I have checked every piece of brass for pressure signs and I have not seen any.

Some things I have found out:

I dip lube, with the sizer If I feed the bullets upside down (since the nose is flat) I don't get a big clump of lube on the tapered part of the bullet.

I really don't like the liquid alox, because its sticky. I wipe every loaded bullet off with a little paint thinner on a rag, its time consuming, but I am anal about these things.



The lee press does have a bad rap, but with a little tinkering I have not had a problem since my initial set up, and this was with a used press missing a ton of parts. Right now I am manually feeding the cases. I made an adapter to use my RCBS powder measure manually instead of the one lee offers which I have heard nothing good about.

So thanks to everyone!

Right now my delima is the 50 rounds of small primer brass I have and can't use. I found out that a number 5 drill is the right size for the large primer. I am debating trying to drill them out...



Lyman shows a max of 7.3 grs for their -374 boolit, so you are safe (so far as Lyman is concerned)

Try see-sawing the sticky rounds in a towel dampened with mineral spirits. Splash a scant 1/8 cup (3-4 tbsps) into the middle of an old towel, spreading it around somewhat, plop your loaded rounds in the middle, grab the ends, and see-saw up one side & down the other, and verse visa, for 30 seconds. Takes ALL the excess lube off.

Keep the SP primed ones for special use. Use a Lee hand primer to re-prime w/SP primers.

[geargnasher]

Welcome! Glad to hear your cast boolit adventures are positive so far.

As for sticky boolits from the Alox, go to the lube sub-forum and read Recluse's sticky on how to make and use a better tumble lube formula. It is NOT sticky if done exactly like he tells to do, and you won't have to worry about cleaning your boolit noses. It's also less smokey than straight liquie Alox. While I feel a conventional, groove-filling lube is usually the better way to go, I still sometimes use Recluse's formula for high-volume pistol shooting because it's so fast and convenient.

I you need any tips on the Pro-1000, feel free to PM me, and don't forget to check out CowboyT's Lee how-to videos on the web, search him out on the member's list here and follow the link to his website that he has in his signature line.

That Unique load sounds to hot to me, keep in mind you can't tell any overpressure signs on brass or primers in a gun that overpressures at something like 21,000 PSI. The case head will rupture and blow the grips and magazine out of the gun before you see flat primers or get cases stuck in the chamber. I know you're "a big boy" and make your own decisions, but don't be silly ok? My advice look for is good, reliable pressure data from powder manufacturers using lead boolits and stick with what's published, which isn't always right, but it's better than the method you're using now.

As for the Lee Autodisk measure, I love all five of mine, even with Unique, wouldn't be without them. They're accurate, repeatable, and reliable. My RCBS Uniflow finally got pulled out of the closet recently and set up on the bench because I'm loading cartridges now that exceed the capacity of the Autodisks.

Drilling a primer pocket weakens the case head dangerously. If you live in the US I can't fathom that you couldn't get handfulls or even bucket fulls of .45 ACP brass for cheap to free. If you're stuck with the small primer brass, it seems that a small pistol primer might work unless it's the goofy odd-sized aluminum Blazer stuff that's not meant to be reloaded.

Gear

[geargnasher]

Echo, Alliant shows 5.8 grains of Unique to be max with a Speer lead round nose, and the velocity is 849 fps, so getting close to upper end pressure. I've looked up Unique and 230 lead boolits before amongst all the usuall suspects for sources and there is a HUGE difference in the data. Personally, anything over 6-6.2 grains would start hammering the frames of my 1911s pretty hard even with 18-lb springs. I know lots of people use hotter loads, but I'll leave it up to them.

Gear

[GP100man]

Try 45% alox 45% johnsons paste floor wax 10% mineral sprits , easier to work with dries faster , less stiky & it works .

It`ll look as if there`s less lube on the boolit but your raising the qualitys of the naked alox .

This is all I run on wadcutter loads , but some get pushed purty good . Still a shiney bore!!

[xd4584]

Thanks guys!

Gear,
I can't remember what manual I got the 6.8 from but it was probably an older one and I read not too long ago that the 'formula' for Unique is different now...

Now, when I set up the powder measure I cycled it a bunch of times to make sure the MAX charge it dropped out of about 15 drops was 6.8, typically it is closer to 6.5. It does seem a little stout when i shoot it, but its not as bad as the +p 230 grain cor bons I have.

I will probably be hollow pointing this mold, so I am estimating the bullets to be closer to 215 grains when that is all said and done. I am about out of lead now. I started with about 35lbs of ingots I poured from the mixed wheel wieghts. I gotta make some trips around town to the tire shops and see who is willing to give me some.

Also about the small primer stuff, I have the small primer set up for my rcbs press, I could just prime them in that. Its just a little easier to put the cases in the lee press and start dropping loaded ammo in minutes. Once again I am anal about little things.. I don't even like mixing head stamps. I have everything sorted between winchester and rp brass... Probably no need to do that with my 45 but with the rifles I load I will only load one type of brass.

I do make a trip over to the range almost every weekend looking for brass. Someone else has been beating me to it. I find plenty of boxes of empty ammo, no brass.

Oh and the brass is federal sp. What all parts do I need to buy from lee to use my pro 1000 with small primers?

This is what I am looking at for the powder measure: But I will probably just make my own linkage on a friends mill

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/802477/rcbs-uniflow-powder-measure-case-activated-linkage-kit

[xd4584]

Try 45% alox 45% johnsons paste floor wax 10% mineral sprits , easier to work with dries faster , less stiky & it works .

It`ll look as if there`s less lube on the boolit but your raising the qualitys of the naked alox .

This is all I run on wadcutter loads , but some get pushed purty good . Still a shiney bore!!

I have been using the thinned out alox method I read about on this forum somewhere. I am open to trying anything that is not sticky. I would love to be able to tumble lube them rather than dip lube.

[xd4584]

Lyman shows a max of 7.3 grs for their -374 boolit, so you are safe (so far as Lyman is concerned)

Try see-sawing the sticky rounds in a towel dampened with mineral spirits. Splash a scant 1/8 cup (3-4 tbsps) into the middle of an old towel, spreading it around somewhat, plop your loaded rounds in the middle, grab the ends, and see-saw up one side & down the other, and verse visa, for 30 seconds. Takes ALL the excess lube off.

Keep the SP primed ones for special use. Use a Lee hand primer to re-prime w/SP primers.

I actually just soak a rag in paint thinner (mineral spirits) and wipe the nose off the loaded round. The real pain to me is the lube getting in the seating die... I stop to clean it about every hundred rounds

[geargnasher]

XD, we're not talking about just thinning the Liquid Alox, we're talking about something different entirely that uses a percentage of liquid Alox. Scroll down to the lube forum and check out the "sticky" thread by Recluse about tumble-lubing. If you use this method you won't have any more goobered-up seating dies. We've been there and done that, that's why we're telling you about a better way.

The "hammock" method of cleaning finished ammo like Echo described is how I clean all my finished ammo, it's fast and effective. I'll add that I use Ed's Red instead of mineral spirits and that I towel-dry the haze off of them after cleaning. The drying method I use is place the ammo on half a dry bath towel, spread out one cartridge deep, flip the other half of the towel over the top like a taco and shuffle the cartridges between the layers like shuffling dominoes.

Gear

[xd4584]

I will check it out. So your telling me you can tumble lube them and its not sticky on the exposed part of the bullet?

[MikeS]

xd: even using all LLA and thinning it out very slightly, then TUMBLE lubing them (not dip lubing) using very little lube, they will dry and not be sticky.

[Echo]

Echo, Alliant shows 5.8 grains of Unique to be max with a Speer lead round nose, and the velocity is 849 fps, so getting close to upper end pressure. I've looked up Unique and 230 lead boolits before amongst all the usuall suspects for sources and there is a HUGE difference in the data. Personally, anything over 6-6.2 grains would start hammering the frames of my 1911s pretty hard even with 18-lb springs. I know lots of people use hotter loads, but I'll leave it up to them.

Gear

Gear, I pulled the handiest reloading book I had next to the computer - it was the Lyman Pistol & Revolver Reloading Handbook, and on P207 it showed 7.3 grs of Unique as a max with the -374 PBRN boolit. Hammering of the frame is a concern of mine, too, and I would be leery of loading thusly for any gun of mine, but Lyman said...