Planning ahead

[Catsmith]

I guess 23 yeArs military has beat into me to plan everything ahead of time?

Looking at sending off my h&r to get a 357 and a 44 barrel for a brush hog and deer gun. I am totally buying into shooting cast bullets for both. I have never cast a bullet. Starting from scratch.

So here are the questions:
1 which boolets to get molds for hunting?
2 heavy and slow or light and fast?
3 any free advice?

[runfiverun]

best i can give is to wait untill you get the bbl's, and read around here.
see what works best.
and the issues they have had to overcome with them and what they fixes were.
many have just re-cut the 357 to 357 max,and the 44 to 445.

[crabo]

If you spend the time reading, you will start to see patterns emerge from the posters. Mold numbers will start to repeat themselves and you will start understanding a lot more.

Just because one boolit or load works for one person, doesn't mean it will work for you. When I started I thought it would be easy for someone to just tell me what mold to buy to get the best results. There is a lot more involved in making your gun shoot well than just buying one mold.

Start reading and looking for the patterns. A lot of molds with work if you do things right.

[sav300]

Catsmith,two very good answers. Read the stickies,helped me alot.

[NVScouter]

Also cast for hogs with that combo will be supurb.

before you buy a mold ask for some samples here in Swapn and Selln area. Also I'd buy two LEE 2 cavilty molds to start with as they are cheap and if you jack one up learning your only our $20.

Question why 357 and 44? A good 357, 44, 45 barrel out of a carbine will do hogs just fine. While a second barrel in 45/70, 375WIN or 35 Whelen would give you some more flexibility IMHO.

[Catsmith]

Thanks for the good answers. I have been trying to soak up all I can bout all of this but it gets overwhelming pretty fast.

I guess I should have asked for a good starting point. :) I will research.

I will also look into other calibers for more options.

[crabo]

Do you shoot any pistols?

[Catsmith]

Shoot a good bit of 38 and some 9mm. Been loading cast that I get off a guy in north east Louisiana for a pretty good price. Have been happy with them. Been getting real good results with the 158swc in my s&w model 10. The 442s do fair with them also. The 9 is a keltec p11.

[Bluehawk]

H&R can be finicky BUT usually shoots cast well . I have a H&R 45/70 that shoots 330/ thru 385 cast boolits well but does not shot lighter or heavier boolits as well .
I have several other H&Rs that i don't shoot cast from ALL are finicky on bullet weight /length . SO wait and see what you have . Id recommend heavy bollits and less velocity for hogs JMHO. Id go with 180 cast for the 357 250 thru 265 for the 44

[crabo]

Shoot a good bit of 38 and some 9mm. Been loading cast that I get off a guy in north east Louisiana for a pretty good price. Have been happy with them. Been getting real good results with the 158swc in my s&w model 10. The 442s do fair with them also. The 9 is a keltec p11.

I would suggest getting a Lee 125 rnfp for your 38 Special and 9mm. It is a boolit that should work in both of them.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/916523/lee-6-cavity-bullet-mold-358-125-rf-38-special-357-magnum-38-colt-new-police-38-s-and-w-358-diameter-125-grain-flat-nose

That boolit pushed by 3.5 grains of Bullseye, in a Special case, is very accurate in my guns. You also get more boolits out of a pound of lead.

Some people say that you should start with the 2 cavity, but the 6 puts out so much more in numbers.

Maybe someone else will chime in about the Lee boolit in 9mm. I don't load 9s

[x101airborne]

I guess 23 yeArs military has beat into me to plan everything ahead of time?

Looking at sending off my h&r to get a 357 and a 44 barrel for a brush hog and deer gun. I am totally buying into shooting cast bullets for both. I have never cast a bullet. Starting from scratch.

So here are the questions:
1 which boolets to get molds for hunting?
2 heavy and slow or light and fast?
3 any free advice?

Welcome!! First of all, grab a notebook and a pencil and make notes as you read. That was the only way I could keep track of all the good info.

For my needs, wich was larger hogs and whitetails from a marlin 44 mag, The Ranch Dog was the one that worked best for me. It was designed from the ground up to be a hunting boolit and at 300 grains, it is a sure killer. My son took a real nice 350-ish boar with one shot. Look at my photos to see the hog.

I dont hunt with a 357 rifle, but if I would, I would like for a 180 to 200 grain boolit. Again, look at the Ranch Dog designs.

Good advice to do slugs of the barrel and throat before you buy, but I have not heard of anyone not having success with the Ranch Dogs. They worked great for me and saved me a lot of trouble. Good luck with your quest.

[Catsmith]

Ok. Rethinking the 44. You all have great points.

[flipajig]

I love my 44's I'm feeding 3 of them. SBH,Thompson Contender and a M 94 Winchester all three of them love the 429244 this is a GC desine and if I remember right it casts out at 260 grn with lube and a GC out of my Tender it's running 1440 fps and my Winchester it's right at 1660 fps and my SBH 1240 fps.
The Lee 310 RF with a GC and lube it casts at 316 grn out of my tender I'm running 1260 fps and my SBH I'm getting 1000 fps I haven't worked with my M94 yet bu I think these will and are some serious medison for any deer ,pig or bear. I'm not taking any thing away from the 35 cal but the old 44 has and will still deliver serious on any thing that gets in front of them.
Flip

[Jeffrey]

So here are the questions:
1 which boolets to get molds for hunting?
2 heavy and slow or light and fast?
3 any free advice?

1) Ranch Dogs are very popular, but he is no longer selling moulds. Think about a boolit with a wide flat nose. Two cavity Lee moulds are plenty good enough for casual shooting, and are not hard on the wallet.
2) The speed limit on cast is slightly over 2000 fps. This can be exceeded by paper patching. My time is precious. For 30 calibre hunting I'd sooner spend a few dollars on boolits with full length gas checks (not the j-word AAAHHH!!!) than mess with paper patching. 265gr at 2000fps (444 marlin) will knock the life out of anything in the lower 49 states. And the H&R 444 is legal in LA for primitive weapon big game season.
3) Scrounge lead. Go to garage sales, pick up wheel weights from parking lots, make friends at the local tire shop, check out the Lead and lead alloys thread for lots of ideas.

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Yup, advice is free[smilie=w::guntootsmiley::coffee: , good advice is better...READ & LEARN from the STICKY's...they don't lie...
This site is the best place to start , you will have a lot more questions...trust me:groner:
wish you the best, glad to have aboard
Semper Fi

[leftiye]

H&R can be finicky BUT usually shoots cast well . I have a H&R 45/70 that shoots 330/ thru 385 cast boolits well but does not shot lighter or heavier boolits as well .
I have several other H&Rs that i don't shoot cast from ALL are finicky on bullet weight /length . SO wait and see what you have . Id recommend heavy bollits and less velocity for hogs JMHO. Id go with 180 cast for the 357 250 thru 265 for the 44

Possible bad news - H&R .44 mag. barrels a few years ago were rifled 1 in 38 inches. They were using barrels made for the Marlin .444. Would NOT stabilize heavier boolits. Probly the dumbest thang I've heard of in my life. Suggestion: either make sure that they are making .44 mag barrels in a faster twist nowadays, or get a .444 barrel instead which is made with a 1 in 20 inch twist. You can still load it to .44 mag. levels.

[41mag]

First off as x101airborne mentioned welcome to the fun. Now on to the jest of it,


So here are the questions:
1 which boolets to get molds for hunting?
2 heavy and slow or light and fast?
3 any free advice?

As has been mentioned read and read some more. Take plenty of notes on mold numbers, loads and powders used. As was posted they start to repeat, as does the information about them. I started out with the Lee 6 cavity molds and have found I like them for the boolits I pour with them. However they do have a small learning curve. Nothing that is a major issue just the little things that will get you frustrated. After a few months of pouring with one however you can have it down to pouring good boolits right from the get go. There is PLENTY of information here on how to do so as well.

For all around hunting the RFN design will do about anything your needing done, and you won't have to worry about having an alloy suited to the design and velocity of a HP. Most of them run in the middle to heavy side of weight per caliber, and usually shoot pretty darned well. As has also been mentioned weights in the 158gr and up for the .357, and 240 and up with the 44 would work more to your favor and probably offer more choices in molds. As you look at them some will be GC some will be plain based, and either will work equally well at the design velocity, however if your going to be pushing them up into the 1700fps rang you might consider the GC version. It has been pointed out time and time again that these CAN be shot as a PB at lower velocities, but I personally have no experience with it. To a lot of folks GC are expensive, but to me they are simply a part of a necessary evil, so to speak. I don't use them for everything, but when I do I use them with confidence as I can push the limits of the alloy and not be quite as concerned with getting any or as much leading. For the most part I am only using them with my 454 where my loads hit between 1550 and 1700fps with the Lee 300gr RF. I don't shoot hundreds of rouns at a sitting but I do run enough through it to keep proficient. When I got the mold I picked up 2K GC's off evilbay for a great price, and haven't burned through the first box just yet. If I were shooting them all the time however, I would probably be look for an alternative.

Advice,

You get what you pay for here, but the number one thing I could suggest is to gather up a good supply of lead. Initially I thought 100# was a good supply, but after only a month or so, I found out that was only going to be a drop in the bucket. Wheel weights will go a LONG ways towards pouring up great bullets. Add in a couple of rolls of 95/5 solder and your set up. Go easy on the solder with just enough to get good fill out on your molds and it will last a long time. Build you a recovery system for your target practice so you can recover and reuse the bullets. IT doesn't have to be overly fancy just effective. I am using some 6 gal buckets I get form work filled with sand. They are very effective at stopping most rounds when set up at 50yds, but the RFN's up closer tend to rock right on through just one of them. My intentions are to cut a 3/4" plywood ring to put in the middle to see if that will slow them down enough to catch them before exiting, but like everything else I always seem to remember when I am setting up to shoot and not ahead of time, and end up just using two buckets. Keep your alloy separated by content, WW with WW and unknown with unknown. This will go a long ways in keeping your bullet more consistent, and keep you from wondering why one batch worked so well and the next was a dismal failure. When you make up a blended alloy keep notes and weights so you can duplicate it in the future if you like it. Trust me when I say, three months down the road when you finally use up the last of that great blended alloy, you will not remember off the top of your head just exactly what was in it.

Hope this helps. I totally understand about the information overload you can get doing research here. I read and studied, took notes, and was still a mess when I started out the early part of last year. However with the great help from the folks here I managed to get up and running with minimal issue and have been pouring up great boolits ever since. The only problem you will find, is once you get a couple of mold and are pouring up great bullets, you will find yourself looking at others, then something else, and so on.

Good Luck.