My first cast

[DrewTenney]

Here is my first cast! 6 cavity Lee .452 mold, pure COWW alloy, sprayed mold with the easy out stuff, it worked AWESOME! I tumble lubed them and set them on wax paper to dry overnight. I live in NC, and my garage will be like 70-80 degrees all night, would it benefit my lubed boolits in fridge? (have beer fridge under workbench conveniently) Thank you too all you Boolit Masters whose thoughts and words have filled my evenings for the last 3 weeks!!!

[prsman23]

Terrible. Send them to me for proper disposal at no charge.

:-D

[DrewTenney]

prsman, damn.... guess ill have to melt them back in,, :kidding:

[cummins05]

Looks good for a first timer I guess u did your homework and followed the advice well

[Firebricker]

Looks good Drew! I've only pan lubed a few hundred boolits but based on that I think the fridge will help and definitely shouldn't hurt. FB

[DrewTenney]

Firebricker, after I load these tomorrow I'll do a few test cast/lubes and stick in fridge. I'll let you know. might be different after I make the 45/45/10 lube tomorrow as well.

[DrewTenney]

Epiphony! Everyone complains about their bullet seating die being fouled up with lube.. if I literally freeze my already lubed boolits, right before I load them, wouldn't that cause the lube to not stick to the die? or at least make it a LOT less?? anyone try this before?

[Calamity Jake]

Doesn't look like there is enough lube on them, you mighy want to apply another coat.
Otherwise good job.

[45 Shooter]

Good first casting. Looks way better than when I started.

[DrewTenney]

Problems... So I lubed these last night, and let them sit until around 1800 after I got off work. Was conducting my "test seating" to ensure bullet seat depth was good for OAL/chambering etc... I put every one of these boolits through my .452 sizing die, and resized all the 45acp cases, and chamfered the case opening which is measuring .4545-.4550. The boolits are being shaved, very slightly on the mouth of the case and leaving some lead on the very upper edge of the case neck. The boolits are 100% COWW water dropped at 650-675deg. What do I do?

[supv26]

Is your die crimping before the boolit is finished seating? I use 4 dies for pistol reloading. My seating die is backed out so it seats only. The next die is the Lee FCD so there is no downward movement of the bullet while crimping.

[DrewTenney]

Problem solved! I played around with the case flaring die, and adjusted the boolit seating/crimping die. Ordered the tapered crimp die today, will push them through that also just to double tap. But as you can see from the 2 round image... no more lead being shaved!

74679
74677

[Firebricker]

Good deal Drew sounds like it's time to send some of those good lookin boolits down range ! FB

[Centaur 1]

Epiphony! Everyone complains about their bullet seating die being fouled up with lube.. if I literally freeze my already lubed boolits, right before I load them, wouldn't that cause the lube to not stick to the die? or at least make it a LOT less?? anyone try this before?

Unless you're in a controlled environment with 0% humidity, a bullet that cold would form condensation like an ice cold glass of ice tea on a hot summer day. Sealing that moisture inside the case with the gunpowder will cause problems. You'll like the 45/45/10, it dries hard.

[Idz]

I believe the Lee seating die for 45 acp already has the taper crimp built into it. For 45acp you only want to crimp it enough to remove the flare. I too found that to keep the cast bullet from shaving off you have to adjust the Lee expander in much more than their instructions recommend.
Please post how well load works with tumble lube on it.