First Time Casting

[jlchasteen]

I have a Lee LH50-320 mold, 50 Cal, 320 grain. I just finished my first casting session, now it is time to lube them. These are for a 209 in-line muzzle loader, I use two Pyrodex pellets. What would you suggest as the best lube to use? Thanks for the help.
180822

[Yodogsandman]

Nice looking boolits, good job! For a commercial lube, I'd try Thompson Center Arms Maxi Lube.

[OnHoPr]

Did you make those with WWs? They look a little alloy frosty. If you did they probably will not work or a high possibility of it. They should be made of pure lead, maybe just a touch of hardening input I am suggesting just a TOUCH maybe. You may not be able to get them in the bore at the muzzle because of hardness. I would try lubing one and seeing if you could get it in your bore. If you can, go to the range. If you can't take the breech plug out and drive that Lee REAL back out with a few bounces of your fiberglass ramrod. Then find some Pb to cast.

[jlchasteen]

Yes, I cast these out of a mixture of COWW and bullets of a caliber I don't own. As soon as I get enough SOWW I plan on making some Ingots to mix in with what I already have

[Djones]

I have that exact mold and love it in my cvs wolf. OnHoPr is right about pure lead. I was preparing for a long day at the range and cast up a bunch of the Lee REAL slugs. I used my standard alloy for centerfire casting (half soww half coww then a little tin). Got to the range the next day and couldn't use any of my slugs. They were too hard. I couldn't start them down the bore.

Back to your original question, I use a homemade mixture of crisco and bees wax (50/50). The commercial lubes mentioned earlier for black powder are probably better.

Good luck!

David

[jlchasteen]

I lubed a bullet with Alox Bullet Lube that came with my furnace, and I was able to load one. Though it took a little more pressure to get it started than the store bought bullets.

[jlchasteen]

Should I use more soww than coww when mixing my lead, I am planing on getting a 45LC mold for my revolver, would the harder lead work better for the pistol

[Yodogsandman]

Yes, some SOWWs are softer than others, too. See BNE's sticky on which ones to use. His photo shows you which ones are almost like pure lead.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?229666-Stick-On-WW-XrF-Data

[Djones]

Should I use more soww than coww when mixing my lead, I am planing on getting a 45LC mold for my revolver, would the harder lead work better for the pistol

As a starting point for the 45 Colt try mixing the SOWW with the COWW at 50/50. For you muzzleloader try to go as close to pure lead as you can get your hands on.

David

[Yodogsandman]

Lead pipe and roof flashing is close to pure lead, too.

[OnHoPr]

When it comes to putting a conical or full bore down the front end of a frontstuffer it is usually best to go pure Pb. In a sense as stated in the SOWW pic shown above in post 8 where the pure is in the 99% range. This also goes with a PPed full bore boolit. This should get you shooting fairly accurate for game or target with easier loading. When I mentioned a TOUCH is where you may add something like 5 or 10% COWW to pure Pb to really shrink down decent groups or be able to add a touch more powder to the charge, but that is a little more advanced stuff. When it comes to putting a cast boolit in a piece of brass, well that is a whole nother spectrum which can go from 1 to 20 to harder than linotype depending on your application.

[jlchasteen]

I just finished sorting my ww and pouring ingots. I sorted my soww and put all the #6 from that list in with the coww. I have about 50~60lbs of coww and around 6 of soww, going to have to see if I can find more pure lead sources.
180891
coww, old bullets, soww

[jlchasteen]

I just finished sorting my ww and pouring ingots. I sorted my soww and put all the #6 from that list in with the coww. I have about 50~60lbs of coww and around 6 of soww, going to have to see if I can find more pure lead sources.
180891
coww, old bullets, soww

[OnHoPr]

That 6#s of soww should be enough to cast a bunch of those REAL boolits. It should be soft enough. Then you can get to the range, find a load, (you may want to start about 60 grs of whatever powder and work up to about 80 grs), 70 grs is the norm for decent accurate deer killing groups with the REAL from general forum reading. Then you would be ready for the season. Looks like you got a good starter bunch of alloy for the 45 Colt.

[jlchasteen]

Sorry, I got real sick for a while and I even missed muzzle loading season, but I finally got to go shoot on Dec. 24th. I got my muzzle loader dialed in, but my last shot was way off, there was a chunk of lube on the bottom of the boolit, will that cause a shot to go way off, hit the ground half way to the target, new to both muzzle loading and casting, so I don't know if it was a problem with the boolit or too much lube, but it might of just been a dirty barrel,