How do you guys schedule/batch casting through loaded ammo?

[357shooter]

Hi guys,

This weekend was my first big casting effort. For the past month I just did small batches, lubes, loaded and shot them. Just to make sure the whole process worked.

Yesterday I cast 1500 bullets, 850 38 special and 650 45acp.

I decided to try and pan lube them all, but my lubing approach is a little slow. Or it was, gotta get some bigger pans too.


Thinking about it, casting makes sense to do a large number at one time. However lubing seems to make more sense to do in smaller batches, enough to stay ahead of the loading and shooting at the range.

I was loading 200-300 each weekend and shooting that much too.

This weekend, no loading due but I have about 1000 lubed. Didn't seem to be the best use of time.

How do you guys break up the various steps throughout the week?

Thanks

[Blammer]

I just sorta do it whenever I feel like it.

no real schedule.

[Trey45]

My system may be a little unorthodox, I'll cast like crazy in the winter, use every mold i own and even borrow molds from friends to cast with. I'll go through hundreds of pounds of lead, literally. As I shoot, I'll figure out how much empty brass i have, grab that many boolits from the container and lubrisize them, then load. I don't even sort my boolits after casting, unless it's an obvious flaw they all go in the container, as I grab out what I need to load, I sort then, the culls get dropped either in a lead pot, or a cull bucket to be melted. Usually what happens is this, I go shooting, come home and count my brass, grab that many boolits and lubrisize them, then reload. Even though I may have 1500 to 2000 of a particular caliber already loaded, if i go shoot 250, I reload those 250.

[canyon-ghost]

I have been doing about what Trey is suggesting. I've been casting and reloading more than I shoot during the winter and any rainy weekend. I usually cast on weekends and move the batch of bullets indoors. Then, during the week it takes one evening to weigh them all, one to gas check and lube, and one to load. It's possible to build several hundred a week. I use a lubrisizer though, and mostly RCBS equipment. I'm casting with the Lyman Master Casting Kit though, and double cavity molds.
I do alright on this, spring and summer I'll shoot more and cast/reload less but, still do at some point. It's really just a matter of taking the time out to do it, that's all.

Ron

[Gee_Wizz01]

I don't really have a system, I cast whenever I feel like it, and then I lube the boolits a day or so before I plan on using them. Occasionally I will lube a large batch and store them away, especially my Ranch Dog 45-70 and .44 boolits, since they are tumble lubed and they need to dry for a day or two before use. I lubed a batch of 600 9mm boolits and them loaded them during a rainy Saturday a while back, but generally I just lube and load what I am planning on using in the near future. I do tend to cast more during cool weather, and I just store the boolits in large plastic coffee cans. With my rifle boolits I will sit down from time to time and weigh the castings to cull out the bad ones. Its my hobby and I just do it when I feel like it, I dont want it to become work.

G

[mooman76]

I cast allot as it suits me. If everything is going good I'll cast allot and set aside. I used to lube allot also but since I have different lubes and methods I don't lube them all, I just do smaller batches. Same with reloading. I'll do my reloading in stages so when I want to load a particular caliber, I can do it quicker. All is as I have time also. I usually clean the brass after I shot unless I don't shoot much but I eventually clean it and put in bags. At some point when I have allot of time I will resize and sometimes bell the brass and I put a tag that I made up in the bag so I know right off what stage I'm at so when I want to reload all I have to do is prime, powder and bullet.
I typically have enough bullets of each type already lubed and ready to go. With the amount of bullets you're doing you might want to concider LLA unless you are dead set against it. You can knock out a large batch of bullets in a few minutes.

[JSnover]

I rarely cast and load on the same day. I don't lube until I'm ready to load.

[johnlaw484]

I usually cast like a mad man in the winter, lube and load in the spring. Shot gun gets loaded in August just before dove season.
I am in the process of of trying this pan lube thing with a Lee sizer. I am not sure I like it better than my lube press and I don't think it saves time. It is cheaper than lube sizing and I have trouble finding cheap lube for my sizer.
I though about using the pan lube recipe in my sizer, but haven't gotten that far.

[Sprue]

Feeding the addiction, I've always kept ahead. I can readily whip something up in a minutes time if necessary, but I'm usually ready to head to the range.

The assembly line is always in - idle mode or hot standby here. I have coffee cans of '"as cast" on the shelf and probably 100 lubed boolits on deck as well as brass n other things. Keep in mind I mostly shoot more 38's than anything.

Other calibers are ready to pack up for a range trip. I do load on a single stage, usually something in rifle though but again at least a few booits & brass are most likely ready to stuff.

When I return home my fired brass goes into its respective fired casing bin.Those bins are designed to allow me to keep them all in a rotation process. Something like a, first in - first out to be tumbled scenario.

All in all, most of the time when I return home from the range I usually end up reloading enough to refill my emptied plastic ammo boxes.

Sounds complicated and like work, but I have lots of time for other things. Buying a progressive press or two shaved countless hours. My two old green boolit presses are of no concern.

I've never pan lubed but it does seem that it would require time for preparing and all thats incorporated but, everyone develops their own system and refines them to make the best of time in general. What works for me would differ from your regimen had we identical equipment.

There is always something to do. I often am just passing thru so to speak and pick up on something in progress.

Anyway, the need for 1000 lubed booits isn't on my menu. To sum it up, just as you indicated its called " staying caught up".


Good post and query.......... thanks

[357shooter]

I rarely cast and load on the same day. I don't lube until I'm ready to load.

That seems to be the general approach and it makes sense. Now it does after trying to cast & lube as one big step. That made it one-to-big-of-a-step! Instead of cast & lube then load & shoot it makes more sense to cast then lube & load & shoot each week or two.

[357shooter]

I usually cast like a mad man in the winter, lube and load in the spring. Shot gun gets loaded in August just before dove season.
I am in the process of of trying this pan lube thing with a Lee sizer. I am not sure I like it better than my lube press and I don't think it saves time. It is cheaper than lube sizing and I have trouble finding cheap lube for my sizer.
I though about using the pan lube recipe in my sizer, but haven't gotten that far.
I tweake my pan lube recipe, started with Darr lube and then added beeswax. If I read the recipes correctly that makes it NRA lube.

With this lube I "learned" how long to harden in my fridge (4-6 minutes) and then pop them out with some pliers (I use Robo-grips that sqeeze evenly and added rubber to protect the lead). I just put the next batch into the same hole, back in the oven and do it all over again. Worked really well once I figured it out.

Hope that made sense, but it was a mess and a pain until then.

I'm skipping the sizing as the bullets are the right size without it.

They are pretty clean and look good.

I tried to pop out the block of lube and pop out from behind but I must be uncordinated or something and it just didn't work for me. The block would break up and ruin the whole cycle.

Hope that made sense.

Learning this just took a lot of hours this weekend, but the bullets are awesome.

[357shooter]

Feeding the addiction, I've always kept ahead. I can readily whip something up in a minutes time if necessary, but I'm usually ready to head to the range.

The assembly line is always in - idle mode or hot standby here. I have coffee cans of '"as cast" on the shelf and probably 100 lubed boolits on deck as well as brass n other things. Keep in mind I mostly shoot more 38's than anything.

Other calibers are ready to pack up for a range trip. I do load on a single stage, usually something in rifle though but again at least a few booits & brass are most likely ready to stuff.

When I return home my fired brass goes into its respective fired casing bin.Those bins are designed to allow me to keep them all in a rotation process. Something like a, first in - first out to be tumbled scenario.

All in all, most of the time when I return home from the range I usually end up reloading enough to refill my emptied plastic ammo boxes.

Sounds complicated and like work, but I have lots of time for other things. Buying a progressive press or two shaved countless hours. My two old green boolit presses are of no concern.

I've never pan lubed but it does seem that it would require time for preparing and all thats incorporated but, everyone develops their own system and refines them to make the best of time in general. What works for me would differ from your regimen had we identical equipment.

There is always something to do. I often am just passing thru so to speak and pick up on something in progress.

Anyway, the need for 1000 lubed booits isn't on my menu. To sum it up, just as you indicated its called " staying caught up".


Good post and query.......... thanks

I use the Lee Turret w/auto indexing which let's me load in the neighborhood of 120-160 per hour, makes a huge difference. A progressive may be in the not-to-distant future though.

The pan-lubing that I finally figured out left the lube in the pan with holes from the "lubed-bullets" so I just stick in the next batch. With enough trays I can leave the lube and just always use that/those trays for the same caliber. Setup should be easy next time!

Thanks for the feedback.

[JSnover]

I've been pan lubing with Emmerts for about two years and it works well for small batches.
When I have a loading block full of charged cases I put them aside and start cooking the lube.
I cut the boolits from the lube cake while it's still warm (it's solid but has not gotten full hard). They come out easier that way and if any lube should fall out of a groove it's easy to push it back in because it's still sticky.
Wipe the base while the boolit is still in the cutter (I use one that leaves about .100" exposed), stick it into an expanded case mouth, repeat until the pan is empty. Then the whole block is run throught the seating and crimping dies.
Done.

[Patrick L]

I do have sort of a routine. It centers around the one bullet I need a certain quantity of; the SAECO 301 .30 caliber TC. I shoot this boolit for NRA Highpower and our season runs from April thru October. I need 480 for the matches (8 matches, 60 rds per) and about the same number for practice.

I too cast pretty much in the fall and winter, although since I built a dedicated casting cabinet/exhaust system (a long story for another time) I sometimes will throw in a session at other times. But generally 5 or 6 sessions starting around November and ending December/January will do it. I am a 2 mold caster. I always cast the SAECO, and one of my other molds. It might be a .38 wadcutter, a .44 SWC or RN, maybe a 31141 for the .30-30, etc. Point is, I don't use those bullets faster than I accumulate them, so they kind of stockpile while the SAECO I end up with enough of but not an over abundance. I lubesize or tumble lube enough of all of the others to have a lot of loaded ammo plus 500-600 or so ahead, and the rest just accumulate in coffee cans. Over the years the stockpile builds up.

Meanwhile, once I feel I have enough SAECOs I'm done casting for the year. I then weigh sort them (I only do this with this boolit), segregate the most uniform ones for my match boolits, and the rest all are for practice. I lubesize them ans store them in plastic boxes, and load them and shoot them up in a season. Highpower is over in October, and around November I start again.

Here's the double production of the SAECO (on left) and I think a .38 wadcutter(?) The coffee cans hold previously cast boolits.
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb157/patrickl_01/Casting%20cabinet/GunStuff014.jpg

Here's my setup for weight sorting the SAECOs out of the coffee can
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb157/patrickl_01/Sorting%20and%20Sizing/GunStuff030.jpg

Here's just various accumulated extras
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb157/patrickl_01/Storage/GunStuff085.jpg

Here's the stuff lubesized ahead on the shelves under my bench. The bottom shelf has lots of accumulated extras, some cast and processed many years ago, plus assorted J bullets, shot, and just plain stuff! Top shelf is looking a bit empty, so the picture must have been taken towards the end of Highpower season.
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb157/patrickl_01/Storage/GunStuff090.jpg

I'm not saying this is the only way, but it works for me!

[Dale53]

I cast all year round (I built a dedicated casting station in my utility barn). It is insulated, heated, and air conditioned.

I am a "Certified Old Fart" and don't so as many at a time as I used to. I have two RCBS bottom pour 22 lb electric pots. I typically run one pot full at a sitting (21 lbs of finished bullets). Sometimes I will run two pots at a sitting.

I then take them to my basement workshop and size them (run them through a Star sizer) until finished, storing them in marked and sealed plastic food containers. I try to keep 10,000 or so bullets ahead of me ready to reload at the drop of a hat...

I always have several thousand reloads waiting to be shot. I shoot several calibers of handguns (.32, .38/.357, .44 Spec/.44 Magnum, .45 Colt/.45 ACP) and several rifle calibers in the past (.32 Dell, .32/40, .40/65, .45/70, .45/90).

I try to keep things working efficiently. Working in quantity I never get bored and I never run out.

Dale53

[Wayne Smith]

I would add one piece of information to the above. When using water dropping or oven conditioning you need to size within a day or so. Otherwise later sizing will work soften the hardened surface of the boolit. It's a whole lot easier before they harden, too.

[357shooter]

I've been pan lubing with Emmerts for about two years and it works well for small batches.
When I have a loading block full of charged cases I put them aside and start cooking the lube.
I cut the boolits from the lube cake while it's still warm (it's solid but has not gotten full hard). They come out easier that way and if any lube should fall out of a groove it's easy to push it back in because it's still sticky.
Wipe the base while the boolit is still in the cutter (I use one that leaves about .100" exposed), stick it into an expanded case mouth, repeat until the pan is empty. Then the whole block is run throught the seating and crimping dies.
Done.

That's a good idea. I think I'm going to search for some pans that'll fit 240 rounds at a time and get enough to have 2 with lube in them for each caliber.

I think that will make it much easier to lube as needed.

[357shooter]

I do have sort of a routine. It centers around the one bullet I need a certain quantity of; the SAECO 301 .30 caliber TC. I shoot this boolit for NRA Highpower and our season runs from April thru October. I need 480 for the matches (8 matches, 60 rds per) and about the same number for practice.

I too cast pretty much in the fall and winter, although since I built a dedicated casting cabinet/exhaust system (a long story for another time) I sometimes will throw in a session at other times. But generally 5 or 6 sessions starting around November and ending December/January will do it. I am a 2 mold caster. I always cast the SAECO, and one of my other molds. It might be a .38 wadcutter, a .44 SWC or RN, maybe a 31141 for the .30-30, etc. Point is, I don't use those bullets faster than I accumulate them, so they kind of stockpile while the SAECO I end up with enough of but not an over abundance. I lubesize or tumble lube enough of all of the others to have a lot of loaded ammo plus 500-600 or so ahead, and the rest just accumulate in coffee cans. Over the years the stockpile builds up.

...

I can see how a few casting sessions can get a supply built up. Some guys seem to load in winter, and shoot in the warmer weather. I shoot the same amount year round almost exclusively indoors. So I may build up a supply of my 2 big bullets over the next 2-3 months and see how it goes from there.

[DLCTEX]

My business is built around doing emergency electrical and other repairs, so I do not often do anything on a schedule. I can be called out any minute. My casting and loading is done as I can and has to be done so that I can drop it and leave in a short time. I just do it whenever everything permits. I had planned to do some reloading yesterday, but got a call and had to run for a few hours.

[Recluse]

I keep a decent stash of boolits on hand, but will cast whenever the mood strikes me. Sometimes, I'll get some wild idea about an alloy mix or lube mix in the middle of the night and have to jump up and write it down. If the insomnia is really bad, out to the shop I go.

Same with reloading. I always keep a very healthy supply of loaded ammo in the cabinet, but there will be times I just feel like pulling the handle and other times where I want to play around with some loads, so out to the shop I go.

No real schedule. I hate clocks and calendars and living my life on a schedule, so I just kind of go and do as I please in my personal life.

:coffee:

[jdgabbard]

I try to keep at least 1k of every mold I have on hand at all times. I also like to keep 3k of the 358495, and 2k of 356402 on hand...

As for scheduling a time to lube. I lube some and stuff back in storage, but most of the time I just lube right before I load....

[357shooter]

I try to keep at least 1k of every mold I have on hand at all times. I also like to keep 3k of the 358495, and 2k of 356402 on hand...

As for scheduling a time to lube. I lube some and stuff back in storage, but most of the time I just lube right before I load....

That sounds like a good idea. Right now my "pipeline" of is filling up so there's not enough on hand. But it's getting there. Seems like the lube-before-you-load approach makes lots of sense unless there's some found time to get a bunch lubed and stored. Having a stash of unlubed bullets ready though is the a good idea.