Need advice on which mold to get for casting boolits for my 45acp

[victor3ranger]

I would like to know which type of casting is better.

The mold I am looking at is a Lee One produces a 230g RN with 2 lube grooves, the other is a 230g RN that has several small grooves around the bottom half of the boolit.

Is there any difference in these two types other than the lube grooves?

Don't want to buy one that I can't use for some reason.

[Dale53]

The design with "small grooves" is a tumble lube design. If you have a lube/sizer you will be happier with the larger lube grooves.

Another design from Lee works very well for me - the 230 gr TC - it feeds well plus the flat meplat (nose) gives much better terminal performance (many professionals suggest it is 25% better than a round nose - that is significant). It also comes in tumble lube or lube/sizer designs.

FWIW
Dale53

[victor3ranger]

I knew there was a specific reason behind the small groves. What kind of lube is the best tumble lube??

And, with the tumble lube type boolits you still need to run them threw the sizer correct?? And then lube correct??

[Iron Mike Golf]

For tumble lubing, most folks use a type based on Alox. Basically, it's a liquid and you roll the bullets in that, then let them dry overnight. That does not leave much lube on the boolit. So TL (tumble lube) designs have those shallow grooves to increase the surface area of (and therefore the amount of lube on) the boolit.

You don't need to size a TL boolit, if it drops from the mold at the proper size for your piece. If you do need to size, most folks TL twice - before and after sizing.

Do you have a lubrisizer? A Lee push-thru sizing die for your reloading press?

[Echo]

Re TL - my experience is that TL'ing boolits for low intensity cartridges (.38 Spcl, .45 ACP, &cetera) works fine.

[victor3ranger]

I don't have any parts yet for making my boolits or resizing them.

I am having a really hard time finding the parts that I need. Seems everyone is out of stock on this stuff.
I did however find a 6 cav mold for the .452 230g round nose boolits this morning and pulled the trigger on it. It is for the boolits that have the tumble lube grooves. Was the only one I have been able to find so far.

[mdi]

Whichever mold you choose, make sure it's a "2R" nose profile. The "1R" is a shorter, fatter ogive and must be seated way deeper to chamber relaibly. Both bullets can be tumble lubed, but check the Boolit Lube section stickies here and you'll get a whole bunch of info on lubing your bullets.

[victor3ranger]

I checked on the one I ordered, says it is a 2R type boolit.
I will check out the lube section, thanks

[turmech]

TL452-230-2R if you want to tumble lube
452-230-TC if you want a conventional lube groove

Sticking exclusively with the lee mold theme. As stated you can tumble lube either. I like the profile design better of the TL452-230-2R but I don't like the tumble lube (personal preference) so I use the 452-230-TC

[Moonie]

For 45acp I have 3 molds, a 2 cav Lee 230 TC (non TL), a lee 6 cav 200gr SWC (non TL) and a Mihec 2 cav 200gr HP. I cast more of the 200gr SWC's than any other.

[Crash_Corrigan]

I have and have used the Lee 230 2R RNL mold in 6 banger to make a lot of boolits. They work well and feed reliably. However a 200 GR SMC boolit with one lube groove and lubed with Carnuba Red (Hot here in Las Vegas) works a lot better than the RNL Lee boolit. They are more accurate than the Lee's and stored in a plastic container with a pinch of corn starch they keep well and do not mess up my dies nor hands when I reload.

[rintinglen]

ANY mold can be a TL mold. I have used Lee Liquid Alox to load 30-40 rounds to a measured 2300 FPS with excellent accuracy and no significant leading. Get a Lee .452 push through sizing kit--which comes with a bottle of LLA--and you are set. For a quicker drying formula, see the Lube section for the sticky on Recluse formula 45/45/10. But the LLA will get you started just fine.

When you get your mold(don't forget the handles), give it a good cleaning with brake cleaner and a toothbrush, especially the cavities. pre-heat the mold, either on top your Lead POt or on a seperate electric hot plate. Then just start casting. Cast in one cavity for two casts, then two adjoining cavities for two more, then three, then four, and so on until your running on all six cavities. Make sure you have a big, healthy sprue on top. You want plenty of metal to heat the sprue plate and to force the lead into all the nooks and crannys of the mold. Don't stop to look at your boolits, just cast as fast as the mold will let you. You may have to knock on the hinge bolt to get the boolits to fall out at first, this is normal. Use a piece of wood or a small dead-blow hammer. Just keep Filling and dumping as fast as the sprue freezes until you have burned through half the the pot. Refill the pot, put the mold back on the heater (On my Lee Electric pot I balance them on the top of the pot) to keep it warm while the pot gets back up to temperature.

Now you can look at the boolits. Some will probably be wrinkled, or not well filled out, put them aside for remelting later. But if you just concentrated on filling and dumping, with a nice sprue, most will be nice. Sometimes, especially if you didn't do a good job cleaning the mold, it may take you a couple of sessions to burn all the cutting oil out the mold cavities. Don't get discouraged, by the 2nd or 3rd time through, the mold will be seasoned, and you will be, too and you'll be piling up those silver baubles Like Scrooge counting Shillings.

[victor3ranger]

Thanks Rintinglen, that is a good walk thru on what I need to do. I am really excited to get my stuff and get started.

[snuffy]

I don't have any parts yet for making my boolits or resizing them.

I am having a really hard time finding the parts that I need. Seems everyone is out of stock on this stuff.
I did however find a 6 cav mold for the .452 230g round nose boolits this morning and pulled the trigger on it. It is for the boolits that have the tumble lube grooves. Was the only one I have been able to find so far.

Finding ANYTHING related to reloading/casting right now is a big problem. Obommascare is making everybody look for alternatives to buying factory loaded ammo. You may well be looking at a 4 month wait for good casting equipment.

Besides your 4 cav mold, you also need handles. Not possible to use that mold without handles. You could make some boolits if you have lead, with a camp stove, a cast iron or steel pot,(no aluminum), and a ladle. Then, as said, a lee .452 sizer kit, viola, you have boolits!

That 230 2-r TL boolit will work good for you. Work up some good loads and go have fun!

Forgot to add,-welcome to the forum! If you can't find the answer to you questions here, the answer doesn't exist!

[MikeS]

You did alright in buying the 230gr TL design boolit. I have that mould and it makes good boolits. Now if you buy the Lee sizing kit in .452 it will come with a sizing die that fits in your reloading press (so you don't need to buy a lubrisizer), and comes with a 4oz bottle of Lee's Liquid Alox, and between the mould you bought, and the sizing kit, assuming you already have a pot to melt the lead in, you're all set to start casting boolits for your 45.

If others here tell you that you should have bought a design that uses conventional lube grooves, don't worry, if you decide that casting boolits isn't your thing, you're not out much money, and if you decide that casting boolits IS something you want to continue doing (the more likely outcome) then you'll certainly buy more moulds, as I don't know anyone that enjoys casting boolits that only has one mould!

Once you start casting boolits, and you find that the sizing die is totally removing the lube grooves, then you know that you're doing something wrong when casting them, possibly got lead on the mould faces, are trying to hold all 3 handles on the mould (after closing the sprue plate, DO NOT hold it's wooden handle while pouring lead, that WILL lead to oversized oval boolits because it can cause the mould to open slightly, and you won't see it because the sprue plate is covering it), or something.

If you don't want to cast first only one, then two, three, etc to warm the mould to proper casting temp, you can preheat the mould on a hotplate, you can get a cheap one at Walgreens, or CVS for under $20.00 and it will do the job perfectly. You will need to play around a bit with the hotplate to get it heat the mould, but not overheat it. With the hotplate that I now have, I set it on medium, and turn it on at the same time as I turn on the lead pot, and place the mould on the hot plate. Doing it this way I find that when the lead is up to the proper casting temp, the mould is also at the proper casting temp, so you can start off right away casting with all 6 cavities, and the first pour might even be keepers, rather than ones that need to go back in the pot.

One really nice thing about casting boolits is that if you screw up some boolits, they're not wasted, as you can always throw them back in the pot! You already made one great decision, that was coming to this forum, AND asking for help/advice. That alone will give you a tremendous advantage over someone trying to learn from books, and YouTube. Speaking of YouTube, you can consider most of the videos on boolit casting there as good examples of what NOT to do!

Speaking of books, try and get Lyman's Bullet Casting Handbook, either the 3rd edition if you can find it, or their 4th edition, or better yet, get both! Also get a copy of Glen Fryxell's e-book (I don't have a link to it, but if you do a search here you'll find it), it's a really good book, better than the Lyman books if you ask me.

[detox]

Glen Fryxell's e book:

http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_textonly2.pdf

[gunoil]

Lee 90352 6 cavity



out of, backordered:
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/313...1-ogive-radius



Sig938,xds45,NAA22magnum,DB-9, carbine

[victor3ranger]

If the place I made my order from is correct and I don't end up getting a backorder message then I got my Lee .452 sizer ordered. It comes with the alox and I ordered 2 more bottles, so I should have enough lube for a while.
Can't wait to get this stuff in.
I have a friend who pours fishing weights that said I could use his Lee pour thru 10lb pot, so I am set there. I am also picking up around 75lb of lead and 20lb of lenotype from my dad next week.
On a bright note, a fellow Ranger gave me a Lyman 358242BT mold this morning, as well as a OLD Lee bullet lubricating and resizing kit that was used with that mold. Not sure exactly what the mold is for sure yet but looks like a rounse nose 380 boolit.

[zomby woof]

I have 3 LEE molds for my 1911. A 200 swc, 200 swc TL and a 160. They all shoot great out of my pistol. I prefer the 200 swc. The boolits just fall out of the mold and shoot fantastic.

[geargnasher]

The Lee 229 grainer with two grooves and the dome nose is lousy for all of my 1911s. Nose too short and too fat at the "base" right in front of the case mouth and has to get it to chamber in a lot of pistols has to be seated too deeply to feed well or fit the magazine.

The 230 tumble lube boolit is excellent in all my 1911s, but I prefer real lube grooves. I based the Accurate Molds 45-230L on it and it shoots wonderfully. there are other good designs too. Accurate Molds makes them to order and is never out of stock.

Gear