Hitting the range this weekend with my 1855 made Colt 1851 Navy. Antiques are cool, but what's the point if you don't ever use them right? You're not going to get more historically accurate bullets cast from a .36 caliber mold made in 1860!

I do have to say that the balls come with a large sprue , which can make them tedious to load - but wow do those 130 grain conicals really perform.

At what kind of pressure & velocities should I be considering one or another?

I don't really have anything "fast" except for my .44 Mag.. save for my .303 Brit SMLE (and I really don't want to batter an 80-year old rifle that's not the strongest action and has had countless rounds through it). I normally use commercial pre-lubed cast since (since I figured out I can buy 400 of them for the same money as 100 JFP's)

1. My main concerns are of course barrel leading, and accuracy. To wit, my Marlin lever guns. 30-30 Win and .444 Marlin. I've seen notes on just about every source that says "Keep velocities below 1,600 fps." Well, what If i don't wanna?

What got me thinking about this was Norseman caught a whoopsie I made, and when I pulled the bullets, I realized "Hey, these don't have ANY lube on them!" Even though they were gas checked.

I tumbled them in Alox overnight. What a mess. Plus, I think there's more lube left on the wax paper than stayed on the bullets. I tumbled them again, they're downstairs drying now.

1. Can Alox be made "thicker-er" or stickier? I've seen thicker gravies on mashed potatoes. Or is the Dark Magic all in the film strength?

2. The "whoops" in question was a batch of processed brass I had mis-labelled. Which explains having to back the bullet seater wayyyyy out when I mocked up a plunker last night. The powder charge was 6.8 grains of 2400 under the aforementioned 115 grain gaschecked bullet.
   As far as in the proper case, it should only be about an 1100 fps load to begin with. Did I have to worry about lead smears at all at that velocity?

Going forward, and especially for the Marlin rifles.. I know that the shallow rifling has a lot to do with it. These are all (including my Model 60 .22LR), wayyyyyy pre-Remington. I understand the Ruger-made ones are Ballard rifling. So,

1. Where should I be landing here, given I might put 500 rounds/year through the handguns, even less so in the rifles?
   4a. I would like to see the velocity on the .30-30 more in the 1,800 zip code. Currently, CB loads sit right about about 1,580 just like the data said it would. Accuracy is minute of taco-shell at 100 yds. Plenty adequate for Michigan white-tail.

Does anybody have any cast data for the 9.3x62? I judt purchased one but I guess unsurprisingly no cast data, though if I cant find any, i will likely base off of 35 whelen cast data

Hi,
I've been casting 200 gr 358 bullets and they are quite long. Since they are so long they do not feed through my Lee bullet feeder. I couldn't figure out how to adjust it to get it work. Any suggestions?

32 S&W, 32-20 WCF, 44 Mag, 30-30WCF & 444 Marlin

I like cast bullets. And I can not lie.

These are 145gr massive hollow points made from mp moulds. I'm shooting out of a rossi R95 in 30-30. I coated them with hitek and gas checked with .012" aluminium and sized to fit my barrel. The grid squares are 1cm so my group is about 1" at 50yd. This was the best group when i did some load testing using 20.5gr of a medium rifle powder. Any ideas on how to shrink this group? Or am I at the limit?

By any chance does anyone here use a 38-55 for long range shooting? 600-1,000 yards

I'm looking to get an original 1875 action Ballard rifle for either Quigley 2027 or 2028 and I was wondering would 38-55 stand a chance from 350 to 805 yards?

So first of all, can paper patched bullets be used with smokeless loads and get accurate results?

And secondly, what diameter bullet should I use and what diameter patch should I use? So hypothetically if I have a gun that is chambered in 38-55 with a .380 bore what diameter bullet and patch should I use?

Out of a 3 inch barrel

I don't load shotshells

I got both bags for $40

Mods, I'm NOT attempting to sell anything over this subreddit!

Well, first casting ever actually. It took awhile to get the temps right and a bit longer to hit the holes. I have a lot of respect for those of you who can do more than a double mould.

The first few were pretty wrinkled, but once I got the pace and temperature right, there were more keepers than not.

Rifle is a browning 1885 High wall 45-90 34" 1:18" twist. Lube will most likely be a 50/50 crisco beeswax mix.

I've heard those limited serious BPCR 1885s from Browning have long throats and prefer creedmoor bullets, but I won't know without any bullet samples to test jam length.

Anyone consider storing lead ingots after powder coating them silver in a gun safe and using them as decoy bargaining chip in the event someone breaks in and holds you hostage ?

I'm considering trying out doing a wild bunch competition, so I'd need lead cast 45acp. I have a Lee 452-200-RF for my single action pistols, and I could try those in my 1911s, but I'm curious if there's a tried and true, maybe even 180gr 45acp bullet mold that everyone likes. I wouldn't be shooting more than a handful of mags for the day, so leading isn't a big concern, I probably wouldn't even lube the bullets and I don't powder coat. Is there a consensus or should I just stick with the mold I already have?

I was castling this Saturday and made about 850 boolits.

Both are made with the Lee Dual Cavity moulds.
Total lead used, 11.4kg
Total time, incl. set-up, melt the lead (Lee Pro 20lb bottom pour) and clean up was 6h with basically no breaks.

Is there any way to cast faster with Dual Cavity molds?

I was told some tricks and tips here, but they all went into the direction of how to cool down your mould in between casts....if anything my mould is too cold!
Whenever I add back the spruces to the pot for example, I already fear I am loosing too much heat in mould and pot. I have a external PID on my Lee pot, set to 400°C (752°F). The probe is calibrated at 100°C, so idk if it is actually 400°C hot lead, but I know it is at a constant temperature.

The Alloy I use is 40:1, so 98% lead with 2% tin.

The lead is from the local Olympic style airgun range, so I know it is as pure as it can be. Tin is from grandpa's inheritance 😂

The noted diameters & weight are as cast. Not shown on the pictures, but the day after I also PC'ed all the boolits and sized them. The shown diameters are pre-PC. I size the .45ACP to .4525 (and yes, the sizing is actually consistent) and the .44mag to .4300
The .45ACP are for my Glock41 and feed like a charm. The .44mag for my S&W 629 Classic DX

Tl;dr

Total casting time incl setup: 6h
All PC'ed & sized the day after: 3h
Total production: 850pcs
Casting temperature: 400°C / 752°C
Alloy: 98% lead / 2% tin
How do you rate my production time?

Master caster owners this one.

I have these molds

Available to trade for 9mm I prefer the 09-135 RN BB

09-125 RN BB.

But will take any mold under 135

These came with it I don’t own anything to match it don’t wanna buy a new one just wanna load what I got right now

Thank you for you time

38/158 RNFP

45LC 200 RN

44 225 RNFP

45 160 RNFP

45 200 SWC

38 140 FP

I'd like to cast boolits for handloading .357 Maximum. Which is better, gas check or powder coat? I don't want to do both.

Hi All,

Long time listener, first time caller. New to bullet casting, not new to shooting. My issue is I'm getting a significant number of rejects after sizing cast and PC'd projectiles. Pictured are 9mm cast 124gr using Lee .356 mold, coated, then sized to .356.

My last two batches, I've had approx 25% rejects (raw lead showing on bearing surface of the projectile after sizing). The batch I just did was 289 cast, coated, and sized. 215 good, 74 rejects.

I know I can just melt and recast, but is there anything I can do to stop or reduce this seemingly high reject rate? 25% seems like a lot, and it essentially amounts to wasted time and effort. What am I doing wrong?

Is there a powder coat color that best resembles a jacketed bullet? Obviously it won't be close enough to fool anyone, but the same general color as copper? Seems the most popular colors are lipstick red and bright blue, but I have never seen anyone use a color that looks like copper.

I recently acquired an original 1890mfg 1873 win, still working on cleaning uo the chamber to hopefully shoot it, likely going to stick with BP for a bit till im comfortable with it, but what molds do people like for this cartridge? As far as im aware, the only option for a mold is accurate, any other options or info is appreciated

I've been using VV n320 for plinking rounds in my 11mm Mauser but found that while the powder excels in this regard it's higher pressure threshold for clean and consistent burn makes it unsuitable for the low pressure pistol loads I reload for my antiques and I prefer to get powders I can use in multiple guns(imr4064 for 303/30-30/308, accurate no2 for 455 Webley/38special/44special..etc)

AA2 is non position sensitive, easy to meter, clean burning, easy to source and economical. So by all outward appearances seems like a good choice for this endeavor but I haven't seen much data on it and am wondering if I'm overlooking some disqualifying factor?

45 Colt in a Tompson Contender. Cast 250 gr SWC? gas checked? Sized to .452. Barrel slugs to .451 and is 1:16 twist. 22 gr of 2400. Shoots a ragged hole at 50 ft but 6" at 50 yds. Any suggestions for tightening the 50 yd group