Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Anybody else casting since the weather changed?

Cooler weather finally hit so I dug out the pot and some lead and got after it. Cast 5-600 NOE SC311-165rf Ranch Dog bullets for my Grandsons Marlin 336 youth and my 308 practice loads. Put up another 600 or so Accurate plain based 38-250B for my M336 38-55. Then got down to buisness, nearly 1500 452-200 swc out of a 2 cavity Lee mold. That one took a while, need a 6 banger for that one.

Cast year round down here. It's exciting when ya wear flip flops.

I’m getting close. My last loading session took me down to about 200 previously cast 250 gr. Keith bullets. I like to keep about a thousand on hand for my .44’s.

Ouch!

I'm not much of a dancer, might help me learn

I go year round also but wear shoes.

I’d like to cast year round but operating an air conditioning business in Texas dang near keeps me busy year round. I’m getting eat up with bullet casting though. It’s all I have been thinking about lately.

I cast whenever I run low on anything which is usually on and off throughout the year. I did just get a new mold from Accurate Molds so had to fire up the pot and pour a batch (.452 345 gr WLN GC). Very nice casting mold...

[img]https://i.imgur.com/KNsdA9K.jpg?1[/img]

You bet I'm casting!

After all the advice from this site came through for mew, I will be a casting fool.

This was a 317 grain (w/gas check) 45-70 bullet from Accurate Molds.

Thanks to all!

I will start casting in January after the holidays when things come down around the house. I cast 4 sizes of round balls for my muzzle loading firearms. I

I cast year round here, usually once or twice a month to keep up with practice and pistol matches.

I cast close to 20 different bullets from .25 to .375 caliber rifles, 9mm to .45 caliber pistol, .36 to .54 caliber blackpowder, and 12 gauge slugs. Last year I bought Lee 6 cavity molds for my 9mm, .38, and .45 acp pistols. In the same time that it used to take me to cast a couple hundred bullets with my 2 cavity molds, I can now cast 6-700 bullets.

Even though it was snowing lightly yesterday I managed to cast a couple hundred of the Bradshaw/Martin 194 gr 357 slugs & a couple hundred 212 gr 41 magnum HP's. I still have one antelope tag & an elk tag to fill but my bullet casting is about done for the year, casting when it's 18 degrees isn't as fun as it used to be.

Dick

Had to stop for a spell. Too cold to wear flip flops.

Back when it was warmer, about 3 weeks ago?

You and me need to have a race.

Top row is a Lyman 457125, 30:1


Seat it over 5 gr 4759 and 60 grains of Swiss 1.5 FG and it looks like the 2d from the right
L-R: .22 BB cap, .22 CB long, .22 K-Hornet, .25-20 Win, .25-20 SS, .250 Savage (2), .30 M1, .30 Sneezer, .30-30, .38-55, .44 Mag, .45-70, .416 Rigby (truck gun)


Shoots OK with just a tang sight. Dunno what I"m gonna do with the scope.......

Thats pretty much when I cast. Late winter and early spring after hunting season is over. I have a steel work bench in my shop where me and a buddy or two will cast a few times a week. Talk, visit, maybe even sip on a beer!

Way to cold to cast here. Going to have to wait until spring now.

Just finished casting some 250 gr. Lyman 429421’s (500+) I’d show them to you if Photobucket hadn’t pulled out. I can’t seem to figure out any other way to post pictures. Anyway, I cast them and store them away. I still size and lube with LBT Blue soft as I need them for loading. I haven’t tried powder coating yet and probably won’t as I’m too old, and old fashioned for change. I plan on adding another 500 or so tomorrow and may keep going until I’ve got a couple of thousand. I may also cast some #358665’s for my 38’s and 357’s while I’m in the process and in the mood.

Casted two weeks ago, a small 30 rounds worth.

LBT 340 .458 LFNs softnosed and heat treated for the 1895.

Shot that weekend for the deer opener, buck head on. The bullet hit the base of the left neck and exited the right rear hip. A shard of the softnose made it to the hind quarter, other than that it was a total pass through.

I cast year round as well. Why would anybody wait until the weather cools down?

Hit to the right of the neck/brisket area.

Entrance, with the skin off.

Taken from the left hip/ham when butchering. Part of the soft nose that did its work and was punched through by the heat treated shank.

The hole where the heat treated shank exited; left rear hip. The bullet did not veer or tumble, just expanded, penetrated and exited the animal in the path the muzzle was pointed....

Load workup took forever.

The bullets in hulls.

HawkI,


Outstanding. I had great luck with a Accurate 310 grain FN over 41.5 grains of 3031, but I am having a hard time reproducing that success.

Everything you told me worked out great. My problem is consistency of alloys and thus weight of finished bullet.

Weight and consistency of alloys?

The bullets above are made of two different alloys, soft lead in the nose and WW's with some tin; sometimes they don't even "look" good. I have no idea what they weigh from one bullet to the next; out to 100 yards it should be negligible on paper, provided they are reasonably close.
Are you fluxing while casting?

I think diameter in relation to the throat (and whether your dies are swaging the bullets) and distance to the lands will pay greater dividends. Of course making the best bullets you can never hurts anything.

These loads slightly engage the rifling with a slight "hitch" to the lever, sized .457, nose first. They might shoot a little better in the 1895 if they were a little fatter, but the 458 SOCOM throat won't eat anything larger fouled up a bit and soft seated, so expediency wins.

Following you advice I got the best group I've ever had with cast bullets. My problem is that I can't seem to recreate that success consistently.

I thought it was due to different weight of bullets, thus my concern with alloys.

I shall try fluxing more often. When I get it right I will post he results.

Thanks in advance for all the knowledge and experience you share.

Ranger,

Don't flux frequently. Just flux once the alloy is molten. Fluxing frequently while casting causes weight variances.
I only questioned the frequency of your fluxing, since you are having weight fluctuations.

How are you sizing your bullets? What diameter die? Are your seating dies deforming your bullets as you're loading them?

A cast bullet (especially a gas check design), sized base first with the gas check swaged on first as it enters the sizer die, will make unconcentric bullets even with an aligned fitted nose punch.
A good way to detect this misalignment is seeing whether the driving bands are showing thicker on one side than the opposing side. Using a larger die and sizing nose first and mildly swaging
the gas check last provides more labor and expense, but also provides the consistent accuracy you seek. Lubing/final base first sizing can take place after the check has been seated using the nose first process. Use a steel punch for nose first sizing;it will ruin your nose fitted aluminum one.
Even most cheap, mass produced cast bullets are usually nose first sized on Star equipment.
An example for a .458 throat uses a .460-.461 die, sizing nose first until the check is mildly crimped on. It might be loose, but that won't hurt a bit. If you get any galling or shaving, lubing a bit with case lube like Imperial wax works well. Lubing and final sizing is done with a .458 die with an aligned fitted nose punch.

I use a Star sizer, so all sizing and lubing is done nose first.

Said another way, lopsided bullets are never accurate and alloy, diameter, weight and hardness won't fix the issue. The bullets MUST be concentric.

I thought you were powder coating, so I suggest NOT sizing and NOT using a gas check for now (I also thought you were using checks, so correct me if I'm wrong!). Seat as far out as will chamber with fouling, snug. Apply a mild roll crimp if not in the crimp groove. We don't want bullets setting back at all. If you can still crimp in the groove, swedge the crimp snug to the bottom.

The dimensions of your bullets, before and after loading and how it fits in your rifle's throat, will matter a lot more than the weight of the projectile and even the hardness of the alloy, within reason.

As with others I cast year round. I don't know how many I cast for, I'd have to go count. Definitely over 30 cartridges but, in some I use the same bullet. Such as my 8 X 56 Mannlicher/Schoenauer, 8 X 57 Mauser and 8 X 58RD roller. Same could be said for my 9mm rifles.

I have a stash of #429421 Lyman.
I shoot them out of a 4 inch 629 S&W
My book says not to use the lube sizer under 70 degrees. That could be awhile in Minnesota.

I am wondering how fast they would need to go to make a good concealed carry load?

Lemme see if I got this right. It's warming up so some of you fellas are starting to cast again.

I cast thru the fall-spring time frame and not during summer. It was 98* yesterday and I got all the bullets I need, at least until around October.

Must have something to do with latitude, ya think?

I shift gears into casting sinkers this time of year. I fish about 6 days a week so use more sinkers than bullets until fall.

I cast in jan. feb. for the hole year, do about 1000 each of 8 cal.

I casted my first 50 cal. round balls last week. They are just slightly less accurate than the Hornady and Speer . I think they are ever so slightly smaller cause they go down the barrel just a bit easier. The factory seem to string high, but there is no stringing in my home made ones. They shoot high, low , right and left but never far from the bullseye so it is likely going to be my deer load, 60 gr. Goex with a .15" patch. I might go with an .18" patch and that might tighten up the groups.

you do realize they sell lube sizer warming base plates
https://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item/000152745885/universal-lube-heater-115-volt