Had put away the molds and sawdust a while back. Not enough time, and bullet prices and availability had the casting equipment in mothballs. Waiting for a rainy day.
Well, last time I looked, it was “raining”. Picked up some lead from an estate sale of a reloader/caster. It was mined from his berm. Ended up with about 50 lbs of ingots.
Forget how much I enjoyed casting. Still takes time, so I’ll have to block some off. Got some 357 gc rounds in mind, along with some 44 SWC in my future.
Back before the stampede had started on components I got a Lee .430" 240 grain double cavity swc mold. The Lee molds are a bit different from other molds in that they have multiple lube grooves and they do not recommend resizing, and further they recommend tumble lubing with Lee Liquid Alox (I use a mixture of 50-50 Lee Liquid Alox and mineral spirits). As far as I am concerned they are correct, as the .430" size is perfect for my Ruger BH in 44 Special. I have been using wheel weights melted into ingots, sweetened with tin, and fluxed with sawdust. I did not expect it, but they have turned out to be a bit more accurate than my old standby, the Speer swaged .430" 240 grain swc's. So I am quite happy with the result. It finally got warm enough for casting on Sunday; so I cast quite a few.
I have a few Lee TL design molds with the "mini-grooves". They work quite well when I dip lube in 45-45-10 (I don't care for the "brown noses" from tumble lubing). I measure my bullets and if needed, I'll size them as I size all my revolver bullets to the same diameter as the gun's cylinder throat diameter. I have driven some 44 SWC TL to about 1,200 fps cleanly...
For me casting is probably the most satisfying part of my shooting; taking dirty, old scrap lead and turning out clean shooting, accurate boolits...
Pulled out the sawdust this weekend.
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