Pulled out the sawdust this weekend.

[Bugkiller99]

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.

 

[nbedford]

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.

 

[mikld]

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...