Getting the hang of casting

L

Lead Express

New member
Boy, has casting been a learning experience. I've spent the last few months pondering, and eventually getting all of my casting equipment together. Now I know what everyone is talking about when they mention the rhythm of casting!

I've been playing around a lot, and finally have confidence in my casting. I wanted to thank everyone for their very insightful and knowledgeable contributions to this forum!

Below is my new bench setup, and it works well for me. The 4500 gets put away when I'm not sizing. Also, pics of a quick run of 40SW 175gn TC, and 158gn .358 RF.

:D
 

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Oh yeah, nothing better than saving cash and shooting your own home brew boolits. Good job and don't forget to tell the people at the range how much a box of ammo cost you. :p
 
Way to go Jose', and what's with the white LEE press. Vintag or painted to disguise it. I have a lot of LEE stuff, and still buy LEE stuff.

Just askin'
 
I have a good buddy of mine(Who loves blue cool-aid) that I wanted to **** off by painting my Lee LM old ford blue. It got the trick done, and ended up painting it white for the hell of it. I almost exclusively have Lee products right now, and I am not (will not) ever going to be ashamed of that!

It all goes bang in the long run :)
 
Lone Wolf is a good way to go. I just put one on my glock 23 in S&W.40. I did a little shooting with it but none of it was lead. They were Berry's plated bullets and they shot as well out of the Lone Wolf barreal as they did out of the Glock barrel.

I now have a few .40 cast and will try the lead soon, very soon.
 
I hope your .40 S&W isn't a Glock. Their fancy rifling don't like cast boolits.
Click to expand...

I see the lie/myth about NOT using lead in glock barrels is still alive and well.:mad: Properly cast and lubed, lead boolits will work just fine in glock barrels;

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=33855

The myth is based on somebody using too soft lead in boolits cast too small, then getting excessive leading in glock barrels. IF it's allowed to build up, not cleaned often, it CAN lead to kaboom!

It's NOT something a new reloader/caster should try. Experience with harder alloys or water dropping to create a hard boolit is needed. As well as not pushing certain calibers too hard.

These loads in my OEM glock M-22 DO NOT LEAD!

P5100028_edited.JPG


P5160030.JPG
 
Those are lookin' pretty good!

I know of people who shoot lead through their Glock stock barrels with no problems at all, but it's not a venture I'm willing to delve into just yet. I take baby steps when I can, and have a standard groove barrel for my cast boolits for now.

That 6 cavity mold looks pretty darned fun, too!
 
Glad to see your getting the hang of it and having fun doing so. I do have to warn you though, the next few months will be critical, and might lead to slush fund depletion. Once you get going good with one mold, the tendency is to look at others, and the next thing you know they are multiplying at a rate faster than bunnies do. When I started out early last year, I purchased 4 Lee six bangers, one for each caliber revolver I have. In just over a year I have accumulated a couple more than a dozen, and have had a ball with them all. :eek:

And your right with the 6 bangers are fun, but they do present a few added issues the two holers miss out on. When you get one, be sure to get it up to temp before pouring the whole thing full and trying to crank off all six sprues at once. They can have a habit of breaking the handle off if the sprue gets a bit too hard before cutting. So far I have somehow managed to do two of them in a row in one sitting, and still thinking back on it don't know why I did it. LOL

I can also tell you ahead of time, the six bangers will will quite effectively empty your pot in short order as well, especially if your pouring anything over 250grs. However, it will certainly fill your catch pan up in a hurry as well. :D

Have fun,
 
Yeah, I know lead in the stock barrel can be done, but Glock still has a warning against it.

To each his own, I just figured someone new to casting might not have heard about this yet. I'm not going to try to convince anyone of anything.
 
Just ribbin ya a bit Sneaky :p I`ve seen some good Glock shooters using the factory barrel & some ya had to get inside to shoot & look for the hole out with lead bullets , but there`s so many variables to cast bullets that with out a little work & obsevence it1s hard to blame 1 type of gun will or won`t shoot lead bullets & just to be fair I`ve seen some terrible shooting revolvers also :eek:
 
They say the polygonal rifling will lead up. Well they forgot to tell the folks that made my 1851 navy that. It has polygonal rifling, and I shoot pure lead out of it.
Oh and I shoot cast lead out of my box stock Glock model 26 every week, and have had no problems at all. Fit is king, all else is secondary.
 
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