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Bullet Casting

dreherdreher Member Posts: 8,786 ✭✭✭✭
edited March 2009 in Black Powder and Cowboy Action Shooting
20 some years ago I had a pretty decent bullet casting outfit. Somehow or another the first wife ended up with all of it. Such is life. I would like to be able to cast bullets for my 45-70 but would like to keep costs to a minimum. To be honest, with the way things are going politically I might not be able to get bullets anyway but casting. Been looking at bullet casting equiptment at Midway USA. The price ranges on molds is amazing. I know that I would be casting very low volume so the best quality is not needed or necessary. Do any of you have experiance with the $20 Lee molds? I know that the old schutzen(sp?) target shooters often shot bullets as dropped from mold. Assuming you made sure the bullet diameter was correct with the alloy you are using, would you really need to size the bullets? What would be the best way to lube unsized bullets? I want this to be the lowest tech possible situation. Any thoughts any of you have would be appreciated. Thanks to all.
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    Winston BodeWinston Bode Member Posts: 1,628 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    When I was casting my own bullets I used the Lee products with good success. I'd recommend them to anyone.

    If you want to lube your bullets and not size them then get a small cookie sheet or cake pan, set your bullets up in it on the base of the bullet with the nose up. Then melt your lube, a mixture of bees wax and crisco worked well for me, and then pour it into the pan until it is deep enough to cover the lube grooves on your particular bullet. Lee also used to make a kit for this and it worked well. Then when the lube dries you just take a piece of brass with the head cut off that is a little larger than the bullet diameter, maybe a .45 Colt brass for .44 caliber bullets, and push the brass down over the bullet until you get to the bottom of the pan and then push the next bullet in to push the first one out until you are done.

    I fired several thousand .44 caliber bullets without sizing them. I never had a problem with leading or otherwise.

    Bode
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    44caliberkid44caliberkid Member Posts: 925 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Make your own cheap lube from 50/50 mix of wax and Crisco. Pan lube as described above, when the lube is cool, take to whole chuck out of the pan and carefully press the nose of the bullets till they drop out of the back of the lube "cookie". If the cookie cracks to easily, increase your Crisco content a little and try again. You should be able to pop the lubed bullets out quickly with a little practice.
    Lee's sizing die is a good way to size them cheap. It just screws into your press and you push the bullets through it with the ram, they're about $15.
    The die usually comes with some Lee alox bullet lube, you can add some to your wax/Crisco mixure.
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