new to casting making a start

i have another question when i slug my barrel where do i measure it from the inside of the riflings or the outside of the groves? DW showed me how to do it onnce before but i forget how to measure! thanks guys

when you slug the bbl, the widest part of the lead slug will be the part you take measurement from, the widest part of the slug corresponds to the grooves in the bbl.

Right, Land on one side to the land on the other as CMAsailor is explaining. Not the grooves, that will give you a smaller diameter reading...

ok thats what i thought i was just double checking!! one more thin does anyone here have the lyman cast bullet handbook?? if so does it have any 40 s@w loads?? im considering buying it i just didnt want to buy it then there not be and 40 data! thanks again

I don't have one. I will tell you a good place to check out. www.bigsupplyshop.com go to their reloading section or just search for Lyman #42 something like that. I blieve they have it for 14 bucks

If you stay with mild sedate loads you won't really have to worry. It is if you want to push the envelope and push those cast boolits to the limit.

I size mine about .002 - .003 over bore size, and since almost everything I shoot is a single shot do not have to worry much about recoil kicking the other cartridges out of whack.

I have found great hardness variation in WW alloy I believe due to the amount of arsenic contained but I have no way to prove it. Some come out hard but then as they age, soften a bit. Others come out really hard and remain that way.

One thing about melting WW down is you have scoop all the clips out of the pot. I use a large stainless steel slotted spoon I got from the dollar store.

A slotted spoon works good too when you are melting range-recovered lead as it gets all the dirt and rocks out of the pot. If I am melting range-recovered lead I use an old cast iron pot (from the thrift store) on my propane burner and then pour the lead off into small muffin pans that I also picked up from the thrift store.

The jackets and other stuff usually gets caught as I pour through the slotted spoon into the muffin tins. The muffin tins are about a half pound each and fit perfectly in my old production pot.

ok im getting ready to order my molds should i go with the pan lube 175 tc bullet or the 175 swc tumble lube bullet or there is a 145swc pan lube which one is easyer to mold lube and load?? which one would you recomend for a newbie thanks for your advice!

Personally, just me, I would say tumble lube. There is no chance of having to relube the boolits. When I pan lubed, I would have ome boolit that when I got them out of the lube, the lube came out of the lube groove and I would have to set those aside and re lube again. Tumble lube is like shake and bake. You drizzle some of that lube on them, use them like maracas at madi gra singing your happy lead song, let dry, run through the lee sizer if you have too (the tumble lubes has a great history of not having to be sized at times.) Then do one more small session of the happy dance with some drizzle and shake...

Load, shoot repeat...

Daywalker wrote: use them like maracas at madi gra singing your happy lead song, l...

LMAO Tommy you made my day

Another plus of the tumble lube is if you use well sealed containers like cleaned mayo jars, butter tubs, etc. you can give them to your kids to shake around & make all kinds of noise.

My girls like to help me tumble lube but you cannot over load the kids or they cannot shake the container. I found though, that it does tire the tykes out too so has a dual purpose of getting the bullets lubes & tiring the kids out - great before bed.

LMAO too Tommy - I think next time I will have to put my kids in a conga line & play some calipso music.

I guess my happy lead song would be "War Pigs" from Black Sabbath.

I love to use old plastic peanut butter jars to tumble lube in...they are clear, and have a wide mouth. The ones with the beveled base work the best.

What I used, since my wife is an avid coffee drinker, is the large red plastic folgers coffee can. Man that thing can hold some boolits..

About the maraca (I can't spell lol) just take it a little easier than if you shook the marac, I mean, you would not want to dent them nice boolits you worked really hard to cast up....

I use old peanut butter jars, mayo jars, & butter tubs.

I live in the land of Starbucks - our coffee does not come out of a red plastic tub!

You do have to coach the kids to gently shake the tubs - they can be a mite too enthusiastic.

Lol thanks guys so do the semi wad cutters feed good and everything and do the tumble molds fill even and everything thanks for your help

I've never had a problem filling the tumble lube molds.

I've shot the 230 gr SWC tuble lubed out of several of my .45 ACPs with no issues as long as I do not get too heavy handed with the lube.

My Glock with the Wolf barrel hated the tumble lubed 124 gr truncated cone SWC I tried and would stove pipe or fail to go into battery several times. But then my Ruger P90 shot them without a hitch.

Since most days now everything I shoot is a single shot, they do not really care about wether the bullet is lubrisized or tumble lubed. Doing a blind check on myself, niether myself or the gun could tell the difference between the tumble lubed and lubrisized bullets.

Both shot the same, although some times the tumble lubed bullets can be a little more "smoky" which can be a pain in an indoor range. Usually they smoke a lot if you put too much lube on them, but I find the Lee alox does not smoke as much as some of the other makers.

Several of mine I can tumble lube and shoot as is without sizing which is a real plus. The few that I do have to size, though that alox gets all over the place. It is less mess than using a lubrisizer though when you over heat the tube and the Red Angel pours out of the resivoire pouring all over the table.

ok thanks!! does eithor bullet lead worse that the other from what yall can tell!?

I have not noticed any difference in leading between the two. As long as you stay within pressures & velocity limits you should be fine.

I had some leading issues with my 15" .357 Rem Max when I was shooting Lee 180 gr truncated cones. I tried tuble lubed & lubrisized, with & without a g/c.

Come to find out the barrel is a bit oversize so sizing at .358 was letting the stiff charge of A1680 leak by a bit cutting the bullet. Found this out by shooting into my buddy's bullet trap made of an old oxygen bottle.

Ordered a custom TiN coated bullet sizer from CH4D at .3595 & a set of new 6-hole .360 sized 180 gr truncated cone with g/c mold from Lee custom. Solved my leading issue & improved my accuracy on the steel.

thanks scorge im going today to go look for some molds at a local gun shop heard this guy sells them il let you know thanks again guys!