casting

[Mark II]

I have just been given a lee production pot and a lump of lead you could beat a whale to death with so I am picking up a mold on friday and I will be ready to go.
I am looking forward to it.

Mark

[Bubba sawyer]

Good for you! If that is dead soft lead you'll need to add some tin to it. Like I said before, slug your bore & get the proper sizing die & you'll be good to go..

[Mark II]

Yep I sluged the bore yesterday..358 at the start of the rifling .357 midway .356 at the crown,I was going for a .358 158 TL swc or maybe a normal swc and tumble lube it .liquid alox seems to work on both quite well.

MARK

[NativeTexan]

Don't size the TL bullet. It's designed to be used as cast.

[Bubba sawyer]

Actually, you CAN size a TL boolit. I have the LEE 125-356TC TL mold & it drops .358 with my alloy. WAY too big for my 9mm chambers. So I tumble lube with LLA, size to .356, tumble again & load..Works perfectly. There's still plenty of lube grove left. I do load em as cast in 38Spl.

Mark, I have 2 S&W mod 19 357Mags that slugged the same as yours. I load the LEE 158 RNFP sized to .358 with great success.. I tumble lube them even though they have a conventional lube grove.

[Mark II]

Don't size the TL bullet. It's designed to be used as cast.

I won't be sizing because I don't have a sizer and its more work, so tumble lube it will be.
[quote
Mark, I have 2 S&W mod 19 357Mags that slugged the same as yours. I load the LEE 158 RNFP sized to .358 with great success.. I tumble lube them even though they have a conventional lube grove.
[/quote]

Thanks for the heads up on the lee mold, it will be a case of what mold they have in stock at the armoury I dont think they will have a tumble lube one there so it maybe a standard SWC and I will lube that to start with and as the lee molds are quite cheap I have found out I will look at others later.

Mark

[NativeTexan]

I tumble lube everything regardless of groove design. I push my 358-158GC through the rifle at over 1900 fps tumble lubed and have had no leading.

When you tumble lube, don't get too carried away with the lube, either. I use a few drops per 100 and that's enough.

[Mark II]

Thanks for the info , I will just go for what ever 158 swc they have in stock. I can borrow the wadcutter from a mate.
I have just cast 200 round ball for my Ruger old army took 1 hour including setting up and saved me £14 $20.

Its a no brainer.

Mark .

[NativeTexan]

I have an old army. I had a stainless one and it got stolen in a home invasion. I found a used blued one that I have now. I have two Lee molds for it, a 220 grain conical and a 220 grain hollowpoint conical. Both shoot very well. I lube 'em with an old Lee alox pan luber which is a bit of a pain, but it works best for cap and ball. I also use this method with my Hawken 360 grain 50 cal Minie balls. This way, I don't have to crisco the tops on the revolver, the alox/bees wax lube serves to prevent chain fires along with the much larger bearing surface of the conical bullet.

I have no idea if the hollowpoint actually works. It's small and probably doesn't. But, I just had to get it. LOL They're both accurate bullets in the Old Army.

[Mark II]

I have never tried bullets in the Ruger only balls so far and pirodex powder but I am looking at using 777 ,I put a squirt of liquid alox in the box shake it and let it dry over night ,when I load its just powder with the ball over the top nothing else the ball are slightly over size so it takes a small ring of lead off the ball as it goes in the cylinder so on flash over can happen.
What powder do you use .

Mark