sturmgewehr
Member
I recently ordered 1,000 bullets from Mike at Mastercast ([email protected]) after chatting with him on TFL.
I was on the fence about ordering more bullets as I had just placed a large order with another vendor that I've used for years. But Mike shot me an estimate on the cost of the bullets and said "I'll just send them out to you, pay me when you get a chance". I thought, "what?"... I agreed. So the next day I sent him payment on his word that he mailed the bullets, which he did. They arrived this morning.
I've been shooting and reloading for many years. I'm one of those types of guys that gets into a groove and I don't like changing things. I used to compete in Cowboy Action Shooting (William Six Gunn) and had settled on Laser Cast bullets way back in the 1990's. They served me well and I have always had good results with them.
Lately I've been on the prowl to find lower cost bullets that are of the same or higher quality than the Laser Cast. My reason is that I'm trying to reduce the cost of shooting given the skyrocketing cost of ammo. I mostly shoot 1911's in .45 ACP so cost is on the upper end of the spectrum.
I've tried local casters and haven't been too impressed with the consistency or quality of the bullets. Most use scrap lead with an unknown content so they vary in weight and hardness. With that inconsistency comes inconsistent performance with your "pet" loads.
So, back to Mastercast bullets and Mike. I received my shipment of .45 ACP 200gr SWC bullets early this morning via USPS. I feel sorry for my poor mail lady, it had "32lbs!!!" written on the box by another postal employee. I took the box back to my loading room and began my inspection.
First I weighed several bullets to find out how consistent they were in weight. They ranged from 200.7 to 201.3. That's pretty darn good.
Next up I measure the diameter of several bullets, and every one of them was spot on at the advertised diameter of .452".
As a nice touch, Mike included several samples of his other .45 ACP offerings. As you can see from the following picture, he has a nice selection of .45 bullets.
After checking them out I decided to load up 300 rounds of my favorite load on my Dillon 650. 300 rounds only takes a couple of minutes on a 650, so I cranked them out pretty quickly so I could get to the range.
I seat the bullets to an OAL of 1.250 and add a taper crimp of .470. Mike says to use a crimp of no more than .473-.474. I've always had good luck with the .470 setting, so I went with it. I seated the bullets on top of a 4.6gr charge of Bullseye powder. I use Winchester WLP pistol primers.
Off I went to my local indoor range to fire some ammo out of my Springfield TRP at 50ft (about 17 yards). Now, I'll admit I'm not the worlds best shooter. I can hold my own, but I'm more of a steel plate shooter than I am a bullseye shooter. Here's a sample of the targets I shot today.
All of my groups hovered around the 1"-1.3" range. I always fire 5 shot groups. I was shooting two handed slow fire at a standard 50ft NRA bullseye target. That's about the best I ever do, so the bullets certainly held their own. I would say they are capable of better accuracy than I am.
I didn't see any signs of severe leading in the 300 rounds I fired. Everything checked out perfectly.
At $80.52 shipped for 1,000 rounds of 200gr bullets I am impressed. I had my bullets in just 3 days after ordering them and they're every bit as good as the Laser Casts I've been shooting for over a decade.
I can say with confidence I can recommend Mastercast bullets to those looking for low cost and high performance bullets.
I was on the fence about ordering more bullets as I had just placed a large order with another vendor that I've used for years. But Mike shot me an estimate on the cost of the bullets and said "I'll just send them out to you, pay me when you get a chance". I thought, "what?"... I agreed. So the next day I sent him payment on his word that he mailed the bullets, which he did. They arrived this morning.
I've been shooting and reloading for many years. I'm one of those types of guys that gets into a groove and I don't like changing things. I used to compete in Cowboy Action Shooting (William Six Gunn) and had settled on Laser Cast bullets way back in the 1990's. They served me well and I have always had good results with them.
Lately I've been on the prowl to find lower cost bullets that are of the same or higher quality than the Laser Cast. My reason is that I'm trying to reduce the cost of shooting given the skyrocketing cost of ammo. I mostly shoot 1911's in .45 ACP so cost is on the upper end of the spectrum.
I've tried local casters and haven't been too impressed with the consistency or quality of the bullets. Most use scrap lead with an unknown content so they vary in weight and hardness. With that inconsistency comes inconsistent performance with your "pet" loads.
So, back to Mastercast bullets and Mike. I received my shipment of .45 ACP 200gr SWC bullets early this morning via USPS. I feel sorry for my poor mail lady, it had "32lbs!!!" written on the box by another postal employee. I took the box back to my loading room and began my inspection.
First I weighed several bullets to find out how consistent they were in weight. They ranged from 200.7 to 201.3. That's pretty darn good.
Next up I measure the diameter of several bullets, and every one of them was spot on at the advertised diameter of .452".
As a nice touch, Mike included several samples of his other .45 ACP offerings. As you can see from the following picture, he has a nice selection of .45 bullets.
After checking them out I decided to load up 300 rounds of my favorite load on my Dillon 650. 300 rounds only takes a couple of minutes on a 650, so I cranked them out pretty quickly so I could get to the range.
I seat the bullets to an OAL of 1.250 and add a taper crimp of .470. Mike says to use a crimp of no more than .473-.474. I've always had good luck with the .470 setting, so I went with it. I seated the bullets on top of a 4.6gr charge of Bullseye powder. I use Winchester WLP pistol primers.
Off I went to my local indoor range to fire some ammo out of my Springfield TRP at 50ft (about 17 yards). Now, I'll admit I'm not the worlds best shooter. I can hold my own, but I'm more of a steel plate shooter than I am a bullseye shooter. Here's a sample of the targets I shot today.
All of my groups hovered around the 1"-1.3" range. I always fire 5 shot groups. I was shooting two handed slow fire at a standard 50ft NRA bullseye target. That's about the best I ever do, so the bullets certainly held their own. I would say they are capable of better accuracy than I am.
I didn't see any signs of severe leading in the 300 rounds I fired. Everything checked out perfectly.
At $80.52 shipped for 1,000 rounds of 200gr bullets I am impressed. I had my bullets in just 3 days after ordering them and they're every bit as good as the Laser Casts I've been shooting for over a decade.
I can say with confidence I can recommend Mastercast bullets to those looking for low cost and high performance bullets.
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