I recently recieved my order from natchez containing a lee .457 cap n ball bullet mold. It put out some real beautys. Now to shoot em!
Anyone here have any luck accuracy wise with the ol' .457 lee capnball mold?
Thanks for the reply brother. Im going to hit them with a little liquid alox and let em cure overnight. I usually hit my cast roundballs with a little alox as well. My leadim usimg right now has a bhn of around 7-8
The larger ball will give a longer area in contact with the rifling. I am using .33, 00 home cast buck shot in my '49 pocket instead of .32 a slight coat of alox reduces the strain on the loading leaver.
Lee molds is all I have. Like 24 at last count. Some over 20 years old and still put out good projectiles.
I run my RBs in a tumbler to get them in good shape.
I am pretty sure Hornady uses Rooster Jacket on their lead bullets with the knurled bearing surface. They may use the same thing on their round balls. Looks like Rooster Jacket is out of stock. I have used it before and really like it better than the Lee Alox. It dries fast and is not sticky. Sometimes I will lube first with Alox and then after sizing I will over lube with the Rooster. I never have leading in my barrels.
I am pretty sure Hornady uses Rooster Jacket on their lead bullets with the knurled bearing surface. They may use the same thing on their round balls. Looks like Rooster Jacket is out of stock. I have used it before and really like it better than the Lee Alox. It dries fast and is not sticky. Sometimes I will lube first with Alox and then after sizing I will over lube with the Rooster. I never have leading in my barrels.
I also use the Lee Alox and Johnsons floor wax that has been discontinued. But fortunately when I read about it on the castboolits forum I had a brand new can of it. And it makes a large amount of bullet lube. I don't have a link for the exact mix but a search on that forum should turn it up.
The one downside to the Rooster Jacket is that after a long while it gets really thick. You can supposedly thin it with water and I tried that but it didn't really restore it. I have it on my Notify Me list so if it comes in I will order a bottle or two.
Found it in stock here. Its a little more expensive than Midway but only by a buck or so. The shipping may be a deal killer. And now taxes added on. At least this is a BP place so there may be more to order.
I have that mold but only use the .457 in Rugers Old Army. I also have several of Lee’s 454 round ball molds which I use for all the 44’s. Some use the 457 in 44’s but as I cast from what ever lead I can scrounge I think the balls are a bit hard and don’t want to stress the loading levers no more than necessary.
Now that # Armored Farmer mentioned using Lee liquid Alox for roundball I’m think that may be a good idea. I’ve noticed that although the balls cut a nice ring they seem to gall against the chamber walls when seating, especially in the stainless old army cylinder.
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