Casting .45 colt

[JCT]

I've cast my .457 roundballs as long as I've been into BP revolvers and now I'm thinking of casting my .45 colt.
I want RNFP 250 grain. Anyone recommend a good mold? 2 or 6 cavity would be good.
Also I'm new to casting anything but pure lead roundballs. What alloy should I use for .45 colt. What needs to be done to the finished bullet? Is sizing required? I'm thinking of just using my beeswax/oil bullet lube to fill the lube grooves by hand.
How do those here who cast .45 colt do it?

 

[sundance44s]

Here is the mold I use ..best price for it too .http://www.trackofthewolf.com/(S(pj...tId=2&subId=190&styleId=948&partNum=LEE-90358
U also Use the lube you are thinking of ..I melt it down , stand the bullets in a pie pan ..pour in the lube untill to covers the second lube grove , then let cool ...the bullets will push right out after it cools lube intact ...

 

[Bad Flynch]

I am assuming that you intend to shoot black powder, since this is posted on a section of the forum dedicated to black powder shooting.

The original BP bullet for the .45 Colt was a hollow based bullet. That bullet mould, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, is made by NEI. Of course, hollow base moulds are customarily single cavity molds. Not withstanding that, it is a good mold and you should cast your bullets and size them 0.454 inches. NEI will make you a nose punch for seating the bullet for your particular brand of lubrisizer. Get an after-market inside expander for your reloading dies that will be at least 0.454" in diameter or the soft bullet will be sized excessively by the case as it is seated over the powder.

Cast your bullets from 1:20 lead alloy. It is the original alloy and still the very best that I have encountered.

You should lube with a really good BP lube. Ox-Yoke bore butter is available in sticks for lubri-sizers and one of the best is Steve Garbe's lube. However, the Garbe lube is expensive.

Load your cases with 2F or 3F powder. I like 2& 1/2F, made by mixing equal parts of Goex 2F&3F and that approximates the original loading practice. Compress your powder load with a compression die before you seat the bullets, else you may distort the bullet when you seat it over the uncompressed powder.

Happy shooting.

 

[JCT]

Yes, I shoot BP, I already load .45 colt, homemade powder only, has been for probably 3 years now. it's cleaner and mine probably is a mix of 3F and 2F anyway. It's very accurate already, I just fill the cases and seat a bullet. my powder in fragile enough to take the compression and make a tight load.
I've shot 3000+ .452's out of my guns and will probably stick with them. I'll check out the molds though. And I have a bunch of lee ingots that were lead/tin and should be the right alloy.
I'll give the lube I make a try first, Beeswax and Olive oil, it should at least be better than the crayon wax used on the lead I buy now.

 

[scrat]

the lee rnfp mold is a good bullet to use. it may not be a hollow base but is a good shooting bullet.

 

[Mad Mucus]

G'day JCT,

Have you seen the BigLube® PRS 45/250 RNFP(Lee 6-cavity mould)... popular with CAS .45Colt BP loads over your way.

I cast mine outa WW+2%tin, size to .454" and load 'em over 32gnVol Wano fffg for excellent accuracy with my Marlin '94CB Ltd... 50 plus shots with no fouling problems. MORE LUBE!

See at...

http://www.biglube.com/BulletMolds.aspx?ProductID=6

Mucus

 

[66gt350]

+1 to the biglube bullet molds. they are simply the best.

-rob

 

[scrat]

Love to see them but this does not work too good.

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Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

 

[66gt350]

Hmmm...that's odd that the link doesn't work. Just goto http://www.biglube.com and choose bullet molds then pick: PRS 45-250 RNFP That show you the bullet. If you want a lighter bullet, there some 210 grain, and then there's the 150 grain bullet.

-rob