RDW
Member
Hello, everyone. Best wishes for the new year to you and your families.
I live in California, and we have a new law starting in February 2011 that apparently makes it illegal for us to buy ammunition online. With that in mind, I started reloading in early 2010, and I’d like to move from buying bullets to casting my own. I’m an NRA and a CRPA member, so I’m working things from the vigilance and lobbying side, but my concern is that at some point California will move from legislating ammunition purchases to legislating reloading.
I'm shooting a Taurus revolver in .357 mag; a Winchester 94 lever gun and Ruger Super Blackhawk in .44 mag; and a Ruger P-90 in 45 ACP. I also shoot 38 special in the 357 and 44 special in the 44's. I'm not a high-volume shooter, but I'm trying to practice more, so I probably use 200-300 cartridges a month total for all the guns. I also have a .223 (Kel-Tec SU-16CA), but I wasn’t planning to cast for that.
I've read the books and done the research, but I think I need some hands-on experience with cast bullets before I take the next step.My plan is below, and I welcome your comments and suggestions.
My first step will be to buy some cast bullets to get a better idea of how cast bullets shoot and what weights and shapes work well in my guns. I'm leaning toward Missouri Bullet’s 240 gr TCFP for the 44 mag, 158 gr SWC for the 357, and 230 gr RN for the .45. I’m also thinking of getting a couple of "sample packs" in lighter weights and different shapes (200 gr RNFP for the 44 and 125 gr for the 357).
I’m hoping that shooting Missouri's bullets will point me to a good weight and shape, so my next step would be to get the casting equipment and accessories. I'm leaning toward the Lee molds (2-cavity) and a 10# furnace, and so far, I'm liking Lee’s tumble-lube bullet designs. My local tire store, where I happen to buy my tires, seems willing to part with some wheel weights, so that'll be my source for lead.
And then I’ll start casting, using Lyman (I have the 4th edition of the casting book), Lee, and the information from the castboolits site for casting and my regular reloading manuals for the cast bullet loads. I'm hoping that the move from Missouri bullets to a slightly different design (like the tumble lube bullets, for example) won't have much effect on how the bullets perform in my guns, but I don’t know if that’s true, so I’ll probably just cast for one gun at first (probably the 44) and then move to the others if all goes well.
I know this isn't rocket science, but does my approach make sense in terms of your experiences? And am I missing anything critical that'll make the move to casting a lot more difficult than it needs to be (like should I plan on resizing, for example)? Thanks.
I live in California, and we have a new law starting in February 2011 that apparently makes it illegal for us to buy ammunition online. With that in mind, I started reloading in early 2010, and I’d like to move from buying bullets to casting my own. I’m an NRA and a CRPA member, so I’m working things from the vigilance and lobbying side, but my concern is that at some point California will move from legislating ammunition purchases to legislating reloading.
I'm shooting a Taurus revolver in .357 mag; a Winchester 94 lever gun and Ruger Super Blackhawk in .44 mag; and a Ruger P-90 in 45 ACP. I also shoot 38 special in the 357 and 44 special in the 44's. I'm not a high-volume shooter, but I'm trying to practice more, so I probably use 200-300 cartridges a month total for all the guns. I also have a .223 (Kel-Tec SU-16CA), but I wasn’t planning to cast for that.
I've read the books and done the research, but I think I need some hands-on experience with cast bullets before I take the next step.My plan is below, and I welcome your comments and suggestions.
My first step will be to buy some cast bullets to get a better idea of how cast bullets shoot and what weights and shapes work well in my guns. I'm leaning toward Missouri Bullet’s 240 gr TCFP for the 44 mag, 158 gr SWC for the 357, and 230 gr RN for the .45. I’m also thinking of getting a couple of "sample packs" in lighter weights and different shapes (200 gr RNFP for the 44 and 125 gr for the 357).
I’m hoping that shooting Missouri's bullets will point me to a good weight and shape, so my next step would be to get the casting equipment and accessories. I'm leaning toward the Lee molds (2-cavity) and a 10# furnace, and so far, I'm liking Lee’s tumble-lube bullet designs. My local tire store, where I happen to buy my tires, seems willing to part with some wheel weights, so that'll be my source for lead.
And then I’ll start casting, using Lyman (I have the 4th edition of the casting book), Lee, and the information from the castboolits site for casting and my regular reloading manuals for the cast bullet loads. I'm hoping that the move from Missouri bullets to a slightly different design (like the tumble lube bullets, for example) won't have much effect on how the bullets perform in my guns, but I don’t know if that’s true, so I’ll probably just cast for one gun at first (probably the 44) and then move to the others if all goes well.
I know this isn't rocket science, but does my approach make sense in terms of your experiences? And am I missing anything critical that'll make the move to casting a lot more difficult than it needs to be (like should I plan on resizing, for example)? Thanks.