Not to beat a dead horse, but more seek wisdom of those who have been there:
I'm looking at starting cast shooting soon, the commercial boolits I've picked up aren't sized right and lead up the barrel, so I'm going for 1 pistol mold, 1 rifle mold and the basic equipment.
I'd like to go mostly Lee, since their equipment is pretty inexpensive, and there is much less to it than the Lyman series (lyman being best-off with top-punches/bench-mounted sizer-press/wax stick lubes etc.). Also, even when following directions, novices make mistakes - so am I in a good way with going for a $20 Lee mold to start with (in case I mess it up, I'm not down $70+), or should I just go the distance to start with, as it's not easy to mess up a mold?
I'd be also getting the Lubrisizer/ALOX die kit, as opposed to the bench-mounted sizer/press...
Can the Lee Lubrisizer work on a Lee Hand Press? I mean easily, I know the threading on the Lubrisizer die goes with any normal reloading press thread pitch...
Thanks!
There are many things to consider when starting to cast. You can certainly start with Lee moulds and that's fine, but remember they're inexpensive for a reason. Lee moulds are great to start with and even continue casting with as long as you don't plan on doing LOTS of casting, expect really high quality bullets or expect the moulds to last for casting tens of thousands of bullets.
Ditto with sizing. You don't
have to size bullets, but the more consistent your bullets are, the more accurate they'll be. That's one of the Lee tools I really like; their push-through sizer. Those puppies will make for some very concentric bullets. When I used to compete with cast bullets in my rifle, I'd always run them through the appropriate Lee die prior to seating them.
Likewise, tumble lubing is an easy way to lube bullets without having to buy a lubrisizer and if you don't plan on casting, lubing and sizing hundreds of at a time it works fine. The down side is it's very messy and you wind up with bullets that look like they've been dipped in brown gravy and that crap accumulates in and gums up your seating die.
I've used a Lee pot off and on for years and have had no problems, but I primarily use an old SAECO pot with a 10 lb. capacity. I'll soon be buying a Lee 20 lb. pot because 10 lbs. of bullet doesn't last very long around this house!
My suggestion would be get good stuff from the start, but buy
used. Unless you are seriously careless or rough on equipment, you just cannot wear out or tear up a good cast iron mould such as a Lyman or RCBS. Often I see used Lyman double cavity moulds on eBay go for $50 $60 with handles. thing is they don't depreciate and if a fellow is careful he can use them, then sell them for what he has in them. Same goes for lubrisizers.
Too, if you buy good used equipment and decide casting is not for you, you can easily resell it.
Ahhh...one last thing. I used to slug the barrel of every rifle and handgun that came into my possession. Over time I realized that it really wasn't necessary. Now the only time I'll bother slugging a barrel or cylinder is if I'm having accuracy problems. I just size at or .001" over groove or cyluinder diameter and go from there.
35W