casting my own

[458winshooter]

Took the plunge this week and bought 3 molds a Lee pro pot and 3 sizers of the appropriate diameters.All were Lee so they come with the alox lube.Calibers were 357,44,and 45-70.The mold for the 45-70 is their 340 gr flat nose.I don't intend to load them very hot so should I just use the alox or look for a hard lube?I plan to use water quinched WW lead and may add some tin if it is needed.Will be used in a 1895 Marlin 26in. thanks Russ

 

[jmortimer]

I like Alox or the generic "white label" xlox.

 

[hornady]

Russ I am going to assume you slugged the bores to get the appropriate size dies. WW can become very hard. As a matter of fact too hard heat treated. I have never seen the 30 BHN in water dropped, I have read about. But to properly water drop. you do need to keep cooling the water you are dropping straight from the mold in to. The Arsenic in WW will harden with water dropping. They will also harden some with time. About 30 days. I will also assume you are casting with Lee Tumble Lube Bullets. I have not used any of these in a few years. But when I did. I would cut the Alox with mineral spirits. Tumble and dry and if need be relube. But a lot of this is trial and error .with the lube.

 

[458winshooter]

more info

Bores were slugged,the bullet molds are not TL design.The 357 is the 158gr round flat nose and the 44 is the 200gr round flat nose.The 45-70 is a 340gr round flat nose.The pistol molds I think will be okay,I got them for experimentation and will likely not load over 1200 fps.I plan to use them for the basis of designing my own molds.My concern is using just alox for the 45-70 at a velocity of 1500 to 1700 fps.

 

[hornady]

Some one else may have more experience with this than me. As I use Lyman Molds and Lyman Lube/Sizer. But I was lead to believe. The Liquid Alox would not work on Conventional Bullets. Only the TL. The conventional bullets would not retain enough lube too work properly. TL molds have multiple lube rings. As conventional bullet molds have one or two. And with out a lube/sizer. You are limited to pan lubing. With conventional Bullets. I have not used Alox or TL bullets in 10 years. I will be interested to see what others say. Good luck

 

[80viking]

I used the pan lube method for years before I got a Lyman lube/sizer. I used a mixture of paraffin and liquid alox and vasoline. I don't remember the specifics but I would start with a 50/50 mix of paraffin and alox. It needs to be slightly greasy when it cools, so use the vasoline for that.

Using a tin pie pan, stand the bullets up, then pour the lube in the pan until it is above the top lube groove. After it solidifies, push out the bullets. If your lube is soft enough you can use hand pressure, my lube was on the hard side so I used a bench top drill press like an arbor press to punch them out.

As far as sizing goes, I have fired thousands of bullets that dropped out of Lee molds w/ out any sizing, but the Lee sizing dies work very well.

That 340gr bullet is an excellent choice for the marlin, I think it was designed just for that rifle.

 

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Actually liquid alox works fine on non-TL style bullets. I have done it in the past with success. BUT, pushing your 45-70 bullets that hard will probably require a harder conventional lube in the lube groove on the bullet. I would pan lube these. Just my .02 cents.