My first batch of cartridges made with my own cast bullets!

[maillemaker]

Well this weekend I cast up all 22 pounds of the wheel weight lead I bought for $5.

I mostly made .45 ACP, since that is what I have dies to reload, but I also made some 9mm, because I wanted to try out the mold.

I had fill problems with about 1/2 the bullets in 9mm. There were flaws in the bullet grooves. I'm guessing either the mold or the lead was too cold, though it filled up the 230 grain .45 ACP mold just fine.

Question: Should I wipe the lube off the nose of the bullets after the cartridge has been finished? On the left is one with lube still on the nose, on the right is wiped:

http://www.forth-armoury.com/temp/bullets/P1010208.JPG

More pictures here (go to the bottom of the page):

http://www.forth-armoury.com/temp/bullets/bullets.htm

 

[PawPaw]

Question: Should I wipe the lube off the nose of the bullets after the cartridge has been finished?

I assume you're using liquid alox as a lube. There's no reason to wipe it, unless you just feel a need to do so.

What kind of wheelweights are you using? Some places now use a zinc-based wheelweight and zinc in the mix is bad, as it leads to problems, mostly in getting the mold to properly fill. In most old-style wheelweights the base alloy was something like 1% tin, 3% antimony and 97% lead. The tin helps with flow and fill.

Some parts of the country see a lot of zinc wheelweights. Other parts still use the old-style. Eventually, the zinc wheelweights will be everywhere and we bullet casters will have to look other places for our galena.

 

[doug66]

Make sure molds clean of "oil". Pick up your pace, wrinkles most likely caused by cold mold.
I find it takes longer to get smaller diameter molds up to temp. I crank up the heat to 11 and cast as fast as I can, and when they start to frost, turn down the heat to 4-6 range and get into a rhythm that works for me.
BTW 45 slugs look good!!!

Just my opinions...your results may vary...

 

[maillemaker]

The wheelweights were scrap from a local tire store. Some of the weights were zinc or steel as they floated on the rest of the lead.

Steve

 

[DiscoRacing]

No need to wipe em.... after ya shoot em they will be nice and clean.

 

[m&p45acp10+1]

I never wipe the LLA off of mine. I do keep a cleaning kit in my range bag. If The feed ramp starts to look like it is getting gummy I wipe it off with some Break Free, then wipe with a clean patch. Voila good to go for a few hundred more.

 

[zippy13]

I give my bullets a wipe before boxing them as part of the finial inspection. It adds to the uniformity of the loads. YMMV

It may just be the nature of the photo; but, it looks to me that your brass still exhibits some of the flaring, or bell, associated with reloading with cast bullets. Have you run your reloads through a chamber gauge? You may need to tighten up on your crimp die. I go for 0.460-inch 0.470-inch at the case mouth with .45 ACP.

edit: typo

 

[maillemaker]

There is a slight bulge in the brass at the tail end of the bullet. I have seen pictures in this forum just recently, and it said that this was normal. I believe some people have said there is a die you can run your loaded cartridge through that will squeeze the entire cartridge back to its correct size, but for dies like the Lee bullet-seating/crimp die, only the mouth of the case is slightly crimped.

.460 sounds a bit tight. Most people on here have suggested .470 for the case mouth. They Lyman handbook shows .473 as the case mouth dimension.

Mine are about .469.

Wiping seems like a good idea to me. The lube is still slightly tacky and I would not want it rubbing off inside the gun or attracting dust. Maybe it will dry more, I don't know.

 

[Edward429451]

The slight bulge in the casing at he tail end of the boolit is there because the brass already has been sized to less dia than factory and the action of seating the boolit causes the brass to displace slightly. This is normal and further sizing with even tighter dies are not needed and will serve only to damage the boolit which may lead to inaccuracy.

You do not need a case guage for 45 ACP. The guages are closer to minimum tolerance. and most chambers are on the generous side for reliability in feeding. So you simply use your barrel as a case guage. Remove barrel from gun and insert a factory round to observe its orientation in the chamber. Set your sizing die to allow proper headspacing of reloaded rounds.

Tapercrimp the mouth of the case to .470 if you crimp to .460 then it will headspace on the extractor which you may not notice, but is not right. You can prove this by removing your barrel and seeing how your rounds go deeper into barrel than factory rounds...;-)

 

[zippy13]

maillemaker,
Thanks for the heads-up on the crimp diameter typo, I've corrected it.

I enlarged the pic in question, and it seems the area of my concern is some lead or lube, not the bell/taper I thought I saw. Hey, that's another good reason for wiping your rounds -- old pharts won't get confused by your pics.