The Gun Counter

That's what lubrisizers are for.

A Star can do better than 500 an hour, when you're really cooking.


HTRN

Fast Rope and I have been collecting lead, and I just bought 500 rounds of 200 gr .45 ACP semi wadcutters for $30 from the brimstone bullets guy at IDPA. The data for the load says 5.1 gr of unique for 890 fps at 9200 psi. Not bad, and easy on the gun. Real hard cast lead too, and he claims no wheel weights.

CC the cast bullet manufacturers as a whole have mainly moved to 92-6-2 as an alloy - it gives decent hardness and moldfillout, while minimizing on the expensive alloys of Tin and Antimony.

You can make surprisingly hard bullets without resorting to high Sb alloys like Linotype or Monotype - Waterdropping(the method I prefer) or Heat treating. Both require a small amount of arsenic for it to work(typically, if it's needed, shot is used as source for it in the mix, as it has the alloy the shotmakers use has a quite a bit of it).


HTRN

mekender wrote:dont you have the extra step of having to lube with cast lead pistol bullets Vs. fmj?

Only if you are casting your own. If you are buying cast bullets, they should already be sized and lubed. Casting your own bullets can be extremely time consuming, but that is where the real savings are to be had, if you have a decent source of cheap or free scrap lead. You can get a fully functional cast bullet setup for WELL under $100. Last I checked, a Lee Production Pot with a bottom pour spout was under $50, and Lee 2 cavity molds run from $15-$20 each. Their lube and size kit for tumble lubed bullets should be under $20 also. There is certainly better and more expensive equipment available, but the preceding is good, functional equipment that will allow you to produce quality, finished bullets.

Recently (within the last year), I have upgraded to a "real" lube sizer, a Lyman 4500 with the built in heater. My primary motivation for doing this was unavailability of the Lee size dies and tumble lube bullet molds in some of the diameters/weights that I wanted to shoot (although they will build to order for a price), and I wanted to use a hard lube. Still using the Lee molds, although at some point I may upgrade to iron molds, but the Lee aluminum molds still cast nice bullets.

Personally, I'd be leery of buying them from anybody who you don't know the source of, simply because of the hassle of constant load development. Fortunately, that seller is the actual Manufacturer(and has a website - see here), so getting more is pretty straightforward.

I get enough qty cast in one buy that load development isn't a big deal. Heck, compared to buying traditional qty of 100 jacketed Speer, Sierra, Win or Rem et al it's no problem at all. I never have stocked up that much on one of those since the investment is so high, the advantages of qty buy is so low.

Also, I'm the son of a Scot immigrant so never pay retail for those type bullets if I can help it -- that means waiting for a spot buy on a good deal, trading for an odd lot or cruising for Midway blemished bullet sales. The exception is the Hornady LNL bullet deal. I've got 1200 230gr XTPs sitting on the bench now. In fact, I was just digging in Hornady book earlier today as I started to fiddle with powder throw for that load changing over to 45 ACP (first time I'll be loading the XTP in 45ACP).

The flatrate USPS boxes are great. Just last week I got 1K 200gr SWC delivered in a flatrate box for less than $10 delivered. It was only half full. If I recollect I could have got 1500 or 2K delivered in that box but didn't want many this go round (new load for me).

Most of these casters will ship you something like 2K 9mm bullets in that same size box.. As the bullets get larger the qty drops off a bit. Seems like I got 8-900 255gr SWC delivered in the $8.95 flatrate box.

Netpackrat wrote:You can get a fully functional cast bullet setup for WELL under $100. .

At the other end of the cost/Production rate scale, you can spend over a grand.

Netpackrat wrote:Last I checked, a Lee Production Pot with a bottom pour spout was under $50, and Lee 2 cavity molds run from $15-$20 each. Their lube and size kit for tumble lubed bullets should be under $20 also.

The 10 pounder is $45. The 20lber is $65, which is what I would suggest getting, especially if it's going to be used to cast heavweight(IE 500grn) bullets - it's far too easy to hit the "heat wall" with the smaller, lower wattage(500 vs 700) pot.


HTRN

I do keep saving brass and i have even started collecting lead- i just have not found the time to actually start producing reloads or doing anything useful other than acccumulation-

i guess thats better than nothing- but my wife might disagree.

Windows has way too many bugs.
Discuss.

FelixEstrella wrote:Windows has way too many bugs.
Discuss.

i dont ever have any problems with my computers.

FelixEstrella wrote:Windows has way too many bugs.
Discuss.

#&$&**$)#@&%^%%$$$$

Don't get me started...