Cast lead bullets

T

talon

New member
I just bought some lasercast bullets for my 357. Is there anything that I should know about before loading them. What does the lube on bullet for and why are cast lead bullets oversized? All I have reloaded so far are jacketed bullets. These are a silver alloy that is hard enough to load to jacketed velocity, that is what the box says.
I have stayed away from lead in the past because of the fouling, but now if I want to shoot I have to cut some costs.
 
I have shot some out of my 30 30 and personally dont like them. They foul up the barrel really bad and you cant really mix shells after youve shot them without cleaning them first. I personally would take a bad jacketed bullet over a good cast bullet any day. also they areant the best for hunting either and you have to really work with them to find a good bullet powder combination. I used unique when i did it cause that way i could use the same powder for my shotgun. I personally wont go back to them, thats for darn sure.

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have fun and shoot straight
brad
 
I have used Laser-Cast 300 gr and 240 gr swc in my Ruger 44mag revolver, no leading problem, Hard cast are the best hunting bullet, best penetration. I use them for deer elk and bear in my revolver.The harder the bullet, the hotter the load , to get them to obturate. More velocity with less pressure than jacketed bullets
 
I personally shoot alot of cast bullets in most of my firearms. Rifle and pistol both. I actually prefer cast bullets for hunting. I cast my own using alot of wheel weights and linotype. Prefer "Keith Style" gas checked bullets the most. If you are having problems with leading it could be because you were either pushing them too fast or using bullets with inadequate lube. The old Speer 148 gr. hollow base wadcutters were famous for this. They had a very thin dip lube that really didn't "lube" much! Very accurate little bullet, but you didn't want to push them much over about 800fps. Shoot on Saturday and scrub your barrel all day Sunday! I use a mixture of alox and bees wax for all my bullet lubing needs. Berry's MFG. is producing some swaged copper plated (not jacketed) bullets at a pretty reasonable price. I just bought a box of .38 cal 158 gr. hollow points for under $15.00 for a box of 250 bullets. It's almost hard to cast bullets for that price. The copper plating is fairly thick. Acts more like a jacket. Accuracy seems to be decent , also. If you are shooting on a budget I would give them a try. I am pleased with them so far. I have started using Tetra Lube in the bores of my rifles and pistols and have noticed a considerable decrease in lead and copper fouling. They make a great bore solvent also. I think it works better than Sweet's7.62 or shooters choice. Later Jeff
 
I have shot thousands of hard cast bullets through my 44 mag. and 444 marlin, I have shot cast through others like my 45-70 also, but have shot almost exclusively cast through these two guns. I get great accuracy, as well as phenomenal penetration with these bullets. I have never seen a real leading problem with these bullets either, but I don't look for pressure signs to figure out what the max load is as my method of load development either.
As for hunting with them... I've killed deer and bear with hard cast bullets, they don't stop no matter what you hit. I have put the 444 bullets through three standing alders that were probably in the 8 to 12 inch diameter range and probably could have gone through a fourth but I didn't have four lined up close together.
Brass cleaning doesn't seem much different to me, but I clean every time that I reload so I might not have noticed if the brass was any different than normal.
You have the bullets either way, so if you use normal working up procedure and find a load that shoots well, you should be in the right velocity range and not have too much leading.
Enjoy.
 
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