Pretty good group with cast bullet handload

[WyoBob]

Awhile back, I bought a Lee 6 cavity mold for bullets for my 40 S&W and have been working up loads with both Unique and Power Pistol with various store bought cast, clad and home cast bullets. Today I shot a load that grouped pretty well except the 5th shot that I pulled because I was getting excited at the tight group forming. 4 shots grouped .87", 5 shots grouped 1.53" from a bench at 7 yards. I used 4.4 grains of Power Pistol. This is a very gentle load and deposited the empties very close together. This should be a great load for shooting steel targets. About half the kick of the WWB 165 gr loads (which grouped 1.25" today at 7 yards)


WyoBob

[agalindo]

On the cast bullets for your .40 what kind of lub did you use? I've been wanting to by some and most places give the option of grease or Moly/Grease.

[invssgt]

Looks like that bullet is shooting real well for you Bob- you're making me wanna spend money I shouldn't be spending right now!

What did you settle on for an OAL with that bullet?I'd love to bench some of those at 25-50 yards and see what they'll do. Bet it would be interesting.

[WyoBob]

Originally Posted by agalindo

On the cast bullets for your .40 what kind of lub did you use? I've been wanting to by some and most places give the option of grease or Moly/Grease.

I used Lee Liquid Alox tumble lube. I mixed it 50/50 with mineral spirits. This stuff is new to me. Years ago, I owned a sizer/luber. I sized these bullets with Lee's Lube & Size kit ($12.25) which is really neat and works well. For those of you not familiar with this setup, you mount a ram in the shell holder ram, a push-through die and on top of the die, you slide on the clear plastic case the dies and ram comes in. This case then catches the bullets as they push through the die.

The tumble lube seems to work very well. No leading problems so far on much hotter loads. It doesn't take much to coat the bullets. I put a very small amount in an old Cool Whip container with a bunch of bullets and roll them around then spread them out on wax paper to dry. This coats the entire bullet which is not a plus. After I've loaded the bullet, I wipe the exposed surface of the bullet with a paper towel soaked in acetone.

WyoBob

[WyoBob]

Originally Posted by invssgt

Looks like that bullet is shooting real well for you Bob- you're making me wanna spend money I shouldn't be spending right now!

What did you settle on for an OAL with that bullet?I'd love to bench some of those at 25-50 yards and see what they'll do. Bet it would be interesting.

Hey, I'll bet I'm tighter than you and I'm doing it

The 6 cavity mold which is for the TL401-175-SWC bullet was $35.00 from Lock, Stock & Barrel. The sizing die was $12.25. The Liquid Alox $2.50. BTW, you do need a sizing die as the diameter varied too much to load without sizing. I used straight wheel weights.

The OAL was 1.18". The other group sizes for each charge of Power Pistol were:

5.0 gr 1.76"
4.9 1.80
4.8 1.36
4.7 1.80
4.6 1.15
4.5 1.36

I haven't been able to a very good job with my XD at 25-50 yards. My gun shoots way high and the groups are really large. With this light load, you'd probably be able to eat a sandwhich after shooting & when the bullet would hit the target at 50 yards.

WyoBob