Loading cast lead. What's different?

[Suburban]

I've loaded thousands of jacketed, and a couple hundred plated bullets, but never cast lead.

I picked up some 200gr. SWC, .45 caliber, hard-cast bullets, mostly just to make some cheap ammo to break in a new 1911.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to need to flare the cases a bit more, but what else will I need to do different? Anything else that I'll need to know?

[WVBob]

Nothing. Just keep them under 1000FPS to keep from leading the barrel. I've been casting and loading for almost 30 years with out any trouble. The hard cast are much better than the soft lead that you get some places. You don't need to flare the case more. Enjoy.

[knight0334]

As said above..

If you happen to get some .452" 45ACP lead bullets you might need to flare/bell it a tad more than usual. Usually .452" is for 45LC, but the all lead 45 ACP pills come a tad oversized, especially the softer alloy bullets. The hard cast are a hit/miss on .451" and .452".

[Farbmeister]

As stated flare the case. You can go over 1000fps but that generally means a gas check.

As for leading, most commercial cast bullets have grease rings that are just short of useless. I cast .357 and .45ACP and coat the entire bullet in Lee ALOX. The bullets are made a bit different (more, smaller groves at the base rather than one or two) but smoke a lot less and have yet to put any lead in the barrel (because the lube is where it is supposed to be.. on the bullet and not in some groove waiting to melt.

After you seat the bullet look at the case for lead shavings... thats a big tell if you are flaring enough.

This line scares me:

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to need to flare the cases a bit more, but what else will I need to do different?

Ummm... do not flare for jacketed or plated bullets... no way, no how. The flare is to simply keep the mouth of the case from gouging the lead. Your FMJ and plated bullets should have no exposed lead to gauge.

[BerksCountyDave]

Ummm... do not flare for jacketed or plated bullets... no way, no how. The flare is to simply keep the mouth of the case from gouging the lead. Your FMJ and plated bullets should have no exposed lead to gauge.

I disagree. I flare the case mouth just a bit for all bullets when I load .45ACP. ANOTHER purpose of flaring is to make the reloading process easier, i.e. being able to place the bullet on the case mouth before raising the ram.

I've loaded thousands and thousands of .45ACP rounds, both lead and jacketed. I've flared the mouth on EVERY case. I guess I'm doing it wrong.

[Suburban]

With my Lee sizing and decapping die, I have to flare the brass. Otherwise I can't get the bullet started in the case mouth, even when the base of the bullet is rounded.

It does seem dumb to shrink and then expand again, but that seems to be common practice.

[andrewjs18]

I got about 20 9mm cast bullets waiting to be loaded. I'll let you know how they shoot!

[Brick]

You want to be sure you're using hard cast bullets. Soft lead is for round balls used in muzzleloaders.

Other than that, jacketed bullets for any firearm are sized for the land diameter for the cal. .45 ACP that is .451" dia. Cast bullets are sized for the groove diameter, for the .45 ACP that is .452". If you're casting your own or have someone doing the casting for you, you can slug your bore. That is carefully drive a piece of slightly oversized soft lead through the bore and measure the actual diameter after it comes out. A Lyman or Lee reloading manual should tell you exactly how to do it. Then cast and size your bullets to that groove diameter.

Just a point of history. Cal. .45 Colt revolvers built before WWII had a .454 groove diameter, after the war they were standardized to .452, the same as .45 ACP, which makes things very easy for those of us who reload for both, since it reduces our inventory of bullets.

[Farbmeister]

I disagree. I flare the case mouth just a bit for all bullets when I load .45ACP. ANOTHER purpose of flaring is to make the reloading process easier, i.e. being able to place the bullet on the case mouth before raising the ram.

I've loaded thousands and thousands of .45ACP rounds, both lead and jacketed. I've flared the mouth on EVERY case. I guess I'm doing it wrong.

Sorry, but you are.

Common misconception. A FMJ bullet will resize the case to fit it. A flare ruins that fit. Yes, if you take a perfectly sized case (cause you just resized it) and then ram it into a completely random round shape with a taper, what have you just done to the mouth and neck? Dies and resizers are precision machined parts to the .001 of an inch. A flare tool is a cone simply small enough to go into the hole.

The flare is used only for lead so you do not cut into the lead ruining the bullet or making the bottom of the bullet no longer flat. A lead bullet with an 'un-flat' base is not going to be accurate at all.

This myth is just as misunderstood as bullet crimping.

[Compass Will]

Here is your best bet: Come on over and ask questions
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/index.php

Be careful, you might be starting a whole new hobby
I shoot around 1000 cast boolits for every 100 jacketed.

I cast for 45 colt, 45-70, 308, 30-30, 32 winchester and 22-250.
(and I am still a beginner).

My loads run between 800 fps (45 colt) to 2500 fps (22-250)
No leading if done right. Over 1600 fps I use gas checks.