budgeting for a casting set up

[nocomis]

A little bit about what I shoot and what I want to accomplish:
I shoot an AR platform with 16" barrel and pistol gas tube. I cannot have a suppressor where I live and subsonic is not a priority but I'm curious. I do not want to modify feed ramps unless absolutely necessary. I also shoot a single shot pistol. My goal - make reasonably priced and reasonably accurate projectiles for plinking.

I would like to establish a budget for casting at least one weight projectile and I intend to powder coat. My budget is (as expected) limited.

Lee mold prices sure are attractive, but .309" shapes seem too blunt (and/or incompatible ogive) for AR platform (excluding DC TL309-230-5R ???) Moving up in diameter to .312" seems to have better shapes.

Q: Which Lee molds (either .309 or 312") are proven reliable for AR platform or are there similarly priced molds that are no fuss no muss?
Q: Any problems resizing .312" to .309"?

Q: At what velocities can mere mortals expect to push powder coated projectiles without gas checks and maintain reasonable accuracy (and not spend hours cleaning leaded parts)?

Q: From what I've seen, Harbor Freight powder paint seems a bit spotty. Are other paint products superior? or should I not be so fussy about coverage?

[BillJ]

Ive used bullets coated with hi-performancebulletcoatings.com/ to great success. Absolutely no leading in barrel.

[plant.one]

A little bit about what I shoot and what I want to accomplish:
I shoot an AR platform with 16" barrel and pistol gas tube. I cannot have a suppressor where I live and subsonic is not a priority but I'm curious. I do not want to modify feed ramps unless absolutely necessary. I also shoot a single shot pistol. My goal - make reasonably priced and reasonably accurate projectiles for plinking.

I would like to establish a budget for casting at least one weight projectile and I intend to powder coat. My budget is (as expected) limited.

Lee mold prices sure are attractive, but .309" shapes seem too blunt (and/or incompatible ogive) for AR platform (excluding DC TL309-230-5R ???) Moving up in diameter to .312" seems to have better shapes.

the TL309-230-5r has proven to be not nearly as good of a bullet as originoally thought. lots of folks have had troubles with it. Take a look at the casting/reloading forums. It was very popular when it first released, and then lost its interest pretty quick.

Q: Which Lee molds (either .309 or 312") are proven reliable for AR platform or are there similarly priced molds that are no fuss no muss?

several folks have had great luck with the C312-160-2r. The c312-155-2r is similar but has the different lube grooves in it, so if you plan to powder coat, the 160 is probably a better option.

Q: Any problems resizing .312" to .309"?

from what i recall most folks are resizing to .310
you'll need to experiment a bit to see what works best for your gun though. just make sure you resize after you powder coat.

Q: At what velocities can mere mortals expect to push powder coated projectiles without gas checks and maintain reasonable accuracy (and not spend hours cleaning leaded parts)?

depending on your alloy, and the consistency of your molds, you're going to likely want to stay under 1500 fps. Some of the experimenting with the zombie boogers (123gr cast/pc from Lucky 13 bullets) just wouldnt do anything above that speed but a shotgun pattern. Also dont run hot powders. Lil Gun was melting the PC coating off the bullets and i was spraying lead out the end of my barrel all over the magnetospeed. 4227 was a popular powder used for those by many folks here.

Q: From what I've seen, Harbor Freight powder paint seems a bit spotty. Are other paint products superior? or should I not be so fussy about coverage?

powder by the pound 400*F TGCI powder

see this thread for some more info

viewtopic.php?f=185&t=86939

its a long read and goes back to the shortage days when there was a lot of experimenting with this going on due to the unobtanium status of jacketed bullets, but still good stuff to be had..


HTH

[DoubleJ]

For budget casting Lee is definitely your best bet. I'd also not bother with any sort of pot or ladle or dipping or pouring, spring for a bottom pour, Lee's is like 60 bucks. It's drippy, but it's a million miles beyond pouring from a melting pot. That being said, I do use a pot to clean and flux, then pour into ingots, then those go in the bottom pour. One thing I've found with powder coating using Hi-Tek (which I suck horribly at) is that if you mess it up, roll em in Alox or 45/45/10 and they usually shoot fine until you can fine tune the process. As stated above, I've heard bad stuff about that new Lee mold, the 230. Bad bore rider design or something. One thing you need to keep in mind also is that lead has become a commodity, it's not free anymore, so you'll need to factor in how much you shoot, how much gear you'll need, $1 to $1.25 a pound for dirty lead, what your time is worth, and whether or not to just buy boolits from Palmetto or Leatherhead. Lyman is supposed to have a great manual on casting, there's also an internet 'book' called 'from ingot to bullet' or something like that, great information. Castboolits.com is another great place for boolits, those guys are kookoo for casting.

[bangbangping]

I'll disagree with DoubleJ. The last few 30 cal Lee molds I bought weren't even close to round...like .306 in one dimension and .309 or so in the other. Life's too short to mess around with cheap crap.

OP, if you're interested in a heavy bullet, I have a few quality molds that are not used any more that I would let go cheap. Ping me and we'll see what we can work out.

As for lead, yes, it's tough to find for free any more. I made a little tray out of 2x4's and hardware cloth and sift out bullets from the dirt at the range berm. Can pick up 50 pounds in about 15 minutes...add a little tin and maybe some Linotype and it's pretty cheap casting. If you go a similar route, figure in a dutch oven, turkey fryer, and muffin tins to smelt and make ingots. Depends how much you cast as to whether it's worth the trouble.

[nocomis]

I've been intently ready and really appreciate all the replies.
I've had this on my mind for a few years so I've already managed to get the dutch oven, turkey fryer, toaster oven and other such stuffs.
I also have IMR 4227 and find it does well with the plated 150 grain remnants I have.

[DoubleJ]

While I can agree that Lee stuff isn't always the best, I've gotten a few stinkers from them, they're customer service is great, and they make all the weird stuff so I can do weird things like cast for my 5.7x28

[Dolomite_Supafly]

I have pushed powder coated bullets last 3,000 for before I the coating started failing. It was in a 7 twist 223 bolt action.

The Led 230g is a good bullet once coated. It isn't great but if you get a good mold it will cast decent bullets. They fly quieter than most other cast bullsts , important to single shot users.

I will say I started casting using cheap molds and now all I will use is a quality mold. You can shoot bullets as cast, without sizing, from a decent mold. Most cheap molds cast bullets that need to be sized to make them uniform. Lead is getting too expensive to waste it on cheap molds. You an find decent used molds for not much more than a new Lee.