Hi All: New to this great forum so this is probably in the wrong place but// I am purchasing a new Ruger LCRX 3” .327 Mag as a personal defence gun. If it is as I hope I will be buying 4 more for the Wife and each of 3 Daughters //. I reloaded over 20,000 38/357s back in the 60s-80s but not since so I am a little rusty in the game. I have collected about 40 lbs lead pipe, 20 lbs sheet (roofing) lead and about 25-30 lbs of unknown (but hard ) “bottom of the pot lead??"--I intend to melt each, pour into pigs (muffin tin and cupcake tin) Test with my new 1” ball bearing and blend to about BHN 20 --Any help with the blend procedure Math ?? I used to use a Lyman resize and lub press --Slow and tedious// and long gone. Is it practical to get into powder coating for small volume (5-600 rounds???) JP
Getting back into reloading
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- Last Post 20 January 2016
While I don't own that gun or caliber, BHN 20 seems to be overly hard for that application. And with the material you have in stock, it you may not get to 20 anyway. But 13-15 should work just fine.
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i like to help new ccarry people get used to their handguns .... heh, gives me a chance to shoot ...
i am interested in the ruger lc, so please keep us informed of your adventures.
i might mention i like to start newbies with 38 special mild wadcutters ....let them have fun for a few hundred shots before i let them decide if they want to sample the heavier 357 mag stuff, especially in the lighter guns. defense hits with wadcutters are better than loud flashy misses with a magnum load .
ken
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Very interesting project. Since you haven't done any reloading since the 1980's, and that your press and lube pump are “long gone", one wonders if you have still kept abreast of the reloading equipment as it has developed in the meantime? And if you have not - what do you think of all the great stuff that is now on the market? (The fable of “Rip Van Winkle” comes to mind.) I own and use several items from the 1980's, and it all works quite well, but compared to recent equipment the older stuff seems un-necessarily large and clumsy. I have several really old bullet moulds, too. They work just fine, but tend to cast under-size - so are limited to use in only a few guns. More recent versions (often with the same numbers) tend to run much closer to their nominal advertised sizes., and occasionally even (happily) larger. As for the alloy hardness you are considering: Lyman CB Handbook DOES specify “Linotype” alloy for 38 Spl and 357 Mag, so your assumptions may be mis-informed ones and not your mistake. With Lyman's status as something of a “pioneer” in bullet-casting equipment, I have always wondered how they could have persisted with that blanket recommendation. (It was the principle source of my early fouling problems and accuracy failures.). Welcome Back!
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Thanks All: My friend has a new Lee indexing press so I will purchase a new die plate and set it up for .327s He loads 9mm --I will be casting some tl356s for him// As for hardness I think you are correct// I now vagly remember BHN 15 ?? I am, as we speak, heating up my new Lee bottom drop pot and will cast some sm. cupcake pigs to use for BHN testing. To cold out to set up and run my Propane cooker for mass pig pouring JP
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OK so I fired up the furness and and melted about5 lbs pipe lead
I took my new mini muffin pan, washed it in the D-washer and set it up--poured 4 pigs and this is the result
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Got a feeling your pan doesn't like you. Teflon pans out gas and break down at high heat.
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JPnewhampshire Welcome to the forum. Being an old has been pistol shooter left over from the sixties and forward, I can understand what you wrote. And having “carried” most every day for 27 yrs., for a living I can also understand the reason for your post. Been there. If I am not mistaken, which is rare, I believe the Ruger LCRx is a 38/357 mag. and not a 327mag as you wrote. But in either case why not just forget the lube sizer and use the bullet of your choice. Then go with the Lee process. Which is using the Lee sizing kit and lubing with liquid Alox. This greatly simplifies the chore of sizing and lubing, especially when shooting a lot for practice which is necessary when using a pistol for personal protection. You will find quite a lot of info regarding this in the archives by doing a search. I practice with lead and carry nothing but factory other wise. Except for my yearly qualification in which case the old factory gets shot up. If you are using coated muffin tins for ingot molds, that no doubt is the problem
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Thanks The weapon is the LCRx --a hammered 3” bbl version of the LCR and is also chambered in .327 Mag (.32 long, .32mag included) My main question about the muffin tin is Can I do something to “clean it ” or junk it and get one w/o NO stick ??? JP
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WELCOME ABOARD, CHECK YARD SALES FOR OLD MUFFIN TINS. THROW OUT ANYTHING WITH A COATING. GOOD LUCK
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As soon as I get the lead blending problem solved Ill move onto casting// then figure out what to do about sizing/lubing--Probably go with the Lube system you said but looking at powder coating also// (it looks neet// JP
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B.E.Brickey
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I have 3 of the Cast iron Corn bread pans but was looking for a tin that gives me a smooth flat for BHN testing I think i'll try putting the tourch and/or wire brush to 3-4 pockets just for test pigs// JP
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JP
I had the same problem with the muffin tins from Walmart. You can burn the Teflon out with a torch if you want to. I found that after about 4 uses and making sure that they are absolutely dry they work fine.
Mike
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If worse comes to worse you could always file and sand a smooth flat area on the face's of the PB muffins. Brodie
B.E.Brickey
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Hi All: Finally getting some progress in this project// I found my rotory wire brush and cleaden off the no-slip stuff in the cupcake tin
 and set about casting ½ lb pigs of pure lead for testing</p>
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I have NO idea why the above post is so over sized ????? JP
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Thanks The weapon is the LCRx --a hammered 3” bbl version of the LCR and is also chambered in .327 Mag (.32 long, .32mag included)
My main question about the muffin tin is Can I do something to “clean it ” or junk it and get one w/o NO stick ??? JP
Junk it. Get a LEE ingot mold. They a reasonably priced & will last you forever.
Pat
If someone else had of done to me what I did to myself . . . I'd have killed him. Humility is an asset. Heh - heh.
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JPnewhampshire,
I am late in getting this to you but welcome.
As an introduction to our association,I would be glad to send you a couple of digital issues of our journal The Fouling Shot so you can take a look at what we have to offer if you PM me your email address. We promise not to bug you further and you email address will not be given or sold to anybody.
John
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My father taught me to use muffin tins to cast ingots. Always called them “pupcakes” which was the specific family pet name for lead ingots. Never knew any different. Well, needless to say, time rolled on, and dad's old pupcake tins were looking pretty darn shabby. I started experimenting with more robust options because nobody should get attached to an heirloom pupcake tin only to have it get so wrinkled that it's unusable! First I tried some ingot molds that a guy had welded up out of angle iron, and oh woe is me, I had to beat the living snot out of them and use a crowbar to pry the ingots out.
I did not dig them one little bit.
Finally, I have landed some nice RCBS cast iron ingot molds, and I have to say, I am quite impressed. Very nice molds (as usual from that company) and I think I'm sticking with them from now on.
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caution about outgassing from any plastic ...
i killed my little daughter's hamster in about 15 seconds from a minor plastic flare-up ... he was 20 feet from the burner ...
his name was * lucky * ...
ken
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