I loaded up some Lyman 452374 bullets I cast from WWs in the 4-cavity Lyman mould I just received. The mould worked great and pre-heating it allowed me to start making "keeper" bullets on the third pour!

I noticed that they are a bit on the long side but that seems to be the Lyman profile these days and I am perfectly OK with that. I sized them thru a Lee push-thru .452" sizer and tumble lubed them in 45:45:10 LLA:JPW:MS.

And then I did something unconventional for me. I chose Clays to try with the lead bullets. I normally use Unique and Bullseye for the .45Auto. I tried Clays years ago with some jacketed 230s and the velocities were disappointingly low. Since Clays seems to be a real "lead friendly" powder of which I have a bunch I thought I'd try it once again. Of course, Unique and BE are lead approved as well but I thought "Oh, what the hell. Clays it will be."

With 4.2-gr of Clays (very near MAX) and WLPs and seated to 1.272" (too long to eject a loaded round out the port BTW but Lymans published COAL) I made up fifteen rounds. And I shot them just now.

Chrono'd @ AV 795-fps with 30ish ES and 12-ish SD they were an absolute dream to shoot. I need to make up a few more slightly shorter with maybe a tenth or two less Clays and check them for accuracy.

But WOW, they shot so soft and easy and the pistol's heavier #18.5 recoil spring and heavier mainspring still allowed perfect functioning. I thought I was shooting a freekin' .22LR conversion!

If I can get them just a teeny bit shorter (enough to eject loaded rounds) and the Clays works like it has so far (and accuracy is acceptable while staying right around 800-fps) I might have found a great way to use up some of the two pounds of CLAYS I've had languishing around for a few years!

Dave (nitesite)

Post some pics Dave...I would like to see the whole process...the parts and tools, dies and accessories... and a finished round.

I'll compile those pics on my next day off....

Been doing this for a lot of years and it's still fun!

I was thinking of getting into reloading myself...could you list the all the parts of your setup and what is needed to start casting and loading say 9mm or .45acp !?