500 s&w mold advice?

The standard cast load originally was a 440 grain bullet, I shoot 400 and 500 grain gas checked bullets and there are some guys on here that shoot 700 grain bullets. I got my gas checked mould and gas checks from Mountain Molds in the USA years ago, I'm not sure if they still export gas checks but they do export moulds. There site is good because you get to design your own mould and there is a picture of your bullet and it changes as you make changes to the dimensions. Their moulds are excellent quality but the lead time is 5-8 weeks right now as the moulds are made to order. I bought a Lee mould while I was waiting for my Mountain Molds' to be made, total garbage, don't waste any money on them. Hornady gas checks sre probably the easiest to find. I usually use Win 296 in my full power loads and H4227 in the mid range loads.
 
Thanks a lot! I've seen lots of lee molds out there for it. I guess that's why. I'm leaning toward a spire point. Hopefully shoot h110. Gator gas checks any good? What are you using for lube?
 
Lee molds work perfectly good for what they are designed for. They offer low cost start up and will resell to get some of your money back if you don't like casting. Half of my molds are Lee and work great, some need a bit of fine tuning though. All that being said it should be pretty obvious they don't compare to a $100 mold which is the other half of my mold collection.

I've only used hornady gas checks, I might try the cheaper ones at some point but I have 2k 50cal checks so I'm fine for a while.

For full house loads Lil gun and h110/w296 are the best powders.
Midrange are 4227, 4759, Longshot, 2400.
Light loads trailboss. Feels like a heavy 38spl.

For lube I make Bens red, it's the only lube I use for all my casting. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?223840-Made-more-Ben-s-Red-today

For the new style of Lee molds I go to Titan reloading. For the high end molds there is noe mold, mihec molds, mountain molds, accurate molds.
 
Awesome! You guys are a huge help! I gator gas checks any good? I'm also new to casting. I'm just getting into it because finding 500s&w bullets is insanely hard. How come the molds are .501? I need .500? I have a melting and lead. What else do I need? I thank you guys again for helping me out here..very thankfull.
 
I use gator gas checks, they are good. The problem with Lee moulds, especially with 500 S&W is that to make them cheaper they use the smallest block of aluminum they can so the moulds overheat very quickly, if you look at a quality mould it will always have a good sized block of aluminum to absorb the heat from the molten lead. Second their block alignment system is pathetic, a quality mould will arrive perfectly lined up on the pins when you close it, with the Lee mould I bought was almost impossible to get the mould halves to align perfectly, no matter what tapping or other Lee magic sequences I tried I could rarely get a concentric bullet, I just wasted my time and had to melt most of what I cast with it. Depending on what you read some people go with .501 and others .500, from what I read on cast bullet forums I went with .500 sizing and it works very well. You will also need a sizer, I currently use a Star lube sizer but have used Lyman and RCBS sizers in the past, the advantage of the Star is that the bullets are pushed straight through the sizing die from the base making it quicker than the other two in which you push the bullet into the die then push it back up out of the die, they all do the same thing but the Star is much more costly. If you decide that casting is something you like the Star is worth looking at and they come up on eBay fairly regularly, they are sold by Magma Engineering now as the Magma Star Lube-sizer if you want to look at one.
 
I've herd lots of bad things about lee molds! I will probably use the gator gas checks. What would the sizer cost roughly? I have tons of lead. I will probably pick up a cheap melting pot this weekend. I was told if you can scratch the lead with your fingernail its ok to use as a bullet. I think i want to get a .500 mold as well...i'm having a tough time finding a spire point..
 
the size of the lee mold isn't a problem when you run your pot with a PID controller, i've had no issue with my new style and older style 440gr bullet. here is the older style with the alignment pins on the bottom
LEE%20REAL%202%20CAVITY%20MOLD.JPG


vs the new style,

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?198867-New-LEE-mold-arrived-today
LEE1_zps236f5c36.jpg~original


NOE is the only one who makes a spire point mold and right now he has no stock, i'm not sure when he will make more but i wouldn't think very soon.
link to his 50cal section, http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/index.php?cPath=43&osCsid=ejp9kbiavj8bfv7ppninnjj0l0

as for sizing, you want your bullets to be at least 1-2 thou over what your barrel slugs at. i use a lyman 4500 with a .501 sizing die and i have a lee push through style which is also .501.
 
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here is a bit of info from a lyman casting book,
The sizing process is merely a method of swaging cast
bullets to a standard size that corresponds to or slightly
above the groove diameter of the gun. Bullet sizing also ensures
that the bearing bands of each and every bullet in the group are
perfectly round in shape. As no metal is removed from the bullet
(bullet is swaged to shape and size), sizing does not alter the
bullet's cast weight.
The actual process of sizing and lubricating cast bullets is
straight-forward and covered in the furnished instructions; but
there are a few things to consider.
1. Set up your lubricator/sizer according to furnished instructions.
Lyman recommends that sizers not be used to
apply lubricant when the temperature of the work area is
below 60° F. The reason is that cold lubricant is much
more difficult to force through the sizer and into the
bullet's grooves.
A caster can actually damage his sizer by applying too
much pressure on the lubricant in the reservoir.
2. Be sure to use the correct top punch for the bullet design.
It's possible to push the bullet into the sizing die with any
old punch which isn't grossly oversize. However, only the
correct top punch can ensure the bullet's alignment with
the sizing die's centerline. Lose that alignment and you've
lost a lot.
3. Occasionally, you may find that lube is building up under
the bullet base. This condition is usually caused by
excessive lube pressure and may be remedied by reducing
said pressure for subsequent bullets.
However, reduced lube pressure may then leave you
with only partially-filled lube grooves. If that happens,
turn the bullet 90 degrees and push it into the sizing die a
second time. That should do it.
Be sure to wipe the lube from bullet bases as the
propellant within the cartridge case might be contaminated,
particularly in warm weather or after extended
storage.
4. While bullets can be cast and safely stored indefinitely,
you should size and lubricate only the number of bullets
you need for the planned p r o d u c t i o n of finished
cartridges.
Allowing lubed bullets to sit around invites them to
accumulate dust and grit—all the foreign matter guaranteed
to scratch your bore.
Should you find yourself in that situation, the lube can
be removed with a solvent and the clean bullets safely
stored for later use.
Click to expand...
 
The bullets of the 500 S&W Magnum are designed to withstand the extreme pressure generated by that cartridge. Using softer compounds can cause premature wear. I know it's cheaper to cast them, but I wouldn't cheap out on this. Just my 2 cents. I'm sure that someone will chime in here and say it's fine, they use it, no problem. But the Speer reload manual even warns against the use of .50 AE bullets because they're not strong enough to keep the base of the bullet fom swelling too much. Manufacturer's recommendations when loading explosives?!?
Whatever... "words"
 
joe.danay said:
The bullets of the 500 S&W Magnum are designed to withstand the extreme pressure generated by that cartridge. Using softer compounds can cause premature wear. I know it's cheaper to cast them, but I wouldn't cheap out on this. Just my 2 cents. I'm sure that someone will chime in here and say it's fine, they use it, no problem. But the Speer reload manual even warns against the use of .50 AE bullets because they're not strong enough to keep the base of the bullet fom swelling too much. Manufacturer's recommendations when loading explosives?!?
Whatever... "words"
Click to expand...

premature wear on what?
 
joe.danay said:
The bullets of the 500 S&W Magnum are designed to withstand the extreme pressure generated by that cartridge. Using softer compounds can cause premature wear. I know it's cheaper to cast them, but I wouldn't cheap out on this. Just my 2 cents. I'm sure that someone will chime in here and say it's fine, they use it, no problem. But the Speer reload manual even warns against the use of .50 AE bullets because they're not strong enough to keep the base of the bullet fom swelling too much. Manufacturer's recommendations when loading explosives?!?
Whatever... "words"
Click to expand...
Very intresting. My reloading supplier told me i could use the the ae bullets as well. But i never did because it didn't sit well with me. Even though they have the exact same dimensions.
 
joe.danay said:
The bullets of the 500 S&W Magnum are designed to withstand the extreme pressure generated by that cartridge. Using softer compounds can cause premature wear. I know it's cheaper to cast them, but I wouldn't cheap out on this. Just my 2 cents. I'm sure that someone will chime in here and say it's fine, they use it, no problem. But the Speer reload manual even warns against the use of .50 AE bullets because they're not strong enough to keep the base of the bullet fom swelling too much. Manufacturer's recommendations when loading explosives?!?
Whatever... "words"
Click to expand...

With a gas check on the bullet the base is pretty much the same as any jacketed bullet, the pressure and heat only affect the base of the bullet as long as a proper bullet lube for the velocity is used. Also, hard cast gas checked loads are available commercially for the 500 S&W. How or what would a softer bullet cause premature wear on?
 
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