Maverick44
Youngest old man on TGT.
Thank you much. Appreciate the advice. Are NOE molds worth the initial upgrade for a beginner? I don't mind paying a bit more to get started if it's worth the premium.
Also I noticed you don't say powder coat pistol bullets. Do you not bother? I'm primarily going to be loading (and casting) in .357, 9mm and .45 ACP to start. I imagine .44 Special / Mag or .45 Colt will be to follow.
I'm not much of a centerfire rifle shooter right now.
Unless there is a very valid reason to do so (like my lead hating PT92), I don't bother PCing handgun rounds. Tumble lube is much faster and easier to do, and will give you good results. I can tumble lube several hundred bullets in the time it would take to PC 100 bullets. It might be worth it for some really hot loadings of 357, but you can usually find ways to stop leading without PC.
As for the molds, it depends on what you want. A Lee 6 banger is going to cast a pile of bullets in short order, and they will shoot just fine. The NOE and Arsenal molds are better made, but the results are more or less the same. What they really offer are more designs. Lee offers a lot, but NOE and Arsenal offer a ton of calibers and profiles that Lee doesn't. If you want something like a legitimate Keith style SWC for 357 or 44, NOE and Arsenal will hook you up. If you are fine with the generic SWC design, Lee is just fine.
At this point in my casting "career", I tend to buy more from Arsenal than anyone else, but I still occasionally pick up a Lee every now and then, and I still use the ones I've got.
Also something worth mentioning is that some places like Arsenal makes their molds to order, which means that you can request that they cut them to a specific size at no additional charge. I ordered a 30 cal mold recently that typically casts at 0.312, and requested that they up the size to 0.318" so that I could use it in a significantly overbore Arisaka I've had for a while. They did it no questions asked.
maverick44,
Fwiw, the last time that I was "TOO CLUELESS" to take enough ammo on a hunt, the store that I finally found some wanted 43.00 per 20 = "DAMN", is the least offensive of what I said under my breath when I read the price tag.
(I have NOT made that mistake again. = my 298 grain homebrew GCCB work just FINE, thanks on most any critter out past 200M at about 2100FPS.)
I also load a .38-55WCF old-school/"standard speed" equivalent 260grain PBCB at about 1400FPS, that is a WT KILLER W/O damaging much edible meat AND a "small game load", that my "little" brother figured out for me, that is PURE DEATH on coyotes/foxes/coons/jackrabbits out past 100M.
yours, satx
Yeah, I don't even want to know what factory ammo for my 9.3x57 costs. I doubt you could even find it without ordering it online. A nice big and heavy flat pointed cast bullet is one of the best hunting bullets you can have.