Hello M3 Mitch
,The 170 gr lyman bullet that you are talking about has been in the back of my mind or at least something very similar. I'm going to keep an eye on ebay and see what turns up, I've been watching for Ed''s recommendation with no success as of yet.. Sometimes you can find a bargain and other times I don't know what those bidders are paying such high prices for. My other ace in the hole is I have a friend that has more molds than most dealers. I'm going to go through is molds and borrow all of the .30 caliber molds that I have a interest in and cast some bullets from all of them and see which performs the best. The guy is so lucky finding this stuff, He bought a box of junk in a pawn shop recently and when he dug through it there was 4 or 5 lyman molds in it. I'm 75 now and started reloading when I was 19 or 20. I had no money to buy equipment or bullets or such but I had a friend (much older) that had all the bells and whistles and he sold reloading equipment and components and he would set me up for a certain load and I would stuff cartridges. I would pay him for the components that I used and leave with a pile of ammunition. I hunted every spare moment and loved to just go out and shoot and this was the only way as a broke and poor college student, that I could to keep my habit going. I was up in my 30's when I got to where I could afford to reload and now have everything in the way of equipment that anyone could ask for and I consider myself one of the most knowledgeable jacketed bullet loaders that exist. But like I said,I 'm new to cast bullets in rifles When I got serious about reloading back in the mid 70's you could buy a box of primers for less than a dollar, I've bought 22 caliber bullets for a little over 3.00 and a pound of powder for between 3 & 4 dollars. The price of components now days is enough to make everyone consider going to cast.
You statement about loading with the base of the bulle below the bottom of the case neckt is something that I've often thought of but never did test. In my younger days and I couldn't afford to run out and buy exactly what I needed & I sometimes had to improvise and seat bullets below the shoulder. I didn't spend time & (Money which I didn"t have) to experiment but I may if my health holds out.
When I saw that Obama was going to be president I bought molds for every caliber of firearm that I owned and that was a lot of calibers. Some of them I've never used. I stocked up on primers and powder. I have swaging dies to make jacketed bullets of two different caliber and did have more, but sold some of them..It's about 4 in the morning and I couldn't sleep so I think it's time to go back to bed and try it again.
Thanks for your reply,
Mashburn
