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I think you can do some shopping around and pick up the necessities cheaper than in those starter kits, at least I noticed they are charging top dollar for everything in the kit and those wads are consumables that will soon be gone.
I also learned that many of the nipple wrenches are cheap stuff that breaks easily because they aren't made of good steel and hardened, I searched and found one and it was cheaper than many of those cheap Chinese POS.
I love the Lee molds I've used them for years it doesn't take nearly as long to get them warmed up as the steel ones. But you do have to keep them hot so don't dawdle or you will get a lot of wrinkles.
I've got some in the 36's I cast the other day at my Buddy's house, that I plan to tumble and see how well they smooth out. I usually do a visual on them every so often and throw the really bad ones back in the pot and cast them again.
I used some wheel weight lead for a batch of 3 different size balls probably about 2 pounds or so, that I used to mill components for some black powder I made.
I noticed that they are now perfectly round and you can't find the sprue cut offs anymore. I think it should help accuracy since there won't be any protuberances to cause drag to one direction or the other which would really open up groups. Once I get to try this all out, I'll try and remember to post the results here.
On the wads behind the ball I'm thinking of melting and mixing a little vegetable oil (olive oil) maybe about 10% by volume into some bee's wax then pour it out on some paper then cookie cut my own over powder wads, paper and all and then load with the paper toward the powder, I've read that the oil coats the cylinder walls and the rifling better this way than the grease in front of the bullet where the blast coming from the cylinder / barrel gap just blows it all away from the rest of the chambers. I don't have any experience on this yet, just passing along what I've read.
Gabby
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