The equipment costs will be paid off in short order, especially the way lead bullet prices are now. The more you cast the cheaper it'll get.

Its a good thing to cast. I cast for all pistol and several rifle and they make great loads to either plink with at the range or even hunt with.

 

yeah i was getting tired of paying $30-$40 for 500 .357 bullets. Dad and i figured since we get the wheel weights for free can't hurt to try casting. Just makes it even cheaper that we don't have to buy the lead. Neighbor around the corner that dad's known for years and years has been casting longer than my short 24 years of existence helped us out. He used to do it commercially, now he's just retired except when i tap him to be my reloading/casting guru :-D

 

So now you have some 258g ingots or fishing weights that need holes drilled in them. Here is my favorite load for 258g 38 spl load -

 

Nah...you dont need to drill holes in the bullets. Just leave the sprue cutter off and place wire clips in the molds before you pour them. 45 slugs work great for sinkers.

 

i really was thinking about making fishing weights too. just need to fish more is all. co-worker joked about me making him some weights since he's tired of buying them all the time or something

 

You can buy sinker molds at Walmart and they arent that expensive.

Money well spent since you already have everything else.

 

interesting definately have to check that out..hopefully my .380, .45, and 9mm molds will arrive monday. hopefully my fellow brown employees don't beat the box up too bad while it goes through our system

 

What kind of molds did you get?

 

i think the .380 are lee molds like my 357 and 44 are now and unfortunately lee doesn't make a 147 gr mold or a 230 round nose that i could find so i went with rcbs i believe since those were cheaper than lyman or the other brand i forget..my memory is horrible. so far the lee 158 gr molds are working great dad and i have made over 600 usable bullets.

 

Just make sure you use adequate ventilation due to the lead hazzard. Melting it puts lots of lead fumes in the air.

Also, to get good casts right off the bat, preheat the mold. A cold mold and hot lead makes a poor casting. You'll waste few bad casts if preheated. Dump the cast bullets out on a soft towel to prevent damage to the hot, soft lead.

 

yep thanks for the tip. we've been doing it in the garage. when we melted the wheel weights it created a lot of smoke so we just had fans sucking it out the door since it was raining. now that we are only melting down our ingots the smoke is cut down but, for Florida, its chilly and the wind is blowing so we're still doing it @ the door of the garage. i just set the mold over the pot to heat up while i check my last batch of bullets or while i set up and get ready to mold

 

Casting bullets, for me was a good experience. I have not cast any bullets in almost 20 years, but, I'm still shooting stuff I cast all those years ago.

It's a good feeling to score bullseyes with ammo you load, and bullets you cast. At the time, I was shooting a good deal of bullseye competition, and my 45 load was a full wadcutter from a custom mold I bought from a company in Texas. I shot these bullets out of a S&W 25-2 wheel gun, and the gun/bullet combo would shoot one ragged hole @ 50 yds. from a Ransom rest. Needless to say, guys in my gun club were soon buying wheel guns for competition, and hitting me up for some of those wadcutters.

.

 

Keep your lead temps in the high 700 degrees to low 800 degrees area and you don't need to worry about lead fumes. Lead does not go to a gaseous state till you get to 1000 degrees. One thing you need to be extra careful about is lead and water they don not mix. If you throw a piece of wet lead into the pot you may get a supprise. Especially bad if you have a piece of lead pipe with water inside of it. Just use common sense when casting (ie keep your hands away from your mouth, eyes, and nose while casting) other than the occasional burn on the finger or aching back it's pretty rewarding.

 

For a wealth of info just for bullet casting, check out...

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/index.php

Everything you wanted to know about how and what,group buys for custom molds, load data, the whole thing.

Its a good site.

 

thanks. i knew there was a site i was forgetting. looked @ that way back in the day but forgot about it

 

Chevyguy,

I just started this past weekend and I'm amazed as how easy it is and the quality of bullet you can produce. Lots of fun as well.

I saw some videos on you tube of how to make your own lube and how to mode it in your newly cast bullets. I think I'm going to try that next!

 

yeah i just got the resizing stuff and lube in monday so after i make a few thousand bullets i'll sit down and resize and lube them. i need to get on that after today's reload i'll be all out of .357 and 9mm bullets so once those 750 and 800 ish bullets are shot i'm out then again i have plenty of .45 to keep me busy for a little while but the others won't last me long at all specially since i plan on doing both IDPA and IPSC matches each month

 

Yea bullet casters! Isn't it great to avoid being held up for high priced bullets?

I'm a lazy bullet caster and don't take a lot of care to try to cast hard bullets. Straight wheel weights has worked fine for general purpose practice and plinking. Who would have expected that current thinking has gotten away from the use of hard cast bullets for lower velocity applications? I was on the cutting edge of handgun bullet making all along...hah, the cutting edge of laziness.

 

Casting like any other hobby sometimes can get expensive. Buying moulds is like buying 1911's (one is never enough). Lubersizer dies and top punches add up. Casting pots, ladels etc etc. This is a pic of some of my moulds. Everything from $18 Lee to $200 customs and Lyman, RCBS, and Saeco production moulds in between. Some of my others are out on loan to some of my shooting buddies. Great thing is they pay for themselves in short order.

 

casting is a good way to save some money, that is after you get the equipment paid off. i have been using the same equipment for over 25 years.

 

I am thinking of casting and have been searching the forums for information.
I am thinking about the Lee 20# pot and moulds. Will a 10# pot work. Being retired, trying to keep my costs down.
I haven't explored the cost of wheel weights yet. I would think that most of the tire shops recycle or sell to recyler's, If I can not get free, what kind of a average price should be paid for these? Also, out of a 100# of castings, how much is usable lead. I would guess there is wire and other items to throw out, Next question, how many 155 gr bullets can be casted per pound or 100#s ow WC?
Using 7000 gr a pound I am guessing about 45 bullets. I may have answered my own question.
Thanks in advance for any information a new caster should have.

 

The 10 pounder will work. I used one for years until I started getting the Lee 6 cavity molds. I got a Hoch 850 grain .50 BMH mold and I went up to the 20 pounder just to save time so now I have both.

I still get my wheel weights for free.

You'll need to invest in a lubrisizer to lube and size your bullets...it makes them a lot more accurate.Then you'll have to get a top punch and a sizing die for each bullet style or caliber.

 

pretty much what hot guns said. I chose the 20# because i know i'll be casting and shooting a lot. Still haven't actually shot my own casts yet but seeing as how i'm now out of 357 bullets from my bullet guy hopefully in the next week i'll at least test my casts out. hopefully they work! then its on to 9mm next. As far as how many pounds of usable lead you get from a bucket of wheel weights I couldn't tell you. I know I had about 5 buckets of lead/trash in the back of my truck and it came out to around 180#s of ingots, but don't quote me on that

 

I'm just about ready to order the following. I plan on casting for my
XD-40. Do not know what type of bullets to cast yet. Any Advice?
Ordering:
Either a 10# or 20# Lee ProIV
Lee six cavity mold for 40
Lee mold handle
Lee ingot mold (do I need this)
Browell flex (is there something else that will work?)
Lee Ladel ( do I need this)
Lee lube & Size kit

If there is anything else I might need or don't, please let me know.

Thanks

 

In my opinion buy the #20 bottom pour pot, it is worth the extra money. get a deep cookie sheet to put it in, as if your lead pot ever decides to leak, there is a place for the lead to go instead of the floor, I have my pot on a 1" piece of wood to bring up to height for convenience. Leement all of your molds, as explained on castboolits site. And join us at castboolits, lots of great information and good people who shoot cast.

Leementing Documentation w/Photos - Cast Boolits

Any questions that you have about casting give me a shout. BTW a good cast bullet can be pushed out to about 1400 fps without any perceptable leading using a moly/beeswax lube... homemade to save cost. Water quenching that same bullet should take that bullet up to a higher velocity. If anyone doubt the veracity of the 1400 fps , look up keiths number on his cast bullets for .357 and his remarks on having to clean his barrels etc, and he was using a less effective lube.

 

Casting is an excellent money saver and is fun to boot.

 

That is a beautiful picture.

 

Get the 20# pot. It saves time when marathon casting. Every time you have to stop and add lead you are basically starting over. So the more lead the more you can cast per session.

My personal opinion on flux is don't waste your money on some fancy powder stuff. Good old paraffin wax works as good as anything and one box for around a buck will last a long time.

Get the ingot mold. Very handy when you want to empty your pot to switch to a different alloy of lead or when you just want to clean it up.

If your only going to bottom pour your bullets than you really don't need a ladle. Where you need one is when you are casting heavy bullets, usually in the 500gr and up range. Ladle pouring heavy bullets tend to produce the best most consistent slugs.

Another thing that's a must have is a good lead thermometer. A word of advice on these. Don't leave it in the pot. Take your reading and take it out. Their not designed for constant immersion.

You'll need a good hardwood dowel of some sort to tap your mold to release the bullets. Actually never tap the mold but the hinge pin of the handles. Any piece of hammer handle or similar works for this.