Finally tried casting

[Chevyguy85]

Dad and i finally tried our hands @ casting these past few days. We get the wheel weights for free so we figured we might as well try it and save some money. Made upwards of 160 lbs of ingots in 2 days. Ran out of dry weights as i leave them in the back of my old '73 and spray them a few times with simple green to get a lot of the crap off them. I think doing this cut down on our smoke and lead poping and spraying during melt down.

We've heard lots of bad stories about casting and i've read quite a few as well, so either we did something horribly wrong and somehow turned out right or we did pretty darn good for our first time. had no real problems the pot worked like a charm. tried casting some 158 gr SWC bullets @ the end today and ended up with what i believe are 258 usable bullets. 6 lbs down 150+ to go not including the 200 some lbs in the back of my '73 still.

Over all very fun experience and the equipment will be paid off in no time. I reload to "save" money yet i always seem to be broke because i spend what little i have to reload more....go figure

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[HotGuns]

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.

[Chevyguy85]

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

[Stevew]

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 -

[HotGuns]

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.

[Chevyguy85]

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

[HotGuns]

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

Money well spent since you already have everything else.

[Chevyguy85]

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 :)

[HotGuns]

What kind of molds did you get?

[OldVet]

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.

[Freedomofchoice]

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.

.

[Jeff F]

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.

[Chevyguy85]

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.

[Chevyguy85]

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

[HotGuns]

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.