... I took up casting. First batch of .358 158 gr. tumble lube SWC's tonite. Told the wife I'd see her about May. I'm hooked.

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Andy

I've been thinking about about

What kind of equipment did you get and more important where do you get your alloy/lead?

Here in Fl, all the tire places are required to have lead picked up my licensed recycle firms, just like car batteries. So no free lead for me. That is what has held me back. If I have to buy lead it just does not work out dollar wise for me.

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Still Running Against the Wind

Wait till you get one of those 6 cavity molds. You will go crazy.

I bought all Lee equipment. Just like in reloading it's much less expensive than the other brands so I got set up with a pot, two molds (the other one is a .365 LRN for my 9x18 Mak) an ingot mold and a dipper for around $100. For lead I bought some hardball alloy to get started. It was expensive but I knew I'd want to jump in and do some casting right away. Long term I have a couple of buddies that have wheel weights stashed back but don't cast. We're going to trade WW's for bullets. If you look around online (Check e-bay out) you can buy wheel weights for a pretty reasonable price. Even buying WW ingots already molded I think you can still save money over commercial cast bullets.

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Andy

It looks like you bought all-new with regard to the pot and moulds.

Is that correct? A hundred bucks?

I've been smelting some WWs into ingots with plans to begin casting bullets in the near future.

At what diameter do your tumble lube bullets mike? I assume you're going with ALOX lube?

You must be really excited to have reached this point. I know I would love to be there pretty soon!!!!

Congrats.

What are you going to shoot those in?

I, too, have been bitten by the WW casting bug and I have amassed about 600-700lbs of wheel weights (a lifetime supply, I think).

I cast some 125gr RN tumble lube bullets in a LEE 6-banger and they work OK in my 67-1. I bought a 158gr RN tumble lube two-cavity LEE mould that I haven't had time to use yet, and I'd be interested to know what you are loading your SWC's over.

Mike

I have been casting about 4 months now. I recieved tons of help and suggestions from members here and another forum...Cast Boolits.com...Smith Crazy is a wealth of knowledge here on this forum..he helped me get started right. I am now luckily sitting on 6 five gallon buckets of WW that I got for free. I am going to contact the local sheriffs dept to see if I can mine the LE outdoor range. I finally found the go to officer and going to call him in the morning . Hopefully he says yes.
I think I enjoy scavaging misc. casting / reloading stuff as much as I like building the rounds. It is definately a great hobby.

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You'll shoot your eye out kid

Your casting area/equipment looks entirely too clean and shiney. I think you must have a girlfriend that will be in town until May.

Kind words BSkerj, thank you!

Glad you got onboard. Now you will never be out of the exact kind of bullets you want!

Any questions, feel free!

They look good by the way.

ACL864;
Congratulations! Welcome to the club. You are now on the road to true shooting independence.

Dale53

as for the question on where to get lead. If you cant find ww in you area check with scrap yards and your plumbers. Plumbers save al the scrap pipe and sell it. old cast iron pipe has about a 1lb to a joint. you can mix 1 part ww and 3 parts lead and have good pistol ammo. if you dont go over 1000fps
Get you a can of Kroil for your molds

Thanks for all the kind words and encoragement.

Yep, All new stuff. The Lee 20 lbs. 220V pot was around $65- the 10 lbs pots and 110V models were cheaper, the molds less than $20 each. Not sure on the dipper and ingot mold but they were both pretty inexpensive.
The bullets mic at .360". Lee claims that tumble lube bullets don't require sizing... we'll see. If they do I'll get one of there little sizing units that fits on top of the reloading press- they're around $15 at Midway. I am going to use the Lee Liquid Alox on these. Eventually I hope to get a nice sizer/lubricator. I think they're around $125 or so.

I'll shoot these in one of my M19's, my K-38 or my M642 (I've also been on the look out for a shooter grade M27 or 28 with a
4" barrel). I probably won't get any loaded and tried until next week sometime. We'll see how they work. For 38 Special I'll probably stick with 3.5 gr. Bullseye. It's worked for me with a lot of different commercial lead bullets so it'll be a good comparison with these home cast bullets. If I have problems... I know it isn't the load- it's the bullet. If there are no problems with the bullets, I'll load up some 357 Mag.

That might not be a bad idea. A girlfriend may actually be cheaper than my gun/reloading/casting addiction.

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Andy

For tumble lube with Lee Liquid Alox, the preferred method is thus:

Tumble lube as cast. No sizing. Pour a 1/4 measuring cup of LLA diluted 1/2 with Mineral Spirits* into a .50 caliber ammo can. Close can and slowly rotate can end over end for about 3-5 minutes. Slowly. Rough tumbling damages bases. Not good. Open can and spread bullets out on cheap dollar store cookie sheets covered with wax paper. Allow to air dry overnight. Load as is.

Here is how we do it:

We put roughly 1,000 .38 Special Wadcutters (The Hensley & Gibbs #50 Bevel Base) into a .50 can. Pour the LLA over the bullets. Close can. Slowly tumble end over end. Open, pour onto wax paper, dry overnight. Load the next day with a target load of bullseye. Little to no crimp. Accuracy with a Colt Target .38 is <1.5" at 15 yards, all day, every day.

*C.E. Harris (or Ed Harris as he is known today) is an advocate of diluting the Lee Liquid Alox as it comes from the bottle. He cuts it at least 50% with mineral spirits to further dilute the mixture. Once you have coated your first batch in the .50 caliber ammo can, for further batches you can reduce the LLA amount poured into the can by roughly 50% (I use a common plastic coffee scoop as my measuring device). So, one coffee scoop of LLA diluted 50% poured over 1,000 H&G #50 wadcutters is sufficient lube for target loads.

We shoot as cast, unsized. My Ruger School gun shoots this load with WW .38 Brass all day and makes beautiful cloverleafs as long as I do my part.

If you're going to cast your own wadcutters, semi-wadcutters, or other styles, for lubing with LLA, you need to cast uniformly frosted bullets. The frosting, when examined under sufficent magnification (100x to 500x) will reveal micro pitting in the lead surface that allows the LLA to cling to the projectile surface.

Uniformly shiny lead bullets, while pretty, will not hold the LLA nearly as well as uniformly frosted bullets.

If you like pretty bullets, then you want to go the sizer/lube route. Try a Star Sizer (the best), Lyman, LEE, or SAECO. With a soft lube, and a sizer die of the appropriate size, you can attain as good results with considerably more labor.

Casting your own is a very enjoyable activity that is rewarding and economical. I've grown so addicted to casting that I own bullet moulds for calibers I don't even own guns in. I made my own casting pot after years of frustration with commercial pots. I've been known to haunt the off ramps near the interstate on weekends walking the curves with a 5 gallon bucket picking up wheel weights.

Yeah, I am hooked.

:-D

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Texasflyboy

Texas,

You must be 6'9" and weigh 400lbs with no body fat sir! 1000, 148gr bullets at a time in a steel can! WOW! That would get tiring even for me. Of course, I'm a puny little old man, 6'2" and 250lbs with plenty of body fat to keep warm on the coldest winter night here in Indiana!


All kidding aside, 21lbs ((148*1000)/7000) for the bullets, plus the weight of the ammo can, would be a bit much for some folks. That is why I use the 1lb coffee can. 200 to 400 bullets in it with a half to 1 ounce of White Label Lube's Liquid Xlox diluted the same as yours and, viola, lubed bullets.

I put them on wax paper on the counter, which usually ties it up overnight! But other than that same/same.

I like the Xlox better only because it is cheaper. I even make a hard lube with it, 50/50 with Beeswax. It is a little harder than regular 50/50 but seems to work well anyway.

All kidding aside, Texas is a great source for information on H&G molds. The best, in my opinion, bar none!

Might be a problem with my first batch... they sure are purty though. I'll crank up the heat a little on my next run.

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Andy

i too have started casting, its alot of fun and the prices of cast bullets have gone so high i have a buddy that has a tire shop he keeps me in ww on a cold rainy day i can stay in the carport all day , trouble is im getting low on brass now! mike

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WILL WORK FOR AMMO!

When do you start saving money by casting your own bullets and reloading your ammunition?

Never! ! ! You just get to shoot more.

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S&WHF 366

21 pounds of lead in a plastic coffee can feel a little dicey. This week I cast 1000 H&G #50 6 cavity mold (flat base), then sized and lubed. Used one of the new style plastic coffee cans to contain my treasure. Thought the bottom was going to fall out when I lifted it from the work bench.

Using the 6 cav I cast the 1000 wadcutters in under three hours, then another two hours running them through the sizer. I have a 10 cavity mold that I need to refurbish (rethread the sprue cutter bolt, replace both locking bolts and thoroughly clean) so I can increase my wadcutter production. I need to bump up to a 20 pound pot to keep up with the molds though or I'll still spend a lot of time waiting for the ingots to melt.

I did load 300 last night, on my single stage RCBS. I probably should look at jumping into a progressive too.

Catsing my own allows me to shoot all of my fun guns, and get more practice with my comp guns. I cast for .38, .41, .44 (special and mag) and .45 (ACP and Colt). Hope to start casting for my .32 and 9mm/.38 Super too.

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Non illegitimae carborundum