Advice on Casting Bullets

[Saggitar]

I want to start casting my own Bullets. Watched a friend of mine do it once, but i'm clueless as to what I should buy to get started. Any advice on KITS or other such Items? Should I start with the Hand dipping units ? or go right into one of those furnaces with a spout on the bottom & a handle to throw the lead? I don't want to buy a bunch of stuff I really dont need. I want to primarily cast 38/357 bullets to start. Also need advice on bulk lead.

Clueless in LEADLAND

 

[Saggitar]

I want to start casting my own Bullets. Watched a friend of mine do it once, but i'm clueless as to what I should buy to get started. Any advice on KITS or other such Items? Should I start with the Hand dipping units ? or go right into one of those furnaces with a spout on the bottom & a handle to throw the lead? I don't want to buy a bunch of stuff I really dont need. I want to primarily cast 38/357 bullets to start. Also need advice on bulk lead.

Clueless in LEADLAND

 

[Paul5388]

My advice is to get a Lee 20 pound bottom pour. You can spend a lot more, but I really don't know that it's all that necessary.

I use quite a few Lee moulds, even though I have Lyman, RCBS and Ohaus moulds. The 2 cavity is cheap and easy to learn on. The main problem with Lee is getting a design you like, which means you won't get a Keith design.

Bulk lead is kind of a problem now. Used to, we could get wheel weights (WWs) for free, but the Chinese buying all of our scrap kinda shot that deal.

I use very little lead that is harder than WWs. In fact, I usually cut them 50/50 with pure lead and don't have any leading problems.

Here's some Lee .38-105-SWC I cast yesterday in a new 6 cavity mould for 9mm.

For some weird reason I can't explain, I labeled these SWC as WCs.

BTW, if you look closely, you'll see the loaded bullets don't look exactly like the one in front. That comes from using a RN bullet seater with a SWC.

 

[Superflywimpy]

Buy the pro 20 lee pot with the bottem pour spout. So worth it. Ask tire shops for used wheel weights,they will most times give it to you. Lee moulds work well. I use tumble lube bullets with lee alox lube. The lee sizer dies work great.......I use rcbs case lube to size them and tumble with alox in a margerine bowl. Let them dry and.....boom start loading.

 

[tbury]

Check your reloading manuals for casting information or buy a book on casting bullets. In addition to a bottom spout pot I would suggest a cast iron pot for melting your scrap lead and an ingot mold. You should use the pot for making "alloy" ingots and cleaning up scrap lead. You do not want to contaminate your electric pot with oil, dirt, grease etc that will come with scrap lead.

Also, be aware that some modern wheel weights especially the adhesive backed one contain zinc. You do not want to use them or contaminate your equipment with zinc.

 

[Superflywimpy]

Tbury is right,pick through your weights. Or you can find pure lead on ebay,I add tin at 1 to 16 ratio and my bullets work fine. I should have mentioned to use a pot to melt your scrap to make your ingots. Do all this outside in open air.....have fun casting.

 

[David Sinko]

I agree that Lee is the way to go with a bullet casting setup. Get the big furnace with the bottom pour spout. All the impurities will float up to the top, away from the spout. The tumble lube molds from Lee will work fine and you need not run such bullets through a Lubri-sizer for good results. That will save a lot of time. Much of my lead for handgun bullets is just range scrap from the backstops of my range. I also get quite a bit of lead pipe from my employer's Streets Department. I save the wheelweights for high velocity rifle bullets and those revolver bullets that might see "critical" use.

Dave Sinko

 

[Paul5388]

Yes, cast iron pot for smelting outdoors.

The pot pictured had mostly pure lead types in it, including stick-on wheel weights.

Hot plate to pre-heat the moulds along with the Lee Pro20-4 bottom pour.

Whatever doesn't melt in a reasonable time might be zinc, so get it out and discard.

The piece of 4X4 is to support the mould handles while the mould is pre-heating.

Ingot mould catches any drips and they all drip some.

 

[Bear4570]

Cast Boolits

Check this site out for everything you could ever want to know about casting bullets.

 

[jrm53]

I have RCBS, Lyman and Lee moulds, some will knock the Lees but they have always worked well for me, get what ever you think will need now as they will only get harder to get; this is only my opinion I could be wrong.

 

[epj]

I am using a couple of Lee 10 lb bottom pour pots. Really inexpensive and work well. You seed a separate rig to melt alloy, such as a turkey fryer. Do NOT use an aluminum pot or vessel of any kind to melt alloy. It can fail catastrophicaly. The $20 Lee molds are really good. I have used RCBS and Lyman steel molds in the past and find the Lees are probably easier to use.
If at all possible, invest in a lubrisizer with a heater, rather than the shoot as cast or Lee sized tumble lube method. It works and it's cheap, but everyone who uses the method says it's messy. I use a Lyman lubrisizer with a heater and the bullets I produce are no more messy to handle than commercial cast. I'm using Lars Carnuba Red lube. You can find it at the bottom of the cast boolits web site. great stuff. He also has some softer stuff if you don't have a heater. As previously directed, go to the cast bullet forum and you will find everything you could ever hope to know about bullet casting.

 

[Cary]

The rest of the guys have pretty much covered it all. Here is another place you can go and get information on bullet casting and shooting cast bullets.
http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm
There are also some good books out there on the subject as well. Here are three I have and highly recommend.
"Modern Reloading" by Richard Lee-Second Edition
"Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook"
"RCBS Cast Bullet Manual" Number 1
The Lee molds are a good place to start. They are around $20 for the mold and handles.
Cary

 

[Saggitar]

Thanks guys for all the good info & the websites. Im going out this weekend to get my Stuff and start makin BOOLITS. More questions to follow as I SCREW things up. Wouldn"t it be great if you could get this kind of CUSTOMER SERVICE WITH BUSINESSES?