WestKentucky
Member
I’m looking very seriously at getting into bullet casting. Running some numbers on purchased bullets vs cast bullets has left me a few holes to fill in to help finalize my decision. Randomly pulling numbers for various bullets (looking for nice even weights to make math simple) and comparing from places like Missouri, Bayou, and Badman it looks like roughly 2/3 of their price is in raw material (buying lots from eBay). Tools have some sort of amortization and I like to call it as quick as I can, so looking at a roughly $500 investment into tools and adding cost for material I figure I can hit a break-even point after casting roughly 20,000 bullets, but that number has zero labor added into it.
Time to spend reloading is scarce, so time for casting will also be scarce. Even if I put my normalized hourly rate at work in for labor that still leaves a big hole that I can’t figure out. Using the big molds, 6 or so cavities per mold I can crank out bullets, but I don’t know how fast that would be, and then I assume I can size them quickly but that also takes time. I may choose to powder coat so that also takes time. I’m thinking Lee bottom pour production pot as it seems likely to be both quick and easy to use. So for experienced casters, how long should I expect to spend at the bench to make 1000 bullets? That nice round number makes math easy.
And I understand that when I put labor into it then it likely won’t make sense any longer, but i am willing to put a premium on the ability to do it myself, and know that I can make what I want as opposed to waiting months for it like people are right now. Part of the desire to jump into casting is for oddball stuff that is unobtainable right now. The big casting companies are all focusing on high volume bullets and not giving production time to slow movers like 38s&w bullets or 32 handgun bullets. I want stuff when I want it, I don’t like being at the mercy of panic buyers.
Time to spend reloading is scarce, so time for casting will also be scarce. Even if I put my normalized hourly rate at work in for labor that still leaves a big hole that I can’t figure out. Using the big molds, 6 or so cavities per mold I can crank out bullets, but I don’t know how fast that would be, and then I assume I can size them quickly but that also takes time. I may choose to powder coat so that also takes time. I’m thinking Lee bottom pour production pot as it seems likely to be both quick and easy to use. So for experienced casters, how long should I expect to spend at the bench to make 1000 bullets? That nice round number makes math easy.
And I understand that when I put labor into it then it likely won’t make sense any longer, but i am willing to put a premium on the ability to do it myself, and know that I can make what I want as opposed to waiting months for it like people are right now. Part of the desire to jump into casting is for oddball stuff that is unobtainable right now. The big casting companies are all focusing on high volume bullets and not giving production time to slow movers like 38s&w bullets or 32 handgun bullets. I want stuff when I want it, I don’t like being at the mercy of panic buyers.
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