Pros and cons of casting your own bullets?

Positive, much more satisfaction actually making your own bullet and then reloading it.

Negative: you'll constantly be looking for lead and picking up moulds here and there. LOL. It's as addictive as reloading itself.


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I am in the same boat. I got several hundred pounds of lead saved up for casting .300 BLK bullets mainly to maximize savings.

Pro - Cost savings and being able to powder coat to reduce lead exposure and prevent leading of barrel - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=9616957#post9616957

Cons - Lead exposure, leading of barrel and having to lube lead bullets (but you can powder coat to reduce lead exposure, leading of barrel and eliminate need for lube) - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=307170

drec said:

I've often thought about casting my own, but what are the positives and negatives of doing so. I have probably a few hundred pounds of lead, but none of the other stuff. I'm loading 9mm, so I'd just be saving 0.08 to 0.10 per bullet, maybe it isn't worth it. What are your ideas?

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I started casting about 18 months ago because of cost, I had more time than money, and had a source for a free 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights every 6 months or so.

However casting GOOD bullets is harder than one might think. Like anything else it's all about learning something new. If you limit yourself you can do it on the cheap.

FWIW I just started casting for 9mm after having good experiences with my learning curve on 38/357.

I'm finding that 9mm is substantially more difficult. I think that if I had started with 9mm I would have given up by now.

I would also recommend not starting with a Lee mold/handles. There are just too many variables/potential problems with them. Buy a used Lyman and handles here on the board.

I started casting bullets with a small pot over a propane torch about 1968. I used a dipper and a single cavity mold at that time.

Fast forward to today, and I now cast many, many thousands of bullets per year and own an automated casting machine, along with a hand operated casting machine. My inventory of molds is somewhere around 200+, but I'm too busy casting and loading to count them.

If you're only going to cast a small amount, and don't shoot that much, it may be in your interest to sell your lead and convert the money into commercial bullets instead. On the other hand, if you shoot a lot, like being somewhat self sufficient, and take pride in your finished product, then bullet casting may be for you.

It all boils down to your individual needs and expectations.

As for lead exposure, good personal hygiene will keep your exposure down. You don't absorb lead through your skin, so touching lead isn't dangerous, unless it's travelling at high velocity. Only vaporized and oxidized lead can be ingested or inhaled, and that's where the harmful exposure occurs when either of those are present.

Hope this helps.

Fred

wbrco, what problems were you having with Lee molds?

Many casters here and on Castboolits have successfully used Lee molds.

I have shot coated bullets made with Lee molds without issues.

bds said:

wbrco, what problems were you having with Lee molds?

Many casters here and on Castboolits have successfully used Lee molds.

I have shot coated bullets made with Lee molds without issues.

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I'm on castboolits too. Fact was I thought I was posting there .

It's under size and had alignment issues. On top of it, it's my only 9mm mold, and all my 38 molds are too heavy.

It's the 124 TL RN. I had fill out issues as well. I have 2 other Lee molds and they cast ok, but not as easy and consistently as my used Lyman 358156 DC.

I've read all the "Leementing" articles, I just haven't taken the time to deal with it.

But enough, I don't want to hijack the OP thread.

You do bring up a pertinent point though.

How your lead is alloyed will affect how well the pour fills out the mold.

But that's why I decided to powder coat lead bullets as minor issues like lube, sizing and alloy quality is compensated by powder coating.

I am also a bullet casting newbie in the process of learning.

jwrowland77 said:

Positive, much more satisfaction actually making your own bullet and then reloading it.

Negative: you'll constantly be looking for lead and picking up moulds here and there. LOL. It's as addictive as reloading itself.

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What he said. But it's worth it because you can make yourself a beautiful pile of bullets you absolutely can't find anywhere else. Even an expensive mold like a NOE or MP pays for itself in just a few hundred bullets.

drec,

Pro's: Availability at all times of bullets, some of which cannot be bought commercially.

Con's: Buying all the molds to produce these "unique" bullets that you just have to have (I am up to well over a dozen now).

Don

Pros:
Bullet availability, I am never without projectiles, even when the market goes crazy like after Sandy Hook when I started casting

Custom alloys, lubes, sizes, and molds. Casting puts you in control of another set of variables in the accuracy and consistency equation.

Cost, I have never rendered a single wheel weight or lead scrap in my casting career. Its a dirty process, and a great way to expose yourself to some unknown and potentially nasty chemistry I wish to avoid. I pay around $1.50 a pound to wheel weight ingots delivered to my door, ready to go in the casting pot. Even paying for lead, cast bullets are CHEAP, I have traded off my .22's preferring to shoot 38's in their stead. I plink through about 4k 38's a year between my revolver and ruger 77, it provides better practice, and is lot more fun to shoot than 22's ever were.

Cons:
Time, casting good bullets in any real quantity takes time and is a bit of an art form with a very real learning curve. I do a lot of casting in the winter months when I'm not so busy, so it works, but I do spend a bunch of weekend time casting when I could be doing something else.

Cost, good molds are damned expensive, good casting pots can hit the wallet as well. Casting can be done on the cheap, but any moves out of Lee equipment are going to hit the bank account in a noticeable way.

I got into casting back around 1980 because I had more time than money. I could find lead for free and I enjoyed the time spent casting.

As time disappeared and cash was more abundant, I stopped casting.

Last year, I decided I wanted to shoot wadcutters in several different calibers (32, 38, 44, and 45) and play with powder coating so I'm back to casting. I have also branched out in making some gas checks and trying some gas check bullets.

I like to learn and do new processes and expand my capabilities and knowledge.

Bullet types that are easily available commercially, I still buy them.

I have a half dozen or so Lee aluminum molds from my first casting go round. They perform well for me and I like them. I do find they overheat fairly quickly and it takes longer for the bullet to solidify (may be my technique) so I operate two molds in rotation which allows them to cool a bit while my casting rate stays constant.

This time, I've also been using cast iron molds as well.

I've used up all the free lead I had left over from the 1980s so I'm buying lead this time around. I'm not a scrounger and would rather spend my time doing other things.

So, is casting worth it? It is worth it to me. It depends on how you want to spend your time.

Lots of pros in my opinion. You never need to order bullets.

I picked up a Lee Pro 4-20 bottom pour pot and a Lee 6-Cavity mold and have cast several thousand bullets. Very rewarding.

Make sure the molds you buy will cast a bullet large enough to size to the right diameter, or powder coat. My Lyman molds have produced thousands of good products. The Lee I had produced great looking, UNDERSIZE bullets, which made for a tremendous leading problem. I'm back to square one with 40 cal.

You have to be a little crazy to cast bullets, so I'm well qualified.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

Con - I did it in Mexico maybe 20-25 years ago . Very hard to get bullets there / then .
The bullets I cast either tumbled and or flew apart . All I had was a single stage for sizing and a Lee hand loader [ 45 ACP and 38 ] Melting lead on stove , fumes and lead being hard to - Leading up of barrels - wearing out brushes
Probably 15-20 years ago I meet a taxi driver who went to Texas twice a week and for 20 dollars he would bring back powder / primers or bullets as long as I had them sent to his house .
My brothers wife's god parent is / was chief of police in the little town and not unusual for cops to show up with 5 or 6 MT cases want them reloaded .
A cop that can't practice is not a good shot . I take them to little ranch and they can practice all they want with jacketed rounds .
Me unless things change , I won't be casting any more except to show my nephews [ already showed 3 ] how to .
LOTS to learn - start with good wooden handles , a good camp stove , only do outside , alway lube the molds , wear gloves , googles and face mask . keep a buck of water at hand for quenching / hardening

The negatives I had with it was the time it took to cast but that was after I have free lead. My first post here was about the machine I built to do it for me.

It's over a decade ago but still works.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=158478&highlight=Master+caster

And since uploaded a video of it working.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2U1ujg_nzo

Fred has done a lot cooler stuff than me though and even sent me some samples to envy.

I cast and enjoy it.

But you gotta be careful. Molten lead is dangerous if it spatters or spills. If you are a klutzy sloppy person and become impatient with following established safety procedures, want to rush things or cut corners, casting probably isn't for you.

Buy the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, read it, then decide.

Pro's- Once you have lead/lead alloy and equipment, you're beholden to no one for bullets.

Con's- There are none.

Bullet casting is like so many others subjects covered on the internet in that there will ALWAYS be a few who will tell you it's dangerous and difficult and just generally make it far more complicated than it really is. Casting good bullets is easy once you get the hang of it, not at all time consuming and no more dangerous than grilling burgers, unless you're short on common sense.

Casting 258 gr. SWC's for my .44's, I can empty my old 10 lb. SAECO pot in less than 45 minutes and have a pile of around 250 perfect bullets. Sizing and lubing them with a Star lubrisizer requires less than 15 minutes. The key is to buy GOOD EQUIPMENT. A 2-cavity Lee mould costs around $25, and for that price, you get a $25 mould. Lyman and RCBS moulds cost 2.5-3 times more because a) They're made of iron and b) they're of better quality and therefore cast a better bullet. Same goes for moulds from the custom makers such as MP, NOE and Accurate.

I have a few Lee moulds and honestly they're a crap shoot. A couple of years ago I bought one of their 45-255 RF moulds and it was a total piece of junk. After two casting sessions one of the alignment pins would fall out, so the mould had to be closed and aligned by hand. Several years ago I got in on a group buy for custom Lee mould and it wasn't worth the freight it cost to ship it to me, much less the price of the mould. OTOH, I bought one of their 429-240-2R moulds several months back, because I couldn't find that particular design by Lyman or RCBS, and so far it's been OK and casts a pretty accurate bullet.

If you decide to jump in, you don't HAVE to buy all new equipment. Some of my Lyman moulds are 50+ years old and cast wonderfully accurate bullets. One of my lubrisizers is an old Lyman made back in the '50's and I use it frequently. As I said, good equipment will last an eternity so there's no harm in buying good used equipment.

35W

Bullet availability, I am never without projectiles, even when the market goes crazy like after Sandy Hook when I started casting

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Exactly.

Most of my cast frustration went away when I started powdercoating. It truly revolutionized my shooting experience. No lube smoke, no more leading and I can now shoot them out of my polygonal rifled barrels. I even shoot them out of my x39 bolt gun without gas checks!

Con - knocking off a sprue that bounces off the table and lands between your ankle length sock and that tender skin on your ankle during winter time. Oh yeah, it feels nice for a second. But then it becomes a little too warm. As you reach down to fish it out it slips further down and becomes lodged under your foot against the most tender skin of all leaving you rolling on the ground in agony trying to remove your shoe and sock while the skin on the bottom of your foot melts off.

Pro - bullets whenever you want. Its worth the occasional bite from the silver dragon.

pros: it's fun and saves money. Shooting 9mm/45 is now 6-7c a piece, same as 22lr.

cons: use of time & space, and the fact that one needs expensive alloys to cast for rifles.

I powdercoat. If it wasn't invented I would not be casting at all.


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Had it not been for my 454 I would probably not have started. That said though, I am now pouring bullets for just about everything I own.

It is a hoot and yes there are safety factors which are involved, just like there are with any number of other things you might do around your house.

The molds are what they are, and usually you get what you pay for. That doesn't mean that the Lee are all crap, but yes there are some that are.

One of my favorite molds to pour with is a Lee 6 cavity round nose for the 9mm. It is simply great to use and gets a BUNCH of those little pills in a hurry. I use them both standard lubed and powder coated and either way sized to .356 they shoot wonderfully with no leading what so ever.

I got into it going on about 8yrs ago or so and don't have a clue as to how many molds I have acquired, but it is plenty. Like mentioned I will never had an issue with retail availability either. I chose to purchase both solid and HP molds which are as close to the jacketed profiles and weights I had been using. This also made finding some loads as easy as just backing the charge weight down. I will say that there have been some issues I have had, but nothing that has been enough to make me want to give it up.

Anothe pro: most of your bullets you shoot can be recovered, melted, and cast again. I bave been on the same "4 gallons" of wheel weights for the last 8 years.