Casting your own bullets?

[Ruger44mag]

Hi all. I have been reloading for about three years now and I have become pretty good at making my own(although I seem to learn something new every time i sit down at the bench). I have had the interest lately to get into casting my own bullets and I am pretty set on it. What I need now is to know where to start. I am starting out from the bottom and know absolutely zero about casting bullets.So please bear with me. If someone could get me going in the right direction on things like what a good manual would be to use and any other tips would be appreciated. I have loaded lead and hard cast lead bullets before so the actual loading for me wont be new. Thanks!

 

[zxcvbob]

I dunno how well it will go over recommending another forum, but check out castboolits.gunloads.com

The main thing you need is lead, and you don't want to pay full retail for it. Do you have a source of scrap? (if not, there are folk who sell ingots for about $1 per pound delivered, but make sure you buy from someone with a good reputation)

I just cast about 100 pounds of ingots tonight from scrap lead I got "free", cleaning out the bullet trap at the indoor shooting range last spring. (I got a half dozen 5 gal buckets full, and work on it a little at a time)

Wheel weights make great bullets if you can still find lead WW's, and if you don't accidentally ruin it with zinc. The lead WW supply is drying up (maybe not for big trucks) and the lead in them is not as good as it used to be.

 

[tactikel]

+1 on castboolits, it is a great forum! I have been shooting cast for 45 years and for pistol it is the only way I shoot. Lead is becoming hard to scrounge, I used to get wheel weights for free until they became a "toxic material". I take great satisfaction in finding the lead, making an alloy, casting the desired bullet, sizing and lubing. Punching the x ring with something I turned from a wheel weight into a bullet is something I take great pride in. I don't fear shortages of jacket bullets I have enough lead to cast over 10K bullets for my .357 plus I can shoot for "powder and primers"-about $5.50 a box for .357s exclusive of brass.

The Lyman Manual is a must read for anyone considering casting. Check out their web sight.

 

[ReloaderFred]

Buy yourself a copy of the Lyman Cast Bullet Manual and read the introduction and "how to" sections. That will give you the basic knowledge to get started. Then you can join us over at castboolits.com and join in the fun.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[zxcvbob]

What calibers do you want to cast? It makes a difference; .38 Special target loads, or .357 Magnums, or black powder cartridges, or .30 rifle (etc.)

 

[wgaynor]

http://www.lasc.us/indexBrennan.htm

This will get you started.

 

[steve4102]

there are folk who sell ingots for about $1 per pound delivered, but make sure you buy from someone with a good reputation)

Got a source or link to some of these folks?

Thanks

 

[grubbylabs]

Yup look at the castboolits forum, lots of nice folks over their that know what they are doing. Also the Lyman manual will help you get going.

I just started out a few years ago and I got into it pretty cheap for the most part.

The basics that you will need are,

casting furnace of some kind, I bought the Lee bottom pour, it works quite well for a Lee product.

Molds, Lee's $20.00 molds are OK they work, but for the biggest bang for my buck I like molds from Accurate molds in utah, not much more than new Lyman or rcbs or what ever and a little better made I think.


Sizing and lubing. Many people have a sizing and lubing press, They all have mixed reviews on midway. I bought the Lee sizing dies that screw right into my single stage, again, for Lee they are a great product. I tumble lube all my bullets.

For making your ingots you will need some heat source like a camp stove or a turkey fryer, plus a pot and ingot molds.

Those are the basics of what you will need.

 

[dbarnhart]

I agree that there is no better place to start than castboolits.gonloads.com.

While the supply of free wheel weights has pretty well disappeared, a small cottage industry has sprung up of people with access to wheel weights, reclaimed range lead, isotope cores, etc who ingotize them and sell them for about $1/pound shipped in a USPS Medium Flat Rate Box. Using tis source of lead, my cost for projectiles is about 1/3 of what it was when I was using FMJs (called j-words over on castboolits). The best place to buy this lead is the Swappin & Sellin form on Castboolits because you are buying from a fellow caster and so you can be confident in the quality of what you are buying.

 

[mdi]

I started with a single burner Coleman stove, a stainless steel pot, 2 qt., a Lee dipper and a Lee mold. I worked as a H.D. Construction Mechanic and had access to wheel weights. I melted and cleaned the wheel weights first and poured the lead into a muffin pan for ingots. I then melted the ingots and tried casting. Wasn't any good at first, but the only way to learn bullet casting is to cast some bullets. Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook and Castboolits.com are by far the best info sources available...

 

[918v]

U don't need no manual.

U don't need no other forum.

What you do need is a furnace, a thermometer, a mold and appropriate handles, a sizer, some pans to lube with, a pair of pliers, a towel, a heat gun, beeswax, alox, turkey baster, hot plate, a large piece of cardboard, an ingot mold, and a hardness tester.

Now ask specific questions.

 

[zxcvbob]

What you do need is a furnace, a thermometer, a mold and appropriate handles, a sizer, some pans to lube with, a pair of pliers, a towel, a heat gun, beeswax, alox, turkey baster, hot plate, a large piece of cardboard, an ingot mold, and a hardness tester.

You don't really need all that.

 

[grubbylabs]

U don't need no manual.

U don't need no other forum.

What you do need is a furnace, a thermometer, a mold and appropriate handles, a sizer, some pans to lube with, a pair of pliers, a towel, a heat gun, beeswax, alox, turkey baster, hot plate, a large piece of cardboard, an ingot mold, and a hardness tester.

Now ask specific questions.

Why would he not need a manual or a almost endless supply of advise from casters with probably a century of experience?

Having the Lyman casting manual explains quite a bit about the hobby as well as providing definitions of terms along with pictures.

There is more than one way to skin a cat, he may want to do it on the cheap, or he may want to go full tilt and go for a Star sizing press and all custom molds.

Either way he will get lots of good info from the book and the other forum.

 

[918v]

There are plenty of folks here that can assist him just as well. The Lyman manual did nothing for me, but I did read Guns & Ammo in the 80's.

 

[mgmorden]

The Lyman manual has about the most comprehensive cast bullet load data I've found. Its worth its cost for that alone IMHO. Not to mention that Lyman includes it with some of their melting pot kits.

FWIW though, I've cast my own bullets and shot them. I consider it a useful thing to have the molds, equipment and lead handy just in case I need them. That said, when I compared my time input for casting to the amount of money I was saving over BUYING cast bullets, it just wasn't worth it.

Still, like I said just learning the process I think is a worthwhile exercise. I've also been contemplating getting into shotgun loading too and the yield seems better there. Casting handgun bullets came out to about 50% the cost of buying them outright, but casting 00 buckshot seems to come out to around 20% of the cost vs buying it.

 

[James2]

What do you need? Basically: A pot to melt lead, a heat source, a mold, a dipper, a hardwood stick to knock the sprue cutter open, a pile of cotton cloth to drop the hot bullets on, some flux. Then you will need some lead to melt. Gloves,and eye protection are also a must in my book. If you want to size and lube the cast bullets a way to do that will be needed. There are options.

OK, I started out on the cheap with a small lead pot a dipper and a mold and used deer tallow for flux. An old spoon for a skimmer. About any fat will work as flux, or beeswax is good. A camp stove for heat. Free wheel weights for lead. A lot of the things I mentioned I already had, so it didn't take much to get started. I did soon buy a Lyman sizer/lubricator. A dutch oven from the second hand store gave me a larger pot for smelting. I already had the Lyman manual as a reloading manual.

Ya, you can spend some bucks for fancy equipment or you can go the cheap way. Of course that seems true whatever we set out to do. I usually opt for the cheap way since there never seems to be enough money.

For a time we could get printer's lead, but that source dried up.

A guy at the sporting goods store talked to me for a few minutes about procedure and I was off and making bullets. That was many years ago. Not a whole lot has changed here since then. I can still get free wheel weights, but don't know how long that will last, and you have to watch for zinc, but a little heat is the biggest expense. The bullets cost a bit of time, but in an afternoon I can make a bunch using 4 cavity molds.

Have fun!

 

[Hondo 60]

Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook is the best place to start.
2nd is http://castboolits.gunloads.com

If you can't afford Lyman's book, check out the local library.
They may have a copy, or may be able to borrow it from another library.

 

[Mac45]

It's not that there aren't lots of good folks here that are willing and able to help, but http://castboolits.gunloads.com/ is another great forum. Take a look, I think you'll like it.
Also, the Lyman manual is great, especially if you're at all interested in old cartridges.
Finally, there's also a lot of great info at the LosAngeles Silhouette Club. I would recommend you go here http://www.lasc.us/articlesfryxell.htm and download Dr. Glen's book. It's a free download, and one every caster should have.

 

[grubbylabs]

There are plenty of folks here that can assist him just as well. The Lyman manual did nothing for me, but I did read Guns & Ammo in the 80's.

Well of coarse there are people here who understand casting and I have received some great advice from members her, however, there is a difference int he sites. Here we don't have a focus point, we are a broad spectrum forum that does a excellent job covering many aspects of the shooting sports. Kinda like your GP doc who his good at covering many things. However some times a specialist is needed. At castboolits probably 80% of the sub forums are directly cast related.

As far as the book goes, well its not my fault you were not smart enough or open enough to learn any thing from a book you read. I know as a new caster it was very informative.

 

[918v]

As far as the book goes, well its not my fault you were not smart enough or open enough to learn any thing from a book you read. I know as a new caster it was very informative.

You need help with reading comprehension.

A person who reads does not benefit from a manual designed for people who don't. It has nothing to do with intelligence. The Lyman manual has 9 out of 416 pages dedicated to casting. 9.

It is substandard.

 

[Duckdog]

I find it odd that the OP has not replied back to any of the posts. I think the most important question asked to him that he did not reply back to was if this was for pistol or rifle. Casting for pistols is far less critical as far a Q.C. than for a rifle.

Bullet casting is certainly not like making a swiss watch and much is learned by doing, not overthinking. I've been casting for more years than I care to remember and most of it was learned along the way... pre internet.

 

[grubbylabs]

My reading comprehension is just fine. The Lyman casting book that I read was all about casting, it had great detail on the whole process. There were a lot more than 9 pages in the book about casting. Are you sure you are referencing the right book? After all they have a reloading manual and a casting manual.

 

[Walkalong]

Let's be nice guys, my head hurts already.

I started with a homemade pot, a bottom pour ladle from advanced car mover, some wheel weights scrounged from gas stations, a Lee mold and a Lee ingot maker. I used some old toilet bowl wax seals for flux. (No, not used ones)

I read everything I could get my hands on, as there was no internet.

While there is a wealth of information to be had on casting here, the folks at Cast Boolits make a religion out of it. It's a great place for info, as well as here and any book/mag you can get hold of.

The alloy has to be hard enough to grip the rifling without skidding at the velocity you are shooting. The alloy has to be soft enough to bump up from pressure to seal the gases from flame cutting the bullet as it passes through the throats and barrel. The pressure must be high enough to bump the bullet up.

Old school learning. Books.

Here is a good thread with some casting info. There are many here.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=520330

 

[mdi]

U don't need no manual.

U don't need no other forum.

What you do need is a furnace, a thermometer, a mold and appropriate handles, a sizer, some pans to lube with, a pair of pliers, a towel, a heat gun, beeswax, alox, turkey baster, hot plate, a large piece of cardboard, an ingot mold, and a hardness tester.

Now ask specific questions.

Geeze. You don't need no thermometer. A manual is a lot better for information than some salty old forum members! Heat gun? Turkey basters? Hardness tester? With a response like the above I'd go, nope I'd run to any other forum for info...

 

[wgaynor]

I started with a propane camp stove, cast iron pot, cast iron ladle, and a lee mould. Worked great for me. Bought my first manual a year later along with other components.

Learned how to do it by watching Youtube videos. It can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be.