Thanks for the info everyone, ^ what is involved in casting your own bullets?
You need at least three things, a pot to melt lead in, a bullet mold, and about a thousand dollors worth of little toys that add to the lead casting experience. If you think reloading tools are a good way to use up that extra cash you just can't seem to get rid of, then casting is definately for you!
Actually, years ago I bought an entire casting outfit, used for 80$, following an add in the paper. I got a Lyman electric lead pot, a few .358 bullet molds, and a Lyman 450 lubesizer. Fed with some scrounged tire wheelweights, and a roll of tin solder, I made my first bullet alloy.
I've always gotten my lead free from tire garages, even ones I was never a custumer at. You turn on the pot, throw in some weights and let them sit for about 20 minutes till they melt. Once the first weights melt, you keep feeding in more weights till the pot starts getting full. Use an old spoon to scoop off the steel clips and garbage into a NON-FLAMMABLE container. Wear leather gloves and eye protection. Take hot lead very seriously!
Once you have about 9-10 pounds of liquid lead you flux it. A gram or so of grease, candle wax, or commercial flux works to clean the lead up and absorb dirt. You drop it on top of the lead, mix it fast as it melts, and light the fumes with a lighter so the smoke isn't too bad. Commercial flux called Marvelux does not smoke. You scrape off the layer of black scum that floats on top and you have clean lead. Throw in a roll of 50/50 solder to increase the tin concentration to a max of about 5%. Flux again to make sure the tin is in solution. You've just made 10 lbs of Lyman #2 alloy, which is about 90/5/5% lead/tin/antimony.
Get out your bullet mold and clean out any oil very carefully. Wash the mold with paint thinner or acetone, then set the mold on fire to burn out all traces of oil. Start pouring hot lead into your cold mold. The first 30-40 bullets you make will be deformed garbage because your mold is too cold. You'll be way ahead if you leave the cleaned mold on top of the lead pot to pre-heat it. Throw the rejects back in the pot. By about bullet #50, the mold will be hot enough to cast good bullets. Good bullets are those that have no visable defects like wrinkles or missing grooves. Keep pouring bullets till you consume your 10 lbs of lead. Constantly check the bullets coming out of the mold and toss defects back in the pot. After about three hours you'll have an empty pot and a tray containing several hundred nice bullets.
OK, now that you've got bullets, they have to be sized and lubricated. This process (along with what bullet alloy to use) has religous implications. I shove my cast bullets into the Lyman sizing die (I use the .358" die for loading my .357 revolver) and turn a crank that sqirts soft lube into the bullet's grease groove. The sized and lubricated bullets are now ready to load into empty cases;I hope you have LOTS of empty cases because you've just produced lots of bullets for almost no money (except for the thousands of dollars your spent on all the toys)! You'll also have to dedicate extra time at the range to shoot up the massive amounts of quality ammo you can now make for yourself.
All that from one innocent question!
