question for those who cast
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243winxb
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Bottom pour Lee 10 lb is what i used to cast 12 ga Lee Key drive slug. The bottom pour allows pressure casting. Spout in contact with the mold. Pure lead only.
is pure lead still needed if using a smooth bore non choke barrel
Like 243, I use the Lee 10# Bottom pour, it works for all the calibers I cast. I have tried the ladle method, if you need a ladle, let me know, mine is collecting dust…
Good Luck with casting, making, then shooting your own cast bullets feels pretty darn good.
Dan
Good Luck with casting, making, then shooting your own cast bullets feels pretty darn good.
Dan
243winxb
Member
Pure lead shrinks more, allow Lee slug to be remove from mold. My standard antimony alloy was all most impossible to get out of mold.
The Lyman may use an alloy?
No.
The Lyman may use an alloy?
WeekendReloader
Member
Bottom pour.
AJC1
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You may be intrested in the Russian slug and wad information in fortunecookie45lc videos. He tested a bunch of home cast designs.
Tennessee Jed
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I just started casting myself. I went with a Lee 20 pound bottom pour. I've cast about 750 44 cal bullets in 2 sessions, and so far so good.
Those Russian slugs are interesting seen some videos of very good accuracy at 100 yards
.38 Special
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I prefer bottom pour in most ways. It's faster, easier, more convenient, and less messy. The downsides are that you can expect the spout to drip, and that the bullets will be slightly less uniform. The latter is completely irrelevant for almost every purpose, but for things like long range muzzleloader or BPCR bullets, I turn to ladling.
For something like shotgun slugs, it's bottom pour every time, and I almost always use plain wheelweights for them.
For something like shotgun slugs, it's bottom pour every time, and I almost always use plain wheelweights for them.
My choice for consistency is a dipped pour with the spout in contact with the sprue hole. As compared to a bottom pour, I can count on +/-.1 with my method and I have cast many thousands both ways. From .22s at fifty grains to minies at 570 grains plus a few 10 GA slugs.
I started casting with a Lee Ladle. OK but slow. Bottom pour is just easier and faster and all the bullets I have cast are done in one pour, even 1 oz slugs. When I was casting slugs I didn't have any pure lead so I used my "Mystery Metal" (wheel weights, scrap and range lead, mostly around 11BHN). No problems casting, but the hollow base pin needed to be kept hot.
nofendertom
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I cast the Lee 1oz slugs from lead. Tried WW but were harder to get to release from mold. I use an old Lee pot and ladle out the lead. Slower than
bottom pour but OK with me.
bottom pour but OK with me.
adcoch1
Member
I use a ladel, but it's a decent sized one. A bottom pour is something I will buy eventually, but I make some pretty nice bullets with a ladel. Bottom pour is faster..
BigBlue 94
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Havent done bullets yet, but i use a lee 20lb bottom pour for my fishing jigs and weights. I like it because its easy to aim and produces very little overflow
GoldieMI
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Bottom Pour
garandsrus
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I bottom pour most everything except bullets weighing 500gr or so, which would include slugs. For those I use a ladle. I use one ladle full for each bullet, letting the extra run over the mold and back into the pot. The big bullets can pull in quite a bit of extra lead while they cool. Letting the extra lead run over the sprue helps feed the mold.
I started with bottom pour, Lee 20lb, but settled on a large cast pan and ladle. The bottom pour pot runs empty quicker than you think and if you keep adding more material to keep it full temp swings are an issue. You may not be casting in those types of quantities but I will make far more than I plan on needing so I don’t have to do it again for a longer time. Now, I’ve never casted shotgun slugs but have moved over to powder coating all my pistol bullets.
lightman
Member
Welcome to the world of casting!
Whether to ladle or use a bottom pour is a personal choice. Casters make excellent bullets using both methods. Personally I started with a ladle and a cast iron pot on a Coleman camp stove and quickly moved to a bottom pour furnace.
If you decide to go with a bottom pour pot I highly recommend going with a 20# pot over the 10#. The brand of casting pot is a personal choice too.
Muzzle loading bullets and shotgun slugs are traditionally cast from soft lead.
Whether to ladle or use a bottom pour is a personal choice. Casters make excellent bullets using both methods. Personally I started with a ladle and a cast iron pot on a Coleman camp stove and quickly moved to a bottom pour furnace.
If you decide to go with a bottom pour pot I highly recommend going with a 20# pot over the 10#. The brand of casting pot is a personal choice too.
Muzzle loading bullets and shotgun slugs are traditionally cast from soft lead.
WestKentucky
Member
I’m still new to casting but I figured out VERY quickly that ladle pouring is functional but slow and aggravating. Not to mention more risky for burns. My ladle is only used for cleaning off dross. I should have just used a cheap slotted spoon from the goodwill.
.308 Norma
Member
While it would certainly seem that using a bottom pour furnace would be faster, I’ve learned that for me it’s really not. I have both a bottom pour furnace as well as a homemade lead pot (on a Coleman stove) and a ladle. And even with my homemade pot and ladle, I learned that I can easily go too fast. The molten alloy in the mold has to be given time to cool and solidify before knocking the bullet(s) out of it. Furthermore, the faster I refill the mold with molten alloy, the hotter the mold gets, so the longer the alloy in the mold takes to cool and solidify, and so on and so forth…
I’ve found the way to cast more bullets in less time is to have a couple of molds going. I fill one mold with molten alloy, set it down, pick up a second mold, fill it, set it down, pick the first mold back up and knock the now solidified bullet out of it, and refill it.
I usually run two molds at the same time that drop different bullets of the same caliber (like a 44 caliber 225gr SWC-GC and a 44 caliber 250gr SWC), but sometimes I’ll run one mold that drops 38 caliber bullets, and another that drops 44 caliber bullets. Either way, once I get a “rhythm” going with two molds, I can cast a lot of bullets in a short time without overheating my molds.
For "real life" answers on just about everything cast bullet related go here; https://castboolits.gunloads.com/. I lurked around there for a few years and joined in 2007...
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