What is a home cast bullet like?

[res45]

Really, the only things I don't use cast bullets for are 9MM Mak (which I don't reload for at all)

I cast and reload for my Hungarian PA-63 chambered in 9 x 18 Mak. I make my own brass from once fired 9mm brass that I trim down, although I believe Starline is making 9 x 18 brass it wasn't available when I started reloading the cartridge, it's a easy conversion to do.


I use a Lee 93 gr. 2 cavity mold https://www.ebay.com/p/Lee-Precisio...90466/5011377180?_trksid=p2047675.m4096.l9055 and size mine with a NOE .364 push through sizer bushing.

 

[rpenmanparker]

Hey guys. Thanks for the information. Very helpful.

 

[brewer12345]

I cast and reload for my Hungarian PA-63 chambered in 9 x 18 Mak. I make my own brass from once fired 9mm brass that I trim down, although I believe Starline is making 9 x 18 brass it wasn't available when I started reloading the cartridge, it's a easy conversion to do.


I use a Lee 93 gr. 2 cavity mold https://www.ebay.com/p/Lee-Precisio...90466/5011377180?_trksid=p2047675.m4096.l9055 and size mine with a NOE .364 push through sizer bushing.

Yeah, I could do it, but I shoot ten to twenty times as much 38 special, so mak has been low enough on the priority list that I have yet to get to it. I have the dies and some of the speer jacketed bullets. Will probably get one of the Lee molds and some factory brass at some point. If the ammo ever became scarce or expensive I would definitely get started.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

(and they look cooler, too).

That is very subjective and an opinion that I disagree vehemently with.
The main reason I haven't looked deeper into powder coating is because I refuse to open a box of red, blue or zombie green bullets. It makes me want to puke.
Not knocking anybody else, it's personal.
I know it's silly, but I just can't do it.

Some clear coated gas check version.
View attachment 783047

Is the clear coat a powder coated bullet?
If so, I may look into it. Looks like bare lead.

 

[res45]

That is very subjective and an opinion that I disagree vehemently with.
The main reason I haven't looked deeper into powder coating is because I refuse to open a box of red, blue or zombie green bullets. It makes me want to puke.
Not knocking anybody else, it's personal.
I know it's silly, but I just can't do it.

Is the clear coat a powder coated bullet?
If so, I may look into it. Looks like bare lead.

Yes the clear coated bullets are powder coated. You can buy it at several places online but I get mine from Smoke over on the Cast Boolit Forum it's his Super Durable Clear. It's one of the easiest powders to use as it coats very easy and a little goes a long way. I can coat around 150 185 gr. rifle bullets with 1/2 TSP of powder and only have to add an additional 1/4 TSP or so to the container to coat more. It goes on as a fine white powder and cures clear.

Coated ready to cure.


Cured, gas checked, sized and ready to load.

 

[Jim Watson]

There are other applications for cast bullets. The only bullets I have cast to amount to anything were 336 grain .379" out of 20:1 lead:tin alloy and pan lubricated with SPG brand lube in the grooves. I shoot - or shot - them in a .38-55 Winchester Single Shot over a mere 40.6 grains of Swiss 1 1/2 g black powder. They were accurate enough to hit the metallic silhouette ram at 500 metres "when I did my part" but they would not always knock it down. So I went to a .40-65 but I buy bullets for it.

I did not run these bullets in bulk out of a six cavity mould, they were individually cast, inspected, and weighed for competitive shooting.

Oh, yeah, if you want to set up for it, you can also make jacketed bullets at home, swaging them under enormous pressure out of lead wire and copper jackets. You can even make your own jackets out of .22 cases for .224 and .243 bullets.

 

[BigBore45]

They are anything you want them to be. And no if done in even the simplest of ways should not foul your gun.