Casting Bullets, worth it?

[Crazy Mingo]

Heee Haaaa.. All depends on what you are shooting.. Casting is fun.. I have enough equipment to do it.. But I was shooting Black Powder only.. 45-200 gr..44-200 gr.,38-158 gr..45-70 535 gr.45-150 gr..Big Lube Bullits..It is cheaper to cast than it is to buy..I make my own lube..cheaper to make than it is to buy.. I have started shooting smokeless 38's.. It is so ez to call Deuce Stevens and buy afew thousand of one of the best bullits on the market..No mess NO fuss..

 

Heeee Haaaa Crazy Mingo

[White Buffalo]

It depemds on what your casting. I can make 280 Lyman 535 grain Lyman bullets from 20lbs of lead. So that’s about $40 in materials (lead and

lube) or $0.14 per bullet vs $0.61 purchased from Montana Bullet Works. By my calculations I will more than recover my initial investment after I make 40lbs of bullets

(560). Adding another investment of about $130 for the Big Lube mold for my 45 colt it took about 60lbs (2100 bullets) to break even on the mold and handle. That's pan lubing. I bought a Star Luber so I expect to pay that off after another season or two.

 

Panned lubed

Those are some pretty bullets

[White Buffalo]

It depemds on what your casting. I can make 280 Lyman 535 grain Lyman bullets from 20lbs of lead. So that’s about $40 in materials (lead and

lube) or $0.14 per bullet vs $0.61 purchased from Montana Bullet Works. By my calculations I will more than recover my initial investment after I make 40lbs of bullets

(560). Adding another investment of about $130 for the Big Lube mold for my 45 colt it took about 60lbs (2100 bullets) to break even on the mold and handle. That's pan lubing. I bought a Star Luber so I expect to pay that off after another season or two.

 

Panned lubed

Those are some pretty bullets

Appreciate the advice guys.

Even getting lead off ebay, I'm spending about a little over a dollar a pound. With shipping I'd say it would cost me $20 to make 500 bullets. Considering that I now may $59 for 500 bullets now, that's quite a bit of savings for me, I was just unsure if it was fairly simple...but

I usually shoot about 4+ times a month. (2 Saturdays, 1 Sunday, and 1 Monday, and when I can make the Tuesday shoot that's an hour and a half away). In Virginia I am lucky and have the ability to shoot every weekend, sometimes twice on the weekend. (Saturday and Sunday) and some during the week.

I have an RCBS press and have seen the lee sizing die for bullets. Anyone know if this die will work in RCBS press? Plan on going with 45LC 200 grain .452 diameter

Thanks all for the help and advice.

The lee Sizer dies will fit in the RCBS loader. The die will screw in where the Normal die screws in and the pusher will take the place of the shell holder.

[meesterpaul]

I hope it makes sense!

I have an as of now unused bottom pour Lee pot and other goodies, buckets of filthy wheel weights, some sorted, and about 2-3000 pounds of printer type and lead pipes that I have scrounged from various sources. I even have a trashbag full of sawdust for fluxing. I'm low enough on nice bullets from King's Shooting Supplies in King of Prussia, PA where I paid about $37 for 500 200gr 45s that it is time to cast or do chores around the house. hmmm.

I have a lot of opportunities to shoot and a lot of greenhorns that are enjoying the exposure they get from joining me. They love shooting the 45s in the six shooters and lever actions. I expect that several of them will start shooting CAS. I'm looking at casting as making it easy to shoot, a lot, without spending big bucks. As for the time and money to cast....compared to reloading using store bought bullets it will pay off soon enough. It may even pay if I make bullets for other shooters.

A side benefit is that some of these greenhorns were probably Obama voters. They could use a little diversity in their hipster lives.

 

as for filthy wheel weights, they aren't likely to be by first choice since other options have worked out. I may sell of some of the letterpress type (especially the foundry type, fat with tin and antimony). It may not be worth the trouble but maybe I'll run them through a cement mixer like Jerry Miculek does with his brass.

[Ranger Sgt. Jake McCandless #3368]

Casting is fun! If you can make candy, you can make bullets. Do add a thermometer and a hardness tester to your list of things you will need. The tester come in handy when you have "whatever lead" to melt down, clean up and use. I use two different styles of ingot molds so I know which is "whatever" and which is purchased or you can mark the containers. If the free lead ingots are too hard, I can add in some of the purchased lead and get it to where I want it.

 

I like the idea of controlling what my ammo is made of. Maybe it's not so critical at cowboy distance, but it certainly matters for 45-70 ammo to feed the Trapdoor. It takes some time. I generally spend a couple of days each spring and fall making mountains of plump, shiny bullets. Once every other year, I do a giant melt of all the scrap lead in a huge pot on the turkey fryer burner and make what I call "piglets" - 5 lb ingots that are able to fit in my little pot. The piglets get cleaned up better (I use a bottom pour pot to make the bullets so very clean ingots are a must to not plug up the spout)and made into 1 lb. ingots at a later date. Use up another day for that. You can lube and size an amazing number of bullets in an evening if you get a Star lubesizer.

 

Once you get going, having some in all stages of production works best, at least for me. Piles of piglets to make into ingots, piles of ingots to go in the pot, bullets in tubs waiting to be lubed and sized, lubed and sized bullets in a mouse-proof container (mice like my homemade lube)and boxes of finished ammo on the shelves. It's very easy to see when one stage of production is getting low to plan what needs to happen next.

 

I think it's worth it to cast. Now if I could just get somebody to do the reloading for me, I don't like reloading.Lou I know we can do some fine bullet casting but I wouldn't get anywhere near any candy that Gun E, Doc or I made up. Adios sgt. Jake

[Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283]

Howdy Again

 

I can take pictures too. This is about a days worth of work. I live in a condo, so casting outside is out of the question. I have to wait until a nice cool fall day (like today) so I can leave the basement door open without getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Then I have to completely reconfigure my tiny basement so I can set up the pot and a table to drop bullets onto, and a fan for ventilation. Then I work for several hours at a stretch and cast as many as I can. After a few hours I am pooped and I call it quits. Then I have to put the basement back together again.

 

 

 

 

As I said earlier, I am only casting for Black Powder, so at some point I have to run all these bullets through the lubrasizer. That is not a big deal because I splurged on a Star and can lube/size hundreds per hour. But I sure hated using my old RCBS lubrasizer.

 

Of course, I can't do this at all if I don't have lead. Usta be I had a good supply of cheap, pure lead, but that dried up on me. So recently I have been paying others to cast my BP bullets for me.

 

As far as Smokeless is concerned, as I said before, I am perfectly happy to pay somebody else to cast bullets for me.

[ORNERY OAF]

No one can answer is it worth it to you, only themselves...i know retired guys who have time to make tons(my dad makes a lot of mine)...if you have the time it is certainly cheaper and i actually like doing it when i can....but sometimes, with a busy work schedule and family stuff it is eaier to buy bullets.

 

OO

[Bramble Mountain Buzzard]

Everyone keep telling him that it's too much work, cost, time, equipment, etc. I'll just keep buying guns and other toys off the boolits that I cast for other cowboys....

 

You can start casting for around $100. Your first 2-3000 bullets will get you close to the break even point.

 

What you NEED for smelting:

1. Pan or pot for smelting wheel weights. (Got mine at Salvation Army Thrift store)

2. Heat source for melting the WW's (electric hot plate, or gas grill) (Salvation Army again)

3. Saw Dust, motor oil, tranny oil or ??? (free from cabinet shop)

4. Muffin tin (I like the mini loaf pans) to make ingots in. (Goodwill this time)

5. Wheel Weights (I pay for mine from a local tire shop giving them local scrap price. Currently 20¢/lb)

 

What you NEED to cast:

1. Pot (the Lee Pro 4-20 runs about $50 or so new from MidSouthShootersSupply) (You can see it in Driftwood's picture above)

2. Mold (The Lee's start @ $20 and others run up to $125) A 6 cavity Lee for around $40 will allow you to make 800ish an hour. You can make a year's worth in a short afternoon.

3. A metal coffee can or #10 can. (You will use this to tumble lube)

4. Lube or choice (I use a 50/50 mixture of Bee's Wax and Johnson's Paste Wax)

 

This is all that you NEED! You don't NEED a thermometer, Lubrisizer, hardness tester, etc. I've cast over 500,000 bullets (yes, half a million) in the past 7 years and only just recently got a thermometer as part of a package with my new (used) casting machine.

 

 

There is a lot of info over on the Castboolit.com forum on this along with results. Here is my method for lubing:

1. Get a metal coffee can and empty pop can cut off about 1" from the bottom. Oh, and don't forget to buy a can of Johnson's Paste Wax (yellow and red can). Actually any paste wax will work as long as it has carnuba in it. The more carnuba the better. The Liquid Alox works fine, but I like the JPW better.

2. Heat about 300 boolits (1/2 full) in the coffee can over a hot plate. You will need to swirl them a couple of times to make sure they heat evenly. This only takes about 5-10 minutes so don't leave the can and walk away for a long period or you will find the boolits on the bottom melted (Don't ask how I know). Boolits only need to be heated to about 175° or so. Hotter than you can hold in your hand. Basically at the point that you need to keep tossing them into the air to hang onto.

3. Melt a small dollop of 50/50 JPW/Bee's Wax in the cut off pop can. Hint: A little goes a looooooong way! If you have too much lube, add more boolits. You will get a feel for how much is correct. A restaurant butter patty is about right.

4. Mix melted lube with the heated boolits and swirl, swirl, swirl. You will get a steam vapor from the JPW and an odor. You might want to do this in a WELL ventilated area.

5. Every 5 minutes or so, give the can another 10 second shake. You can leave them on wax paper to dry overnight if you wish. I usually keep shaking the can till they cool down enough that they don't stick.

6. Load up and shoot away. You will notice a definite improvement in the amount of leading and powder fouling you were experiencing before. Hint: It's the carnuba! Because you are now lubing the entire bearing surface instead of just the lube groove, more protection is actually getting onto the bore and less lead and powder residue.

For those of you that shoot black powder, Big Lube bullets are the way to go. See my friend Dick Dastardly's site. (Even though he is from Wisconsin, I still call him friend)

Buzzard

 

PS: here are some sites with a ton of info:

 

Goatlips' Blackpowder and Bullet Casting Tips
http://goatlips.hrillc.com/goatlipstips.cas-town.com/casting.html

Cast Bullets For Beginner And Expert
http://www.lasc.us/IndexBrennan.htm

Dick Dastardly's BigLube.com
http://www.biglube.com/Default.aspx

 

And of course, the Cast Boolit forum:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/

[John Boy]

Buzzard - a REAL INFORMATIVE POST!

OK, back to the question:

 

Casting Bullets, worth it?

No - if you only shoot one caliber and one discipline. Your specific caliber bullets are available from multiple sources.

Yes - if you shoot many calibers for many shooting sports. For me - 22 to 50-70 and two different lead cast metric calibers

And in my case there are no 22LR bullets from any vendor in the whole world ... so to shoot my black powder 22LR rounds casting the heads is mandatory: the old 1897 UMC Match 44gr bullets from a David Mos custom mold.

[Brasspounder]

I cast all my own bullets...Have been doing so for 50+ years. Pistol bullets, rifle bullets, balls for the muzzle loaders.

 

I am still using the 5 pound electric pot and dipper I bought over 40 years ago, and most of my moulds I have had

that long as well.

 

Nowadays I cast mostly .45 bullets for my .45 Colt rifle, and .375 round ball for my percussion revolvers as used inCAS shooting.

I long ago quit worrying about sizing the .45 bullets and just pan lube them with a 90/10 mix of beeswax and olive oil.

Load them "as cast". They shoot just as well as the ones I used to send through the sizer/lubricator.

 

I use a double cavity Lyman mould No.454190 for the .45 bullets, which produces a good

bullet that carries enough lube in the two lube grooves to keep my 24 inch barreled rifle shooting accurately all day without any attention to having to wipe the bore.

 

Lead supply is wheelweights as obtained from a local tire store, usually for hauling it away, works fine.

 

bp.

[Hawknose Bill]

Been casting for 30+ years - first, for my flintlocks and now for my center fires. You get to a point where you establish a rhythm and things go rather smoothly. Personally, I derive a great sense of satisfaction in taking game (I hunt with my cowboys guns, as well as my flintlock) with a load that I crafted myself. I am a pottery teacher, so I have always loved crafting things with my own hands. I make my leather clothes, I make my dinnerware for reenactments and camping, I cast my own bullets. It just seems a natural (and authentic) extension of my hobby. But, just as I cannot look at the cost of my hunting as a way of saving money at the dinner table, I don't look at my casting costs as a way to save money on ammo. It's the personal satisfaction, coupled with that tinge of self-sufficiency, that drives me on.

[Sgt. Hochbauer, SASS #64409]

I have been casting for the past 2 years 44-40 .45acp .38spl...being a darksider I can lube my bullets for using real BP....I think just my equipment has paid for itself. I have been happy with using Lee molds for sure get a six cavity once you get the hang of it you can really crank out the bullets. It is mindless fun and the time does pass even quicker when you cast with a pard. I usually run the molds and he drops out the bullets. This has become another facet of the sport which I enjoy......

 

 

 

 

 

Sgt H

[Springfield Slim SASS #24733]

It's mostly about what do you have more of, time or money. And then add in are you any good with making things yourself. If you have a good paying job that leaves you with more than enough "play money", then just buy the bullets. But if you have that much money why aren't you buying loaded cartridges? Maybe you just like to reload,maybe to save money, maybe just 'cause you like to do things yourself, Casting can just be an extension of reloading. It WILL take more time, and also some more equipment, but if you do it right all the gear you need will be cheaper than that Dillon 550 on your bench. Get a used Lee 20(not 10) lb casting pot for less than 50 bucks. Get a used Lyman sizer for 100.00 or so. A thermometer for 20.00. And a LEE 6 cavity mould for 55.00, new. Find yourself a well ventilated area to cast in and go for it. If you do it right a LEE 6 cav can put out 700 bullets an hour, easy. A couple hours sizing and lubing them and you have lots of bullets to reload. It isn't rocket science but you DO have to follow certain safety procedures, just like in reloading. For more info than you ever thought possible check out www.castboolits.gunloads.com. It isn't all about saving money, but you certainly can if you can get the lead cheap enough. Believe me, once people find out you cast lead just seems to turn up. Just don't get all crazy and buy moulds for everything you own but rarely shoot, THEN it really won't pay. I've got about 100 moulds now, so the savings should start rolling in any time!