Casting your own...

[biogenic]

Any savings casting your own boolits ? it seems the process is pretty straight forward.

[Bill Steele]

Major savings.

Castboolits is a great place to learn all about it.

[Dark Mod]

Yeah, tons of savings. CSACanoneer says he can reload for like $40 per 1000 or something like that. Basically for the cost of powder, primers, and lube since he scrounges lead and brass.

If i could come to terms with shooting lead projectiles i would have started casting a long time ago

[Cowboy T]

How's this for an example?

Suppose you buy your lead for $1.00/lb and cast your own. Doing some calculations vs. purchased cast bullets of various calibers and masses, you're saving just over half on average.

My .45 Colt load, which uses one of my 200gr LRNFP "boolits" and a SAA-friendly charge of Titegroup, costs me $5.00/box of 50 to make. This is with that cost of lead, listed above. Now, if you can scrounge up some free lead, that cost naturally goes down.

Now let's look at .38 Special. Again using the above figures, a box of 50 costs me $3.25 to make. This is with a 105gr LSWC out of a Lee 6-cavity mould; the boolit looks just like a Crayola tip. It'd be closer to $5.00/box if I had to buy projectiles, and that light boolit traveling at 850 fps makes a great little marksmanship practice load for featherweight .38's like the S&W Airweight J-frame.

Yeah, it's worth it.

[OldShooter32]

Even rifle shooting can benefit from casting. Just remember that you have to hold loads to less than about 1600 fps -- even if you use gas checks -- or you'll have leading and accuracy issues. When I was a starving college kid I'd shoot reduced range NMC with a bolt gun and lead bullets. Used a lot less powder too!

[biogenic]

I have to do more reading and research on the subject. They have so many molds out there... i would like to cast for 9mm/38spcl/44mag/45acp.

I spend an average of $75.00 per 1K bullets when I purchase from commercial vendors... Any good places to scrounge for lead in the east bay ?

[bigdawg86]

My question is how long much time is required to cast 1000 bullets an have them ready to load? I enjoy the reloading process, so time doesn't bother me per se... But it would be a decision factor.

[huckberry668]

now I'm interested... what tools would you need? is there a preferred mold maker or model #s for match grade accuracy bullets?

[bigdawg86]

I am interested too... My wife seems to think I spend too much time in the garage as it is... But I like the feeling of awesomeness of doing things start to finish.

EDIT: What about scrounging at places like Big 'O Tires for discarded lead tire weights? Melt em ang go?

[biogenic]

My wife seems to think I spend too much time in the garage as it is...

So I am not the only one ?

"Cowboy T" has some cool videos on the subject. They can be seen here...

http://www.sanfranciscoliberalwithagun.com/

[Cowboy T]

The time requirement depends on the type of mould you purchase. If you use a typical 2-cavity-style mould (Lyman, RCBS, Lee, MiHec, etc.), it's not hard at all to knock out 100 boolits in an hour. On the other hand, if you use a Lee 6-cavity mould, depending on the mass of the boolits, you can cast on average about 400-500 per hour. With my 105gr mould, I've done 6,000 in about 5 hours of casting effort. Yes, the sizer die got quite a workout afterwards. Rejection rate was well under 1%. That mould is approaching the 40,000 count, BTW, and it's still goin' strong. Yes, forty thousand.

There are two things about Lee's 6-banger moulds that allow this rate of production. The first and most obvious is the 6 cavities. The second is their design for the sprue plate. It's a cam-action type that actually has its own handle, which makes breaking the sprue really easy and efficient.

Casting "match grade" boolits is more a function of your technique than anything else, because any major mould maker's products are so capable. If you're looking for match-type stuff, I assume you mean rifle and are shooting at 100+ yards. What you're going for is consistency, like always with anything "match". Lee 2-cavity moulds will certainly do the job, as Ammosmith has shown. So will NOE's, MiHec's, RCBS's, and several others.

Getting wheel weight lead is very difficult now in California, given that lead wheel weights have been banned in this State for several years. I would suggest going on eBay and buying wheel weight alloy. Should be about a buck/lb, shipped. Also, there are several vendors on the CastBoolits forum that sell range lead melted down into ingots. This is great stuff for just about any handgun job, up to and including .357M and .44M pressures (I speak from experience on this). It's also good for non-max-load rifle applications, including Ed Harris's Universal Load for most .30-cal rifle cartridges.

[CSACANNONEER]

Without factoring in a value for time or equipment, yea, it'll save a lot of cash. My pistol rounds from .25acp to .45acp/.44mag/..45LC all end up costing about what it costs me to buy .22lr rounds. I use a 20lb RCBS bottom pour lead pot, molds from no-name single cavity to 10 cav. H&G, a Star lube sizer with a midway universal heater and an old Lyman 45 with a midway universal heater.

Watch out, collecting molds is expensive and addicting. I have molds for .177 pellets to .69 cal round balls and 12g slugs.

[huckberry668]

Besides 'lead' what other metal components do you need to determine the alloy and hardness you want? If you use the range lead ingots wouldn't the hardness of the bullets be different from batch to batch?

[biogenic]

Besides 'lead' what other metal components do you need to determine the alloy and hardness you want? If you use the range lead ingots wouldn't the hardness of the bullets be different from batch to batch?

Good question. Wondering about that myself...

[CalTeacher]

You'd want some tin to help with mold fill out, and maybe Linotype lead if you already have pure, or "dead soft" lead. I use tin with clip on wheel weights and yes it does save a hell of a lot of money to cast your own. As CSA said, once you start buying molds you tend to acquire a lot of them.

For melting lead I use a turkey fryer that I got on sale plus a large stainless pot. I can melt and cast large quantities in a hurry with this setup.