Casting for Modern Muzzleloader

[rivercityshooter]

So I have been watching all these videos about casting ingots and bullets. I have access to a lot of lead wheel weights and I would like to try my hand at smelting these and casting these into bullets for my CVA Muzzleloader. I love shooting this gun but I don't like that it cost almost 0.75 a round to shoot it with cheap lead bullets. I feel I would like to make my own cast bullets and shoot these for plinking. I would like to know if any of you guys here have done this and/or what cast mold do you use for casting. I don't want to cast round ball. I am thinking I would cast in 45cal and use sabots for them or should I just cast in 50cal and shoot with out a sabot? If I cast in 50cal will I get alot of fouling? Is there a big health risk of doing this at my home or do I need to go to the desert and smelt this stuff first? It seams like when smelting there is a lot of smoke and fumes that are produced. Can I just sit in my back yard and do this or is there to much of a health risk?

[elk hunter]

To cast bullets or round balls for your muzzle loader you will need soft lead, except for the stick on wheel weights most of the other WW are a harder lead when you can find them. A lot if not most WW today are steel or worse yet zinc. Zinc WW in a pot of lead will ruin the mix and it doesn't take much of it to do that. If as you state you will use a sabot then you can use harder lead. Yep lead is somewhat of a health risk but in a couple of ways. The fumes and the burning that can happen if you come into contact with something hot, casting lead is always hot. Yes it is a cheaper way to shoot more but that wont happen until you balance your expenses for materials and equipment, it's gonna cost ya to start up. Molds, the choice is all yours. Yes I do cast. I cast in my garage and ya it can be smoky and I don't stand there in it. I set up a fan and blow the smoke and mix the air as much as I can.HTH
elk hunter

[rsrocket1]

Go over to Castboolits and read up, download Glenn Fryxell's book From Ingot to Target, get the Lyman cast bullet book and you will be all set for casting. I started loading my Lee 452-230-TC 45 ACP bullets in T/C sabots as a starting projectile.



It worked great out to 100 yards, but the sabot costs another $.20 per shot so I bought a Lee 250g REAL bullet mold.


I use a 1/2" overpowder card that I punch out of cereal boxes using a sharpened 1/2" section of steel pipe. Total cost per shot with 45 grains by volume or 38 g weight of Alliant BlackMZ is 2 cents for the bullet, 3 cents for the primer and 16 cents for the powder = $0.21/shot. If you go up to 100g and use expensive stuff like Blackhorn 209, the powder could cost as much as 70 cents for the powder or $0.75/shot. Add a sabot and you are close to $1/shot but it's better than some of the ML bullets that are $2 a piece by themselves. If you are hunting, it's not a big deal, but if you are punching paper and shooting 20-30 shots per outing, it gets expensive.

You can buy 0.490 roundball molds muzzleloaders, but they are best used for percussion or flintlock guns with 1:66 twist or maybe as fast as 1:48 twist. Modern muzzleloaders usually have 1:28 twist and do better with conicals and sabots although some shoot roundballs decently with low charges. Being that a dual cavity roundball mold is $20 and a box of 100 roundballs are a little more, it's a toss-up as to what is more economical to try.

[Whiterabbit]

you nailed it. 45 cal conical in a sabot for 50 cal. Pick any pistol bullet you like. I recommend a plain base bullet design. sabots are cheap and plentiful. retrieve your sabot, examine to see if they get munched when firing. Munched sabot, size the bullet down and try again.

You can smelt and cast in your backyard no problem. Well ventilated area, same as if you are spraypainting something, then go for it.

Have fun!