Bringing back ol' school

[tightloop]

It is possible to cast very nice bullets.

You need to use a good alloy and get an average weight for each batch.

I have cast bullets for years and have been quite happy with cast bullets in the past.

Too bad H&G went out of business, they made the best moulds...used a 6 cavity and an 8 cavity in their #68 BB and they weighed 204gr with lube in them...when my moulds got up to temp, they cast the prettiest bullet. the secret to good cast bullets is proper allow mixture, usually 16-1, keeping the lead fluxed, the right mould temp and not being in a hurry to make as many as you can...pour the sprue the same each time you fill the mould, alternate moulds so they don;t get too hot and keep a steady pace and for gosh sakes have a fan blow all the lead fumes away from you at all times...after you finish casting, leave your moulds full and let them cool to room temp by themselves then using gloves to keep the lead off your hands, inspect every one of the bullets you cast and reject all with uneven sprue cutoff, all with rounded edges, all with wrinkles,and any that are frosted...lube them and you should be set to go..

Have a good time with it.

[bulm540]

So what powder did you go with? I looking for something to replace tite group with 180 moly bullets. But I'm also considering plain old lead. It would seem that a good lead powder would work for moly as well.

I am trying WST this weekend with regular lead. I will post a report and maybe pics If I can remember to bring the digi cam.

[JFD]

In my testing Clays was not a good powder for cast bullets. Waaaay too much smoke. Titegroup was worse. Universal Clays was the best I tried, and leading was never an issue. I do cast my own bullets, and they are just slightly harder than plain wheel weights.

Clyas is great with .45 loads as far as smoke goes, but I was surprised at how it reacted with the .40. Bullet lube is also a factor with smoke.. Hard lubes with high melt points smoke less. Rooster Red Zambini is the best I've found, but Blue Angel is nearly as good.

[want2race]

I use Universal Clays. I used it with moly's and now use it with my cast lead. I found a lead source that hadn't raised their prices yet so I bought as much as I could afford.

[dajarrel]

Cheapest place I have found lead is in the berms at the range. Build a 12" x 24" frame from 2x4s and cover the bottom with 1/4" hardware cloth. Shovel it in, shake out the dirt. You have to spend the time rendering it down to usable ingots but if you have the time, the lead is there....and free

I just finished rendering about 400 pounds of ingots and just last night and this morning cast, sized and lubed about 1000 .40 cal 180 gr TC bullets along with about 100 45 hollowpoint semi-wad cutters and 200 .38 148 grain wad cutters. It takes time, but to me, it is worth the effort.

FWIW

dj

[bulm540]

So what powder did you go with? I looking for something to replace tite group with 180 moly bullets. But I'm also considering plain old lead. It would seem that a good lead powder would work for moly as well.

I am trying WST this weekend with regular lead. I will post a report and maybe pics If I can remember to bring the digi cam.

Wasn;t able to bring the digi camera but shot regular lead with WST. SMoke was noticeable but not bad at all, It was tolerable. It was however windy and cold and the wind took care of the smoke.

[DougCarden]

Just got back from a friends (Bullet caster) place.....I took a bunch of bullets I didnt shoot and 5 buckets of melted wheelweights.....I got in return 9K of 180 .40s and 6K of .45 230s......Merry Christmas to me....He would only take some brass in return.....

The benefits of lead bullets outweigh the negatives.....

DougC

[Harmon]

i shot some 175 grain cast semi wadcutters in my KKM barreled glock 24 over some 700X powder. aside from being smokey, they had a really good feel to them.

Harmon

[Tokarev]

i shot some 175 grain cast semi wadcutters in my KKM barreled glock 24 over some 700X powder. aside from being smokey, they had a really good feel to them.

Harmon

I used to use 4.2 of 700-X over a 180 cast bullet and always thought it was a nice load. Easy on the wallet and plenty accurate. Soft too!

[Harmon]

I was at 4.0 grains and made major in my 6 inch gun loaded 1.130(FWIW this is the magic number for a glock 40 caliber with lead semiwadcutter bullets and KKM barrels. any shorter, jam, any longer and the bullet gets into the rifling)

i thought this was a soft load..seemed to be to me anyway.

Harmon

[DEADEYE]

I cast my own Bulletts use Lyman #2 alloy and a meduim lube with Unique or 700x powders the smoke isn't too bad it's cheap shooting. With my son I both hammering away this gets expensive with the component prices rising as they are....I have to save somewhere the bad part is the time involved