Cast Bullets

[Rye]

Has anyone tried using/making cast bullets? How hard is it though? Is it good to use as a match ammo or just for practicing. Thanks.

[Ray_Z]

I've been using my cast bullets for as long as I've been shooting practical pistol. Works great for 9mm, 40 S&W, and 45. Won't work for open guns though. Light bullets are way too fast for cast. Besides, you got to clean the comp out a lot more. Some people say cast bullets are too smokey. What they are seeing is the bullet lube atomizing as the bullet leaves the barrel. I'm too busy shooting to see that anyway. But I don't use them on an indoor range.

[Jody Waring]

Pends on your alloy mixture, you can make just as good as any manufacturer if you have the right recipe, and good casting equipment. I have shot alot of cast bullets, in 9mm, .38/.357, and .45. I shoot them in my open gun, but I load only to between 145-150 PF for paractice and steel matches. Comps do get extremely fouled, but that's the price I pay for shooting on the cheap. Some of my most accurate loads for steel shooting have been with my homemade cast bullets.

[M ammo]

I’ve been casting and shooting for years.

25+ years ago when I started loading, the books I read were very anti cast bullets.

So I bought jacketed. $$$$$

I got into shooting practical pistol. The top shooters in the club?

Shooting cast! At the time jacketed were $11 PER 100EA

And cast were $15 per 500. Not hard to do that math.

I now am the bullet guy at our local club. Yes my bullets are free.

But time is money.

The equipment has paid for itself many times.

Jim M ammo

[anachronism]

All in all, if you take your time & do your research, your home cast bullets will eventually be of better quality than most of the cast bullets you can buy.

BUT, you have to do your part, just the same as is required when you start reloading. There are many variables to bullet casting, the trick is to find what works, & stick with it.

A link to my second home:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/index.php

[Chills1994]

Casting boolits is NOT hard at all to do.

Yes, it can be dangerous. You just have to keep your wits about you.

I use wheelweights, mainly, but I will also mine the berms for range scrap.

You can pour molten lead into water, it is just NOT very safe to pour water into molten lead. Actually, what is the worst is to have water captured inside something that gets dumped into the pool of molten lead. The water turns to steam and it explodes out of the pool taking streams of lead with it. It will leave behind "tinsel". This hot tinsel will land anywhere and everywhere like on your garage floor, the walls, the ceiling, your scalp or your neck.

I think I figured I shot about 7,200 rounds in matches last year. I used to be a die hard Berry's plated bullet user, but then their prices went from about $72 a thousand to over $130 a thousand. At last year's rate of usage, that would mean I would have spent about $1,000 in bullets alone.

I decided to take some of that money instead and invested it into casting equipment. I did NOT go the cheap route. I went with an RCBS Pro Melt 20 plus pound bottom pour furnace and a Star lube-sizer. I also went with Lyman steel "four banger" moulds.

You could go much cheaper by buying Lee stuff instead.

I use two major steps in making boolits. The first step is to render the wheel weights or the range scrap into cleaner ingots using a cast iron dutch oven and a propane fired turkey fryer. Then the next step is to remelt these cleaner ingots in the RCBS Pro Melt and turn them into boolits.

The last step is to size and lube them. That is where the Star comes in.

About the only thing that gets me is the fatigue in my left hand from holding the mould handles.

If I was in your shoes, Rye, I would NOT get into casting until I had a source or three of lead. Your mom and pop tire shops are usually better to hit up. I suspect you could haggle them down to 10 cents a pound of wheelweights. Bring cash, your own scale and your own 5 gallon buckets.

Only fill a 5 gallon bucket about halfway with wheel weights.