Casting your own bullets

[98sr20ve]

I shoot outside only but I still worry about the smoke. It's a investment to get set up but it would seem you make it back quickly. Are there lubes that work and don't work, like Lee Alox or other tumble lubes? Never done it so I don't even know the questions to ask but I have a good idea whats involved. My plan would be to get a bottom pour pot, smelt the lead outside in another pot. Pick the proper lube and bullet type. I would prefer to not resize and just tumble lube but if thats too smokey I would resize and lube to get the better result with the proper bullet mold. Any thoughts?

[Joe4d]

bulk ready made bullets shipped in a flat rate box are not much more than buying lead. I have priced this out several times, the only way casting makes any since whatsoever in the U.S. is if you have a large local free or nearly free supply of lead.

[98sr20ve]

bulk ready made bullets shipped in a flat rate box are not much more than buying lead. I have priced this out several times, the only way casting makes any since whatsoever in the U.S. is if you have a large local free or nearly free supply of lead.

I am collecting lead now just to see how hard it will/would be. Lets assume I can get free or nearly free lead.

[Chills1994]

I kinda get lead for free. I have a friend who is a mechanic at a car dealership. Let's say he brings me 100 pounds in wheel weights, I will give him back about 40 to 50 pounds back in birdshot. He and his girlfriend both shoot trap and skeet. They both reload their shotgun shells. Yeah, I can make my own birdshot. The other 60 pounds in wheelweights, I get to keep. I turn everything into ingots first using a turkey fryer and a cast iron dutch oven.

This is my first person hat-cam footage of casting boolits:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Poserc...u/9/uTrD8buyIHY

Is it worth it?

That depends... how much is your time worth?

Versus... let's say... not having to be a slave to whatever is in stock ammo-wise at the Wally World ammo case... or whatever the backlog is at any of the bullet manufacturers us BE'ers are most likely to frequent.

As far a lube goes, I experimented shooting cast boolits through a couple of 1911's. I had sized the boolits but I had NOT lubed them. This was with Clays powder.

They still smoked.

So that whole group think that the lube on cast boolits causes the smoke:

Besides all the smoke I was still getting, they leaded the barrels badly. At about 40 rounds through each gun, the boolits started keyholing through the targets. The barrels looked like a tuft of steel wool had been placed in them.

If you have stashed away 500 pounds of Clays or Titegroup, you'll be kinda screwed.

My advice on the smoke is to use either Winchester Super Target powder or Solo1000.

To get into casting boolits cheaply, you could buy a couple of Lee 20 pound "drip-a-matics" and a couple pairs of small vise grips. The vise grips get clamped onto the pour lever to weigh it down and to keep it from dripping.

You could melt wheelweights down in one pot, pour out the bottom to make ingots. Then drop the ingots into the other pot to cast boolits.

Then for moulds, you could buy and use the 6 banger Lee aluminum moulds.

As far as sizing goes, you can run the bullets up through a Lee push through sizer, and tumble lube them.

Some guys are having good success, supposedly, tumbling their boolits in Johnson Paste Wax. It comes in a bright yellow metal tin by the floor care/cleaning products at say Wally World.

If you want to read up:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/

that's the place to go to.

[redmanfixit]

I have cast and shot thousands of recovered lead boolits. I recover my lead from the indoor range bullet trap where I play a lot. Solves a disposal problem for my range and it only takes a little work for hundreds of pounds of lead. Yes they smoke, so what?

Tumble lube works just fine as regards preventing leading.

The factor that most effect's leading, as worked out by Mr. Lee ( I have a lot of respect for crabby old engineers) Is the "Pressure" the metal will withstand. Lee sells a simple, effective hardness tester that will allow you to easily test your alloy to establish the pressure of the load vs metal. Use slower propellants, or if you want to get real fancy, use gas checks. I'm too lazy to use gas checks because it adds a step I'm trying to avoid anyway. The smoke doesn't really bother me and I'm not that good anyway. I still have a blast and I really like the people I get to hang with!

Lee's modern reloading most recent edition has all the info and a collection of loads for just about whatever you wish to make.

You can use metals recovered from processing the scrap sold to get money to buy alloying metal. Babbit metal has lots of tin and antimoney in it and is not a special order metal.

OK this is shouting here, but it's really important!

PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE ADMONISHMENTS ABOUT NOT GETTING LEAD POISONING!!!! VENTILATION IS ESSENTIAL. LEAD EXPLOSIONS FROM CARELESSNESS WILL SCREW YOU UP BIG TIME!!

Have fun, shoot more, advance the sport, do it on a budget. Remember, you either pay time or money. Which do you have the most of??

[iainmcphersn]

This is my first person hat-cam footage of casting boolits:

Nice video. Shows how efficiently the process can run.

I'm blessed with a commercial caster about 15 miles from me so I'm getting my bullets from him.

Thanks for the powder tip. I'm running Titegroup now and getting more smoke than I want.

[richbug]

I scrounge lead anywhere I can. Wheel weights, range lead, Print metal, solder, pipe, roof flashing, x-ray sheeting, the only thing I usually have to pay for is the print metal.

There seems to be a magic relationship between bullet hardness, pressure, and lube; if you find that sweet spot you are golden. This usually means running a slower powder than you would normally use. I am currently using some OLD WW540 for my 40s, SOLO 1000 for my 45s and H4831 for my 308s.

I think accuracy comes easier with cast that with jacketed. My current 308 load shoots well under 2" groups at 100 yards, and uses the same gas setting as M80 ball. I even shot a rifle match this year with my own cast bullets, just to see if I could.

Lee 6 cavity molds are great for speed. Once you get a rhythm 1000 bullets per hour is easy to do, cast a years worth in a day.

I use Lee Tumble lube for most things, and only size for rifle or when installing gas checks. There is a commercial equivalent call XLOX that is cheaper. The little bottles from Lee will do 3000+ bullets, if you thin it with a bit of mineral spirits.

[Chills1994]

XLOX can be found here:

http://www.lsstuff.com/lube/index.html

[98sr20ve]

Sounds good enough. I already use Solo 1000 so it's just a matter of getting lead for free to make it worth the trouble. I can still use jacketed for match's or really still days at the range I guess.

[spanky]

Just buy em from bayou-bullets.

[hockeyfighter25]

It can still be worth it if you buy lead. I buy lead wheel weight lead for around $1.00 a pound (usually e-bay) and 9mm 125 grain bullets cost me $20/k vs. $50/k if i bought them.

I use the xlox with solo 1000 powder and rarely notice the smoke. The only time I have had problems was in the early morning when the sun is low.

[Ray_Z]

I have cast for many years. Wheel weights right out of the mold, into a bucket of water. Rock hard bullets. I liked the NRA formula lube. Using those two steps I never had leading in 9mm,40,45. I now only use MG bullets. It never failed, no mater which way I was facing, I always got the smoke back in my face with cast bullets. That lube tastes like "you know what".

[sarnburg]

I cast every 9 mm that my wife and I shot this year. I started with Lee 6 cavity 124 grain molds. I changed to a set of custom made 6 cavity 147 grain molds. I ran two 20 lbs bottom pour pots and 2 of each mold to minimize down time. We shot a little over 10k rounds. The time investment is huge. I will be putting all the casting stuff in storage and buying bullets going forward. The time spent casting was not worth the cost savings. For me it would have been better investment to buy more bullets as opposed to casting equipment.

[Ray_Z]

The time investment is huge. I will be putting all the casting stuff in storage and buying bullets going forward. The time spent casting was not worth the cost savings. For me it would have been better investment to buy more bullets as opposed to casting equipment.

OH MAN!! you forgot rule #1. A hobby is supposed to be fun. If you're worried about being on the clock you forgot how to relax. I've got a flat screen, a bunch of DVDs, a big jug of ice tea, and plenty of bullet metal. The only thing that is changing me over to jacketed bullets is that I can't stand the taste of the lube.

[sargenv]

Without going into too many details, yes it can be worth your while. It's kind of in the same vein as "is reloading worth your while?". For me it is worth it to make something that no one else offers. For most people, likely it is only useful if you cannot get components (or the components are God-awful expensive) for a specific caliber that you can get molds for.

I like it because it's now one more thing I can control and I can buy as little or as much base material to keep me in bullets for a while and not have to worry about another run on a different component. I will likely always have bullets now, it is primers or powder that I need worry about, as opposed to worrying about three things.. now it is just the two.

[M ammo]

Without going into too many details, yes it can be worth your while. It's kind of in the same vein as "is reloading worth your while?". For me it is worth it to make something that no one else offers. For most people, likely it is only useful if you cannot get components (or the components are God-awful expensive) for a specific caliber that you can get molds for.

I like it because it's now one more thing I can control and I can buy as little or as much base material to keep me in bullets for a while and not have to worry about another run on a different component. I will likely always have bullets now, it is primers or powder that I need worry about, as opposed to worrying about three things.. now it is just the two.

You hit the nail on the head!!! now I just have to worry about Primers and powder.

I cast all the pistol bullets I could ever want to shoot, I sell a few to help support my 3 Gun Habit.

I even cast shotgun slugs,, and I can make shot if a needed to.

I have looked in to making my own rifle bullets,,,, the Time factor goes up really fast,,, if you have the time,,,, all things will save you money,,

Jim M ammo

[John Z Sr]

I actually enjoy casting as part of the whole picture,,, shoot/pick up brass/ clean brass/ reload/shoot more,,, casting fits in there somewhere. Time is time, if spent enjoying yourself, it's worth it. I also will always have a ready supply of bullets on hand to practice with, as I still use jacketed in bigger matches. Maybe if the tree huggers knew how much recycling we do with brass and lead, they might leave us alone

[marmax]

I buy my boolits from a local vendor for a price that is so reasonable that it is not worth it to me to buy all the gear to cast my own. I have a friend who made the investment and he enjoys casting but it does take quite a bit of time and the health hazzard is huge. The first time he melted the wheel weights, the smoke it burned off gave him a nasty sore throat and he was outside. I told him to buy a respirator but he had to learn the hard way.

I also just switched to WST from Titegroup for cast reloads as suggested on this forum and it is very noticeable. Good luck with which ever way you choose.

[AriM]

I can cast and lube a 200gn. SWC in .452" for about $0.03.....the same bullet commercially sells for about $0.07-0.09

one pound of good quality casting lead (cleaned) can be bought for just under one dollar

there are 7000 grains in one pound

that is 35 200 grain bullets per pound

you can make your own bullet lube out of parafin wax, vaseline, and STP fuel addative

so let's say that costs a fraction of a cent per bullet

that's just under 0.03 per bullet

you can get a decent casting setup for under $200 (decent, not great and not junk)

so you have a savings of approx 5 cents per bullet

that means that after 4000 bullets you would pay for the gear....and everything after that would be a larger savings

if you factor in your time....it's much less worthwhile....but you might really enjoy doing it...I know I do

also you can get custom molds and make totally unique bullets that are specific to your needs....that's another benefit....

also you aren't dependent on the stock of your favorite bullet maker....

lot's of pluses....

[Chills1994]

marmax wrote:

...health hazzard is huge....

Excuse me, while I step up onto my soap box...

Did you ever you see that movie called The Million Dollar Baby? It starred Clint Eastwood as a boxing trainer, and Hillary Swank was his boxing "student". What I took away from that movie that can best be boiled down to one single line is this:

The first rule is, protect yourself at all times.

Whether that protection comes in the form of just educating yourself on what should be some very common sense safety precautions...or wearing a respirator and safety glasses/goggles....or just plain knowing that you should wash your hands after handling ammo and or cast boolits, well, that's up to you to decide.

Me?

I smelt my wheelweights outside inside a cast iron dutch oven on top of a propane powered turkery frier. The frier mechanism itself has a timer on it...like a cheap kitchen egg timer. When it shuts off a bell goes DING!

So, I get everything set up outside on my concrete patio, then I fire up the burner. Then I go inside, and watch TV.

Every now and then I will glance over to the frier just to check on it. I will also keep an ear out for that DING!

When it goes DING! and shuts off the burner, I go outside and lift up the dutch oven's lide with a metal hook, just to see how far along the melt is.

If there are still intact wheelweights up top, I will fire it up again. And go back inside to watch TV.

So, that whole process right there eliminates me from being exposed to any smoke or fumes coming off the wheelweights. Wheelweights are usually painted by the way, so it may or may NOT have been lead fumes that caused your buddy's throat ache. I don't know about you, but I really don't want to inhale burning paint either.

When the melt looks "done" then I don a welding jacket, welding gloves, and a face shield. Then I take a really long handled slotted spoon and skim off the clips and the dross from the melt. Then I start casting nice clean ingots.

In my opinion... the health hazards from lead (e.g. casting, reloading, tumbling cases) is blown way out of proportion and is over-hyped, if ya know what you're doing.

Think of it this way... what are most non-gun-people's reactions to seeing a gun. It is usually something like this:

Why? Because they have been conditioned .... brainwashed??... into thinking that the gun is going to come to life, wheel around and just start blasting all on its own.

We're all gun people here, now, so we just know that is not really the case.

It's a matter of paradigm.

Well, I think my work here is done. I think I'll step off my soap box.

[AriM]

In my opinion... the health hazards from lead (e.g. casting, reloading, tumbling cases) is blown way out of proportion and is over-hyped, if ya know what you're doing.

+1.....hell it took years of casting for a black line to form around my gums....and I still have more than half of my hair!!!

[Chills1994]

Effects from casting lead?

What effeakljdlvamnvclasjdklgvjasdklgfjasdklnavslv;jaskldgf jqwlnefqwoetru39u8r5u4t5i35klfnasd???

I don't know a akdsjfowe4ur02knbvasvasdfwe what you're talking about.

[jmorris]

...health hazzard is huge....

Junk! I have my lead tested every year (as should you all) the only time it was high was from a sorrry indoor range. I don't shoot indoors anymore but I still cast and all is good.

[AriM]

...health hazzard is huge....

Junk! I have my lead tested every year (as should you all) the only time it was high was from a sorrry indoor range. I don't shoot indoors anymore but I still cast and all is good.

+2.....there is no danger in casting lead....as long as you follow some basic, logical safety guidelines.....hell i have been casting for years and I still have one of my testicles....

[M ammo]

As for the Smoke wile casting,, and it hitting you in the face,,

I cast out in my barn, it is open air, but I can’t control the wind direction,,

The simple answer is a Wally world Box fan $15, run it on low and put it someplace behind you, so that the controlled prevailing wide blows it all away from you.

Too easy,

Jim m ammo