Casting bullets, anyone else here

[ditchtiger]

Any othe'sr brave the hazards of making your own slugs

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[Capn Jack]

You need to go here for everything you want to know about the subject.

Cast Boolits

This is the dedicated cast bullet forum!

castboolits.gunloads.com

 

[matts]

Sure have! Most of my pistol bullets, 300blk, 50 beowolf.

You dont need a huge amount of tooling to get started, but i have found that it is dangerously addicting, so it will be a bit of an initial cost...

40 years of experience not an expert, but still digging it as a tertiary hobby to reloading, the subset of shooting......

I just open the garage door a bit when I get an hour or two block of time.

Then some other day i run them through the lube/sizer.

That part is a bit messy.

Makes a very satisfying experience in the end....

 

[JDubDub]

Yup. I cast for 10mm/.40, .357 and .45 acp. Used to cast for 9mm, especially during shortages, but not worth it now. Being able to do a quick shake and bake powder coat is what finally pushed me over the edge into casting. Didn't want to mess with lubricating.

 

[P7M13]

I recently cast ~150 .266 140 grain rifle bullets and tumbled them yesterday.
.359 155grain out of an Ideal double mold is on deck.
Powder coat all of them this weekend.
I 2nd @CapnJackSB 's suggestion for Cast Boolits. Lots of members there also frequent the forum here.

 

[ageingstudent]

Hi, my name is Mike and I'm a castaholic...it's been 5 years since I lubed a slug. I've totally converted to powder coating...

 

[Papercidal]

I shoot about 12k hand cast coated 9mm a year plus a couple thousand.357 or .45 I've not bought bullets in about 8 years.

 

[Peteralexander78]

Where does everyone get their lead? I bought some off a buddy who got it from a buddy. I have only done a few hundred rounds but not sure where to get more

 

[P7M13]

Where does everyone get their lead? I bought some off a buddy who got it from a buddy. I have only done a few hundred rounds but not sure where to get more

Keep your eyes peeled if you want to buy some local. Watch Craigslist, Cast Boolits and NWFA.
Get to know people in the business who specialize in gun gear from estates.
Check gunshows like Albany or Rickreal.
Call scrap metal places.
Rotometals if you must buy retail.
Gone are the days of wheel weights.
Lots of X-ray rooms have already been remodeled.

 

[Peteralexander78]

Keep your eyes peeled if you want to buy some local. Watch Craigslist, Cast Boolits and NWFA.
Get to know people in the business who specialize in gun gear from estates.
Check gunshows like Albany or Rickreal.
Call scrap metal places.
Rotometals if you must buy retail.
Gone are the days of wheel weights.
Lots of X-ray rooms have already been remodeled.

Thanks appreciate it

 

[JO JO]

Just casted up some 12. Ga slugs the other day

 

[HighlandLofts]

I have some lead for sale $1.50 a pound all processed and ready to use and will be picking up another 1,000 pounds in two weeks.

 

[cervelorod]

I have some lead for sale $1.50 a pound all processed and ready to use and will be picking up another 1,000 pounds in two weeks.

Ready to use? Cast as ingots? Is it pure lead and needs to be alloyed before making boolets? I'd be interested in some, prob not 1000# though..

 

[joken]

Any othe'sr brave the hazards of making your own slugs

 

[JDubDub]

Where does everyone get their lead? I bought some off a buddy who got it from a buddy. I have only done a few hundred rounds but not sure where to get more

I keep my eyes open at estate sales for old scuba weights. The pouch weighs filled with lead shot are good, hard lead, but even the pillow blocks and vinyl coated weights are good. Getting the vinyl off is a pain. Unless it's free, I ignore fishing weights. The lead is generally pretty soft and occasionally has some weird alloys.

When I buy retail lead, I normally hit up RMR. They sell scrap lead cores at a decent price (https://www.rmrbullets.com/product-category/lead/). If I'm casting harder bullets, I'll pick up a block of hardening alloy from Rotometals through their Amazon store to save on shipping.

 

[Capn Jack]

I've gotten too old to dive and too fat for my wet suit, so I've been melting down my old diving weights.

 

[Benchrest]

Yep

 

[Certaindeaf]

I've gotten too old to dive and too fat for my wet suit, so I've been melting down my old diving weights.

I found a kid selling found lead anchors for $.75/lb not too long ago.. bought what he had and he'd let me know when he had more for quite a few years.

 

[ageingstudent]

Where does everyone get their lead? I bought some off a buddy who got it from a buddy. I have only done a few hundred rounds but not sure where to get more

I dig mine out of a berm with a sifting shovel.

 

[kmk1012]

Where does everyone get their lead? I bought some off a buddy who got it from a buddy. I have only done a few hundred rounds but not sure where to get more

About the only good thing working for Les Schwab lots of years ago was the wheel weights were still lead. Last time I checked there were still a "few" buckets left out in the shop. I started casting over 20 years ago, water quenched, Lee Liquid Alox (mule snot), and loaded as cast. Now, if I cast which is rarely, I powder coat using the shake and bake method.