Casting Bullets First Time

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Austin Edwards

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Good Evening or Morning where ever around the globe you are.
Im looking at getting into casting my own bullets.
I know my sharps shoots .459 Diameter 405 grain bullets very well.
I was wondering if any of you fine people could help me out and give me some tips and information
on all the items I will be needing to start casting.
Ie: Best bullet molds melting pots lead and all the other stuff needed.
Thank you for any and all information.
 
Lemme break down the cheap but higher production method. Forget the silly little melt pots. They clog and are slow if you get fast at casting. They can't keep up unless you have the big pot. Hit the thrift store and get two cast iron pans (btw never use aluminum pots for melting lead, bad news). 20lbs propane tank. Burner, preferably two, from a Coleman stove or similar. Way to rig the 20lbs to the burner because you don't want to be stuck with those overpriced mini propane bottles.

Tools, wood stick like an old hammer handle for tapping your sprue plate. Large serving spoon, the kind with holes in it for skimming trash and wheel weight clips off the top of your lead pot. Casting ladles (these don't clog like a pour spout on a lead pot). A couple ingot molds. Large ladle for filling ingot molds. Spatula for scraping debris off bottom of cast iron pot when cleaning wheelweights.

Bullet molds. I prefer Lyman quite a bit over Lee however I can work faster with aluminum lee molds vs the cast iron Lyman molds. The Lyman has more selection and makes nicer bullets imo but they heat up and then you gotta wait for them to cool. When I was casting a lot I could keep two Lyman two cavity molds going for a few hours at a time. The aluminum lee molds are cheaper but are easier to damage. They also weigh less which makes casting less fatiguing. Try working a six cavity Lyman mold. It's like holding a brick on a long stick.

Bullet sizers. My old school Lyman 45 beats up on the newer lyman. I consider the 4500 to be a piece of crap. The clips fly off the linkage and drive me crazy. Never mind lube ALWAYS leaks past the seal on the sizing die (all my sizers had that issue). Even my old herters sizer was superior to the 4500. If you want better Id probably go magma engineering ($$$) with all the bells and whistles because let me put it mildly: casting is fun but sizing absolutely sucks. And is time consuming on the lymans. I would splurge for quality sizer and molds above all else. I cannot vouch for the magma engineering sizer but I would go that route if I'm casting thousands and to be honest, if you take the time to get a cast iron pan full of lead warm, you cast until it's empty or you can't take it any more.

You wanna cast 45-70 stuff you definitely want to run a big pot of lead because 405 grains can drain a lead pot fast. The two burner/two cast iron pans is so you can process out buckets of wheelweights quickly. While one pan heats a batch the other is ready to pour into ingots.

As for bullet lube I've used everything from straight beeswax to store bought to stuff my old man bought back in the 60s to custom blends of graphite infused goodness. I wound up using white label brand lube for most stuff. Much cheaper that Lyman and lee lubes and he offers several different varieties. You can give your lube a nice color if you are custom making it by putting a small chunk of color crayon in your mix when you melt the wax down.

I always water dropped my bullets into a coffee can but there is some risk of water and molten lead so be advised. That should get you started. Any other questions just ask. I love casting bullets. The larger, the more fun they are. I need a cannonball mold.

Edit: btw if you use a Coleman stove you gotta find the little regulator jet that limits the propane flow. You need max flame to make them work properly.
 
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Powder coat or Hi-Tek. Lube is messy.

NOE, MP, Arsenal, or Accurate for awesome molds. Iron is the ultimate, brass is awesome, and aluminum is great. Note that any of the above companies aluminum molds are MUCH better than Lee aluminum molds. They use a different alloy to start.

For big bullets it's hard to beat ladle casting....however if you're going to head into shooting auto pistol bullets a bottom pour is where it's at. I've got 8 cavity aluminum molds and 6 cavity brass molds for handgun bullets. Really hard to beat the production from them. If fireside44 thinks a 6 cavity Lee is heavy he must hate 4 cavity iron molds. The 8 cavity MP aluminum molds aren't much bigger than the Lee 6 cavity molds.

For sizing...I really like the NOE push through sizing system. He offers bushings of many different sizes, they are much higher quality than the Lee push through sizing system. You can use them on any single stage reloading press. Of course they are only good for powder coated or Hi-Tek bullets.

If ya were closer I'd say head on over and I'll walk ya through the process.
 
Casting is melting lead and pouring it into an appropriate mould. Doesn’t matter much how you melt it, being able to maintain the temperature is important however, so if you go with a manual melt buy a thermometer.

Lyman, RCBS, Saco and H&G to name a few are iron and will last forever. Most of mine came from years of going to gun shows.

Lee’s are good value and cheap enough to replace.

I gave up on wheel weights, there is just too much non lead material in them. My Lead is scrounged from the ranges back stops. Although you may not have that option. Should be scrap yards in your location I would think.
If I were casting bullets intended for rifle I’d buy a lead alloy of a known hardness.

I personally don’t want water any where near the pot. , I dump the bullets on thickly folded pieces of toweling and let them air cool.

I’ve got and use bullet/lube sizers but am slowly getting away from them and going to Lees liquid Alox and tumble lube. Sizing is then done with Lees push through dies on a cheap single stage Lee press.

Some guys got to have all the bells and whistles, some run on a shoestring. Regardless of the advise you get here your going to have to learn by doing.
It’s not rocket science and experience is going to be your best friend.
 
Texas10mm said:
NOE, MP, Arsenal, or Accurate for awesome molds. Iron is the ultimate, brass is awesome, and aluminum is great. Note that any of the above companies aluminum molds are MUCH better than Lee aluminum molds. They use a different alloy to start.

For big bullets it's hard to beat ladle casting....however if you're going to head into shooting auto pistol bullets a bottom pour is where it's at. I've got 8 cavity aluminum molds and 6 cavity brass molds for handgun bullets. Really hard to beat the production from them. If fireside44 thinks a 6 cavity Lee is heavy he must hate 4 cavity iron molds. The 8 cavity MP aluminum molds aren't much bigger than the Lee 6 cavity molds.
Click to expand...

I would hesitate before putting someone new to casting on an expensive mold right out the gate. Lee molds either work great or don't IME but are affordable. And I didn't say a six cavity lee was too heavy, I said six cavity Lyman. 38 mold. Brick on a stick. About 45 minutes was all I could operate that mold without some serious fatigue. I think that's why they stopped offering six cavities, lol.
 
fireside44 said:
I would hesitate before putting someone new to casting on an expensive mold right out the gate. Lee molds either work great or don't IME but are affordable. And I didn't say a six cavity lee was too heavy, I said six cavity Lyman. 38 mold. Brick on a stick. About 45 minutes was all I could operate that mold without some serious fatigue. I think that's why they stopped offering six cavities, lol.
Click to expand...

At 78 years young, I poop out with my Lyman 4 cavity. Even the Lee six in 452 255 can be a strain after a few hundred. The two cavities can sure drag out a session if the goal is 500.
 
I am a newbie too, this is my first year. I started simple because I was unsure I would like doing it but here I am. When I started I was using an old 2 burner hot plate, 1.5qt. stainless steel sauce pan, a Lyman ladle and an old muffin tin to make ingots. My first mold was a Lee 2 cavity 356-102-R1 and my second mold is a Lee 452-200 SWC. I was lucky that I was able to find a tire shop that happen to still have a whole bucket of mixed weights that they gave me free. From that bucket I got about 90lbs of lead from clip on weights and another 30+ lbs of stick on weights.

I have since added a Lee Pro IV pot and am still looking for sources of alloy. The scape dealers in this area cannot resell to the public as it is listed as a hazardous material.
 
^^^^^ They need to keep us safe from ourselves. Afraid we might chew on the ingots and sue for medical damages. I find a bottle of booze and things are easier. I trade brass for lead pound for pound.;) Also helps to know a shooter that owns a garage.:thumbup:
 
I decided up front that I did not want to deal with smelting wheelweights and the like. I buy ingots from other casters and I generally pay between $1 and $1.25 a pound depending on what I am buying. I would also suggest that you pick a lee 2 cavity for your first mold. I use plenty of Lee molds and they work just fine. Yes, the other makers are higher quality, but the Lee molds work fine and for your first outing keep it to a modest outlay.

A key piece of protective gear that has not been mentioned is a face shield. Bare minimum is safety glasses, but a full face shield is a really good idea. I also wear a leather apron and welder's gloves.

Pick up a cheap hot plate to pre heat your molds. Often found at thrift shops for peanuts.

I would suggest starting with either tumble lubing or powder coating. I started out with the former and mostly do the latter at this point.
 
And no beverage of your choice within 20 feet of the melt. A head band if you tend to sweat when you work with hot things. No need for a visit from the tinsel fairy for any reason either.
 
As a telephone cable splicer from 1967 to 1997 working with pots of molten lead or solder was part of the job description. As part of its safety program the company had photos of lead pot mishaps ranging from an unfortunate dumping the content over low cut work shoes to, the shoe now had a lead sock lining, to the effects of water hitting the surface of the melt. A test to see if the solder in the pot was hot enough was to use a brown paper taper thrust into the surface of the solder. If it browned and curled it was hot enough, catching fire too hot.

Excess lead from cable sheaths, sleeves, sheet lead ect. was tossed in the dumpster. Need less to say I had a stash that has lasted me 22 years. I’m running low now so I mine the ranges back stop from time to time.

Just some idle chatter.

Happy Holidays.
 
I started with a Coleman stove, a stainless steel 2 qt. pot, a Lee dipper and a Lee 44 cal mold. I stole a slotted spoon from Ma's kitchen, used paraffin for fluxing and had a near endless supply of wheel weights. I also had an antique Lee pan lube/size kit. I had been casting sinkers off and on since I was 12 or so so I had an idea of what to do, but the learning curve for bullets was a bit steeper (a couple of my sinker molds were just a hole drilled in a chunk of aluminum). 30 years later I'd suggest getting a copy of Lyman's Cast bullet Handbook (3rd Edition is better for new casters than 4th, but both good). When/if you want to really get into the finer points of casting, this is a good readhttp://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_Contents.htm and of course Castboolits has info, questions and answers about everything concerning casting your own boolits...

FWIW; I worked for a large city department of Water and Power, and "borrowing" scrap lead sheathing was a firing offense. I occasionally found a pound or two in my lunch box someone put in there, but I didn't know about it until I got home...
 
whughett said:
As a telephone cable splicer from 1967 to 1997 working with pots of molten lead or solder was part of the job description. As part of its safety program the company had photos of lead pot mishaps ranging from an unfortunate dumping the content over low cut work shoes to, the shoe now had a lead sock lining, to the effects of water hitting the surface of the melt. A test to see if the solder in the pot was hot enough was to use a brown paper taper thrust into the surface of the solder. If it browned and curled it was hot enough, catching fire too hot.

Excess lead from cable sheaths, sleeves, sheet lead ect. was tossed in the dumpster. Need less to say I had a stash that has lasted me 22 years. I’m running low now so I mine the ranges back stop from time to time.

Just some idle chatter.

Happy Holidays.
Click to expand...

As a retired electrical lineman I had/have friends at the phone company. Including a Son. So I have had my share of cable sheathing and splice covers. Some of the soldered seams on splice covers are a work of art. Some others, not too pretty! Its a lost art!
 
That it was. Every crew seem to have a good and a bad craftsman. I was taught by the best so I averaged some where in the middle. :)
The advent of plastic cases and fiber optics in the mid 80’s doomed it. Today it’s a dead craft. Fiber optics replaced copper.
 
Lots of really good advice and info here.

There are a lot of advantages to casting your own. For my family, not only is it an enjoyable hobby, it’s also the reason we’re able to afford the vast quantities of 9mm ammo we burn up every week.

Once you establish a free/cheap source for lead and tin, you can drastically reduce your ammo costs.

With my current stock of lead, tin, and RotoMetal’s “Super Hard,” our bullets cost about two cents each.

But cheap blasting ammo is just one of the advantages. Read up a bit on casting, and you’ll see what I mean. :)
 
WOW, Thank you for all the information that you all have provided me with. I'm slowly stepping into casting my own bullets and not jumping head first.
Its nice to have alot of people willing to take the time and share there knowledge of the posted question. I will update this thread when I have everything to start
casting.
Thanks again everyone,
Have a safe and wonderful Holiday and a New Year!!
 
casting is fun and easy. i would find someone local to show you how and what to buy or not to buy. i am showing a friend how to cast. i started in the early 80's. still using the first pot i got, a lee bottom pour. for molds i got just about every brand made in the 80's to now. i just got a lee mold last week. i got to say their molds have come a long way. for sizing i use a rcbs luber sizer. lee has a good system too. i don't lube anymore, i powder coat my bullets. i use wheel weights and water drop them. you can still find wheel weights but you have to remove the zinc and steel weights. i only cast in the winter and i cast out side. wear safety glasses, gloves, and long sleves.
 
Hello and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,
Can someone point me in the right direction of a luber sizer for a .459 diameter bullet.
Still having trouble finding some stuff.
Thanks
 
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