Cast my first bullets yesterday

OneBarfly

OneBarfly

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OK - I've had some supplies to do casting for over three years now -for whatever reasons, I just would accumulate supplies and just put them in a box in top of the hall closet - thinking "once of these days" I will get around to it. So yesterday, I picked up a 4-cavity a Hensley & Gibbs 200gr .451 bullet mold for $40.00 - handles and all, at the Pickering Gun show.

I decided to pull our the box to find a used Lee pot, Lyman Luber/sizer (with .451 dies and top punches installed), a bunch of lube and some wheel weights (thanks Neil). Oh - and I found a used .357 Lee mould with handles and get this - I brand new Lyman 200 gr. .451 dia. 4-gang mould with handles (alzheimer's???)

So, I fired-up the pot and started dropping in wheel weights. Started to stink out the place something awful - eventhough I was doing this with the pot set in the fireplace with a draft going. (Note to self: Next time cast ingots outside, then throw the cleaner ingots in the lee pot resulting in less smoke)

After the smoke cleared and I fished-out all the metal wheel weight clips, I started to cast bullets. Result were shi*y at first - the trick was to keep trying until the mould gets heated-up enough to allow the molten lead to flow completely into each cavity of the mould. Then it was a piece of cake - not very complicated at all - perfect shinny 200gr , but measured at an average of 209 grains (?) bullets.

As soon as the ground unfreezes, I think that I will go digging in the back-stop for supplies.....

For those thinking about doing this, if I can, anybody can do it.
 
Welcome to the club. The average weight has to do with the ingredients in the wheel weights. If I remember right the weight that is stated on the box is for pure lead so if you are casting with anything other than that it will be heavier. The lyman moulds are stated as #2 alloy for weight. I usually rest my mould with the corner in the molten lead for a few minutes before starting it heats up quicker. I use an old coleman camp stove with a cast iron pot for the pre casting lead. I throw all the wheel weights in there first and flux the hell out of it and remove the metal clips. Then I flux once more and pour into a 1lbs ingot that I got from Lee. With the ingots it is alot easier to count how much lead you have and also to add exact amounts to your pouring pot when needed. For huge batches of lead that I keep for a later day, I have a 25lb. bread (shape of a loaf of bread) cast iron pot, this way I make a huge ingot and put it in the corner of my garage for melting another day when needed. On top of the ingot I write the date when I made it and if it is WW or lyman #2. When I need to use it I just run it thru the band saw and cut it in 1/4 and into the pot. They also work great for weight in the back of my daughters car in the winter. Currently I have 1500lbs of these big ingots and 2 5 gallon buckets of the 1lbs ingots. I don't shoot much but when I have WW given to me I just melt them and store them for a rainy day. My son and I both love casting bullets and we usually will sit down for a saturday and get enough done for us to use for the next few months or so. We store them in Ice cream buckets after they have been sized and lubed. Great fun.
 
Glad you had success. Note, that smoke is toxic as hell. Definitely do this outside WITH some wind blowing the fumes away, even after the alloy is 'clean'.

Otherwise, just watch the temp you are casting at (you already have it right), flux often, go shoot them.

Most of lubing is now done with the Lee Alox liq. Even when run at elevated pressures, it seems to work well. Dead easy to use and much faster then using a lube press, unless you are putting on gas checks at the same time.

Jerry
 
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