casting lead bullets

I only use LEE mold's. The trick is when you first get'em use brake cleaner or some type of degreaser on the mold face's and cavity's.
The just came from a machine shop so they WILL have cutting oil on'em!
Get the oil off the face,lube according to the instruction's and get some Bull shop spru plate lube!, make's it all run smoothly.
Go to the castboolits site and look under the Molds...Maintenance and Design section for Lee-menting LEE mold's.
Make's a world of difference when you open up a 6 banger mold and they all just fall out!
 
If anyone in Calgary is going to be casting anytime soon I'd love to hang out and see how it's done. I've already collected some lead and read up quite a bit but it's always easier for me to learn by seeing it done right infront of me ;)
 
how do I learn how?

Check out the castboolits site as previously mentioned. I started recently too and it has been a huge help, also reading threads on here.

is it difficult and expensive to get set up?

Not at all. My setup is a 10,000btu camp stove ($90), a second hand steel pot ($5), hose for propane tank ($8), propane tank ($50 refillable for $25), ladle ($10), gloves ($5), strainer ($8), hammer handle ($8), Rapine mould ($120ish).

what kind of quality for bullet weight consistency could a guy expect?

I've only weighed a few but they are within a few grains each.

what kind of volume of bullets per hour coudl a guy make?

I use a single cavity and have gotten 80-120 per hour.

how do you lube em?

I pan lube them with homemade lube. Youtube has videos demonstrating this.

waderow said:
interesting... going to talk to the local tire shops... I dont think I will be able to scrounge enough, so I may look at buying lead... does it become not cost effective to buy lead?
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I buy my lead from a local metal distributor. My last load cost me $1.05/Lb. I need PURE soft lead for the boolits I cast, and even at that price it still only costs me less than $0.03 per boolit.
 
Been casting about 3 years and here's my observations. I like lee moulds, had great luck with them. I use wheel weights; I smelt them down in a cast iron pot on a hot plate. I then use a bottom pour Lee furnace and drop from the mould into a 5 gallon bucket of water. I run about 150 an hour with 2 cavity mould
 
blacksmithden said:
Accuracy can easially be as good as factory made bullets, but you can't drive them past 2000fps.

If you want answers to all your questions, a really good source is the Lyman Book of Bullet Casting.
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i have driven my lead bullets easily past 2500FPS with MOA and even sub MOA accuracy at 100 yards.

simply water drop your bullets which will make them harder.

i also use magnum high velocity lube which i offer for sale.
one of my most accurate loads actually runs around 2500fps out of my 243
using 39 grains of IMR4831 and a 100 grain RCBS mold bullet with gas check and some of my Magnum lube.

accuracy was sub MOA at 100 and no leading at all.
next ill be driving my 223 to 3000fps
 
Casting can become an obsession unto itself. Often I have been bitten by the "I want to cast" bug and found myself in the garage for 5-6 hours making up a few thousand bullets for friends.

Casting is easy, the lubing part takes a lot of time. I have tried the tumble lube bullets/process but I really hate the smell of the stuff, the complications in reloading (leaves crap in the seater die) and the smell at the range of the burning lube. To each his own I guess.

I started casting about 7 years ago and have acquired more than 100 molds so far, actually have a 6' filing cabinet full but I have started to downsize and get rid of the molds I no longer will ever use.

I started out with Lee single and double molds and struggled with them for about 1 year before I finally took the plunge and bought a 4 cavity Lyman 429421. Obviously production increased with a 4 cavity but the mold is heavy as it is iron and sometimes the bullets would stick.

I finally got in on a group buy on the castbullets site for a 200gn swc .45acp 6 cavity custom Lee mold. Holy crap what a difference between there 6 cavity and there one/two cavity molds. You can cast with this thing for hours on end and not have your arms/wrists hurting from the weight. Open the mold and the bullets literally want to jump out. In fact you have to have a damp rag beside you and cool the mold off a bit once you get going.

My own personal experience has been that most Lee molds are under size as well as most Lyman/RCBS production molds. The throat sizes on my .44 Magnums are .431 and .432 so I need a .432 bullet and not a .429. I usually have molds made now that I specify the correct measurements and get in on the Group Buys on Cast bullets website. Makes a world of difference when there is no leading in the barrel and the same accuracy at the target as jacketed bullets.

As far as the 2000fps myth as the limit for cast bullets, that was in days gone by when people were using 50/50 beeswax/grease and the wrong size bullet. Now with heat treating bullets in the oven and modern lubes there is no problem using full power loadings in my 30/30, 30-06, .303 and 8mm rifles.
 
Tex Critter said:
I've been casting bullets in the shed, garage, basement for at least 25 years. When am I going to die from lead poisoning?
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When you are 145 with any luck on your part. The government will wrap your body around spent nuclear fuel rods and bury you in an old Uranium mine.:D

Casting bullets is a safe enjyable hobby. Lyman's Castbullet Handbook is one of the best to read and use as a reference manual. The Cast Bullet Forum has a wealth of info there with a membership always willing to help out.

One word of warning to the OP once you get into it you will be hooked. Finding "the" load for your rifles can be a lifetime quest. About the time you find it you will have bought another rifle and away you go again.

One benefit to shooting lead in handguns is you can load less powder to get the same velocity as jacketed bullets. The major benefit to this is less recoil and if you shoot one of the two major action shooting sports that can be a factor.

Take Care

Bob aka robertbank on the Cast Bullet Forum
 
I started casting this year. I paid $40 per 5 gal. pal of WW's. I smelted down 260 lbs. worth and after the clips were removed and weighed i ended up with 240lbs. of lead. With the mold i am using for my 45-70 it comes out to 16 rds per lb. Thats 3840 bullets. At $50 per 100 of Rem bulk bullets.......do the math. As for how to do it there were lots of good info on this thread. You can also go to You Tube if your a visual guy like me and there are tons of video on casting and lubing bullets and the equipment used and tips on how to use it.
 
Youtube is a good idea. I was on the fence at first but after actually seeing how easy it is in a couple videos I went right in.
 
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