New to casting.

Hmatt

Hmatt

CGN Regular
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Location
Kneehill county, AB , KANADA
Hello friends, I managed to get my hands on a Winchester 94 30-30 that comes with a Lyman casting kit. I already reload all my other calibres but this will be my first venture down cast boolits…Or send me to another forum that would be more suited for these questions. Thanks in advance

Tools?
References?
Suggestions?
 
Casting thermometer, hotplate for mold preheat, good ventilation, and layered 100% cotton towels to drop bullets on are all must haves for me. I also picked up some silicone cookie sheets on the cheap from amazon that sit under my casting setup which make clean up easier.
Knowing your alloys and monitoring pot temperature are important to consistent production. When you get it dialed in and start throwing keepers, make note of the temp. and maintain that casting rhythm. Don't be discouraged by wrinkled ugly bullets at first.
Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook is a good and cheap intro to understanding what you're doing. Castboolits forum is also excellent as noted above.
 
vagrantviking said:
Lots of people casting here who can help.

What's included in your Lyman casting equipment?
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It’s a brand new Big Dipper kit, so pot, ingot mould, dipper cast bullet handbook, 3 lube samples. To be clear I don’t have it in my possession my uncle has it in Edmonton from when he picked it all up. I assume I am going to need moulds and dies for 30-30. And then as black powder powder stated his must haves those would be handy, love a good cheap solution to make life easier.

I frequent the scrap metal recycler with my other ventures, would that be a good place to source lead?
 
Hmatt said:
It’s a brand new Big Dipper kit, so pot, ingot mould, dipper cast bullet handbook, 3 lube samples. To be clear I don’t have it in my possession my uncle has it in Edmonton from when he picked it all up. I assume I am going to need moulds and dies for 30-30. And then as black powder powder stated his must haves those would be handy, love a good cheap solution to make life easier.

I frequent the scrap metal recycler with my other ventures, would that be a good place to source lead?
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yes going to the recycler for lead is ok, but you are going to need to educate yourself on what type of lead alloy you will need for your rifle. straight lead is not going to work very well, even if gas checked. maybe 10 years ago wheelweights were something that checked a lot of boxes for versatility using different casting and quenching techniques. unfortunately, wheelweights have now been contaminated with varying amounts of zinc. a small percentage of zinc in the melt can still make a decent bullet, but a lot of zinc makes a crap bullet. bullet casters have had to change their operations now, or at least I have as well as the few that I know of. I just got my supplies rounded up to make linotype at home so it will be a bit of a learning curve for me too. honestly, at this point if you aren't shooting large quantities of bullets, you are probably making a wise choice to order either linotype or lyman#2 alloy from rotometals or some other commercial source. once you get a little experience with the casting pot you might want to experiment a bit but get comfortable with the equipment and technique first. good luck and keep us informed.
 
For shooting 30-30 you only need Lyman#2 water dropped. You of course can powder coat them which is even better because you don't have to worry about lube on the grooves. Unless you are in a small town recycler that you know the people personally, most will not sell you lead of any kind.

If you are up in the Edmonton area I can spare some Lyman #2 or some straight wheel weights or lino. I became aware that the wheel weights were being outlawed in Europe and it was only a matter of time before the craziness would come over here so I stocked up profusely in the late 80's and early 90's. At that time there was no such thing as steel or zinc weights, you only had to cull out the cigarette butts or valve stems that worked there way into 5 gallon buckets of weights. Shop owners had to pay the recyclers to take them away at that time and were more than willing to get rid of them. My how times have changed.
 
hunter64 said:
For shooting 30-30 you only need Lyman#2 water dropped. You of course can powder coat them which is even better because you don't have to worry about lube on the grooves. Unless you are in a small town recycler that you know the people personally, most will not sell you lead of any kind.

If you are up in the Edmonton area I can spare some Lyman #2 or some straight wheel weights or lino. I became aware that the wheel weights were being outlawed in Europe and it was only a matter of time before the craziness would come over here so I stocked up profusely in the late 80's and early 90's. At that time there was no such thing as steel or zinc weights, you only had to cull out the cigarette butts or valve stems that worked there way into 5 gallon buckets of weights. Shop owners had to pay the recyclers to take them away at that time and were more than willing to get rid of them. My how times have changed.
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Next time I’m up in Edmonton perhaps I’ll give you a shout. I’ve got quite abit of lead that came with it now that I’ve actually picked it up.. just settling on what mould I wanna get.
 
Hmatt said:
Next time I’m up in Edmonton perhaps I’ll give you a shout. I’ve got quite abit of lead that came with it now that I’ve actually picked it up.. just settling on what mould I wanna get.
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What's quite a bit? You will always need more tha you have lmao!

I had quite a bit when I hit 1000lbs, still always on the hunt. It becomes tertiary hobby...
 
I started casting years ago, after reading an article in Guns&Ammo. In the article Ross Seyfried talked about casting heavy LBT bullets for the 44 Mag and 45 colt. Shortly after reading the article I ordered two molds from Veral Smith, a small cast iron pot, a dipper, and Flux. The source of my lead were the local garages that were willing to give it to me for free. I found an old Coleman stove, and that's all she wrote. My point being, that you don't need much to get going. You don't even need a thermometer. You learn by trial and error where the sweet spot is, for both the lead and the mold.
 
The 30/30 needs a flat nose bullet when your searching for a mold. Tube magazine requires it.
I spray my molds with liquid graphite and the bullets drop right out. Then I powder coat them, load and shoot, no resizing.
2010 I had 2800 lbs of wheel weights and now I am down to half that. 37 different bullet molds.
 
i use imr 4227 for reloading my 3030 and have great results. i use ww only for all my cast rifle bullets and get lots of deer with them.
 
yomomma said:
I had quite a bit when I hit 1000lbs, still always on the hunt. It becomes tertiary hobby...
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That’s the truth, the wife always laughs when I show up with more scrounged lead in some form. I’ve hit the point where people I know call me when they find some, my neighbor found a bunch of old roofing sheet lead in an out building and gave it to me lol.
 
I started with the Lee 150 Grain GC Flat point gas check cast bullet in the late 1960s
IMR 3031 and a load that gave 1750 fps was very satisfactory for accuracy and velocity.
Bullets were sized to 0.311" and lubed with lyman stick lube.
Gas check was installed with a lee lube size kit for 303
Over the years I have used Dupont 700x, Red Dot, Unique, and various shotgun powders.
As well as H335, WC735, IMR 3031, Win 748, and 2400.
All gave excellent results.
About 12 years ago I went to powder coating. - Powder coat works very well - in some cases nicer than Alox based bullet lubes.
I also cast a 37 Grain Plain base bullet for 22 hornet, and I can almost duplicate 22 magnum velocity - using powder coated bullets.

Welcome to an interesting part of reloading.
 
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