Total Beginner Looking for Direction on metal sourcing and casting

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rapstarD

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Hi Everyone, I’m in Edmonton Alberta

I have been a reloader for a long time. I'm now interested in casting my own bullets for my .357 henry and my 44 mag marlin 1894 rifles.

I saw a number of cool bullet casts that I'm interested in getting and watched some videos on youtube of the process of casting, lubing and sizing. I'm willing to buy the needed equipment but wanted some feedback on the metal. As a beginner, are there sources of good, clean, usable lead? I'd like to start easy as my time is limited in collecting and processing any metal. Also, where can I find detail on how to put together the required lead mix for bullets for my purpose? E.g. is there a simple to follow recipe of metal to melt that I then cast and it'll be good for high velocity rifle?

Is it worth investing in one of the lube and size a matic style tools right from the beginning? Any other recommended tools to make the process as easy as possible?

thank you all very much for any feedback and links you might be able to respond with. Please feel free to also PM me with any details or information on sources of equipment and raw materials.
 
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Hit the Saturday morning yard sales, looking for pewter. It is mainly tin and good for sweetening your alloy, if needed.

Wheel weight metal is perfectly acceptable for just about all your casting needs for the first few years. I find that with powder coating, I have no need for the traditional sizer/lumber machines and have sold about eight of them in the last two years.

YouTube, for all its warts, is a great source of information. It's an asset I didn't have when trying to learn the art back in the sixties. There was nothing but a few generalized articles in the gun-zines by self appointed gurus of modest experience. A lot of mis-information was spread about.

It would be a great help if you could look over the shoulder of an experienced caster, even at the expense of several hours drive. You could easily pick up a dozen tips and tricks that will save you a busload of aggravation down the road, especially if you're a mental stumblef**k like me.

Keep an open mind. In the past seven years or so, the concepts of pre-heating your mould on a hot plate, and powder coating, have been game changers for me.
 
If you go to your local tire shop and get their old wheel weights about 1/2 will be not useable (zinc and iron) 1/4 will be stick on lead weights and about 1/4 will be lead clip on weights. You can mix 1 pure to 1 wheel weights and cast with that. Expect to pay about $25 per bucket (or sometimes free), each bucket will yield about 65 lbs of lead.
 
Wheel weights are fine for what you intend to do. I switched to powder coating as well. Makes for a pretty bullet that does not smoke like traditional lubes do. Setup is pretty cheap to.
 
As Kra176 posted, the number one source of raw material for bullet casters has long been scrap wheel weights from tire shops. I sent you some info about a shop I know of in Edmonton, it's been a couple years since I picked up anything from them, but if you look at this post I made in 2016 it gives in idea what you can expect from them.
https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1423629-A-sampling-of-wheel-weights-in-Edmonton

A great resource is the cast boolits website. One excellent post to get you started is their guide to sorting wheel weights.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?139839-Guide-to-Hand-Sorting-Wheel-Weights

So far I have cast only for handgun, shotgun, and a little blackpowder. For these I use straight lead, hard wheel weight lead, or most commonly a 50-50 mix of the two. For what I do I don't need anything harder.

The only other addition is tin. Tin lowers the viscosity of melted lead significantly, improving fluidity and mould fill out. 2% Tin by weight is a classic mix, but I don't use anything close to that, I just a few inches of tin wire until I get nice sharp edges on my bullets.

Much of the knowledge base of casting dates to the first half of the 20th century. If you find any recipes for mixes like "Lyman #2" you will find they are full of alloy additions. Back then scrap lead was free and while tin had to be purchased the cost was reasonable enough. Today all metals are valuable. You will probably pay for your lead, even the dirty scrap, and the price of tin is shockingly high. Best to keep it simple and rely on hard wheel weight alloys as much as possible.
 
A mentor can be an important help in bullet casting. For me the biggest step forward was meeting guys in the the black powder cartridge rifle sport. For them casting is an art and good cast bullets are key to successfully competing. Because bullet casters are a subset of the shooting community you will find they have a very high degree of interaction and discussion. Most wont divulge their "honey hole" for lead but its not hard to find someone who has some for sale. If you can find a retired caster they are happy to get rid of the lead, tin, etc for a reasonable price. Generally I have moved on from wheel weights as they are less usable these days. Pure lead with added tin works well for me. If you can find it, Linotype is great for hard bullets for the calibers you mentioned they dont need super hard.
castboolits website is the best site for casters. The Lyman number 3 cast bullet load book from 1980 is floating around on the web for download and IMO its one of the best cast load books for alot of the old time calibers. I have used various bullet sizing styles, Lee, RCBS, and Star. They all work. The lee is probably simplest to get into as it uses the regular single stage press. The new lee set up for volume sizing is kinda neat but i havent tried it. For molds you will find its kind of an addiction that you end up with lots of different molds cause some guns like some molds and not others. I have molds from the inexpensive Lee to expensive custom molds. To be honest many of the Lee molds are the best value and are very easy to use. Many of their tumble lube molds dont need sizing in many cases especially for the 38's and 9mm. good luck and welcome
 
Wow! thank you all so much. Some great information that I am sorting through. Thank you for your experience and information. I have lots to do in learning and metal sourcing. BattleRife, I may PM you with some questions regarding your lead processing setup. So cool!
 
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