contender
Ruger Guru
As a scuba instructor,, I used a lot of lead for dive weights. When I quit teaching,, I had a few hundred pounds of weights. Plus,, I've always chased scrap lead. Then an old friend who knew his time here was limited,, allowed me to get over 350 lbs of lead & WW he'd smelted. Throw in the few hundred lbs of lead I've picked up at a scrap yard occasionally,, and lastly I bought (2) 5 gal buckets of WW's at a flea mkt for $20 a few years ago,, that the buckets looked old, rusty clips etc from years of storage,,, I can safely say & have well over 1000 lbs of potential bullets.
I decided a while back to start casting bullets from all this to make it an easier commodity for me. It concentrates things a bit. It puts it in a form I can use,, or sell as necessary. (Or my kids can use or sell if I'm gone.)
I'm not even half way through the smelting of all my material.
And I set a goal of 2500 "extra" bullets of each type I have molds for as my storage amounts. I usually cast around 3000 or so of one bullet,, then switch to a different mold. I run two molds at once when I'm casting. I Powder Coat & size them too. My biggest issue is proper sized boxes to store them in. I've been chasing & using all the bullet boxes from Xtreme I can get my hands on. I mark out their info, and put a different label on each box.
I still have a long way to go.
And it's amazing how much lead you can use up when casting 400 grn Ruger 480 bullets,, or similar ones. I'm currently casting a 280 grn 45 cal, as well as a 180 grn 357 bullet. Going through a lot,,,!
Oh,, I also own a range,,, and can sift & reclaim as much as I need. IF,, if,, I ever need to do so.
I decided a while back to start casting bullets from all this to make it an easier commodity for me. It concentrates things a bit. It puts it in a form I can use,, or sell as necessary. (Or my kids can use or sell if I'm gone.)
I'm not even half way through the smelting of all my material.
And I set a goal of 2500 "extra" bullets of each type I have molds for as my storage amounts. I usually cast around 3000 or so of one bullet,, then switch to a different mold. I run two molds at once when I'm casting. I Powder Coat & size them too. My biggest issue is proper sized boxes to store them in. I've been chasing & using all the bullet boxes from Xtreme I can get my hands on. I mark out their info, and put a different label on each box.
I still have a long way to go.
And it's amazing how much lead you can use up when casting 400 grn Ruger 480 bullets,, or similar ones. I'm currently casting a 280 grn 45 cal, as well as a 180 grn 357 bullet. Going through a lot,,,!
Oh,, I also own a range,,, and can sift & reclaim as much as I need. IF,, if,, I ever need to do so.
