Thinking about casting bullets?

[Jim Puke]

This is for those of you that may be thinking of beginning casting your own bullets. This is one of the most comprehensive and concise articles that I have seen on the topic. It goes through the process and pretty much removes the mystery from it. If you are considering it, this might be worth your while.

Casting bullets is one of the most rewarding hobbies that I have ever gotten into...but it is ADDICTIVE.

http://www.zjstech.net/gunstuff/casting.html

And, if you decide to give it a try...this place is DEFINITELY worth you while to browse.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/

 

[Bucks Owin]

Better yet... :wink:

"From Ingot to Target"

http://www.lasc.us/ArticlesFryxell.htm

 

[Jim Puke]

Better yet... :wink:

"From Ingot to Target"

http://www.lasc.us/ArticlesFryxell.htm

Now you and I both know that Fryxell reading is reserved for those of us that have already started casting and realized that we do not have a clue as to what we are doing. First things, first...got to get confused and frustrated before we enter the holy grail.

 

[contender]

That is a good read for a new guy interested in starting out. About the only thing I'd add would be that nowadays, wheel weights are not always pure lead or lead based. You can get zinc & steel ones. Zinc is bad in the mix.

 

[Iron Mike Golf]

Like Contender said, zinc is bad for the alloy. Makes it like oatmeal, and it won't pour and fill the mold well. You can fix that by putting copper sulphate in the melt. What happens is the copper and zinc get swapped. Copper adds a little toughness and the melt goes back to being liquid. Folks over on cast boolits forum have added zinc on purpose in order to add copper to their alloy.

Lead alloy wheel weights are getting harder to come by in some areas. One source for lead to check into is your local firing ranges. Some recover the bullets from traps and berms. I get my lead from my local range that way. They even clean it up and make ingots.

 

[cadillo]

The only reason I took the plunge was that a friend who was a caster passed away and his widow gifted me a huge qty. of wheel weight ingots. Otherwise I would not have laid out the money for material, moulds, lube sizers, etc.

If you get involved with it, you need to start visiting the scrap yards, and buy up what ever clean looking lead you find, as clip on wheel weights are just about completely gone these days, so you will be normally starting with pure lead, which will need to be doctored to get good cavity fill out and hardness.

Tin prices have gotten quite high now. I was lucky enough to find a large qty. of monotype at $1.00 per lb., and it makes a great sweetener for just about any lead source; a little more antimony to tin ratio than I would prefer, but I get by OK. If you shop around you may be able to find some monotype, or better yet some linotype, or other tin and antimony source, because you will need it to sweeten the near pure lead that you will likely be stuck with. Get on the castboolits forum, and shop there, as there are a number of folks selling ingots etc. of various alloys, pewter, and other tin sources.

Good Luck! It is an addiction.

 

[sandman228]

one of the best investments a caster can make is a casting thermometer yes there a little expensive but well worth it .ive been casting about 7 years now , I realize theres allot of people out there that have been doing so longer than ive been alive with more knowledge than me . I used to buy used wheel weights and try to sort out the zinc as best I could .ive gotten allot better at sorting over the years than I used to be but occasionally a zinc weight will still slip through my sorting process . I smelt on an Ozark trails camp stove I used to just crank the burners throw the weights in the pot and hope I got all the zinc out beforehand . a few years ago I invested in an rcbs casting thermometer it was about 50$.now I fire the burners up get some alloy melting but instead of cranking the burners I keep it at a high enough temp to melt lead but low enough that zinc wont melt (about 600 degrees) so any zinc weights that slip through the cracks when sorting will just float at the top of the mix to be skimmed off , not to mention I use ALLOT less propaine now .I also use it in the casting pot to keep a consistent temp . I casted and smelted the 1st couple years without a thermometer ,but now I couldn't imagine doing either without it .there DEFINATLY worth the investment imo.