New to this Forum...and I need help

[LittleOneMedic]

Ok, I guess this question to anyone that is out there willing to help me will fall into "dumb" questions. I just bought a lead melter for my fiancee for christmas...he has No idea that it's coming. The question is a friend of mine just told me that melting lead can ONLY make .45 cal or 9mm. It can't make anything else that will be worth shooting. I thought smelting lead could make rifle bullets as well. He said that the only way that you can make bullets that were worth a dang was to "swag" bullets. How true is this? Can someone shine some light on this? Is Swaging better than smelting? I've looked online and nothing has told me one way or another. I want to make sure that the bullets that he creates will work with our older rifles...( got him a 1885 high wall, and he got me a 1903A1.) And I want to make sure nothing happens to these rifles.
I want to learn as much as I can about all of this, to surprise him.

Thank you in advance to those who send me advice!!
:holysheep:holysheep

[Trey45]

The friend who told you this has no clue, none at all, what he is talking about. There are over a million posts on this forum, 80% deal with casting bullets for everything from 25 auto to big bore rifle. Have a look around.

[obssd1958]

Just an idea of what can be done, is shown by the list of calibers that I cast and load for -

Rifle:
.223 Remington
.243 Winchester
.250 Savage
.270 Winchester
7mm Mauser
7mm Mag
7.62x39
.30-30 Winchester
.300 Savage
.30-06 Springfield
.300 Win Mag
.303 Savage
.303 British
.308 Winchester
.32 Winchester Special
.35 Remington
.358 Norma Mag
.38-55
.375 H&H Mag
.416 Rigby
.44-40 (44 WCF)
.45-70 Gov't
.458 Winchester Magnum
.50 caliber Muzzle Loader
.54 caliber Muzzle Loader
.58 caliber Muzzle Loader

Handgun:
.32 H&R Magnum
9mm Parabellum
9mm Makarov
.38 Super Auto
.38 Special/.357 Magnum
.38-40 (38 WCF)
.40 S&W
10mm
.41 Magnum
.44 Special/.44 Magnum
.45 ACP
.45 Blackpowder revolver
.50 AE

Granted, I may be a bit obsessive (as my handle might hint at!), but there are others here who would make me look like a beginner!!
As far as hurting your rifles - the proper care, loading, and shooting of cast boolits in them, may be just the ticket to extending their usable life to long after we are gone!

Please make yourself at home here. Ask questions as they come up, and invite your fiancé to share here also!

Don

[blikseme300]

The friend who told you this has no clue, none at all, what he is talking about. There are over a million posts on this forum, 80% deal with casting bullets for everything from 25 auto to big bore rifle. Have a look around.

+1

Your friend is ignorant.

[462]

You need a new friend. Luckily, you just found many thousands of them.

[slim1836]

I think you need to marry me.

[selmerfan]

You're definitely a great fiancee! Now, direct him to this site so he can get it all figured out! :)

[Digger]

I think he is one heck of a lucky man ...... as far as Cast Boolits ..... a whole new world is if front of you here , you both will enjoy it , a big welcome from the gang here .........
Oh and by the way , the cast boolits you and yours make will help those rifles last longer any how ...... hows that for a positive ....

digger

[kbstenberg]

You could even put a notice on this website and get some 1 on 1 help if there is someone in your area. Just ask and most questions will be answered with multiple answers, all leading you to the same place.
Kevin

[454PB]

I agree with the others.

However, you may be sorry you got him started, this is an obsessive/compulsive disorder!

[burntpowder]

I'm new here also but I've been loading and casting since the early 60's. Your as lucky as I am my wife is kind a nuff to let me shoot some of the ammo I load.You will not find a better bunch of knowledgeable people.You've taken the first steps now keep going there's a whole world of education right here.

[Green Frog]

LittleOneMedic, let me add "Welcome to the Forum" to you and the lucky fiancee. He must have great taste in fiancees to find you. If your friend is also involved in the medical profession, tell him he can make up for scaring you with that misinformation by scoring some X-ray or perhaps radioactive isotope container lead. Both are among the purest lead available for making precise alloys.

Do cast bullets work in rifles? The folks in the Civil War and up until almost WW I would wonder why you would ask. The high-walls of the 19th Century almost always shot lead bullets and even if his is one of the new productions, lead alloys should do him well for anything except the very high performance loads for modern cartridges. Likewise, tons of lead alloy have been shot through the old "'03s" and for practice and plinking as well as most hunting applications, they're hard to beat.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Reloading New Year!
Froggie

[waksupi]

Forget the swaging, for now at least. Much more expensive to get started in.
Cast boolits will most likely do everything you want. With a bit of work you will be shooting at or near factory velocities, and very good accuracy, and no leading.
I've been using cast boolits for hunting for 40 years, and have not had a deer, antelope, bear, elk, or bison live with a good hit.
As others said, the friend is not a very good person to get advise from. This is the college of casting.

Here is a good place to start, to get an idea of what cast will do.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=27996

Welcome aboard!

[Hickory]

Ok, I guess this question to anyone that is out there willing to help me will fall into "dumb" questions. I just bought a lead melter for my fiancee for christmas...he has No idea that it's coming. The question is a friend of mine just told me that melting lead can ONLY make .45 cal or 9mm. It can't make anything else that will be worth shooting. I thought smelting lead could make rifle bullets as well. He said that the only way that you can make bullets that were worth a dang was to "swag" bullets. How true is this? Can someone shine some light on this? Is Swaging better than smelting? I've looked online and nothing has told me one way or another. I want to make sure that the bullets that he creates will work with our older rifles...( got him a 1885 high wall, and he got me a 1903A1.) And I want to make sure nothing happens to these rifles.
I want to learn as much as I can about all of this, to surprise him.

Thank you in advance to those who send me advice!!
:holysheep:holysheep

I can not shine more light then what has already been shone.
I will say this though, what REAL man would not want a woman like you.
You sound like quite a person.

[Bret4207]

LittleOneMedic- welcome and may I suggest, very strongly, that you get your fiance a copy of Lymans Cast Bullet Handlbook. It has all the basic info you need as well as good load data.

[Doc_Stihl]

Bret hit it right on the head there. The lyman handbook will offer all the good basic how to's.

This website will fill in any gaps and answer anything questions after that.

[bslim]

LittleOneMedic - I've have only been casting my own Boolits for the past year, so still being on the learning curve, the only advise I could give you would be that I have learned more from this forum than I could have imagined. Welcome and Enjoy the education.

[Wayne Smith]

LittleOne, ask your friend if that is the case, why are there 30 caliber Armory molds used by the US Army to cast boolits for the 30US (30-40 Krag) an the 30-03? Ditto for the .45 Rifle Armory molds. Seems that the US Army might know a touch more than he does? How about all those Lyman and RCBS molds designed for rifles? If they don't work, why have some of them been in continuous production for over 100 years? (I really like to argue theory with facts that contradict the theory!)

You have your answers. You need to post a location so we can see if there is a member close enough to you to mentor you in this process.

[theperfessor]

Welcome! +1 for the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook. That covers all the basics. This site and the members here will cover the rest.

You can shoot cast lead/lead alloy bullets in almost anything. Many popular rifle and pistol cartridges were designed around lead bullets and will still deliver the same or better performance today (.45-70 for example). Some cartridges were designed around jacketed bullets but work equally well with cast (.45 ACP comes to mind). Some (mostly rifle) cartridges designed for jacketed bullets show a significant drop in performance when loaded with cast bullets by the average reloader. Doesn't mean you can't use use cast bullets in a super short fat magnum metric somethingorother, just means that most people can't make it reach its maximum potential with them.

[cbrick]

Welcome to CastBoolits LittleOneMedic,

Reading as much as you can on cast bullets is good and here is an outstanding place to start.

From Ingot To Target (http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_textonly2.pdf)

I don't want to say your friend is an idiot because he may well be an intelligent person and also a very good friend of yours but when it comes to cast bullets he knows not of what he speaks. He probably believes what he is saying but I can assure you that he is not speaking from experience . . . He is merely passing on old wives tales started by others that have no idea what they are talking about.

The two rifles you mentioned are ideal cast bullet rifles and in particular the High Wall, it was after all made many years before the jacketed bullet was invented.

There are no dumb questions except one . . . The only dumb question is the one you don't ask.

Rick