How many have you cast?

[Lead melter]

Just curious, and hope this thread has not already been done, but since I started casting a few years ago I figure I have cast somewhere in the 10-15K boolit area. Some have been stockpiled, while others have been shot.

Question is, by conservative estimate, how many boolits have you old and new hands cast?

If this road has been down before, just tell me to shut up.:roll:

[HeavyMetal]

I couldn't even guess. As with most of us, I think, shooting comes and goes depending on things like work and family.

70's and 80's shot a lot of IPSC, these days just puter around with different projects.

If it helps I wore out not one but two Lyman .451 sizer dies for my old 45 sizer back in the day.

[clintsfolly]

have no idea but casted up 6000lb of 38 44 41 45 boolits one time to pay for a new gun and supplys about 300lb this year 9mm 45acps have fun clint

[Boerrancher]

The last 2 years of college I shot 1 k of 357 per week, 1 k of 9mm, and 1 k of 45ACP, all of which was cast. Saturday and Sunday was spent casting sizing and lubing, as well as tue and thrus. Monday, Wed and Fri were range days. In those two years I wore out 2 Ruger GP 100's, 2 Ruger P 85's, and 2 Springfield Armory 1911's. I started casting and shooting cast when I was about 7 years old, that was 31 years ago, but those last two years of college I probably shot more than all the other years of my life combined. I know I shot almost 200K of rounds for each of those two years. Primers were cheap, powder was cheap, and lead was free. The Army was paying for my college, They were paying me to go to college, and I was also working a part time job on the side, so unlike most college kids I actually had money. I spent it on guns and reloading/casting equipment.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[AZ-Stew]

Tens of thousands over 35 years.

Regards,

Stew

[Johnch]

No clue

Over the 20+ years it has to be a decent number

But I did cast and shoot up 1200 lb of Lino I bought 10 years or so back for $ .10 a lb

Mostly in a 1 part lino to 2 parts WW mix
All in rifles

Add in all the pistol bullets I have shot out of WW and range lead

A bunch is all I can guess

John

[Mumblypeg]

All that I needed. Have no earthly idea at the numbers.

[madcaster]

I have been casting about 24 years,since I was 21 or so...no ideal on numbers of projectiles cast,nor of pounds of lead "consumed"...

[mooman76]

I've been casting for almost 40 years starting with slingshot pellets, moved to BP Rbs and conicals and then to bullets about 4 or 5 years ago when I started reloading. My best guess would be 30k+ but I don't really have a clue.

[Bill*]

NEW HAND here!! About two thousand but then I only got my stuff Christmas 07 and didn't figure casting out till late spring this year.

[timkelley]

About 3000 I figure, I just started this spring. WHAT FUN:-D:-D:-D

[klw]

Since I started keeping detailed records in 1986, 618603.

[Ron]

I started casting in about 1975, like most of us, to save money. In these days it was for PPC and IPSC, maybe a couple of comps a week. Then for about 5 years I bought boolits because of work commitments and didn't have time to cast.

Now that I am retired and have lots of time, I am casting every week and stockpiling boolits. I have a steady supply of alloy and smelt about 600 kgs a year.

As to how many I have cast, I've got no idea but it is sure to increase as I have just bought a new Lee 4-20 pot and a 6 cav mold.

[725]

Not enough.

Started with ML - RB's, Maxi's, REAL's, etc. and have only been at rifle and pistol for a few years.

[runfiverun]

i/we usually cast up- 50 to 100 lbs of lead for each boolit at a time.
sometimes some smaller lots of experimental stuff like 500 boolits
but mainly set up 2 molds and run them untill all the lead-tin/whatever else needed mixed in the big pot has been run through.
total number?????
300 lbs cast just this year, 400+ last year. other years up to 2000 lbs..

[RP]

Well I have not cast as much as you guys so iam going to play it safe and say 129 good boolits. But I think iam in the millions on little round balls 2500lbs of shot this year.

[Jim]

Oh, jeeesh, that's like asking me how many times I've swallowed or drawn a breath.:roll:

[1Shirt]

Probably 6 to 10 Thousand a year average over the past 40 plus years. Probably 70 percent for rifle (includes round ball and mini's for black pdr), and 30 percent for handgun. Enough to keep me shooting as much as I have time for!
1Shirt!:coffee:

[deltaenterprizes]

A conservative estimate would be 1,000,000. I started hand casting in 1983 and in 1985 I started commercial casting for 12 years and had 3 automatic casting machines that did 2400 per hour and automatic lube/sizers that did 5000/hr. I would cast 5 gal buckets of bullets and go through over 3000 lbs of indoor range lead every 2 months.

[jonk]

Can't say for plain base bullets but I've gone through about 8500 gas checks in 7 years for rifle.

(I shoot about 1/3 cast and 2/3 jacketed out of rifle- that will change as my supply of surplus cheap jacketed bullets dries up in another year or so)

[Lloyd Smale]

3,333,333,333,001 if your not counting rejects ;)

[buck1]

More than my fair share! Someone needs to take up the slack around here!! LOL!!!

[JeffinNZ]

I am casting more than I am shooting right now and generating a stock pile. This is because I flatty refuse to cast with just one mould so I grab the mould I want to cast from then another to make up the numbers.

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
NOT ENOUGH, started casting in 1969, always used a 4 cavity mold except on big ML slugs.
If I don't fire at least 3000 rounds a summer I get grouchy.

[Salmon-boy]

Hi, My name's Chuck, and I'm an addict too....

For some reason I don't feel safe unless we have 1K on hand for each caliber we shoot.

[EMC45]

A Lot!

[Calamity Jake]

"A Lot!" X 100, however many that is!!!!!!

[Crash_Corrigan]

Started reloading in '95. Casting in '96. Initially in .38 Spcl to feed my 586. Then friends wanted rounds for their .44's, 9 MM's and rifles. Had a nice little sideline going for a few years and then got involved in .45 ACP and 45 Colts.

I have no idea of how many rounds I have cast. I usually just keep on casting until my back gives out or I run out of lead. Some days I can only put a two inch layer on the bottom of a 5 gallon plastic pail and other days I can have a 12" layer under the water.

I usually have a goal in mind when I start. I need 400 .45's and then when I have that amount I may had a few hundred more or I may pickup another mold and make some 9 MM's or .40's. They do not go bad and I have the space to store them around the house.

The nastier problem is lubing them. Some get the LLA treatment and other go thru the Saeco Lubricizer. LLA is faster but then a 2nd step running 'em thru the Lee sizer and lubing again on another day. With the Saeco it is a one shot deal. Then I put 'em in a qt plastic container and swirl 'em around with spoonfull of corn starch. This keeps them from sticking together and keeps my hands clean.

Pistol boolits are easier and faster to cast and assemble the rounds with than rifle. There is a long learning curve to cast a good rifle boolit and then many quality checks before assembling the round. It takes more time and care for a rifle round but the results are worth it. I do not hunt but I enjoy a nice tight 5 round group shot with a rifle. The pistols are usually just for fun and to keep my defensive skills up there.

I have a 6.5.x 55 MM rifle being put together right now and I am looking forward to breaking it in on cast boolits. I am told it can be tricky as the fast twist will only allow a FPS of 1400 to 1700 before the accuracy goes south. I hope I am up to the challenge. I would really like to be able to use a non gas checked round to keep the costs down as I really do not like to buy gas checks at 3 pennies a round.

I suppose I should next get into flintlocks to really save money. Mix my own gunpowder, make my own boolits, no need for a primer nor a gas check there. Let's see sulphur, charcoal and saltpeter....where can I get that stuff cheap?

[Wayne Smith]

[QUOTE=

I suppose I should next get into flintlocks to really save money. Mix my own gunpowder, make my own boolits, no need for a primer nor a gas check there. Let's see sulphur, charcoal and saltpeter....where can I get that stuff cheap?[/QUOTE]

You forgot mining your own lead! Humh, where would you have to move to do that?

[Cherokee]

I have about 30,000 stockpiled right now. I've done several 100k since 1968, wore out one Lyman 450, don't really know how many.

[monadnock#5]

Lead boolits are like children. I haven't produced nearly enough for all the time and effort I've put into it. :-D

[tom barthel]

Enough to keep shooting. When I think the supply needs to be enhanced, I will cast more. Or, if I get a new mold. Lotsa work involved for me to cast.

[Char-Gar]

I have been casting since 1959 with many years of Bullseye pistol shooting using cast bullets. I can only guess, but it would be somewhere between one and two million bullets. I think that would be a fair and honest guess.

[mstarling]

Started casting in the late 60s. Took a break for graduate school. During my working career there were times I couldn't do much casting so I bought cast bullets. Going strong again. Have cast 9mm, Super, .357, .40, .41, .44 and .45 pistol as well as .30, .366, .375, .416, .458 and .475 rifle ... in the 10s of thousands.

[REDTAIL]

started casting after my brother inlaw & myself bought one each in 1972 s& w model 29's with the 8/38 " bbl, at the time i had a few dozen old school print shops in nyc that used linotype & ludlow, and they gave me tons of whole linotype ingots and scrap lead that they were getting rid of, for some reason they were not re melting the stuff back down, so after lugging this heavy stuff home by route of nyc subway system at that time we bought the molds melting pot flux and whatever else that we needed, and to this day i still have coffee cans filled up with these casted bullets, eventuly i will use them up, Oh by the way we had so much of the linotype at that time we began to make fishing sinkers with it. wish thoes print shops were still around with todays metal prices & un fortunitly my brother in law pass away at an early age miss him also but we have the good memories of casting

[Lloyd Smale]

My buddy was over one day and we tried to figure what i had on hand. I figured about a half a million bullets he said he came up with a figure of about twice that. Thats on hand bullets. I would have to guess that ive in my life casted probably somewhere in the vacinity of 3 million.

[HORNET]

How many have I cast? NOT ENOUGH....I'm running low on a few designs and sizes. I'm glad it's starting to cool off so I can stand to be running lead in the garage again. It is squirrel season though.......Decisions, decisions..

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Any of you guys ever think about how we'd look, if we somehow got jammed up with the law, and the TV news would broadcast the "Armory" we all have?
My local CBS in station in Charlotte, shows, courtesy of the local Law, every knife, gun, magazine and cartridge layed out neatly on a bed or table, along with any gun literature they can find.

It's funny, sometimes, to hear about all the ammo the guy's got, and it turns out to be brick or two of .22's. I store black powder for my cannon, which takes 6-10oz. per shot, so you can guess how much I've got, not to mention , unless I'm trying a new one, I only buy smokeless powder in 4,6 or 8lb. jugs, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of primers, bullets and brass. Hell, I've got over fifty molds!

We must be a very law-abiding bunch, I've never seen a reloader being paraded on the TV.:drinks:
Morgan

[felix]

No more than about five hundred over a year's time. Corky has been kind enough to offer me a hand with the lever gun boolits. I am lucky to shoot 500 rounds a year out of anything. I can actually say I've been there, done that, and don't have the energy to do what I feel like anymore. Spirit is willing, but that's about all. Things are slowly improving, though. ... felix

[Pitmaster]

None yet. :(:( Maybe tomorrow I'll cast a few at a friend's place. He's going to pour some so I can use his stuff. I still need to pick up a couple of items and find some time to sit down and do it.

[IcerUSA]

Too many and not enough , have some on hand for the pistols but not enough for the 45-70 on hand , a few K of 30cal , not enough of 32 and 35 cal , very few 22 cal as I don't have an alloy made up for them yet .

So for a grand total I would say over 10K in just over a years time , dambed newbi I am . hehehe

Keith