How many cast boolits do you make.

[rcslotcar]

I've been casting boolits for about 30 years now. I was in the garage casting.45 slugs and filled my 50 cal ammo can to the top. I realized I don't cast to make a specific amount of boolits by count, Rather I cast to fill different containers. I use 30 cal ammo cans, 50 cal and some large plastic containers. I have several ammo cans filled with different weights/designs of the same caliber. Does any one else do this or do you keep count of exactly what you have?

[Rcmaveric]

I cast by weight. I have these plastic jars I get from the dollar store. They hold 20lbs of bullets. Each bullet gets three containers. When I get halfway through the last container. I fire up the pot and refill the containers.

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[brewer12345]

I have started using 30 cal containers. I cast them enough to fill up and when I pull the last of it (or close) to coat/lube and size, it is time to cast more. I only cast one boolit for 45 at present so I am a lot more touchy when that container gets light than 38, which I cast several boolits for. Maybe time to either fill up a second container with the 45s I like, or find a second boolit profile.

[Beagle333]

I usually cast a ProMelt pot full at a time. I might cast two on some days, but it's always the pot that stops me and not any count. I do that later.

[Misery-Whip]

Same as you. Who wants to count.


Filling a 50cal can with lead isnt impossible to move...just smarter to fill it where ya wanted it in the beginning...;)

[cwlongshot]

I usually cast a ProMelt pot full at a time. I might cast two on some days, but it's always the pot that stops me and not any count. I do that later.. Same here.

CW

[baragasam]

I buy lead in 50 lb packages and I use a shoe box to drop the bullets from the mold. I usually do 10 lbs in an hour and take a break. Couple hours a day should give about 40 lbs of bullets.

[Minerat]

I cast till I get tired or board. That's sometimes multi pots or 6 boolits just depends on how I feel that day.

[Hick]

I cast by the season. I manage to get out to the range once or twice a week year round. So, about this time every year I inventory and estimate how much of each mold I might need to last until this time next year. Add up all the different molds and I might cast 4000-5000 each winter.

[jdfoxinc]

I use only 30 cal ammo boxes. I still don't have a hernia.

i cast one full then sizelube that full can so they are ready to load.

[brewer12345]

I cast by the season. I manage to get out to the range once or twice a week year round. So, about this time every year I inventory and estimate how much of each mold I might need to last until this time next year. Add up all the different molds and I might cast 4000-5000 each winter.

Heh, I am seasonal as well, but different. IN the winter I can't count on casting because I do it outside and no telling whether the area I cast will be clear and dry, covered in a layer of ice (now), or a foot of snow. October through February is hunting season so my range visits are mostly quick drop ins for an hour of handgun shooting at the indoor range. I go through a lot of boolits on these visits. When game is not in season, I also frequent an outdoor range. Then I shoot a lot of rifle and black powder. Fewer shots, less lead, but each shot is a bigger deal. Casting is mostly spring and fall, since the summer tends to be too hot.

One of these days I will make it to a dedicated black powder shoot. I imagine I will go through a lot of my stash of round balls in a day when I do.

[dtknowles]

I cast what I feel like and if I need more I buy them or loaded ammo. Life is too short to slave over the casting pot. I cast enough to stay proficient but I would rather be shooting.

Tim

[murf205]

If it is a known mold and boolit type and I have a gun that I know I will use it in, I usually do a ProMelt pot full like Beagle said. But if it is a new mold and an untried boolit for a new gun , I usually run about 100 to test with, which is what I did today. I have run a batch that would nearly break the shelf on my book case I keep them but not any more.

[Taterhead]

Depending on the guns I'm loading for, I glance at the pile of fresh boolits piled onto the old bath towel and think, that's enough.

Sometimes when I run out mid summer when casting is no fun, I think about my lack of sophistication in inventory trackibg per casting session.

Sometimes when a mold is spectacularly in the zone, it is tough to stop.

[bullseye67]

Good evening,
Depends on the boolit weight more than anything. I have H&G 4 cavity molds in, 45 #68, 38 #141 and a 32 #219. I cast for an hour with the 45, hour and a half with the 38 and 2 hours with the 32. All equal about 17lbs. Rifle boolits are a different story. I switch between several molds until I have had enough. The worst are my old Ideal single cavity molds.... lots of casts not many boolits!!!!

[Walks]

I cast from an old Pro-Melt or a MAG-20. Pot gets down to 1/4 full, I fill it up and set the molds I'm using on the hot plate. Take a break, drink coffee, smoke my pipe. After 15-20min the pot is back up to temp and I start over. Do it maybe 2-3 times. Clean up, put iron molds in safe on top of dehumidifier bar. End up with 6-700 bullets, I'm slow.
All I can do these days. Arthritis in just about every joint.
Next day I cull and count, pack in small plastic containers that hold a 100 45-250gr bullets. What I can still able to pick up with one hand.

Used to be I would cast from a 20lb pot on each end of the table, hot plate in the middle. Cast from 3 4cav molds at a time. Got 17,000+ bullets one weekend, culled.
Called in sick to work for 2 days. Never again. From then on 6 hours tops, 4-5,000 bullets in a session. Was plenty

[44Blam]

I tend to cast 10-20 lbs at a time. That tends to be the end of my attention span.

[Conditor22]

https://i.imgur.com/5S2zgJc.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/rDYH7At.jpg

[JM7.7x58]

I’m about one year and 11 molds into this whole casting thing. The vast majority of what I’ve been doing has been load development, figuring out my alloys, and figuring out fit. I’ve only been casting 200 to 300 per mold, per session for the most part. I just want to cast enough to develop a good load that I can standardize for each gun.

I have however cast one big coffee can 3/4 full of 148 grain .358” TL wadcutters. This was my first 6-banger and I wanted to see how many bullets I could cast on a Saturday.

JM

[Shopdog]

JM7.7, I've been casting over 40 years and,not significantly different from your response,haha. Give me 2-300 hundred really sweet,"pick a rifle cal" and am GTG. Work on load development with about half,blast enough of the rest for almost daily zero checks,varmint hunting takes care of the rest..... wash,rinse,repeat.

[GregLaROCHE]

I usually cast until my forearm gets too tired/sore.
I don’t normally count boolits, especially small calibers. I weigh a container full of them and do the math to know how many I have.

[gunarea]

Trick question
My casting began in 1963 to support the costs of having a shooting coach. It took 1000 "GOOD" castings a week to cover my tuition. My shooting coach, "Bulleteer" teacher, friend and mentor, did not allow indiscriminate, pouring, piling, storing or stacking of projectiles. Carefully placed side by side, vertically, three layers or less into boxes labeled with complete data. That is how I do it to this day. From 1978 til 2006, I averaged 2500 cast projectiles a month. This number is based upon primer receipts and does not account for thousands gifted and sold. Sold our shooting facility in Aug 2006. Since then my usage has plummeted to around +/- 600 rounds a month, not counting shotgun. Not sure it counts, dropped around 350lbs/yr of shot for about twenty years. I wish casting was a pleasure for me, it is a chore endured to support my shooting disorder.
Roy

[toallmy]

I try to maintain half a dozen or so coffee cans of my most popular handgun boolits lubed ready to load 9s , 45s , and 38s - rifle boolits are done in much smaller amounts . I cast inside so the winter is a good time to restock , I haven't started restocking yet this season . I have a few new to me 38/357 molds to try out this winter I will run them in small batches a pint or so at a time while testing on target .

[OS OK]

https://i.imgur.com/5S2zgJc.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/rDYH7At.jpg

"Uuuug! When I grow up Jim...I wanna be just like you!"

I cast by the pot-full, by weight not by count so much...but I try to cast, PC & size a particular profile and get it all done in a days work. That takes the monotony and sore elbows out of it for me.
Now that I have a 'mould oven' that keeps my mould up to casting temperature...I can take a break from the pot and start PC'ing the casts I have ready to go at that point...about the time of the second break...I'm pulling the first oven batch and running a second...third break and I can size as the pot is empty and cooling and on it goes until I'm done.
I am casting to refill the low stock on my shelves and as long as the lead is correct for pressure applied...I can cast several profiles & calibers if needed...different calibers get used at different rates so I'm just re-stocking my containers enough to stay ahead of their demand.
I like the dollar store containers too...cheap & they have enough room for a lot of casts.


https://i.imgur.com/DDkVIs6.jpg

So...at the end of a days casting, I've always done 18 pounds minimum but I've seen a day or two where I got lost in my good ole'60's music and done twice that...
Try to keep your casting, coating & sizing a pleasurable job-of-work and you'll never regret the time spent having to replenish your boolits.

[onelight]

Wow that is a boolit candy store !

[sharps4590]

As many as I need and some extra's for later.

[sonoransixgun]

Whew...some of you guys are hard core! Motivating...I cast based on time usually. Busy life, so I cast when I have a free minute or two....Or if I have time, I'll cast a pot of lead and call it good.

[tazman]

I don't have so many molds that I can't tell the differences between the boolits with just a quick glance at the boolit. Therefore I don't label them. I use whatever open container I have on hand, usually empty butter or cool whip containers. Sometimes, when I don't have enough empty containers, I will buy some of the cheap "takealong" food containers and use those.
I have boolits for 38/357, 9mm, 40S&W, and 45ACP.
For loaded ammo, I label the boxes so I know what is in there when I shoot it. I have several nose profiles that look similar when loaded requiring the labels.

[lightman]

I have what I call my "working stock" of brass for my handguns and a couple of rifles that I shoot the most. This is a batch of brass, often with mis-matched head stamps that is loaded with a proven load and numbers a few thousand per caliber. I store the loaded rounds in ammo cans and the emptys are stored in plastic tubs, carefully labeled. I process them and load them all at once and then I use them until the last one is empty. Then I start all over. I try to have enough bullets cast ahead time to load these whenever they are empty.

Anyway, I store these bullets in recycled containers, much like some of you have pictured. The bullets are not stacked but I do place them in those containers gently, by hand. I try to keep several containers af bullets for each caliber cast up and ready.

Before I went to this method I sized and lubed them and carefully stacked them in cigar boxes. But cigar boxes have gotten hard for me to find and I really saw no advantage in knowing the exact number of bullets that I had.

I have a steel work bench in my shop that is long enough for 3 people to sit and cast at. The electric system is strong enough to run 3 casting pots and 3 hot plates. Pretty often a buddy or 2 will come over and we cast together. We usually cast all morning, take a lunch break, and go back and run another pot or two. This is usually all that my ole back wants for one day. We do this on a weekly basis at the end of Winter and into the Spring before it gets too hot.

[pworley1]

On an average I cast 500-600 per month. That is about what I shoot.

[John McCorkle]

Most times I cast a pot full from the Lee 4-20 but sometimes crank out the smaller 10# pot for pure lead casting for my muzzleloader/38spc wadcutters. I'll cast the muzzy projos till I get "enough" then at a touch of tin to help fill out in the smaller mold and finish off the pot in the wadcutters... sometimes I'll add a bit of range scrap at the end of the session to cast up some 314-90swc for plinkers and call it a day.

Getting ready for a big pour of 80# of wheel weights into a 6 gang 312-155 for 300 BLK...that'll take all day but it's a specific project not my normal casting routine

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[Burnt Fingers]

I use small ammo cans. The MTM mini one mostly. For my most popular 9mm and .45 boolits I try and keep a couple thousand on hand.

When I cast I cast till my shoulder starts to act up.

[fredj338]

I generally cast what I will need to shoot for a month or two. So I will cast about 1000 at a pop, then coat & size. Repeat as necessary. This winter though I want to get ahead because I don't really like casting in the summer months.

[Lowbudget12]

I only cast a few at a time. lyman devastators is what i started with. I was buying cast from a local place that quit. So i have started picking up wheel weights and getting ready for 9mm and 45acp

[Cherokee]

My cast bullet storage is loose in cardboard boxes 4x4 or 6x6 size. After size/lube, back into the boxes labeled with bullet/alloy/weight/date. I try to keep 1000+ available for my popular bullets. Casting sessions are usually 20# and my body has had enough. Get back to it later. Since I cast inside with HVAC, I go year round for about 50K annually. I calculate a count by weight and keep an inventory so I know what I have available +/- a few.

[RogerDat]

My collection won't look like Condinator or OS_OK pictures unless someone else organizes it for my estate sale! I do keep stuff organized, or sorted, well at lest where I can find it again... eventually.

I went to 30 caliber ammo cans under bench and as tazman mentioned I don't do that many molds per caliber so a can for each caliber works for most calibers, maybe there will be a couple or three zip lock baggies in there with PC'd or lubed and sized. Along with the baggies of as cast. I do count if nothing else after a session I weigh the cast results and divide by bullet weight. For a couple of calibers there may be two of those 30 caliber cans. Maybe for sorting purposes or because a lot of 30 caliber seemed like a good idea at the time. I can move a 30 caliber can full of cast. A 50 caliber can I can move if by move you mean tip over or drop after a short distance.

I'm not going for an exact count but if things are dropping well I like to do a good supply. What that is depends on caliber. 38 caliber SWC 300 is a good supply, as long as I haven't used more than 300 since last casting. For an 8mm half that many is plenty. For .223 well a whole lot, then some more is just about right. As I said I may count for a bit as I go along then at the end do a count based on weight to see if I have enough or should put some more lead in the pot and keep going. The first count is to see how much progress I'm making over a period of time. The weight count is to see if I'm done.

I use those HF plastic ammo boxes for bags of completed reloads. That covers the basic plinking, some Plano cartridge boxes of 50 or 100 cover the less commonly used specific loads.

[dale2242]

I am in the process of casting 452460s right now.
My goal is 1K ….dale

[6bg6ga]

Ballisti-cast Mark IV bullet caster with twin molds. I generally cast several pots somewhere in the 80-100 lb region. Less with say 124gr rn 9mm bullets than say 44/240 GR SWC bullets. Arm gets tired pulling the handle after a while. Probably 4500 9mm bullets in a setting or 2900-3000 44/240 GR SWC bullets or 230 gr RN 45acp.

[Muddydogs]

You guys are starting to make me twitch. Casting an ammo can full and not knowing how many are in there is just unacceptable, I would lay awake at night wondering how many bullets I have. Weighting bullets in a pinch will work but the count might be off by one or two so it's just better to count them. Ya I got issues and I have spread sheets proving it.

[Rcmaveric]

OCD much?

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[The Dar]

I usually cast a Lee 4-20 pot full at a time. With either 2 six cavity molds or 3 two cavity molds, depends on what I'm running low on.

[barnabus]

I normally cast in 1200 round lots. usually two or three sittings and then don't pour for a month or so.i think it keeps my lead level down.

[kevin c]

I cast to feed my action pistol habit, so when I'm shooting a lot (out recovering from some health stuff at the moment), I'll cast over a few days to have two to four months worth of boolits, around ten thousand. These will be HiTek coated, sized and stored, to be loaded once my current stock of components runs out. I try to anticipate the need so that the casts have aged to stable hardness.

I run 8 cave aluminum molds with Promelt with a Lee 4-20 feeder mounted over it. Both are PID controlled. Right now it's one mold only, but I'd like to perfect running two molds in a production run. But with the feeder and some care to make the layout of the equipment efficient, even with one mold I can cast close to a thousand an hour and do it without a break for two to three.

I'll bring out enough ingots for three or four full pots worth, starting with empty pots and ending with full ones to continue the session in the next days (occasionally I'll change alloys, which is why I'll empty the pots when finally done). Casting just one boolit and using consistently sized ingots makes it fairly simple to estimate what I've cast that day.

Raw casts are stored in bulk until I'm ready to coat them. They get divided into 250 count lots by weight for consistent heating in the oven, and stay segregated that way through the final bake and sizing. Then it's easy to put exactly 2500 into a labeled or bucket (I really like the Acme Bullet Co boxes I scrounge from my fellow USPSA shooters who load commercial bullets) until it's loading time.

So, yeah, I guess you can say I count them, or at least have a close estimate by weight.

[6bg6ga]

You guys are starting to make me twitch. Casting an ammo can full and not knowing how many are in there is just unacceptable, I would lay awake at night wondering how many bullets I have. Weighting bullets in a pinch will work but the count might be off by one or two so it's just better to count them. Ya I got issues and I have spread sheets proving it.

I think you can get spot on weighing the bullets. You just need a decent scale and perfect bullets damn now I'm going to have to count the 100 lbs of bullets I just made.

[murf205]

That's a good reason to get an electronic postal scale. They are pretty reasonable on Ebay and really come in handy when weighing up a pot full of metals. My tin stash last longer than when I used to guess about the weight of how much I was dropping in the pot.

[DukeConnors]

https://i.imgur.com/5S2zgJc.jpg?1
https://i.imgur.com/rDYH7At.jpg

nuff said

[Green Frog]

It depends on what game I’m shooting at the time. I don't maintain large stores of cast bullets in boxes and jars, rather I consider the casting session as one step in the campaign to prepare for a specific shooting discipline. For instance, I need to be ready for N-SSA skirmishes come Spring, so fairly soon I’ll fire up my pure lead only pot and cast a few hundred .578” Minie Balls and at least that many .454” round balls. Then I’ll do the same with my soft alloy pot and cast a few hundred bullets for my Maynard. Since I bought a coffee can full of bullets for my Henry repeater from a team mate (while looking for a mould) that will give me a good start on my season’s needs for skirmishing. If I am fortunate enough to shoot more events than usual, I’ll do a resupply casting session of whatever I’m running low on.

Back when I was involved in the Schuetzen game, I would try to cast up 3-500 rounds for each of the cf rifles I would be shooting in the next event. These were as perfectly cast as possible, lubed and shot as cast in the order cast, so having a batch of bullets all from the same session was desirable, and getting that many near-perfect bullets at a sitting was about my limit.

For pistol bullets, number cast per session depends on mould and mood. If they’re dropping well, I tend to keep going until I just get tired. Again, I don’t maintain the large stocks some of you seem to feel you need to... maybe now that my partial retirement has become a little more “full” I’ll be looking for something to occupy my time and start building more of a standing stock, especially in 32 and 38 sizes. Maybe as I settle on a couple of “favorites” I’ll make bigger batches of them... the little 105 gr SWC-HP for 32s that I got from MP comes to mind.

Froggie

[dale2242]

I have reached my goal casting the 452460 with a 4 cavity Lyman mold.
I have a cast, sized and lubed 1K of them in three days working off and on....dale