How come you shoot cast boolets????

[abunaitoo]

I shoot cast boolets because I'm poor and cheap;).
Mostly cheap.
Also, I shoot only old rifles and most have worn out barrels.
Save lots on bullets and powder (pistol powder).
Looking for a Matchlock so I can save on primers.

[lurch]

Pistol:


I get just as good performance or better from cast as I do jacketed in most cases.
Boolits are definitely less expensive as well.
It's a lot more entertaining to show up the crowd that doesn't and swears they won't.
Casting is time spent that keeps me out of trouble otherwise.


Rifle (Really only into .30 caliber right now, but venturing into some .22):


Most of the above plus
13 yr old boy is not quite ready for a full house '06 - yet.
Got to figure a way to keep him in .223 without breaking the bank.
So many new things to try = more "justified" [smilie=1:range time

[Daddyfixit]

[QUOTE=abunaitoo;899557]I shoot cast boolets because I'm poor and cheap;).
Mostly cheap.
That's why I started, but after getting a 550 Dillon, Star lube sizer, Lee 10lb pot, Three MiHec moulds (waiting on a fourth!), two RCBS moulds and a Lee 6 banger:veryconfu I'll just have to admit my hobby is FUN![smilie=w: and quite an investment! but most of all FUN!

[SciFiJim]

Mostly cheap.

That's why I started, to shoot cheaper. I have always liked learning new things, now the whole concept of casting with ALL the variables is what keeps me interested and in the casting game.

Of course, I still like cheap.

[Echo]

A. Cheap
B. Do it MYSELF!
C. As accurate (pistol) as factory
D. Casting is FUN! (Smelting, too)
E. Tight loop back to A.

[dromia]

It gets me more involved in the whole shooting experience, can be challenging but the rewards and satisfaction on the target are immeasurable. A continual learning process that has self sustained my interest in guns shooting and handloading for over 40 years.

It also enables me to participate in fine forums such as these. :grin:

I definitely don't save any money casting, though with prudence and that as a goal I'm sure you can.

[jmsj]

I shoot cast bullets and reload because I like the idea of being as self reliant as I can.
First I started tuning guns to get the most out that gun, then I started reloading to get the most out of the guns I tuned and I am now trying to cast the best bullet I can to get the most out of the cartridges for the guns I've tuned. Sounds like a vicious circle doesn't it.
With the rising cost of ammo and the future cost of ammo and availability uncertain, I thought it would be a good idea to be able to do as much for myself as possible. I would have never thought I would enjoy casting as much as I do. Heck it's almost midnight and I just came in from casting some .32 and 2 kinds of .44's and I get up at 5:30.
Also if I didn't reload my family and I couldn't afford to as much as we do.
jmsj

[cbrick]

Because there is no feeling like showing up at a match with your own CB and doing well, ya made them yourself and they did just what they were supposed to do.

I won an NRA state championship long range revolver open sight match (200 meters) shooting my own cast boolits. I beat some of the country's best revolver shooters, every one of them were shooting the best jacketed bullet money could buy and my boolits beat every one of them.

What's the best feeling from that state championship match? Yep, I won but that's not it. Yep, I still have the trophy but that's not it.

I shot a perfect 60X60 score and I did it with my cast boolits, I made them with my own two hands right from scratch. That what was the best part of that state championship match and still is to this day. My cast boolits did what no one else could do.

That's why I cast. It is time intensive, it is labor intensive and it is not cheap. But to go to the range, especially for a match and do well with what you made yourself is a feeling that cannot be compared with any other. My cast boolits won, that is a better feeling than the fact that I won. My boolits won.

That's why I cast.

Rick

[357maximum]

I started casting fishing sinkers (to save money) and it led to casting boolits for cheap pistol fodder(to save money). Then came cheap rifle plinkers(to save money)......... Somewhere along the line I got a mental disorder and started a venture to see how fast I could go in a rifle with accuracy. Which led to a lube quest...which eventually led to using cast for all the above reasons...plinkers/hunting/outright accurate speed quests. At that point I really stopped casting to save money.

In the beginning I was ignorant and did not know I could not do some of the things I was doing with a rifle. Only after finding this forum did I learn why some of my ventures in high speed rifles worked so well while other attempts were miserable failures. Now I cast because I like the fruits of my labor and enjoy the processes.....all of them. Being independant of the high $$ copper boolits has it's merits also. I have castkilled enough game to know I no longer need copperclad projectiles to do everthing I need to do with any of my toys. I still use some j-words but not because I HAVE TO. Independance is now the word I would use if I could only choose one descriptive word of WHY I CAST. If I could afford a good rocklock I would never have to buy anything but sulphur but what would be the fun in that?[smilie=1:

[stubshaft]

I started to shoot cast because it was the only way that I could afford to compete in PPC, IPSC and IHMSA. In the course of competing I have won a number of State Championships, shot three 60X60 IHMSA scores and have been convinced that as far as accuracy was concerned j-word boolits are NOT neccesary. I have also been fortunate enough to have harvested many game animals (well into 3 digits) with cast boolits and have the satisfaction of knowing that I made the boolit, that got me the meat.

[RobS]

I like to tinker............................and………………………. then tinker a bit more. There is just something about making things on my own and I am also not an overly wealthy man or maybe I should say that I’m frugal in nature.

[evan price]

Started reloading so I could shoot more and save some money. Started casting because I wanted to see if I could find enough lead to make it worthwhile, to save money, and now because it's nice to be able to make all the ammo I would need in case I couldn't buy ammo again. Sure Red Dawn is jst a movie but what if someday they lay a tax on ammo? Can't tax scrap lead now can they.

[303Guy]

It gets me more involved in the whole shooting experience, can be challenging but the rewards and satisfaction on the target are immeasurable. A continual learning process that has self sustained my interest in guns shooting and handloading for over 40 years.

It also enables me to participate in fine forums such as these. :grin:

I definitely don't save any money casting, though with prudence and that as a goal I'm sure you can.Exactly!:drinks:

It was never about saving money for me although I did use that as a justification!:mrgreen:

To sum up - it's for the fun of it!:bigsmyl2:[smilie=w:

[EMC45]

Cheaper than J bullets. I think I can best factory ammo as far as accuracy is concerned with my cast reloads. I am the final QC regulator on my ammo too. I have had too much junky factory ammo.

[Shiloh]

They are virtually free, they can be tailored to a specific size, I enjoy making them.
Lead scrounging has become tougher over the last few years.

Shiloh

[nicholst55]

I agree with the majority that I began casting to save money - it was the ONLY way I could afford to shoot as a young married soldier with a baby son. I have continued because I enjoy casting and then shooting boolits that I made myself.

Free lead was a major draw for me - I dunno what I'll do if/when I can no longer obtain (essentially) free lead.

[509thsfs]

Started because I was buying cast GC slugs from a shop in MI when I was shooting PPC. They shot 6 round one hole groups off the bench at 25 yds out of my Security Six (regretably I don't have that revolver anymore). When I left MI, I was out of those until I found that a guy I was stationed with in MI, and now in MO, happened to buy the mold off the shop owner in MI. I bought the mold from him along with other casting equipment so I could make my own and continue to shoot them.

Now, I do it cause it's cheap and fun. Also keeps me out of trouble and gets me out of a couple of weekends of yard work.

[lwknight]

Cast boolits are cheaper
Cast boolits don't wear out a gun.
Casting is fun.
Casting your own is cheaper ( if you make a lot of em)
I like light cast loads for plinking and like heavy cast loads for hunting.
I got back into casting my own when I had to wait like 3 weeks to get my order because of the backlog.
I used to think that casting my own was not worth the time but, now I like it.

[Richard B]

I am primarily a plinker so I enjoy the low recoil and low cost of cast boolits but what I have been really enjoying is the increasing knowledge that I am getting from this forum as I run into issues and find the answers in previous posts.

[Charlie Sometimes]

I can SHOOT MORE rounds, more often, for the comparable price of factory ammo or factory components- once I have sufficent stocks of empty cartridges. Powder and primers are the only additional expense after those stocks are attained.

AND, it is just down right FUN to make you own BOOLITS, develop your own loads, and learn something throughout the process.

Once you get into it, one thing leads to another, and before you know it, it ain't cheap anymore! :grin: More molds, casting pots, sizer presses, dies, rifles, pistols, etc. :bigsmyl2:

BUT, you are still doing something that you can't get from the retail or factory guys. Hands-on experience, the satisfaction of successfully doing it yourself, and just plain FUN- its all worth it when it connects down range!

[winelover]

I deceided to cast bullets after I eroded the forcing cone on a Colt Python after 6000+ j-word rounds and maximum loads of Bluedot. Replaced the barrel and switched to casting. Didn't hurt that I was a Pipefitter and had unlimited access to Pb & Sn.:wink:
I shoot on my own private range into a sand berm and recover most of my spent boolets to use again and again.:cool:

Winelover

[Calamity Jake]

Because it its FUN and I like to shoot a lot!!!!

[cast367]

You can use for a 30-06 a 180 or 200 grs cast bullit . 22 grs accurate no. 9 and you have a cheap and a very accurate round. Its works fine.

[excavman]

Being in the service back in 1966 didn't pay much and my 30-30 was hungry, had to do something.

Larry

[qajaq59]

If you want to fire 5,000+ 30-30 bullets a year you'd better be either rich or casting!!!

[Lead Fred]

Because I can

They want silly stupid prices for roundball.

I had most of the stuff already, the progression to 45-70 was an easy one.

[Shooter6br]

I guess #1 cheaper than commerial bulets #2 dont need them with my pistols and 45-70 #3 A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOREVER( until i shoot them LOL)

[BarryinIN]

To save money and be able to shoot more should be the obvious reasons, but I'm not so sure they apply to me.
I keep spending money to try this mould or that mould, so I'm not sure I'm saving anything yet. If a mould doesn't work out, I can sell it, so I'm not losing money either.
And I shoot them faster than I make them. So, it may let me shoot more, but not because I always have piles of bullets ahead. Casting helps augment my supply, though.

My big reasons for doing it:

-Variety. It gives me an incredible choice of bullets. I can't get a .44 caliber wadcutter, or pointed .41, or .30 cal 130 grain bullet just anywhere, and to get them in slightly oddball diameters is even harder. I may not need them, but it's nice to be able to get them as easily as anything else. They can be had without casting my own, but it's easy to just go make some now that I can.

-Accuracy. People usually think of handguns here, but I have two rifles that do better with cast because their bores ae worn and/or oversize and I can make a cast bullet that fits them. I shoot a lot of 9mm too, and being able to make bullets that actually match the bore diameters instead of using the "standard" .355" has helped a lot there.

-Availability. I've had to wait weeks for bullet orders, even before the post-election panic. Now, my supply is up to me. If I need some, I make them.

-Flexibility. Once nice thing about reloading in general is being able to use one bullet in several calibers. For example, a box of .30 caliber bullets might work in .300 Sav, .308, .30-06, etc, and keeping some on hand means I can have ammo for any of several guns at the asking. Casting takes that a step further. If I have lead ingots or wheelweights, I can have bullets for anything.

-Self-sufficiency. Kind of fits with availability. The more I can make myself, the less I have to depend on others for, and that can come in pretty handy at times.

-Fun. It is nice to shoot a good group or good score and say "I made that" and really mean it.

-Time management. This is a big one for me. I'm a stay-home dad due to an injury, and I spend most of my summer sitting on the deck watching our kids (and the neighbor kids) in our backyard. Since getting a small pool, I watch them like a hawk. Between being half-crippled and basically stuck out there besides, there weren't many things I could accomplish while out there, and I wasn't feeling very productive. Since I started casting, I spend that time sitting there making bullets. I feel like I'm getting something done instead of just making sure nothing happens.

[WILCO]

I started reloading due to cost. Now I cast boolits for the same reason.
Which is why I now make my own gas checks.
This has led me to modifying 30-06 brass cases for .308 and 8mm.
The whole concept fits in with my spirit of self reliance and independence.
Come to think of it, that's why I enjoy being divorced. [smilie=w:

[The Dove]

I echo what Echo stated in post #5 of this thread!!!

The Dove

[Blammer]

I started casting lead RB's for my muzzleloader then graduated to Maxi ball's for my 50 cal muzzleloader. I started because I thought you HAD to cast your own for a muzzleloader as I couldn't find any bullets for them. The ones I did find were outrageously priced and by the time you added shipping it was nuts.

Take a break from casting for my muzzle loader of about 5 or more years, get married have kids, change jobs, move etc... and I continued to shoot jacketed bullets and tinker.

Then jacketed bullet prices went through the roof, I wanted to keep shooting. Even the cheap jacketed like remington core lokt were getting really expensive. I thought about casting for rifles many many years ago. I looked into it once again and stumbled upon this site.

I thought I'd ask someone if I could get a few sample bullet to try in my rifle. My win 357 mag actually. I found a kind gentleman who said he'd send me a few, I said I'd cover some shipping for them and only requested about 20 of them. He denied any shipping reimbursment and a week later I got this really big, really heavy box. It had well over 200 bullets in it, lubed and GC'd.(Thank you John T. Larson. :) ) I was shocked! I thought this guy must have sent me $75 worth of bullets to try! I then thought about it and determined that he must be able to make them very cheaply to be able and willing to send out so many to a complete stranger for NOTHING!
This logic made me even more interested in casting, cause I could make a BUNCH of them for cheap!

I shot some and they worked great! No leading and good accuracy! I was hooked. I then started finding out about casting my own and what I needed to do. I already had a lyman 450 sizer, the melting pot, ladle, and ingot mould from my casting kit I got from Midway a LONG time ago. Well soon I had a mould, a sizer, and a top punch, ordered GC's, learned all about how to make it work and then the trouble started... :) I realized I didn't have enough moulds! :)

I have now concluded that somewhere somehow I did save some money, and got to keep shooting as much and MORE than I had previously.

I'm now fairly versed in casting and how to shoot good boolits, I've taken 3 deer with my cast boolits and love showing and busting the myth's at the shooting range when people ask what I'm shooting.

My favorite moment occurs when I'm shooting at 100 yds and turn in a respectable group off the bench with my cast boolits and the guy next to me has spent some hi dollars on the "best" factory ammo and doesn't shoot nearly half as good.

so after all that, I suppose I could blame John T. Larson for my casting boolit addiction. :)

[ghh3rd]

Started off so I could save money (found that I actually shoot more for the same amount), but found that it's very gratifying to shoot well with ammo where the boolit and even the lube are made from scratch.

I could have bought lots of factory ammo with the cost of smelting equipment, press, lube sizer, dies, molds, electronic scale, chrono, etc, etc., but it wouldn't have been 1/10th the fun shooting them.

Besides, when I get too old to load and shoot :-(, all of that "junk" will still be around and hopefully used by at least one of my kids.

[gray wolf]

I have always enjoyed the shooting sports, hunting, and fishing.
Could say I still do and after all the years of doing it I guess I always will.
Now in my late sixties I can see not much has changed, and the chance of it ever changing are slim and none.
I like making things and seeing the finished product, and I don't mind doing things till I get it right.
I see and here people talk about paying $ 350.00 for a 1,000 rounds of 45 ACP ammo, and I know that I can shoot better ammo, made by myself for about
$ 40.00 a 1,000.----I smile and keep shooting.
I just plane enjoy casting and making my own bullets.


Sam

[dragonrider]

It's stessless.

[abunaitoo]

Thanks to all.
Good people, great sport.

[Echo]

Because there is no feeling like showing up at a match with your own CB and doing well, ya made them yourself and they did just what they were supposed to do.

I won an NRA state championship long range revolver open sight match (200 meters) shooting my own cast boolits. I beat some of the country's best revolver shooters, every one of them were shooting the best jacketed bullet money could buy and my boolits beat every one of them.

What's the best feeling from that state championship match? Yep, I won but that's not it. Yep, I still have the trophy but that's not it.

I shot a perfect 60X60 score and I did it with my cast boolits, I made them with my own two hands right from scratch. That what was the best part of that state championship match and still is to this day. My cast boolits did what no one else could do.

That's why I cast. It is time intensive, it is labor intensive and it is not cheap. But to go to the range, especially for a match and do well with what you made yourself is a feeling that cannot be compared with any other. My cast boolits won, that is a better feeling than the fact that I won. My boolits won.

That's why I cast.

Rick

Rick, many of us realize that the most important competition is with ourselves - us against the course of fire, us against par, us against those ten pins at the end of the alley. Trophies are nice, accolades are nice, but DOING WELL is where it's at.

And doing well with your own stuff is 'way better.

Way To Go, Rick!

[zardoz]

I had been shooting for most of my years with factory ammo.

Then, long about 1993, August I believe, I started buying some semi-auto guns, because some things were happening. About the same time, an older fellow at work suggested I acquire reloading tools and such as well.

So, over a period of years, I collected this and that, bits and pieces at guns shows here and there

Then, around November of 2008, I went into high gear and figured I best get situated to where I could cast my own boolits. Before January 2009, I was rocking and rolling with the bare minimum of components.

Now, it has ballooned to where this has become a real hobby for me. One that I do out of the enjoyment, of configuring all the variables. Every week sees me doing something a bit different, or getting another mould, or die, or brass, or whatever, along with the guns to "test" those variables out. Just a vast array of variables.

I used to hot rod cars, back in my younger days. Did it all really. Engines, bodywork, paint, suspension, all of it. Then that got incredibly expensive, and the "shine" sort of wore off, because I'm not so willing to push a vehicle to limits anymore, and burn outrageous amounts of fuel while doing it.

Now this boolit casting and reloading, it really is quite economical, and rewarding, compared to other things I've done. I'm learning things everytime I cast, load, and shoot. Even innovated a thing or two. And there is satisfaction.

I've always been the type to do things with my own two hands and one brain, on my own. Jack of all trades as it were.

It is just very satisfying to cast those little slugs of alloy, load 'em up, and accelerate that little slug in a precisely directed fashion. It has power.

Most of you know what I'm talking about I figure.

[gwilliams2]

Well, started because that was the only way that I could afford to shoot but later found that I just enjoy it.... Not to mention the self reliant factor; I'm the type that does everything I can for myself from construction/everything in the house repair to making my own boolits. I've always been this way and always will..

[ghh3rd]

I shoot on my own private range into a sand berm and recover most of my spent boolets to use again and again.
Lucky dog :-)

[bpost1958]

Because shooting guns, reloading ammo and casting boolits is my PASSION in life!!!

[bohokii]

put me down as a cheapskate

although i like the idea of making it myself kind of a spirit of "self reliance"

of course i cant make powder or primers

[Butcher45]

I use cast boolits because I shoot a .45caliber air rifle. J-Word boolits are a no-no in an air rifle.

[DIRT Farmer]

Nothing more enjoyable than shooting a squrril with a rifle I built, Bought the barrel and lock, using a cast ball and a flint I chiped, cooking it over an open fire with edibles I found in the woods. I would guess I like the self reliant part. Also was the only way a collage student working his way through school in the 60s could shoot matches with a 30-06 and afford to eat.

[Bob J]

I enjoy it for the technical challenge...... Like to have all potential accuracy factors under my control.... Very satisfying when I get it right.....

Am also very cheap..... I find with cast I can shoot a lot more without having to worry about the bank account......;-)

[excess650]

I started in the late 70s, right out of high school. I had a new 44mag to feed, and Elmer insisted that hardcast were best. I had shot factory ammo, and loaded swaged bullets since I had no source for hardcast. I bought a new RCBS 44-250KT and cast on a Coleman stove.

Later, I was casting roundballs and maxi-balls for MLers.

During the mid 80s I statrted PPC with swaged, but switched to cast for economy.....and then IPSC....and BPCRS. During the interim I had bought some old rifles, and knew cast were kinder to the soft barrels.

Casting can be therapeutic. Watching perfectly formed bullets drop from the mold and accumulate into larger and larger piles....[smilie=w:

Being a gadget junkie doesn't help. I have way too many moulds, but always look for new designs that might work better.

[qajaq59]

While it does save us money, there's plenty of guys that could afford to buy all the jacketed bullets they wanted, but still prefer to cast. Excess 650 has a point with his therapeutic theory. It really is rather nice to just sit there and pile them up. Especially if you're retired and have the time to be as fussy as you like.

[Moonie]

I started casting about 20 years ago due to cost. I couldn't afford j-words for the .357 and .445SM. Besides I could cast heavy weights in the .445/44 that couldn't be purchased at the time. I've recently gotten back into shooting after an extended time with no firearms and also back into casting. My casting experience was with just pistols in the past however this week picked up a .30 cal mold to cast for the oldest sons 30-06. It dawned on me that I should teach my boys how to cast (also have an 11 year old daughter that seems to have an interest and has requested a center fire rifle for her 12'th birthday). Looking forward to doing some teaching and learning.

Great forum here, wish I had had it as a resource when I started casting.

[jlchucker]

Put me down as a cheapskate as well. That, plus the fact that no matter how the politicians scheme to take away ammo, as long as I have powder and primers I'm as good to go as I ever was.

[atr]

I like to shoot,,,,practice, practice, practice.... so that when I hunt my shooting abilities are sharp.....and cast boolits lets me do alot of practice shooting within a budget I can afford.....also,,,I find it very interesting and challenging developing cast boolit loads which will shoot accurately. Ive learned alot more about guns, and projectiles loading for cast boolits than I ever did when I was just loading J's.

[.22-10-45]

Hello, I started out running ball for a .36 Navy Arms 1851 navy. Went to cast in centerfire for less bore wear and didn't need all that power to punch holes in paper. But the main reason I guess is that after awhile, jacketed becomes BORING! I mean, all your doing is reaching in a box and pulling out a projectile. Cast offerers much more...different alloys, diameters, plain or G.C., homemade lubes, paper-patch...it's almost endless. And with the .22's a whole new world opens. Also ,with the old ones, it just feels safer knowing you have an added safety feature built in.

[shdwlkr]

Well I started when I got my first muzzle loader as the dealer gave me some and said I could do better making my own. He sold me the mold and my casting pot and laddle and told me where to get my lead. That was almost 45 years ago now and 40 plus molds ago. Is it cheap well maybe but for me it was just another step in reloading and one that I truly like.
If I were to add up the cost of everything I have purchased for just casting, the lead I have purchased, gas checks, sizers and everything else it most likely has been expensive hobby. But I could have gone to a bar and drank it all up and have nothing so I feel I have won.
I also load many bullet weights that are not available commerically and can still shoot many of my old caliber rifles and that makes me happy and will continue as long as I can and hope I die before we loose that freedom. Its loss will make us nothing more then servants to and evil dictator and I will not live under a dictator if I can help it. I grew up free and wish to always be free.

[Char-Gar]

I started casting for handguns 50 years ago, because that was about all their was and I just never switched to condom bullets. I cast for rifles off and on, but got serious about it a dozen years ago as I was bored with jacketed bullet. Things just go to easy and I wanted something more challenging. Cast bullets has provided that challenge. It doesn't hurt any they are cheaper.