Need help getting started

[mugsie]

I've been reloading now for a while, however I'm getting the itch to begin casting my own bullets as well (soon I'll be making my own priimers as well as grinding my own powder too!). I've started reading the threads etc., and can only pick up just so much info. Can anyone recommend a good manual which will get me started? Also, any tips to save me grief in the long run? Thanks....:drinks:

[drinks]

Join the Cast Bullet Assn.
they have a web site, new members get a 100 page book well worth the year's dues and 6 issues of a magazine written by the members.
Lyman has a cast bullet handbook, very helpful, but printed in 1980 and , in some respects, out of date on the loading info.

[dragonrider]

Mugsie,
Hello and welcome to the board.
For cast bullet manual I suggest the Lyman "Cast Bullet Manual". Others may suggest "Modern Reloading" by Richard Lee. Both are excellent tomes with much infomation to be gleaned. Casting bullets is, IMHO, a relaxing and gratifying part of reloading. Not to mention cost effective.
You will be getting a lot more answers and suggestions shortly so hang in there and keep reading.

[NVcurmudgeon]

mugsie, by all means, join the CBA and read all three of the publicans recommended above. This course of action will raise questions in your mind. At that point, ask them here. You will find many casters willing to help. many have got their start in exactly that way on this forum. We all stand ready to help you become a fellow addict.

[Bret4207]

Welcome- A big thumbs us to Lymans Cast Bullet Manual. Also keep an eye out for back issues of Handloader and their book- "The Art of Casting Bullets", expensive, but excellent. Go slow, ask questions and don't try for full house monster mashing loads for a while and you'll enjoy this hobby.

[largecaliberman]

mugsei,

go to http://www.riflemagazine.com/catalog/detail.cfm?ProductID=809

This is an excellent CD, I downloaded it on my computer and printed it in book form. :castmine:

[Buckshot]

...........mugsie, you already got the straight skinny. I just wanted to add my welcome to the board. Please don't be shy :-) There's a pretty good bunch of folks here.

..............Buckshot

[targetshootr]

If possible, watch someone local cast and smelt at first. I made my first batch solo and it was fun but a lot of things are hard to glean from books or websites. Having said that, Goatlips website (http://goatlipstips.cas-town.com/smelting.html)is the best pictorial out there.

[HORNET]

Mugsie,
You might also try searching through the posts here for all the info that went to DAVEINFLOWERYBRANCHGA (think I got that right) . Lots of info and numerous links to other posts, like GOATLIPS site.
The NRA had a couple of handbooks on Cast Bullets. Way out of print but you can sometimes luck out.
Any of the Lyman Cast Bullet Manuals are good but the data in the first one needs to be watched as powders and pressure testing have changed recommendations considerably. The standard Lyman manuals have enough info to provide the very basics and most people on this forum will help if possible.:bigsmyl2:

[mugsie]

Thanks guys - I'll follow up on a lot of the suggestions presented here. First the reading, then the looking for wheel weights, then the equipment, then the fun! Whoopee! I can't wait.....

[steveb]

Welcome to the addiction mugsie.

[carpetman]

mugsie----If you get 50 responses,you'll get 50 varying answers as everyone has an opinion as well as certain other equipment I'm told. Get a Lyman Manual. If you also shoot jacketed bullets,get their standard manual as it has data for both cast and jacketed as well as cast information. If you are strictly going to shoot Cast, get their Cast Manual as it does have a tad more cast data. Next is what are you going to be using for alloy? You can make this part rocket science and get off into BHN etc. Hard to beat wheelweights. Free wheelweights are the best. Some will say add tin. Only thing I found this to do was increase the cost. Next you have to smelt the wheelweights. I use a separate pot for this --separate from the pot I use for casting. Reasons are for one you want to do this outside--lot of smoke and fumes. I heard that a woman that cooks carrots and peas in the same pot is unsanitary. Maybe this is the same deal? I find a Coleman stove and cast iron pot works well. When melted you make them into ingots. YES you can use dry aluminum cans,muffin pans that you go all over town and buy cheap at garage sales,and who knows what all or you can spend the HUGE PRICEY sum of about $12-$15 and get an ingot mold that will last a lifetime. Next you'll be casting---I find the bottom pour best to my likings and the cheap Lee works well especially considering the vast price difference. Then you need a mold. RCBS is my choice. I dont like the aluminum Lees. Then you will be lubing the bullets. Some swear by liquid alox. I like my RCBS sizer luber and use Felix lube-which I make myself. Now bring on the 49 opposing opinions.(remember to discount them as they'll be skewed,bogus,faulty and erroneous)

[catboat]

Lyman puts out a great book. The RCBS book on cast bullets is good too. Join the CBA. Most importantly, just safely practice casting and shooting. You'll learn a lot by actually doing it (after you've read a bit). It's not brain surgery.

[Wayne Smith]

Skewed, faulty, bogus, and erroneous, yep, that describes most of us, allright! Mugsie, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Now welcome to the warm puddle and start casting. I'm still using the Coleman stove and steel pot hijacked from the kitchen and they are still working. I'd rather invest in molds and pour from a ladle, avoiding all those problems with bottom pour pots that I've never tried. Sizing, now there's where the fun is - sizing it just right to fit your bore. Oh, and hardening, water dropping, and other esotoric ways to make the bullet hard, or, conversely, soft for hunting, or God forbid, both!

The two addictions are complimentary, boolet casting and old military rifles with odd size throats and bores. I've got another M95 Steyr on the way, God willing with a good bore so I can deface it and put a scope on it. Then to get Buckshot to make me a couple sizing dies, say .332 and .333 in diameter - say, just what was the actual grove and bore diameter of the .333 OKH??!!

You see what you're getting into?? Are you sure your marriage, assuming you're married, can sustain this madness?? Can you?