Originally Posted by
kevin c
Newby questions here (I searched but mebbe used the wrong key words).
I have been casting for a year or so, reading here and trying out my molds (MP 4 and 8 cav, Accurate 5 cav and the 6 banger Lee molds I first got), and am at the point where I can produce acceptable boolits in reasonable quantities (about 5 K so far). My goal is to produce the 30 to 40 K pistol bullets I need each year to feed my action pistol shooting. Is one or maybe two gang molds going to be up to the task?
I've read here about Al molds ten plus years old that are reported to have cast tens of thousands of bullets, but that's only a few thousand per year, while I can shoot that up in a couple months. Other threads claim that Al molds should last multiple lifetimes, but how many casting cycles do those molds bear?
Is it too much to expect of even a finely made Al mold to last through, say, fifty thousand cycles per cavity? If it can be done, what do I need to do to make that happen? Or should I expect to replace the mold eventually, and if so, when?
ETA: I don't think that I will go the automated machine casting route as 1), bullet production is and will be for personal consumption only, and 2) I'm cheap ;^D