About 3 pages long.
Should I Cast Boolits (bullets)?
If you shoot a lot, you have noticed the price of ammunition and reloading components have risen over the last few years. Part of the reason is the demand for lead on the world market. What I would like to do in this article is put together the cost of acquiring the equipment to cast bullets and balance those costs over three years to see if it is feasible for you to get into casting your own bullets. I chose three years to recoup your costs because that is a rule of thumb for investment if you are in business.
I will look at two scenarios for the equipment. The first will be smaller equipment meant for those that probably shoot for recreation and the fun of it. The second scenario will be for some one that is considering competition or has a heavy, heavy appetite to shoot.
Let me first explain a little about casting bullets. In the simplest definition casting a bullet is simply pouring molten lead into a mold, allowing it to cool and extracting the bullet from the mold. After the bullet is extracted two things need to happen before it can be loaded and fired from a firearm. The bullet must be sized or at least confirmed to be of the proper size to “fit” the bore of the firearm. Most all cast bullets are sized but there are some molds that are classified as “shoot as cast”. The second thing that needs to be done to the bullet is to be “lubricated”. The lubricant applied to the bullet is actually a seal that prevents the hot gases of the ignited powder from escaping around the bullet and not propelling the bullet down the barrel. A by product of the gases escaping around the bullet is that the hot gases will melt the bullet and that molten lead will stick to the bore of the firearm. This is known as “leading” and it is never a good thing.
Lubricant can be applied in two ways. One is called tumble lubing where the cast bullet is physically in contact with the lubricant and a coat sticks to the cast bullet. This can be done by rolling the bullets around in a pan that has some of the lubricant in the bottom or standing all the bullets on their base in a pan and pouring the lube into the pan until the lubricant reaches a certain height on the bullet.
The second way to apply the lubricant is via a device called a Lub/sizer. With this machine the as cast bullet is pushed into a die of known size and the lubricant is forced in the grooves of the bullet. This does the two things already mentioned. The die sizes the bullet to a predetermined size and ensures that it is perfectly round and the lubricant is applied. After leaving the lubricater/ sizer it can be loaded into a case.
One limit to cast bullets is the amount of heat( powder charge) that can be directly applied to the base of the bullet. Too much powder and you get the leading as described above. To eliminate this bullet casters have come up with a copper or aluminum gas check that is crimped on to a recessed base in the bullet. The gas check is a cupped plate that is slightly oversize for the recessed diameter on the bullet base. When the bullet and the gas check are run into the sizing die the gas check is crimped to the base of the bullet.
There is a lot of controversy as to when a gas check is required but I am going to say if your reloads exceed 1200 fps then you probably need a gas check. This then indicates that your Magnum pistol calibers and all modern rifles need gas checks. About the only rifle cartridges that do not need a gas check are the 19th century cartridges such as 45-70, 38-55 and etc.
The first scenario is casting for a pistol caliber that does not require a gas check. For that scenario we would need:
Lead pot with 10 pound capacity $49.00
Lead pot with 10 Pound capacity with bottom pour $64.00
Lead ladle $4.00
Two Cavity Lee Mold $20.00
Lee Lubricating Kit $16.00
Lubricant $5.00
Shipping $18.00
Lead Ingots $1.00 per pound
I listed two lead pots. The least expensive requires that you take a ladle, dip molten lead from the pot, and pour from the ladle into the mold. The bottom pour is: the mold is held below an orifice in the pot, The orifice is opened and molten lead runs into the mold via gravity. I prefer the bottom pour for pistols but some casters of larger rifle bullets prefer the ladle pour.
To cast for a pistol your initial cost would be : 64.00 Lead Pot +20.00 Mold +16.00 Sizing die + 5.00 Lubricant or $105.00
1000 bullets for the .44 magnum (240 gn.) weigh 34.28 pounds or $34.28 in lead at $1.00/lb.
1000 bullets for the .357 Magnum weigh (158 gn.) 22.57 pounds or $22.57 in lead.
The price for cast bullets is varied to say the least. My references listed cast bullets for the .357 from $79.00 per thousand to $88.00 per thousand. That is without shipping and shipping is also a variable. I believe I can buy from a local caster for $76.00 per thousand and I will use that.
My references for .44 Magnum was between $81.00 and $104.00 per thousand. I am going to use the price of $80.00 per thousand.
To recover your initial investment over three years with .357 Magnum you would be saving $76.00-22.57 or $53.43 per thousand. You would need to cast 1965 bullets over three years. That is 655 bullets per year.
For the .44 Magnum the math would be $80.00-34.28= $45.72per thousand. You would need to cast 2,300 bullets to recoup your cost over three years which is 764 rounds per year.
Lets look at a second scenario where the caster buys premium equipment and is involved in a lot of shooting.
20 # lead pot with bottom pour RCBS $329.00
Four Cavity Brass Mold with Handles: $128.50 (I just bought one)
Magma Sizer with one die: $365.00
Lubricant : $20.00
Shipping $40.00
With this set-up you have $882.50
My local caster charges $80.00 per thousand for the 200 gn. SWC bullet
For .45 ACP with a 200 grain cast you would have $28.57 dollars of lead in one thousand bullets. You would recoup $80.00-28.57 or $51.43 per thousand. To recoup the 882.50 invested you would need to cast 17,160 bullets. The yearly rate for three years would be 5,720 bullets per year. That is a lot of shooting and would only include shooters involved in some type of competition.
To add some time lines in this here is my estimates on time. To cast 1000 bullets and lube them with a two cavity mold 6+ hours. In 6 hours you would be saving $53.00
To cast and lube 1000 bullets with 4 Cavity Mold and a Star/Magma sizer: 4 + hours. Here you would spend 4 hours to save $51.00 on the .45 ACP bullets.
The results kind of surprised me. If your time is worth more than $9-10 per hour you would be ahead to buy your cast bullets. The only thing you could cut down on is the cost of lead. There are sources of lead other than buying such as tire shops and salvaging used wheel weights or range recovery. Even with no costs associated with your lead the decision must be made whether is is “profitable” to do your own bullet casting. Your Decision.
Another cost that I mentioned but did not include in my example was the cost of the gas checks if you go that route. Copper gas checks for the .44 caliber run between 3 and 4 cents apiece. Aluminum gas checks are around 2 cents per round. Add those costs to my example and you really have to think about casting.
Casting does add the versatility of available bullet configurations to a caliber. Also casting your own allows you to properly fit a bullet to the bore of a specific firearm. Many older firearms and especially military firearms have bores that vary in diameter. Manufacturing tolerances were harder to comply with in the 19 and 20th century. And of course during a time of war the manufacturing tolerances were reduced so that a volume of rifles could be produced to meet the sudden demand.
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Originally Posted by garym1a2
