Starting a bullet casting business, any advice?

[lightman]

Palmetto Shooter's last activity was 12-12 15.

Yeah, I looked at that when I noticed that the thread was nearly 5 years old. I think the op is gone but I hope his business venture was successful. Personally I would not want the headaches and risk.

[wv109323]

I would approach large pistol matches to see if I could advertise my bullets for pre-orders. Then deliver bullets to that match. For precision pistol your business would be limited to 200 swc and 38 swc and rn. That way customer can avoid shipping cost.
If possible and you have a source for range lead you could cast softer bullets for the precision pistol group. We don't need Virgin hard alloy.

[RogerDat]

The bags of 100 or 200 bullets or "sample packs" of WC, RN, TC, HP or what have you that allow folks to buy a small amount of "goodies" without a big financial commitment might work at gun shows or in person at matches. I think .38's are around $60 a box of 5 hundred for laser cast last time I checked. That allows for some $12 bags of 100 or a slightly better price for 500 and still be profitable and competitive.

The whole hard vs fit & softer would require some amount of education of buyers. Don't make them think give them the correctly sized bullet for a lead bullet made from lead of a decent level of hardness for the caliber.

I agree with the folks that suggested limiting the calibers you have in stock, stock that sits is just capital tied up and not making you any money. There is a reason for 50% sales as clothes go out of season, the store needs to sell at cost (or below) to free up funds to pay for next seasons clothes. You don't want to have a bunch of odd calibers tying up your materials & labor. Now having special order for the older or less common calibers or small packs of unique weights & styles might make sense in moderation. You would have to know your market to make that work, or spend some lead and time to learn what works.

Maybe there is a good market for oversized .303 cast or a light weight .30 for small game. Maybe a heavy or light weight 45 where 6 gun junkies abound, our the 45 ACP is the popular choice. Could be a RNFP in a hunting caliber popular in your area. Could be something people shoot for prairie dogs where that is popular. But having every caliber from 25 to 50 in an assortment of weights would tie up major loot and a good chunk would sit and gather dust.

I have bought 500 cn't packs of cast at a gun show. I wanted that profile & weight but until I tried it didn't want to commit to a mold. Have also bought odd lots from an estate sale buyer & seller. I don't really "need" that style but a couple hundred already cast at a good price so why not. If it works great, maybe I buy that style mold, if not then not a lot of money wasted.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

The bags of 100 or 200 bullets or "sample packs" of WC, RN, TC, HP or what have you that allow folks to buy a small amount of "goodies" without a big financial commitment might work at gun shows or in person at matches. I think .38's are around $60 a box of 5 hundred for laser cast last time I checked. That allows for some $12 bags of 100 or a slightly better price for 500 and still be profitable and competitive.

The whole hard vs fit & softer would require some amount of education of buyers. Don't make them think give them the correctly sized bullet for a lead bullet made from lead of a decent level of hardness for the caliber.

I agree with the folks that suggested limiting the calibers you have in stock, stock that sits is just capital tied up and not making you any money. There is a reason for 50% sales as clothes go out of season, the store needs to sell at cost (or below) to free up funds to pay for next seasons clothes. You don't want to have a bunch of odd calibers tying up your materials & labor. Now having special order for the older or less common calibers or small packs of unique weights & styles might make sense in moderation. You would have to know your market to make that work, or spend some lead and time to learn what works.

Maybe there is a good market for oversized .303 cast or a light weight .30 for small game. Maybe a heavy or light weight 45 where 6 gun junkies abound, our the 45 ACP is the popular choice. Could be a RNFP in a hunting caliber popular in your area. Could be something people shoot for prairie dogs where that is popular. But having every caliber from 25 to 50 in an assortment of weights would tie up major loot and a good chunk would sit and gather dust.

I have bought 500 cn't packs of cast at a gun show. I wanted that profile & weight but until I tried it didn't want to commit to a mold. Have also bought odd lots from an estate sale buyer & seller. I don't really "need" that style but a couple hundred already cast at a good price so why not. If it works great, maybe I buy that style mold, if not then not a lot of money wasted.

I will still stick by my advice I gave 5 years ago.

I will add that before I was a caster, I was ordering boxes of 500 cast bullets in 4 different calibers (during my league shooting days)...and I was ordering a lot of them. If someone at a match handed me a free sample pack of 50 and pointed out why Hard alloy wasn't better and why their lube is better, and after testing those samples, I probably would have been a new customer to that cast bullet dealer.

[LAH]

Reading this was entertaining. I think KYCaster knows of what he speaks. The other best advice is do something very few do & do it better than anyone else.

[RogerDat]

Reading this was entertaining. I think KYCaster knows of what he speaks. The other best advice is do something very few do & do it better than anyone else.

You can win on price or you can win on filling a neglected niche or you can win because you do it better. Better quality for bargain price is not likely, better price than comparable quality is possible.

Softer bullets being better or lube being better can be explained to a niche market (competitive shooter) because they are looking to gain every bit of accuracy possible and care enough to consider the arguments. Guy stopping at a table in a gun show may or may not care enough to discuss and consider the differences. He knows what he already buys, yours have to look as good or like a better deal to get him to part with some cash. Small sums are easier to get people to part with from their walking around money.

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive had a few buddys that tried it both small time and large operations. My advice is don't. Problem is without a large outlay of money you get swamped and if you buy the best equiptment you have to sell ALOT of bullets to break even. theres already lots of competition for you and the few big named companys about have the market cornered and its going to be hard to compete with them in price. Now if you want to make a few bucks get your batf permit and go to local shoots and offer custom bullets. Casted in alloys proper for the job and lubed with a good lube. The mail order thing about requires HARD bullets and HARD lube to handle the abuse the PO will give the package. But its going to be a rough road if you have to feed your family off what your going to sell. I considered it once myself but was talked out of it by a couple buddys who own bigger casting operations. Today one of them went under and the other sold out his business. I also had a buddy that was on here that tried it along with selling reloaded ammo. Last I heard he wasn't doing it anymore either. Im glad I didn't go that route. I cast for fun and as a hobby and it would have taken the fun right out of it to know I had to make X amount of money every month to break even.

[Traffer]

Interesting thread. I am working on a completely different way of making boolits. I had no intention of going commercial and actually trying to sell them. BUT NOW I DO. Thanks.

[toallmy]

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