Most economical way to cast bullets soley for the 45 ACP

[atl5029]

Hi all,

Pretty new to the forum here. Most of my posts are over on the paper patching forum as a means to try to get my Mosin project gun to shoot well. But I think I am about to get into casting. Here's where I'm at...

First off, I am only really interested in casting for my 45's now. I shoot copper bullets exclusively in all of my hunting rifles...shooting lead at high velocity into things I am going to eat never really sat well with me. But for targets and bad guys, I don't care what I shoot them with. My main carry and range practice gun is a 45 ACP, and I intend on getting 2 more 45's in the near future, so I'm going to be shooting a lot of 45. That said I am looking to get into casting my own bullets for cost saving reasons. I am also looking to get into it from a training/self defense perspective as well. It is best to train with the ammo you carry, but I'm sure no one wants to shoulder the cost to use their expensive hollowpoint ammo to train with. With casting, I think I could cast a good hollowpoint I could both train with cost effectively and carry for self defense.

So here is what I am looking to do: I would like to cast a good hollow point bullet for the 45 ACP in the 200-230 grain range, preferably closer to 230, the simplest and most economical way possible. I'd rather not spend a ton of money every little piece of equipment to make things faster and easier, so I'd rather do things like pan lube and run them through a sizing die than buy a lubrisizer. I don't mind the extra work involved. I'll spend money on a few good pieces of equipement though.

Can you guys give me an idea of what some of the best HP molds are, what the most economical way to lube and size bullets is, and the minimum equipment I would need other than a mold, pot, ladle, and some lead? I already hand load so I have that whole process down. Any suggestions on the best HP bullet design? I was thinking I'd like to copy something like the hunter supply pentagon HP.

Thanks everyone!

[Echo]

Several points. First - get a good coach for you pistol shooting. If you don't, you will learn bad habits, and practice them until you get real good at doing bad things. Check locally for pistol clubs and see about classes, or whatever.
Second, if money is a problem, use Lee equipment. Buy a 20-lb pot and a 6-cavity mold (with handles) for a RN 45ACP boolit, non-tumble lube. One can TL any boolit, so get the mold that will be flexible enough so that in the future, you may lube/size them in the regular way if you choose. At 45 velocities, you don't need HP boolits, and they can be a pain to cast, sometime. Their 452-228-1R is my recommendation for a mold to suit your requirements. Generally speaking, there is no need to size them, unless they show to be too fat to chamber nicely, when correctly seated. If that happens, sizing will be necessary, but the Lee sizing system is very effective, and pretty inexpensive. Tumble lube them, as shown in stickies hereon, and use Recluse (45-45-10) loob. Follow the directions in his sticky, and you will have no problems with leading (given the boolits are of a suitable size).
It is possible to get all this equipment maybe $150, you will have a really good start into the addiction of boolit casting, and you will be able to turn out really good ammo, inexpensively.

[trixter]

You will need a pot for melting the lead, I prefer the RCBS Pro Melt, but any will work. For HP molds, MP molds from Slovania are for me the best money can buy. They are made of brass, a little heavy, but you get used to it, and actually when I got mine, it came with two sets of pins, hex hollow point and standard round hollow points. I got the 200gr 4 cavity mold and Lee handles are a direct fit. So you can cast hex, round and then 230 gr solid point, all with the same mold. fill, cut sprue, open, lightly touch the pins, they fall out. Look them up.

[country gent]

I still cast over a burner and pot with a ladle. A turkey frier coleman camp stove weed burner or other burners can provide the heat source. A cast iron pot, steel pot dutch oven or reworked 24lb propane cylinder van all make a good pot. Look for a rounded bottom as it makes laleing the last little bit a little easier. As to moulds Lee lyman rcbs accurate or others. Also dont hesitate to buy used moulds if available. Look them over good and if no dings or odd wear patterns show thay are probably good. A thermometer is very handy to have so actuall temps are known. A good ladle lyman rcbs or rowel. A dedicate long handled spoon for skiming. Most can be found at thrift shops and or walmarts dollar general or even garage sales. As to lubing a tumble lube lee desighn can be lubed with liquid alox no sizing really needed. The lee sizers are good also. Lubes ( depending on hardness and type) can be pan lubed or even worked into grooves with your thumb. It isnt always the equipment that makes quality but the care and skill used to make it.

[Frank V]

atl5029

Welcome to the forum.

I'd think about a hollow point mould before I got one. HPs are slower to cast & if you use lead that is the least bit hard probably won't open @ .45ACP velocities. If these bullets are primarially for practice I'd probably get a good round nose or possibly SWC design. Most 1911s will feed SWCs nowdays & those could be used for hunting if you wanted. In a pinch for defense too though I don't use handloads for defense because it could be brought up against you in court if you did use handloads.
Good luck, casting & shooting bullets you have made is a rewarding hobby.

[Love Life]

Yardsale camp stove (Coleman white gas)
Cast iron pot or stainless pot
Ladle
NOE or MP hollowpoint mould (even one of the HP'd Lees from Hollowpoint moulds)
Lee sizer
LLA

Done.

[bruce381]

for simple and cheap forget the hollow pt mold hard to cast with as a newbie and expensive.
Get a 2 cavity LEE mole 230 or 200 gr TL (tumble lube)

Coleman stove
Old tuna can
Old spoon
Lee TL mold

Get used to casting.

Use TL lee mold, tumble boolits in lee tumble lube shoot as cast no sizing.

Simple as it gets

[bangerjim]

You will save sooooooooooooooo much $$ by casting vs buying your 45's, why not just buy a Lee 4-20 bottom pour pot for around $60 and do it right. You will never be sorry using a bottom pour....and the Lee is very reasonably priced compaired to the other pots mentioned.

Fast......efficient.....repeatable. At lease for me and many thousands of others casting boolits. Once you get rolling, you will crank out hundreds of slugs at a time!!

Just read and follow all the guidance about mold pre-heating and timing as listed on here.

I keep the camp stove for camp cooking.

banger-j

[Screwbolts]

I also say LEE 20 pound bottom pour, but I would go with the 220V version, wish I had years ago. Lee six banger mold. skip the HPs, It's a 45, use a Flat point of some kind. TL boolitz to start. You will never look back.

Titan is a sponsor here:

http://www.titanreloading.com/molds/...d-tl452-230tc-

http://www.titanreloading.com/melter...elter-220-volt

http://www.titanreloading.com/lube-s...id-alox-bottle

[Blackwater]

When I first started casting in earnest, back in the very early 70's, all I had was a Lee 2-cav. mould and their lub cutters that they don't offer any more. Used a bent soup spoon to pour with into the mould. That's it. Didn't even have a thermometer. Yet, I made an awful lot of pretty darn good bullets with that setup. I used a sauce pan the wife had to melt in (thereafter ONLY to melt in), used the stove as a heat source (had a vent to the outside), and just watched how long it took the sprue to guage temp by. I thought I was in hog heaven! Was getting my WW's free and lube was cheap enough even a college student with 3 jobs could afford it. Primers and powder went a long way. Used 700X for low powder charge levels so as to stretch out my shooting dollars. It's quite possible to "get by" and still produce an awful lot of very good bullets by simply learning to pay attention to what you're doing. That's pretty much how many of the old timers and pioneers did it, and they were shooting for their life or sustenance with every shot they took. Not much room for "also ran" bullets in those applications.

However, having said that, and liking being "spiled" by the plenty we have to choose from now, if I were starting now, I'd get a 6-cav. Lee mould, a Magnum Melter pot (just like the one I have now), a casting thermometer, and probably a Lee push through sizing kit, and have at it. When I got flush, I'd add a sizer/lubricator. They ARE nice. Keep an eye out for garage and estate sales, and you may luck into this equipment at a VERY attractive price. Then it's just a simple matter of getting "baptized" in the practice, and gaining experience, and keeping your eyes open and noticing what works and what doesn't work as well, and what seems to be affecting the less desirable results. Main thing is watching your metal and mould temp. Get that right, or close, and you'll be casting first rate ammo sooner and better than you'd likely have thought. And keep hanging around here. I've learned more here than in 20+ years of casting on my own. No joke. There's a lot of very well informed and educated folks here who have info that you and I don't, and they're awfully generous with their knowledge, experience, education, training and any insights they've picked up doing what we all do here. If anyone comes here and doesn't learn, he's just not paying attention or putting forth effort on his own, and nobody can help folks like that. I think you'll really surprise yourself with your initial results. It really doesn't take long to get good bullets, and with the help here, it won't take long to get really good ones, if not great ones. The archives are a good place, along with the search facility, to look up questions you have, and these searches will likely give you a more thorough understanding of any question you have than the quick, sound byte type responses we usually provide here. Just a FWIW. Hope it helps you get started and on the right foot from the start. In all liklihood, you'll be impressing your own self with your results very quickly, and the other guys at the range as well. Good luck.

[Patrick L]

Yup, Lee all the way. They make 2 TL molds in the 230 grain range, a TCFP and a RN. The RN should feed in any .45, the FP probably will too. To be as cheap as possible get a 2 cavity mold and ladle pour with a salvage pot and dipper. Like others have said though, the Lee 20 lb pot and a six cavity mold and handles will make the job so much faster, easier, and more productive that for about $100 total it is a no brained, at least in my opinion. You'll probably spend at least $30 for the cheap set up.

[Elkins45]

You can't get a hollow point mold economically. The MP molds take years to get. NOE can usually be bought off the shelf but a 4 cavity HP will be close to $150 with shipping.

My advice is to buy a Lee six cavity tumble lube design and a bottle of Lee Liquid Alox. If you have a heat source and a steel pot you can make a whole pile of bullets for under $100.

[gloob]

99% of casters do not cast HP's for 45ACP.

Most people cast to save a few bucks. But if you are casting only high effort, low volume hollowpoints for occasional SD use, you will literally save only a few bucks!

Now there are a few folks who do have a 45ACP HP mold for occasional use. But 99% of them also have a regular mold, too.

I'm not telling you what you want to do. Only you know that. Just laying out facts.

[fredj338]

I am not a fan of ladle pouring but that is the cheapest way to go. A bbq burner, small cast iron pot & dipper, mold of your choice, Alox type lube, no sizing. That would be the cheapest. I prefer a bottom pour pot, Lee 20#, don't bother with the 10#.
HP, yeah great, but you will spend at least $100 for a mold. See Erik's sight @ Hollow Point Mold Specialist.
http://www.hollowpointmold.com/forsa...ures/?item=212
As to practicing with your carry ammo. Why? As long as the ammo has the same recoil impulse, doesn't matter if it is a LHP, JHP, or solid. So most of us use solids & save the HP for serious use. I love my 45 LHP but really, I doubt you can make a better bullet than the Federal 230gr HST. If you only want to buy one mold though, one of Erik's or step up a bit in price & get an NOE 4cav.
http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/product...lrmj7e5e172di1

[gunoil]

l have this for sale below: free ship/free handles $65 ttd.






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brevity&misspelling rampant

[Wayne Smith]

Couple of points - I've been ladle casting over a Coleman stove and using a kitchen pot for fifteen plus years. I have the Mihec mold mentioned above and it is a wonderfully versitile mold. I have no idea if Miha has any on his website currently available or not, but if he does grab one. You will never be sorry. You will, probably sooner than later, want a lube sizer, so keep your eyes open for one of the RCBS ones. The speed and convenience is amazing, and you are shooting 3 45's! You will want a lot of bullets quickly. That means a multi cavity mold and a lubesizer. I am not a Lee fan but I have a lot of their molds. If you use them gently they will last. Their six cavity molds are worth the money.

[MBTcustom]

The Lee 4-20 pot is the most economical way to cast good bullets. The smaller ten pound pot is not what you need for what you are doing. (I speak as a man who used to blow 600 45ACP every weekend).
The coleman stove and SS pot works very well, but I shelved mine when I realized that the cost savings in white gas would pay for my Lee pot in a matter of months.
As to a HP mold, you can do no better than buying a mold from Accurate molds, and sending it to Eric at hollowpointmold.com to be modified.

That said, there are a couple of things about your OP I would like to address if you would permit me.
First, you say you hunt with pure copper bullets in your rifles to reduce your risk of lead exposure, but now you want to spend hours every week laboring over a pot of molten lead?
Lead is not nearly as dangerous as the media would have you believe, and if you get yourself checked at the doctor, you will find he tells you that your lead levels are normal. Meaning you already have lead in your system, and it's normal for it to be there. What is dangerous is for you to get an abnormally high amount of lead in your system which can only be accomplished by ingesting a pretty good sized piece which spikes your system over time as it dissolves, and leaches into your system, or if you breath or ingest lead dust or vapors regularly over a long period of time (which simulates having eaten a solid piece and it dissolving into your system).
I have been casting for 20 years and I have always been religious about washing my hands. As to lead fumes, I don't hang my head over the pot, but I don't pay it much mind other than that.

Secondly, you say you want a HP design for self defense.
This is completely unnecessary with cast lead bullets, especially in a 45ACP. Jacketed bullets require a HP, because the projectile is so strengthened buy the jacket that it simply will not open otherwise. Since you have no jacket on a cast bullet, this is no longer required because you can adjust your alloy for the performance you desire. Essentially, you are shooting lead bullet cores without a jacket, and they can be exceedingly devastating if used in the right (or wrong) way. See the link in my signature line.

I would recommend you buy Lee 6 cavity semi wad cutter tumble lube molds, buy 45-45-10 lube from White Label Lubes, and shoot COWW cut 50/50 with pure lead, and add 2% tin.
That will do all you require and then some.

[atl5029]

Thanks for all the information guys. One of you asked why train with your carry ammo? Other than recoil impulse, it helps to have the same POI and overall familiarity with the ammo you shoot all the time in an SD situation.

Money isn't really a "problem" for me, I just don't want to spend a bunch of money on equipment to try to save money...I do that a lot lol. I realize I'll save money in the long run, but as one of you said, it isn't always the equipment that makes good bullets. Thank you to those who suggested good molds, I'll look those up. I'm interested in the one that can cast solids and HPs since HP are apparently hard to cast. If I can find a bottom pour pot for as cheap as $60 bucks I'll consider that too.

Couple other things...

I have heard it is hard to cast with a 6 cavity mold because by the time you get to the last couple bullets, the mold has cooled down. Is that true? How do you get around that?

Also just curious if anyone wears any kind of mask or respirator while they are working over their lead pot. I realize that most people don't worry about inhaling lead that much if they work in proper conditions, but does anyone take that extra precaution?

[Budzilla 19]

Lee 20# bottom pour pot,Lee 6 cavity mold, Lee push through sizer, Ben's Liquid Lube, really all you need to start casting and producing MASSIVE amounts of .45 230 grn RN boolits !!! Can't get any simpler. AND you will love the results!! Just my 2 cents. Thanks.

[atl5029]

Thanks for the input as well goodsteel, I'll take that into consideration. My reasons for shooting the all copper bullets like Barnes just doesn't have to do with lead exposure, it also has to do with meat damage, as your link points out. I did used to hunt with normal jacketed lead bullets like core-lokts nosler partitions. I only switched to barnes because I had a rifle that wouldn't shoot anything else, and then I started noticing that they killed just as well without creating huge areas of bloodshot meat, and penetration is unrivaled by any expanding bullet. Not saying they are better than any other bullets, I just prefer them for my own reasons.

And yeah I realize that shooting game with copper bullets then casting my own bullets seems very hypocritical. I am aware that my exposure risk will go up and I want to make sure I am doing it right so I don't ingest or inhale a bunch of lead. I am an avid fisherman and shoot airguns a lot, so I handle lead quite often and make sure to wash my hands. As for inhalation, other than working outside, is there any way to avoid lead exposure from casting?