Just joined castboolits and hoping to find some advice. I have been shooting for over 30 years and reloading for most of those years. Have been buying/loading cast and swaged bullets but due to the skyrocketing cost for store bought, I am looking into rolling my own. I have a plumber's burner and a 30# pot that I have been using for casting fishing weights but never casted a bullet...
My stash consists of a small pile of 30# "pigs" of what I believe to be pure lead. They were originally used to ship some radioactive stuff to the local hospital. Good enough for fishing sinkers but I would guess not the best for 9mm or 45acp. I want to load the 9 to 1100fps and the 45 to 850. The hardcast that I have been buying feeds perfictly, shoots straight enough for the USPSA matches but cost has gone up with every order.
My question is, could I cast satisfactory bullets if I added a couple of lbs of 95/5 solder to the 30lbs of lead? Will I get OK results using my plumber's burner? Are bullets from "tumble lube" bullet molds comparable to sized/lubed bullets? I want to avoid purchasing much more equipment and trying to make do with what I have. A mold or two would be ok but if I have to buy a new furnace, sizers, lube heaters etc, I might be better off continueing to buy store bought. As it is, it's hard enough finding time to reload without having to cast bullets. Any thoughts?