How did you get started in bullet casting?

[45-70 Chevroner]

I have been around guns all my life, I'll be 75 this year. I really didn't get into having a lot of guns until I was about 25. When I did I quickly discovered that it was very expensive to shoot store bought stuff (center fire) even back in the late 60's and on. My older brother was already into casting. We didn't live close enough to convers. He actually got into casting in 1960, he was working for the Arizona State Prison. The prison had a shooting qualifying program. It cost quite a lot for the prison to supply ammo, (mostly 38 and 45 ACP) my brother went to the Warden and suggested that they cast their own bullets and have the prisoners cast the bullets it worked out great. Anyway, in 1970 I decided to start casting and reloading for a 357 Blackhawk I had bought a few months earlier. I paid the huge some of $76.00 + tax brand new. I went to a little gun shop in Avondale Arizona. The owner by pure luck was a caster. He sold me a used single cavity Lyman RNFP 158 gr. mold for the sum of $5.00 including the handles. I drove tanker truck for the Standard Oil Co. (Chevron) in Las Vegas Nevada for the first 2 years and Phoenix Arizona for 27 years. I found a cast iron pot laying beside the road in Las Vegas while making deliveries, at that time I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it but decided to keep it. It was full of lead or tin I'm not sure which it held 25# of lead. I had no problem getting lead when I started casting. The Chevron dealers gave me all I wanted. In phoenix we had about 50 service stations through out the Phoenix delivery zone. I stocked piled buckets of tire weights, and when I got too many I took some of them down to the salvage yard made enough money to buy new up dates for my casting. I also stock piled Powder, primers, and any thing else I needed. You could say by working for Chevron I fell into a gold mine. I also made enough from the tire weights to buy a few guns. Over the years that I work for Chevron I probably picked up several hundred 5 gallon buckets of tire weights I lost count. When I started casting I had that cast iron pot and an old cast iron double burner propane camp stove with the four little curved legs. AS long as there was no wind it worked great. A single cavity 38 mold, a camp stove, a pot and I was in business. My next purchas was a #45 Lyman sizer luber and a .357 H & I die. I think I paid about $20.00 dollars for those and I also bought a used RCBS Jr. Press for I think about $10.00. All that equipment was quickly paid for in loaded ammo savings. I think my first box of 38 reloads cost about $35.00 or $40.00 dollars. My reloads at that time including powder primers lube and cases cost me less than 1 1/2 cents a peace probably less or .75 cents a box not encluding the equipment.. My brother had thousands of 38 cases so I had a good supply of those.

[reddog81]

I got started when my LGS had a box of random 44 Magnum stuff on sale for $30. The box included a double cavity RCBS mold along with 2 LEE hand loader setups, a number of bullets, and other various items. I didn't much about casting at the time but I did know the mold was worth at least $30 so I bought the whole package and it has been a down hill slide since then. This was only 2 years ago and now I have at least 20 molds and at least 1 in every popular handgun caliber from .32 to .45 and a couple of rifle molds.

I have been able to purchase most of my equipment for very reasonable prices at local thrift stores. A large cast iron pot for smelting $5, a single burner cooktop for pre-heating molds was a couple bucks.

Thanks to this website I have been able to pick up on volumes of priceless knowledge. I imagine it would have been much tougher to trouble shoot issues back in the 70's without having a forum like this one.

[nagantguy]

Just like you being poor liking to shoot a lot, like to.fimd deals and like to make things by hand, after my daughter was born my casting really went into high gear cause to keep shooting idpa at the level I was I had to, bought most my gear cheap from yardsales, and flea markets. Then did a pig hunt with some friends and I used cast loads in a .44 mag ruger super Blackhawk, 9 of us killed 11 ops in 3 days, I got two with cast and finished one with my pistol that we found wounded by an arrow, a light went on in my head my cast loads killed as quick and clean as the rifles and jacketed loads my friends and brother were using!

[toallmy]

I started casting a couple years ago due to the little darling getting me a touch screen kindle , I have lived 45 out of 47 years without using a computer . I thought it was a fad , still might be. But loading my own was a must , around 16-17 I picked up my first center fire a 243 win m 70 with a box of shells on my way home I stopped to try it out and ran out of ammo . Well I had to wait till I got paid again to get some more ammo . So the next week I walked into the gunners shack and the fellow behind the counter talked to me about loading my own ammo , and sold me a lee 3 hole press with a Redding scale set of lyman dies the Speer and Sierra reloading manuals . Still using them now a long the way I ran across more dies and guns , but casting well I thought that was hard to do or magic ..so I always bought Speer 500 ct swag or jacketed for hand guns . Because of this site I now have the ability to cast my own , you all made it sound easy so I tried it . when you are on the outside looking in it seems more complicated . I have 30 years to catch up on now .

[hickfu]

I purchased a 45-70...

[starnbar]

My first casting was for lead soldiers I got the kit for Christmas in 58 and started casting them in 65 I moved on to casting for my uncle and then for myself. I had an old model 10 heavy barrel the rifling was almost gone but if I didn't resize the bullets it shot great. that was the start of my downfall and I have been casting ever since.

[Digital Dan]

How did you get started in bullet casting?

I bought this beast...

[mold maker]

Necessity created the need in 1962 when I bought a 38/357 convertible.
PO folks have to do Po ways.

[Ed_Shot]

Reading Guns & Ammo in the early 1960's and bought a Ruger Blackhawk.

[Budzilla 19]

Like so many others here, we started casting and reloading to be able to shoot ,for four people all firing all sorts of calibers, it took a lot of rounds! And that's not even the shotshell stuff! Thanks to my dad,(RIP Baldy) we now do it all!

[JSnover]

I taught a buddy how to reload. He got hooked and said, "Hey man, we oughtta try castin' our own."
The rest is history.

[Smoke4320]

Like most of my ventures .. I will save Money.... yea right
But Hey I don't chase skirts, hit the bars or go to overpriced sporting events so theres some good in it

[s1120]

wile I haven't started as such.... I have kinda started, because Ive started collecting, and getting ready. My dad always did for his bullseye loads. Well when he passed away I got all his stuff. Have a few molds, some lead, a Lyman pot, lyman lubesizer, and other bits and pieces. Im going to cast for A) saving money. Ya ya I know.... but still 50 bucks for 500 pre made ones is still pricy, and when your shooting matches it goes fast. B) make what I want... just gotta find a mold... C) I like learning new things, and not have to rely on others...

[NC_JEFF]

Poor folks have poor ways. So we cook our own and we roll our own.

[Seeker]

I used to load only jacketed bullets. Back when everything went whacko and components became hard to find, I started looking for brass trading sites and came across Ammobrasstraders and made some pretty good swaps. I ended up with lots of brass, but bullets were hard to find. Every time I logged onto brasstrader I seen the castboolits site advertised and decided to check out why in the hell they couldn't spell bullets right. I got to reading all kinds of great and interesting stuff. The rest is history. I shoot a few jacketed bullets still, but haven't bought any in years. I cast every chance I get, and shoot even more. Thanks to all the great reading and the guys here at cast boolits. It's been great and still is. G.

[georgerkahn]

A fellow Bullseye shooter took me to his uncles's house -- maybe 1973 or 74? -- the uncle was retiring to another state, and chose to sell all his handguns. Jim bought a couple of Colt revolvers, and I couldn't keep my eyes off the S&W Model 52 on the table. I did not own a single center-fire pistol, and would shoot .22 during those match legs. Well... the 52 followed me home, my having spent perhaps more than my budget should have allowed. A lot more. Leonard, the seller, gifted me two boxes of factory wadcutters, but what would I do when they were shot? Still another shooter had a plumber's pot and lead casting set-up in his cow barn, and I graciously watched him cast about 1,000 bullets using a 10-cavity H&G mould. He said he'd give them to me the next night or two, as they needed cool. I never thought they'd need to be sized and lubed. Anyway, Mike dropped off ~850 lubed and sized bullets, and a real old (I wish I still had it) RCBS press. I mail-ordered from Gander Mountain what else I thought I needed , and have been casting ever since...
geo

[bedbugbilly]

The first boolit casting I ever did was in my grandfather's 44 cal. round ball "bag mold". He was born in 1867 and when he was young, he bought a half stock percussion plains style rifle from a gentleman who had come into the Michigan Territory just before it became a state. The rifle and mold are still in the family . . . when my folks passed, I wanted my brother to have it as he has kids to pass it down to.

The second mold I ever cast and the first one I ever bought, was a Lyman 575-213 58 Caliber Minie Ball mold. I bought it new with the handles and I think it cost me around $30. I needed it for the used reproduction Remington Zouave that I bought from an old, close to 90, gunsmith who taught me how to shoot C & B revolvers and muzzleloaders. I think I was about ten so that would be around 54 years ago. The rifle cost me $65 - took me a long time to earn the money. My Dad made up the shortage and I worked mowing lawns at $1.00 a lawn to pay him back. I still have the rifle and I still have the mold. The mold has cast thousands of rounds and the rifle has sent them down range.

All I have ever used is a 10# pot, a Lyman bottom pour dipper and now, a propane hotplate to cast over. Back when I started, I used an old plumber's pot and when that finally broke, I cast over a wood fire which worked fine until I got a propane hot plate. My Dad was not in to muzzle loaders but he encouraged me in my interest and I have never stopped shooting them. A lot of good memories and a lot of good people along the way who helped me out, especially when I was a kid.

It was only a few years ago that I discovered the new fangled metallic cartridges. Now I enjoy casting for those as much as I do the Minies and RB.

[dverna]

I was in college and could not afford to buy bullets to shoot Bullseye. My mentor told me to buy an H&G 10 cavity mold and Star L/S. It was a lot of money for me but it was great advice. He let me load on his Star reloader. That was over 40 years ago

Don Verna

[jimb16]

I was already a shooter when I met my wife. Her father and uncle were shooters too and were casters as well as reloaders. They taught me the basics and I've never looked back.

[Brad Cayton]

I found a hardback copy of Sixguns by the old master Keith in a house I rented in 1980 and have been casting ever since.