Hey Guys,
I just wanted to introduce myself to the forum. I am brand new to casting bullets and reloading. Before starting reloading, I decided to learn how to cast quality bullets that I could later use to develop some loads with.
I purchased a small Lee smelter, 9mm 125 grain mold, and 80 lbs of lead to practice on. There were lots of helpful YouTube videos and advice on forums like this.
At first my bullets came out very wrinkly, but after a few hours of experimentation and reading on the forums I started to produce better and more consistent bullets. They aren't perfect, but they seem "shootable". At first I had a rejection rate of something like 9 in 10. Later it seemed to be more like 1 in 10 or 1 in 20. It seemed after I cast about 500 bullets (in a 6 bullet mold) that the rounds started to come out better. Perhaps the mold was continuing to season and remove oil/grease? I also tried to work faster to keep the mold hot which seemed to help.
The small smelter that I had does not have a bottom pour, so everything was hand poured from the top. I am wondering if that introduces more contaminants to the bullets because the metal being poured from the bottom is protected from oxidation? It still seemed to give decent results, however.
I am looking forward to further experimentation and fine tuning.
Here are some pictures of my first few casts. My next steps will be powder coating and resizing them.
I'd be curious what you all think about the ones with some smaller wrinkles and if they are "shootable" or if they need to go back in the pot?