New to Reloading / Looking into casting

[wolves63]

If you have trouble finding lead pm me and I'll tell you a place that has the lead you need. From different types to the Lyman #2 mix premixed for you.

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I found rotometal, but any additional place to look at would be awesome. I am hoping to get wheel weights, but we will see what the local tire shops say.

[ericandelaine1975]

Be warned. All new wheel weights are zinc.

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[wolves63]

You have the books if you read those and ask for clarification of parts you don't understand you will have what you require as far as book learning you need. I think I saw the Lee manual mentioned. It is also good. I read an older one that was available for download as a PDF but don't have the link anymore.

I ladle cast rather than use a bottom pour. I second the don't buy the little lead melter, get the 20# pot. If the kit has the small melter skip it.
https://www.titanreloading.com/lee-p...elter-110-volt

The ladle I like is the one mentioned before the Lyman little dipper.
https://www.amazon.com/Lyman-Casting...ct_top?ie=UTF8

You will probably want some paint stir sticks and a couple of thrift store / garage sale table spoons. For skimming dross off the top. You might bend the handle a bit or re-shape the spoon, some I have seen have thin slots cut in the tip to let lead drain through while the dross stays in the spoon like a strainer.

Thermometer is most useful can't repeat the perfect casting temperature for a given mold if you don't know what it is.
https://www.amazon.com/Tel-Tru-LT225...ct_top?ie=UTF8
Lyman also has one I think it is a bit more.

A used steel cupcake tin (preferably without non-stick coating) makes a handy "mold" to dump your molten lead into if you want to change alloy in your casting pot. From casting 30 caliber rifle to revolver bullets you would probably tend to use different alloys so you need to dump your pot before adding the different alloy.

2 cavity molds are great place to start, don't forget many of the older classic molds came in single cavity. Main thing with 6 cavity is the weight. They can be a bit heavy. I like NOE 4 cavity molds since they are aluminum and only 4 cavities they are twice as productive and the weight is still easy to manage. There are at least a couple of other excellent mold makers associated with the site. Mihec and Accurate. I may not of spelled that first one right. Look in group buy area lot of bullet molds come from these three manufacturers who will do a custom mold at a discount once enough commit to purchase.

Lee makes inexpensive molds with 2 cavity for around $25 in most calibers. Those inexpensive molds are a good place to start. For 30 rifle you have a couple or three weights and profiles to try. I would say 75% of my molds are Lee 2 cavity. They are not "premium" molds but they get the job of filling an ammo can with cast bullets done and sit there waiting to make more. The other molds I paid more because I needed or wanted something specific such as oversized for .303 or heavy .223 or HBWC or hollow point or shotgun slug. Most of those non Lee are 4 cavity or at least 3 cavity just to up productivity. Or specialty and only single cavity. I have a Lyman WC mold I love that is single cavity.

There are good deals to be had buying lead in the S & S (swapping and selling) forum. There is also Rotometals who have an advertising link at the top of the page, they are a site sponsor. A whole lot of 30 caliber bullets have been cast from WW (wheel weight) lead and a little solder for the tin to help the lead flow into the mold and get good fill out. You can buy WW lead for ~ $1 a pound and some solder or pewter (high tin alloy) for good prices in the S & S forum. Won't be foundry pure like Rotometals or other foundries but price is better. You can post a WTB (wanted to buy) thread there for lead or other items.

I would buy lead and alloy or basic alloy ingredients rather than trying to start finding your own lead and making your own ingots. That process adds a whole layer of complexity and just gets in the way of making bullets. Come back to scrounging for lead and making ingots later. If nothing else you will have a better idea of what you need for lead. Even buying lead you will save some money per bullet. Just don't count on saving money overall. Because you either shoot more or you spend more on equipment to streamline your operation or extend into scrounging lead and making own ingots or striving to find the perfect combination that shoots 1 MOA from the next zip code on a windy day. AKA - perfect load syndrome. And if you are smart you will sort of stockpile a "pantry" of lead, brass, primers and powder to meet your needs in case of another shortage or congress getting its knickers in a twist to "do something" that raises prices or starts a run on supplies. This hobby is all good fun but not free fun if you catch my meaning. Only way I would save money is if I shot it all off so the savings per round paid for the supplies and equipment, and I would replace the components which costs money so....

Best of luck

Thanks for all the awesome information here! I am positive I will end up spending the same if not more with casting, but I will also get to have more time on the range.

[wolves63]

Be warned. All new wheel weights are zinc.

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That's disappointing......

[Land Owner]

Since you are starting "fresh", you are going to need a supply of lead AND a smattering of tin. When out and about town, stop in the tire store(s) with an empty 5-gallon bucket in hand, to see if they are willing to provide you with some unsorted wheel weights (WW's). I worry an owner that does not know me may be anti-gun - so I start by asking for wheel weight to melt for fishing sinkers - until I know the owner is OK with my making boolets.

Reluctant owners may not give their weights away and some cannot for Corporate reasons. Other casters will be hitting them up for "free" lead too. Offer them $20 and they'll likely give you 50 to 100 pounds of the unsorted stuff they remove from tires out of which you will likely get 40 to 80 pounds of good WW's for casting ($0.20 to $0.50 per pound of usable material from which to cast - if not free!).

You will have to sort through the raw tire store material to get the zinc out as well as most of the non-lead junk too. Determining what IS and IS NOT zinc in WW's is a learning curve. Read the stickies on that. What non-lead junk you don't get out will come out while fluxing and smelting anyway, so not to worry too much about that at this point.

[ericandelaine1975]

Yes it sucks. Check with radiator shops. The lead drippings are nasty but its pure lead

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[ericandelaine1975]

One other piece of advice. I went and got a cheap set of lee 2 cavity round ball molds to begin with. It helped me learn and i didn't mess up any good molds in the process. They were around $20.

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[Land Owner]

Jacketed bullets are a prime factor in the higher cost of reloading. Add to that cost - more powder, another expendable cost - for greater velocity with jacketed bullets, which is not the boolet caster's end game.

Cast boolets have been killing for almost two and one half centuries (flintlocks used in American Revolutionary War in 1777). As an example, Buffalo by the millions were taken to near extinction almost exclusively by cast boolet calibers (a bunch were shot with arrows too).

Depending on your RECURRING COST for expendable materials (powder, primers, boolets), and your FIXED COST in guns, molds, casting, and reloading EQUIPMENT, it will not be long before you AMORTIZE the fixed cost of equipment IN COMPARISON to the total cost of an equivalent number of FACTORY ROUNDS that you did not have to purchase. Hope that makes sense to you.

Example (getting pretty deep for a newbie here):

30-30 factory rounds currently cost $0.50 each ($100/200 rounds) and we assume that cost is constant for this example.
If your rifle cost was $500.00 and you shoot 1000 factory rounds, you will have spent $1,000.00 in total and had 1000 individual fun "events" or $1000/1000 = $1.00 per round.
Shoot 2,000 factory rounds ($1,000), your gun still cost you $500, so $1,500 for 2000 "fun" events = $0.75 per round.
It is not inconceivable to shoot 20,000 rounds in a lifetime through that rifle @ $0.50/round factory, and $500 for the rifle, equals $10,500/20,000 rounds or $0.525 per round of "fun".

So, an initial cost of $1.00 per round of factory ammunition (1,000 rounds plus rifle) is now "amortized" over 20,000 rounds to be $0.525 per round - including the fixed cost for the rifle.



----------------let the above sink in a minute---------------------



Now...use a few more brain cells and go a step FURTHER to consider the fixed and recurring costs of YOUR homemade rounds and the cumulative total cost eventually amortizes to a fixed number factory bullets, while you OWN the reloading and casting equipment. The cost per round gets cheaper and cheaper the more you reload, cast, and shoot. Plus, you may eventually want to share your cast boolets, which can turn you a marginal profit, making your effort over time even more satisfactory and less expensive.



THEN, get THIS...in 20 years you can SELL all of your equipment at a reasonable used value, and most likely your well cared for guns for MORE than you paid for them, and you will have shot all those days for at WORST break even and at BEST a PROFIT!



Bottom line, you can shoot A LOT MORE when you both roll your own and shoot cast boolets versus what it would have cost for factory rounds.

[CJR]

Wolves63,

Welcome to reloading and shooting more. A motivator for you should your reloading desire wane. Remember this fact; years ago when this country had many riots and suburb fire-bombing by roving mobs, ammo stores were closed to prevent citizens from buying ammo to protect themselves. Likewise, citizens were informed by some LE that "they were on their own". One can never have enough ammo. God bless the USA and the Second Amendment!

Best regards,

CJR

[fredj338]

I found rotometal, but any additional place to look at would be awesome. I am hoping to get wheel weights, but we will see what the local tire shops say.

Cheap/free alloy is where you can find it. Since about 6y ago, lead has been disappearing from the wheel wt so very hit & miss depending on your location. A bucket of ww out here yields less than 15% useable alloy, mostly very old tire changes, so be careful what you pay for ww. There are some reliable alloy providers in the vendor section, $1-$1.50/# delivered, pretty fair price considering you can just drop it in the pot & go. Most of my free alloy is mined from local club berms.

[sw282]

An example of casting equipment that can only be had USED is a 41 Cal 2 cavity LYMAN mold l recently got off Freebay or my 41mag SBH Hunter.. Lyman quit making 41 cal molds quite a few yrs back..

[pjames32]

All new wheel weights ARE NOT ZINC. Many are so you have to sort them. The tire shops where I get used weights have NEW lead wheel weights. Don't forget to check truck tire shops. They are mostly lead and larger weights.

[waksupi]

As far as reading material, you are here! Read the stickies for the short course. Welcome to the addiction.