What is your preferred ladle and why?

[RedHawk357Mag]

Thank you, much appreciated. Can't remember which I am using.

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[RogerDat]

Lyman casting dipper. Right or left handed. For most molds I don't fill it, trying to recall mold with heaviest bullet having the most cavities I have used it with. For sure 4 cavity 220 grain bullet. As someone already mentioned I also "pour heat" by letting extra lead flow over mold if I think mold needs more heat. I cast from a Lee Pro Melt. That's right the only "drips" are from my ladle.

I have a stupid large collection of ladles. Started with Lyman for filling molds and thrift store ladles for making ingots. Then picked up some scrap yard finds, eventually bought a couple of Rowel bottom pours.

Rowell 9 pound for ingots, Rowell 2 pound for when I just don't need the "bucket on a bar" capacity and weight. Can never get to bottom of pot with the big ladle so sometimes smaller pot = smaller ladle.

Have a couple of cast iron ladles that do around a pound, Some steel ladles that do 2 and 3 pounds. Think one might be a 4 pound. The guys at the scrap yard used to keep an eye out for them and set them aside for me. <warm fuzzy feeling here>

I have some from Salvation Army thrift store. Couple of soup ladles, one with handle bent so that with handle straight up out of pot the bowl is at 90* to the bottom. Good for getting that last few inches. Plus a small ladle such as you see in salad dressing on salad bar. I use that with my small pewter mold. I will say if one can find all metal stainless ladle from thrift store for a cheap price they are great. The ones with plastic handles will melt the handle loose over time or if left in the pot. All metal don't do that. The handle will get hot. If left in for a bit they will get really hot.

Two spoons from table service bent and shaped to skim dross made by a deceased caster, shape is perfect

Typically I use the Rowell bottom pour to make ingots, a soup ladle with bent handle to get the last of the lead from the pot. For speed I sometimes pour using the largest steel ladle (around 4#) into bread loaf pans to make 12 - 16 lb. flat bars. Shorter handle and less weight than the Rowell so faster to work with. Those slabs are simply storage until I get around to casting it into finished Cast Boolit ingots.

I think what works depends on what one uses for a casting or smelting pot, how one casts and what one casts. Some of my ladles are from when I used a smaller smelting pot, the larger ones were acquired when I switched to Dutch oven for smelting. The Rowell 9# was when I purchased a bunch of Cast Boolit logo 2.5 lb ingot molds and finally got my scrap and WW's into ingots as a project. Sort of big and tends to drip but making a couple hundred pound batches a day and working through several years of backlog...

For someone who casts with two molds and in large volume they may want a stainless steel soup ladle with a small hole in it that they can dip in a large pot and use as a bottom pour for speed. For myself the Lyman dipper has worked very well for everything from large hollow base Minnie Ball molds to tiny 70 grain .223 mold. Anything I have wanted in between.

[cstrickland]

I use the lyman as well. As others have stated the pour spout is slightly reamed out. I just like it more than the RCBS. It will boil down to a personal thing for you, and how they feel. Otherwise both are pretty equal.

I have thought about the Rowell #1 but it seems a little to big . I wish they would offer a lyman ladle with about 50% - 60% more capacity

[ascast]

I use both, but tend to go RCBS for the big heavy 45 rifle, like 450 grns and up. I think it hold a bit more lead, never really measured scientifically, like weighing it. Neither will do a 6 cav in 1 dip of any size; maybe some 30 cals, but 44 pistol is pushing it. I have an open top BELL Telephone dipper I some times use for 4-6 cav heavies. It holds about 5 pounds of melt.

[stubshaft]

RCBS with a shortened handle for better control.

[RogerDat]

The issue with the Rowell Bottom Pour is they are cast iron and pretty thick at that. Weight is not insignificant. Not a large factor in the big ladles they are heavy due to capacity and the longer handles give one leverage. In the smaller ladles with repeated pours into a bullet mold rather than many fewer pours into an ingot mold the weight is an issue.

Some of us have the same issue with bullet molds. Larger bullets and 6 cavity molds are a workout to handle for a longer casting session. In many cases I have opted for a 4 cavity when I wanted increased production in a still comfortable to use mold.

One can get some really nice ladles from Salvation Army With all metal and wood handle construction. Hit the handle with propane torch till it glows and bend bowl at right angles to shaft and viola a nice larger capacity ladle.

At the risk of repeating myself a nice ladle with a hole drilled in the bottom of the bowl (seem to recall 3/32 was the right size) can be used like a bottom pour pot to run stream of lead into larger molds. Need to cast over a pot large enough to center the mold over so any drips or run off goes back into the pot. If doing a larger batch of bullets is acceptable then this approach may server you well. Just cast the bullets before you pour a bunch of ingots from the big pot.

[Ozark mike]

I used to use a homemade ladle but now i use a homemade bottom pour much nicer and quicker

[Landy88]

NavyVet's posts here and FortuneCookie45LC's YT videos sold me on the drilled ladle bottom pour. It is so easy for a beginner to learn to use and cast with, and has real advantages beyond ease of use.

[Hahndorf1874]

I use a ladle made from a CO2 canister, sofa fountain size, nice and light, not as tiring as most larger bought ones.