First Range day with my own Cast Boolits

[Helka]

Congratulations on your new adventure into cast bullets in a handgun. Even having done it for decades now, I still find it very rewarding. I've taken game with mine, shot competition with them as well. I got off to a rocky start with my first cast bullets in a handgun, then success finally came. It's nice looking at prices today on a 1,000 rounds of cast bullets online for sale, then sitting back and smiling at how little mine cost me. I gathered most of my alloy long, long ago. Keep up the great work.


Murphy

That’s what finally made me go to casting was the sheer rising cost of projectiles. I’m frugal so anything to cut costs. At $0.003 per projectile isn’t a bad start


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[TjB101]

I process range scrap, so outside of time involved it’s great to reload for a few cents per round. Congrats on your endeavors… you’ll never look back now.

[JoeJames]

Shooting your own home cast boolits for the first time and finding them to actually be as accurate as store bought cast boolits, was to me like dropping your first buck deer. Only way I am able to characterize it. Congratulations!

[robg]

its a great feeling aint it

[dverna]

Thanks...i hate this hobby....well my wallet does... but making boolits for a 3rd of a penny helps.

I doubt you can produce cast bullets for 1/3 of a penny...that works out to $3.33/1000. Keep in mind even "free" lead is rarely free. Using reclaimed lead from my range (so actually close to free) my cost, after factoring in lead lost that is too small to screen, energy and lube comes to $6/1000. And that is US $...being in Canada you can add 25-30%.

You will save a lot of money by casting your own bullets and you have control of alloy, sizing and lube. Plus you can cast profiles and weights not easily purchased. Those are the drivers for me...with cost being the most important, followed very closely by independence from market and government influences.

In my opinion, it is a necessary skill set to have and I suggest you invest for the long term. I still have stuff from nearly 50 years ago that works well, even though I have upgraded over the years. As to the accumulation of 'stuff'....it can get expensive if you are lazy like I, but I have still saved a lot of money.

[Helka]

I doubt you can produce cast bullets for 1/3 of a penny...that works out to $3.33/1000. Keep in mind even "free" lead is rarely free. Using reclaimed lead from my range (so actually close to free) my cost, after factoring in lead lost that is too small to screen, energy and lube comes to $6/1000. And that is US $...being in Canada you can add 25-30%.

You will save a lot of money by casting your own bullets and you have control of alloy, sizing and lube. Plus you can cast profiles and weights not easily purchased. Those are the drivers for me...with cost being the most important, followed very closely by independence from market and government influences.

In my opinion, it is a necessary skill set to have and I suggest you invest for the long term. I still have stuff from nearly 50 years ago that works well, even though I have upgraded over the years. As to the accumulation of 'stuff'....it can get expensive if you are lazy like I, but I have still saved a lot of money.

I agree with you assessment. For raw unprocessed COWW lead it's cost me 19 cents per pound. Then factor in melting it down and all the clips add to the weight lost. But still even at $10 for 1000 is far better then the $120/1000 for jacketed or $60/1000 for commercial cast.

[dverna]

Helka,

If you can get COWW for anything less than $.75/lb, buy all you can.

I have Linotype I bought when I lived in Canada. I bought it over 45years ago and still have 300-400 lbs left. First rule of casting....always buy alloy if the price is good even if you do not need it...it has a good shelf life...LOL

I have about 2 tons in inventory and that is enough for me, but I am an old man and also have a bullet trap to salvage lead. You will kick yourself in a couple of years when alloy is over $1.50/lb.

[Helka]

Helka,

If you can get COWW for anything less than $.75/lb, buy all you can.

I have Linotype I bought when I lived in Canada. I bought it over 45years ago and still have 300-400 lbs left. First rule of casting....always buy alloy if the price is good even if you do not need it...it has a good shelf life...LOL

I have about 2 tons in inventory and that is enough for me, but I am an old man and also have a bullet trap to salvage lead. You will kick yourself in a couple of years when alloy is over $1.50/lb.

I have over 500# but only about 40# of it is SOWW. I cleaned out 4 tire garages. Tried a few others but they weren't interested in selling. There is a car recycler place i haven't called yet. Thinking of just walking around their car grave yard with a pair of pliers and a bucket getting all the lead WW i can lol.

Where did you get your linotype?

[444ttd]

great job!!!! my first time(i only have one hand) was a.......well........um........disaster. but i kept at it and through changes(44mag to the 44 spl) i got better.

[dverna]

I have over 500# but only about 40# of it is SOWW. I cleaned out 4 tire garages. Tried a few others but they weren't interested in selling. There is a car recycler place i haven't called yet. Thinking of just walking around their car grave yard with a pair of pliers and a bucket getting all the lead WW i can lol.

Where did you get your linotype?

I have no idea where we got the Linotype. My Bullseye mentor organized the buy but that was over 45 years ago...he has gone to the big range where casting and reloading is not necessary and everyone shoots Clark’s.

If you need some, keep a lookout in the Selling and Swapping forum. It is offered by members here fairly regularly. Expect to pay about $3/lb for it.

Good luck.

[dondiego]

I love hearing the stories of how all of you guys got their stash of scrap lead and alloys. I have many stories myself. I found that the best method was to let everyone that you come in contact with know that you want any lead, solder, wheel weights, fishing weights, plumbing, roofing parts. People remember, and just show up with a pound here, 5 pounds there, and even one time I got over 500 pounds of old lead water pipe from a guy that I had mentioned to that I cast lead balls. He worked for the city and they were tearing up the streets and throwing away the pipe. I was happy.

[358429]

Took out my Shadow 2 using my PC'd 137gn (MP 359-125) boolits sized to 357. I'm incredibly impressed by their performance. My range only has a 25 yard pistol range. But WOW did these bullets hit the mark.

Attachment 286427

Good shooting man!

I am feeding a cz as well.

It's very good when things work well!

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[Helka]

Just an update, got out today to the range and did a proper load development for my MP 359-125 HP boolits. My gun CZ Shadow 2 really likes the regular HP vs the Penta and Flat Point. PC'd and sized in a 358 Lee sizer which is really .3575 i'm getting no leading and worked a load from 3gn of Titegroup up to 3.5. Best grouping was 3.2gn.

My range only has a 25 yard for shooting pistol and i was very impressed with my shooting/gun's accuracy/boolit's accuracy.

Here is the target at 25 yards. It's 3 inches wide for reference. I measured the grouping and they measure 3.716 minus .357 is 3.359"

I was standing with a two handed grip.




I also shot my Lee 356-125 boolits. They lead a little and the grouping is respectable at about 6" at 25 yards.

[44Blam]

Very nice.
One cool thing is that you will kind of start to intuitively know what's going to work for what gun/caliber/powder/alloy.

I got a new gun recently it was a 1911, so I took the barrel off and slugged it. Then looked through my box of molds and found one I liked that I thought would work for it. I cast about 300 boolits with nice soft alloy and a couple days later, go through and PC/size/etc. Then a couple days later make a couple dummy rounds based on where I think they should sit and on the second dummy round, I get one that cycles easily. Then load up a nice ladder that ended up where I thought it should be and I found a good accuracy node. It just went very smoothly.

And then you will have stuff like what I had with Tokarev round... I tried 3 different molds and finally settled on a truncated cone and started with +0.002" over bore and ended up with resizing to bore size. It took a good 3 months to get that one figured out and I was just gonna make it a bullet shooter at a couple points...

Anyway, it's a hobby that will keep you challenged for a while. It'll be frustrating at times and when it works right, it's amazing. In fact, I believe that a cast boolit in a cartridge tuned to the gun has the potential to be the most accurate thing you can shoot.

[Helka]

Very nice.
One cool thing is that you will kind of start to intuitively know what's going to work for what gun/caliber/powder/alloy.

I got a new gun recently it was a 1911, so I took the barrel off and slugged it. Then looked through my box of molds and found one I liked that I thought would work for it. I cast about 300 boolits with nice soft alloy and a couple days later, go through and PC/size/etc. Then a couple days later make a couple dummy rounds based on where I think they should sit and on the second dummy round, I get one that cycles easily. Then load up a nice ladder that ended up where I thought it should be and I found a good accuracy node. It just went very smoothly.

And then you will have stuff like what I had with Tokarev round... I tried 3 different molds and finally settled on a truncated cone and started with +0.002" over bore and ended up with resizing to bore size. It took a good 3 months to get that one figured out and I was just gonna make it a bullet shooter at a couple points...

Anyway, it's a hobby that will keep you challenged for a while. It'll be frustrating at times and when it works right, it's amazing. In fact, I believe that a cast boolit in a cartridge tuned to the gun has the potential to be the most accurate thing you can shoot.

Doing load development is actually my favorite part of this process, seeing how powder charge and barrel harmonics affects accuracy.

[ACC]

Took out my Shadow 2 using my PC'd 137gn (MP 359-125) boolits sized to 357. I'm incredibly impressed by their performance. My range only has a 25 yard pistol range. But WOW did these bullets hit the mark.

Attachment 286427

Nice shooting. experimenting with the powder charge you should be able to get that group even smaller.

ACC

[Helka]

Nice shooting. experimenting with the powder charge you should be able to get that group even smaller.

ACC

Yes. I posted the new result in Post 33. Very pleased with the boolits


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[foesgth]

My condolences to you Helka. About 10 years ago I was trying to get a WWII bring back rifle shooting. I was one my Dad brought back from the Pacific, so I wanted my kids and grand kids to shoot something with family history. A guy at the range suggested the bullets might be too small for the bore. How can that be it says .311 on the box! He smiled and wrote down the address of this forum on a hunk of a cartridge box. I thought I was coming to find out about larger bullets I didn't know it was a new way of life.

Your results look great. I am sure they will only get better. I learned more from reading the stickies than any book I found.

Welcome to the addiction.

[Helka]

My condolences to you Helka. About 10 years ago I was trying to get a WWII bring back rifle shooting. I was one my Dad brought back from the Pacific, so I wanted my kids and grand kids to shoot something with family history. A guy at the range suggested the bullets might be too small for the bore. How can that be it says .311 on the box! He smiled and wrote down the address of this forum on a hunk of a cartridge box. I thought I was coming to find out about larger bullets I didn't know it was a new way of life.

Your results look great. I am sure they will only get better. I learned more from reading the stickies than any book I found.

Welcome to the addiction.

I only got into the shooting/firearms sports 4 years ago. Knew I wanted to reload from the start. Fast forward to this year and I (un)fortunately decided to go down the rabbit hole of casting. I absolutely love it! It’s so peaceful to sit in the garage (with the door open) and just cast for hours! I honestly don’t know why more people around here (my range and area) don’t do it. It’s so easy. But anyways yes this forum is a godsend. And to be perfectly honest I’m on a Canadian forum and everyone is always at each other’s throat (one upping each other and putting each other down) on this forum everyone is so helpful and not cynical. I love the atmosphere!


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[358429]

Just an update, got out today to the range and did a proper load development for my MP 359-125 HP boolits. My gun CZ Shadow 2 really likes the regular HP vs the Penta and Flat Point. PC'd and sized in a 358 Lee sizer which is really .3575 i'm getting no leading and worked a load from 3gn of Titegroup up to 3.5. Best grouping was 3.2gn.

My range only has a 25 yard for shooting pistol and i was very impressed with my shooting/gun's accuracy/boolit's accuracy.

Here is the target at 25 yards. It's 3 inches wide for reference. I measured the grouping and they measure 3.716 minus .357 is 3.359"

I was standing with a two handed grip.




I also shot my Lee 356-125 boolits. They lead a little and the grouping is respectable at about 6" at 25 yards.

Your shooting is improving man that's awesome!

Something that I did was colored the front sight and the rear sights with a permanent marker so that they are black.

(Should I change my mind about the markered sights it's easy to remove with some brake cleaner on a rag.)

Then I shoot at dots on a white target, helps me to see, the difference in contrast helps me get smaller/more consistent groups.

Your vertical stringing is good so it looks like trigger control is not a problem.

I notice the circular hollow points shoot better from my CZ as well.



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