That Waters does shoot good. It shoots good with anything I throw at it. I'm having a fit out of my 45 carbine and 30 30. Glad I don't need them to hunt with. lolOriginally Posted by Manwithnoplan
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That Waters does shoot good. It shoots good with anything I throw at it. I'm having a fit out of my 45 carbine and 30 30. Glad I don't need them to hunt with. lol
Lead is cheap. It may not be free anymore but it's still cheap. W/ a minimal investment in tools it makes shooting very cheap. It's a significant savings over jacketed. If people can't figure out this simple fact then they either aren't very intelligent or have no interest in casting.
Even though my time is limited I enjoy casting. I also like tools so casting and all it's speciality tools are right up my alley.
Can't say I love casting but I love shooting on the cheap; but there is a lot of satisfaction seeing the bullets I cast hitting the ten ring. Got into 45 colt a while back which I would've never done if I had to pay retail for those bullets. Casting my 230 grain powder coat, I'm shooting that for about 6 bucks a box...verses 36-40 retail....makes it all worth it to me. Been shooting 9mm and 38 much more since I began casting as well....makes range time so much more enjoyable when your wallet doesn't feel lighter with each squeeze of the trigger. 38 and 45 are tack drivers...still working on 9mm....good plinker bullets but they could be more accurate.
Casting has allowed me to shoot a 1/4 million rounds more than I could have without casting. Until I get into HV rifle loads I can equal jacketed for both performance and accuracy with cast.
I started casting in 1969. Now is the tail end of the golden age of casting and the only reason it is at the tail end is the EPA.
there is alot of truth in that last sentence
I always have thought that and I always thought I was making custom ammo
not reloading or doing this or that for money savings
that is a draw for many ....custom is my draw
enjoy..
Hit em'hard
hit em'often
I'm sorry that you were not successful in your attempt at casting. I'm not sure what went wrong for you. Maybe if you had a friend who cast, or a mentor?
I'm a self taught caster and I've learned the hard way. I started before the internet or pc's were around, and I've made mistakes. Now, the bullets that I keep will rival most jacketed bullets in weight. A lot of my 200 grain and 240 grain bullets will weigh + or - .5 of a grain.
Good Luck in whatever you do next. Hope you hang around on the reloading threads.
Bill, when I read your OP, a 2 year old post (by Recluse) instantly came to my mind. It is a long read, but take your time and drink it all in. I suspect you are currently hitting a castboolit roadblock of some sort and are just disgusted...I can understand that, maybe a break from the casting bench isn't a bad idea...shoot up some J-words and have some fun, but I suspect you'll be back
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ere&highlight=
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”
― The Dalai Lama, Seattle Times, May 2001
I, for one, wish the man the best! I don't like being told what to do or what I should like. Not everything is for everyone. As long as it is fine by him if I do what makes me happy, we're good to go....
Dale
Casting and reloading was forced upon me due to cost of ammo in the early 80's. I managed to get working loads even though I was quite isolated due to geography and lack of any magazines or other sources of information. Fast-forward to 2003 when I moved to this great country the USA.
Soon I scratched the itch to get back into shooting my own ammo. This has been a journey but even though I got to the point where I could afford buying factory ammo I kept going. My hobby branched out into making my own smelters, assembling PID's, modifying reloading and sizing dies or crafting my own, making or modifying molds, building annealing rigs, etc.
Casting and reloading are but a part of my life but the totality of the enjoyment of making things work is priceless. I don't care how many hours I spend on my hobby or what money I could have made if I had used this time to earn more. Nobody can take their gold to the grave, it might melt.
Liberalism is the triumph of emotion over intellect, but masquerading as the reverse.
I don't know how we ever shot maximum loads before P/C come along and saved us all. R5R
"No mosque in the United States flies an American flag."
"Dueling should have never been made illegal in this country. It settled lots of issues between folks."- Char-Gar
Not sure why some one would make a post like that but I have and am currently taking a break from casting and reloading. I have a bunch of ammo loaded and on the shelf but it is too hot to enjoy shooting or casting right now. I have a few guns I will probably never shoot cast in, a 6mm PPC, a 25 Krag AI, 30-06. I could shoot cast in them but I have guns that I think are more appropriate for cast shooting. I don't really reload to save money, I reload for accuracy. If factory ammo shot as well as my reloads I would buy a lot more factory ammo. I do like the idea that I make my own ammo and a stock pile of lead, primers, brass and powder can mean that I can shoot a long time with being dependent on anyone else.
No cast bullet shooters are on the rise but it is not for everyone. It is not real hard but to be really successful is not easy either.
Crabbing about it here is not the smartest thing to do but sometime you just need to vent somewhere where someone cares.
Tim
Words are weapons sharper than knives - INXS
The pen is mightier than the sword - Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The tongue is mightier than the blade - Euripides
I really do doubt casting is dying, and I'd be more apt to think there are more folks casting now than there ever were. I don't think there's any solid evidence to support either view--I just know the guy I buy my molds from has a 3-week lead time and lead prices continue to rise. I doubt too many folks are making toy soldiers.
As with any hobby I've ever gotten into, there's a wide spectrum of motivation and sources of pleasure from the hobby. At one end every little subtle aspect of the alloy, the finished product and it's performance on target are of utmost interest and importance to some. At the other end, a shooter needs to shoot bullets that don't cost 0.25 to over a dollar a piece. There's something for everyone--at least everyone who enjoys 'hobbies', has patience or likes to make things. Not everyone does. In any case, I see more folks say "I'm going to start casting" than I do "I've had it with this". Not an accurate survey, but still, I find it hard to imagine interest is doing anything but going up.
Seems to me casters might be a small percentage of folks who shoot at all, but not that small a percentage of those who find shooting their primary hobby, and definitely not that small a percentage of those who hand load. While it may not a huge number of people, I don't think they're dying off in droves.
As for it being 'worth it'...I consider that I recover the cost of a mold, at $150 each, at about 600 bullets. That's breaking even in one evening. With the $40 molds, I break even in about 30 minutes, even if I include the cost of mold handles. I have at most maybe $1,500 in molds and another $500 in other gear--that's about the cost of 8,000 commercial jacketed bullets. Less than a year's worth of shooting when I started casting. I think it's all paid for itself several times over. I believe every penny I've ever put into bullet making totals up to less than the cost of 2 kayaks I just bought, less than two mountain bikes and a heck of a lot less than the camping gear some folks own. So, I sure don't think it's an expensive hobby compared to many.
When I can afford to have 10,000 rounds of custom ammo shipped to my home each month, I won't ever hand load or cast again. In the meantime...
Last edited by Bongo Boy; 08-10-2015 at 11:00 PM.
If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner. T Bankhead
I've been reloading for about 50 years. When I started, reloading manuals were hard to find and supplies weren't stocked by most LGS's. That's changed a bunch since those days. We were considered a bunch of looney tunes for even risking life and limb. Cast boolit shooting came about in my life about 45 years ago. The number of cast boolit books were damn near zero. The old Lyman cast manual was long out of print and we made do by copying info out of the old manuals we could find or copy. Cast loading info DID not include BHN info, or barrel fit, or nearly anything else. It was sorta buy a mould, some sort of pot to melt lead and lube the bullet with what was available. IIRC it was pretty much Lyman black ****. You were advised to size to nominal barrel groove and have at it...good luck with that. My first attempt was with a Lyman 4C 358156. Miserable failure it was. I quit for a few years and started over. Before it became common knowledge, I started preaching .001 to .002 over barrel groove and use of GC's for easiest success. Why am I sharing all this old history? Simply because with the info available on this site, plus MUCH better written manuals, and better moulds, and lubers, and....if you can't get your shooting iron (rifle or handgun) shooting acceptably well with cast boolits now, you simply aren't reading and/or retaining and/or using the info available. If you are too lazy to read and learn, you are beyond help, at least from me.
If you can't come up with a decent deer hunting load in a .30-30, something is wrong. That round is just too easy to make work well with cast.
My father sat and tied flies for hours, days, years. He tied flies after the cancer made him too sick to fish. I have boxes of his flies and he died almost 30 years ago. A mans got to do what a man has to do. My mother mowed the yard. I often said one definition of henpecked was if your mower cost more than than your boat until I got a zero turn lawn mower. Of course the lawn looks sort of wierd when I chase a rat.
Closest recorded range Chrony kill (3 feet with witnesses)
I started cast in the late 70s and it is just as much fun as ever I am now 63-- I do not shoot any thing but cast in my handguns --from .41 special-- up a 410 GNR -- I can make anything from hp to sp to hc lwn -- I am trying to teach my son and will try my grand children also
I must have missed the news release; can someone point me to a link that shows casting is dying?
It also offers many of us an economical replacement for ,in many areas, non existant .22 rounds. Right now I can load 9mm and 38s cheaper than what I can buy .22 for...........
I just have to throw my feelings into the mix, knowing it will seem like heresy to some who read it. I have thousands of 'J' bullets and I never load any of them. I used to shoot "J" bullets when I lived less than a mile from Sierra Bullets and we could buy seconds for about half price. I just can't see the point in punching holes in paper with a bullet that cost what 'J' bullets do at this time. As Buckshot often says, " I have not had a cast lead bullet bounce off the paper yet". I had cast round ball since the late '50s when I shot muzzle loaders in competition. Also I had very little spare time in those days. It wasn't until I retired that I really got into casting. I should also say that I worked for over 37 years for the phone company so lead has never been a problem and never will. I laid in a stash. Now this is where the heresy comes in. I never pay any attention to the mix. I know that some casters stick to a given lead alloy mix as though it was the recipe for Coca-Cola. If I pick up a piece of lead I pitch it into the pot. Before we lost our great range that was only about twelve miles from me, we had a BPCR buffalo match and I shot very well in it. I load for so many rifles and handguns that I just can't keep a separate alloy mix for all of them and I don't want to try. I should also say that I never hunt so I don't have to worry about lead bullets being outlawed for hunting. If you don't like casting just put the equipment aside rather tan selling it. Someday you may want use it or you may have to if you want to keep shooting.
A GUN THAT'S COCKED AND UNLOADED AIN'T GOOD FOR NUTHIN'........... ROOSTER COGBURN
If it's a diying breed, then please put me in your wills for all that toxic lead so your relatives won't have the issue of tying to dispose of it.
I don't know. I started casting about 7 years ago. Learned most everything here. Then, cost was the reason. Since then, I've bought about zero jax bullets. I guess one has to be into the mechanics of it all. You have to enjoy it, different alloys, different boolits, different calibers and such. I find it all very interesting. Not to mention - when I go shooting, I don't think about the cost at all. None. I've paid nearly nothing for all my lead and tin. I have to buy primers, some brass and powder. Molds and sizing dies. So what ?? Gotta spend it on something !! Casting makes the whole game more interesting..
Politicians are a lot like diapers. They should be changed frequently, and for the same reason. Benjamin Franklin
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