How did you get started in bullet casting?

[.22-10-45]

When I was 16 Dad bought me a used Navy Arms 1851 .36 Colt copy. Bought a dbl. cav. Lyman .375 round ball mould and taught myself how to run ball over an old cast iron wood range.

[corbinace]

I bought a Swiss Vetterli and then a .577 Snider.

[wadcutter]

I started out making 0.36" round balls with my great grandsfather's old brass mold for use in my sling shot. I've been casting since I was about 8 years old (as a father now, I can't believe the things my dad let me do). Later my grandfather passed down to me all of his ideal equipment along with a Winchester 43 in 218 Bee which forced me to get into reloading and casting. I honestly didn't even realize you could buy jacketed bullets until I was about 20.

[Spector]

1979 I started casting round balls for a muzzle-loading rifle I'd made with a Douglass barrel. Then in either 89 or 91 I bought my Glock 21 and began casting the Lee 200 grain TL SWC. It has just continued from there............Mike

[45-70 Chevroner]

Back when old Noah and I just got off the ark, I was not yet 21 yrs old and could not buy a centerfire revolver. I bought the next best thing, a Colt .44 cap and ball revolvers, and a Lyman single cavity mold to make round balls. Soon after, got a .357 Mag Blackhawk and needed boolits for it.

Hickok! I've owned three cap and ball revolvers, a stainless Ruger Old Army, a 1851 Colt Navy replica, and a 1860 Colt Army replica. I never shot the Colts. I did shoot the Ruger a lot though until I decided I had to have something else. Sure wish I had kept the Ruger. As for the boat I think I was on the same one but it's been so long ago and my memory is failing me. By the way I gave the Colts to two of my grandsons.I had a .457 Lyman double cavity mold for the Ruger.

[Blackwater]

I got started casting because at the time, I was going to college on the GI bill and had a wife and son and up to 3 jobs at a time, all to take care of, and little money to do it with. I also needed a pastime in which to "puddle out" and relax in, and a .45 to feed as cheaply as I could manage to do that with what little $$$ were available for it. Got lead for free, and powder and primers were pretty cheap back then, so casting just offered a combo proposition of learning to do something useful and relaxing while also saving much money - something that was necessary at the time if I was to get and stay as good as I could be a the time. It worked on all counts!

[djgoings]

My father and I started casting about 8 years ago when handgun factory bullet supplies were non existent.

[John in AR]

Full disclosure - haven't cast any boolits yet. Have acquired the equipment and materials, and have cleaned up the raw lead (mostly COWW's) into muffin-pan ingots. Hope to do some actual casting in the next week or two.

As for "why" I'm getting into it, it's a combination of economics and disliking dependency on normal supply-chain sources. Started competition pistol shooting (actually revolver, not 'pistol') in the mid-70's and reloading in the early 80's, and finally see casting as the next logical step. Basically, I'm simply tired of buying something that can fluctuate in price, quality, and even availability; when I can make it fairly easily & cheaply for myself instead.

[Hickok]

Hickok! I've owned three cap and ball revolvers, a stainless Ruger Old Army, a 1851 Colt Navy replica, and a 1860 Colt Army replica. I never shot the Colts. I did shoot the Ruger a lot though until I decided I had to have something else. Sure wish I had kept the Ruger. As for the boat I think I was on the same one but it's been so long ago and my memory is failing me. By the way I gave the Colts to two of my grandsons.I had a .457 Lyman double cavity mold for the Ruger.

Sounds like a lot of casting started with Black powder!

Hey, that ol' Noah was a pretty good fella!

[Char-Gar]

Around 1959 I bought a Trapdoor Springfield (45-70) for $25.00 and an Ideal tong tool with the bullet mold for another $10.00. Some pig lead, Dupont black powder,primers and some old Lyman black lube and I was good to go. I used an old plumbers furnace to melt the lead and smeared the black lube in the grooves by hand. It works rather well.

Within a few months my shooting buddy picked up a primo Winchester 92 in 25-20 want wanted to cast bullets and I picked up mold (311291) for my Winchester 94 in 30-30 and so we cast. I bought a Lyman 45 and that is how it all got started.

This was the only way a couple of high school kids could shoot all they wanted.

[brstevns]

When I was 16 I got a EIG brass frame Navy Colt and a EIG brass mould that made the ball and conical bullet. Shot the EIG til frame was bad and no timing left. Had to cock it and the hold the cylinder in line. Had to wear a leather glove to keep it from burning fingers at the cylinder gap.

[bullseye67]

WoW! I thought I had a twisted start to casting It all seems so long ago(1980), another trend on this post. I was an avid air pistol shooter and had started competing locally. OK mostly in the machine shed with my friends, but a few organized events as well. Due to Gov rules 14 year olds couldn't have "real" handguns and had to beg to shoot them from the older guys at the range. I was lucky and our neighbor had a S&W 38 revolver and was OK with giving a couple of us young guys lessons. He also reloaded and cast WC for it. I can remember heating the pot with a torch, dipping the lead and pouring it into a one hole mould. Yep most of the first 50 or so went right back into the pot. To wrinkled ect. They were all examined with a careful eye before being fed one at a time through a luber/sizer. We were told constantly. Boys there is no sense putting a bad bullet on top of good powder and wasting a primer. Fast forward to the late 90's and walking into the LGS and no WC available and factory reloads were pushing $15/50. I went over to the reloading section and picked up something I had never seen. An aluminum 6 cavity mould...it was light and 6 boolits at a time...then I saw a melting pot that had a handle thingy that let lead out the bottom.... As they say the rest is history. Three years ago I started shooting ISSF and have a 32 S&W long for CF. Last year 300 lbs of 100gr. WC went down range! This site and reading all the info has made the process so much easier. I now shoot and cast for .30 and .35 rifle. I have collected a couple dozen moulds and a lot of WW and sheet lead. When I think back to the slow process of a one hole mould and the patience our neighbor showed us boys, I am so grateful. Now when I am at the range I always ask if they reload and if they use cast boolits.

[robg]

My wife bought me rcbs 158swc GC mould for my birthday ,I'd always loaded she thought I might like it .she was right shoot lead in every thing I shoot ,rarely use jacketed except for hunting ,must use expanding over here.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I got started when I bought a Model 29 S&W Revolver when I was 26 years old. I got the big one with the 8 3/8" bbl.

I figured out rather quickly that I had to reload for it as I couldn't take but about 12 Factory loads in one sitting. Lee Loader! yeah!

After going thru a couple of boxes of Speer Bullets I figured out that I should cast my own as they were much cheaper and I had a bunch of WW in the garage. So I bought a small RCBS Pot a Lyman Ladle and a Lee Mould and figured it out on the stove in my Apt.. Still have all of them. bought a Lyman Cast Boolit Handbook and still have that too! Shortly thereafter I got real refined and bought a small Lee Melting Pot. Still have that too. So I was in business and then started casting .30 cal boolits too. still have that mould too!

I had more fun with that gun, shooting boolits made, than anything else I owned, and shot it a lot. I still have new brass I bought back then and still shoot the Lee .44-240 GC's. My best group at 25 yards back then was a smidge over 1" and I could do it frequently.

When you get into the Big Revolvers the need to cast boolits gets obvious pretty fast. It has been a fun thing to do for a long time.

The M29 was sold along time ago but now there is a SBH Bisley and a BH Bisley as well as a Marlin 1894CB, don't shoot as many of the Lee boolits as back in the day as I have Keith Boolit moulds now. But they got me started and that's Lee's Primary Function in the gun world. IE: to get people started!

He done good on that front.

Randy

[gwpercle]

The father of one my best school buddies owned a tire business, and my buddy went into the tire business....Both of them gave me free wheel weights, all the free wheel weights I wanted !
So what else are you going to do with an unlimited wheel weight supply....cast boolits that's what.
I had absolutely no choice in the matter...especially since they charged good money for 100 of the cast boolits in a little box. Those didn't last long at all , so a single cavity mould was purchased and I've been at it ever since.
Gary

[JMax]

Started with my grand father in 1958 casting for 45ACP, 38 Spl and 45-70. Had me apprentice one summer for a printer and to bring home all of the old lino type. Had an uncle that was a plumber so we alloyed 1 part lino and 3 parts lead. Had a grand time with a Lyman C press and a couple Lyman single cavity molds. Now I have 2 Dillon 550's, a Redding T-7 with 2 tool heads, a Lee Classic cast and a MEC 600 plus I make my own gas checks. Still loads of fun but adult sons never wanted to cast or reload, just shoot them up

[Cherokee]

Back in 1956 I bought a 1917 Enfield and started reloading for it with a Lyman 310 set. Then a GI Carbine from DCM which I loaded for on an old C press and B&M measure, all acquired used. Later acquired Ruger BH 10" 357 Mag. Bought cast bullets from Green Bay Bullets until 1968 when Dick couldn't ship to me any more and I got out of the Army. Bought some bullets from Hodgdons store in Shawnee Mission while shopping around for casting stuff in the KC area, acquiring a 358495 WC mold and #45 sizer, Lyman pot and ladle. Went up from there, learning everything on my own and from the early gun mag writers (Keith, Cotterman, American Rifleman, etc). Would have been nice to have a friend interested but no such luck. After casting for so many years, this site has been a boon of information and my abilities have increased considerably; wish it had been around when I started.

[Preacher Jim]

We had a 92 winchester and a 1917 45 my grandfather was cheap said if I wanted to shoot it had to load my own. I had helped him so I cast some bullets sized them loaded 20 rounds of 44-40 for my first solo deer hunt.is killed a 4 pointer. Sure beat the muzzle loader 36 been casting and shooting since 1957 that year dad bought me a bare action and granddad and I barreled it and uncle John and I made the stock, my 30-06 was borned still have it in the safe

[country gent]

Well after spending many evening building a renegade kit into a rifle. It was a percussion model. Alot of hours spent drwfiling and polishing the barrel sanding polishing and handrubbing oil finish into the stock it was done and I realized I had nothing to shoot in it. A local shop had black powder and caps, along with the main thing a knowledgable owner willing to offer information. I left with a adjustable powder measure 1lb of 2 f powder a 2 cavity round ball mould. Along with a coulpe 5 lb ingots of plumbers lead. We had a pot on the farm and that weekend I set up and cast the 10 lbs of lead into round balls. On Sunday the measure powder and caps went into use. I now cast for several rifles from 38-55 - 45-90.

[Abenaki]

I was about 13.
I found a bunch of lead.
Sooo, my Dad says "let's have some fun.
We went down to the creek bank and dug up some red clay.
He then showed me how to make molds'.... army men, buttons and such.
We let the molds dry in front of the fire place. And then melted the
led in the fire place. We were then making all sorts of stuff!

And, yep....I burned my self good with a hot item from a mold!
I can still hear my Dad telling me "now you learn!"

I then worked my way up to casting for muzzleloaders.
Then I got a 41 mag. and been casting ever since!