Starting a bullet casting business, any advice?

[PalmettoShooter]

I'm in the process of starting a cast bullet business and I'm looking for a little advice. First off I've been hand casting for years and I'm well read on the legal requirements of starting a bullet business. I'm applying for my FFL, have commercial casting equipment, and am finishing the final touches on some specialty molds (hush hush on that for now). In the meanwhile I have a commercial business contact that is interested in purchasing traditional cast bullets.

My question is what is the best way to drum up extra sales while I'm starting out? I was planning to spread word locally, have a website to do online sales, and offer discount sales through various forums, in particular group buys. Any advice for someone starting out commercially?

Thanks everybody, and of course CB members will always get a discount once it's up and running!

Joel

[WILCO]

Small Business Marketing Kit For Dummies:

http://www.amazon.com/Small-Business-Marketing-Kit-Dummies/dp/1118311833

[PalmettoShooter]

Hey WILCO, thanks for your input. I was looking for something a little more specific to reloaders, I have basic business/marketing experience. I guess I'm more trying to figure out what's the best way to find new customers with this specific type of product among reloaders.

[dragon813gt]

Don't forget you have to pay ITAR.

[dudel]

How to make a small fortune in the boolit making business?

Start with a large one.

Run a careful and detailed analysis of your business plan. Be brutally honest. Have it reviewed by someone who can ask hard questions,

If you still want to do it, best of luck.

[starmac]

This is just a suggestion and would require some research to see if it would be viable.
The powder coating bullets is seemingly taking off. Some custom molds where you could produce bullets without the lube grooves just might give you a niche in a new market.
I know I would like to try some in several calibers and designs before I would have a custom molds built.
If they don't work, we could fall back on Waksupi for some cheap lube grooves.

[JeffinNZ]

1) Don't cast everything hard. Most commercial casters do to for shipping purposes but super hard bullets are not what everyone wants or needs.
2) Don't try and cover too many calibers. Better to focus on the main stream and offer various sizing options. IE: for .30cal offer sizing in .309/.310/.311 and sample packs of a mix.
3) Stock pile all the lead you can afford/find before the greenies convince EPA to ban it.

[detox]

Become a Cast Boolit forum sponsor, have a verygood user friendly website that is fast, have lots of good concentric moulds on hand, blue prints of your moulds cavities would be very helpful, offer different lubes, different alloys, ladle or bottom pour method, fast shipping......................

Montanabulletworks offers ladle cast bullets that weigh within .5 grain of each other.

[williamwaco]

1) Don't cast everything hard. Most commercial casters do to for shipping purposes but super hard bullets are not what everyone wants or needs.
2) Don't try and cover too many calibers. Better to focus on the main stream and offer various sizing options. IE: for .30cal offer sizing in .309/.310/.311 and sample packs of a mix.
3) Stock pile all the lead you can afford/find before the greenies convince EPA to ban it.


DITTO.

That is exactly why I will not buy commercial bullets.

[starmac]

I think, and I could be wrong, but commercial casters cast hard for more than just shipping damage. I think they are playing to a big crowd, and cast hard to minimize leading when the bullets are a hair under what would be what we strive for.

[detox]

I think, and I could be wrong, but commercial casters cast hard for more than just shipping damage. I think they are playing to a big crowd, and cast hard to minimize leading when the bullets are a hair under what would be what we strive for.

Hard cast melts at lower temperature than softer 20/1 lead tin alloy and will lead barrel worse if it is slightly under size. Softer alloys form to barrel best when fired, but are more easily damaged in shipment.

I have seen a couple commercial casters go out of business in the last few years.

[John Boy]

Softer alloys form to barrel best when fired, but are more easily damaged in shipment.
Not an issue ... retail casters use Styrofoam trays in boxes for 1:20 & 1:30 alloy bullets

[KYCaster]

It's really simple.....

Do a break even analysis....be brutally honest....don't leave out any expense.

Set your retail price at the break even point and your wholesale price 20% lower.

Work four days a week, 16 hours a day making boolits and on Fri., Sat. and Sun., work every gun show within driving distance.

You'll soon be selling everything you can haul. (BTW...buy a bigger truck)

When you've built up your customer base to the point you think you have a loyal following, raise your prices to where you can make a decent income by only working a 90 hour week.

Watch your sales tank when your loyal customers jump ship to the new caster who is undercutting your price.

Works every time...:drinks:

Jerry

[williamwaco]

It's really simple.....

Do a break even analysis....be brutally honest....don't leave out any expense.

Set your retail price at the break even point and your wholesale price 20% lower.

Work four days a week, 16 hours a day making boolits and on Fri., Sat. and Sun., work every gun show within driving distance.

You'll soon be selling everything you can haul. (BTW...buy a bigger truck)

When you've built up your customer base to the point you think you have a loyal following, raise your prices to where you can make a decent income by only working a 90 hour week.

Watch your sales tank when your loyal customers jump ship to the new caster who is undercutting your price.

Works every time...:drinks:

Jerry


Sounds like someone who knows what he is talking about.

[carbine86]

Shoot me an email with a pdf file of a flyer for your buisness ill post it up at my range. If a bunch of members here do the same you could probably build up a pretty good customer base. Then let your products speak for themselves and your customers will build your customer base even more

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

My question is what is the best way to drum up extra sales while I'm starting out? I was planning to spread word locally, have a website to do online sales, and offer discount sales through various forums, in particular group buys. Any advice for someone starting out commercially?

I suspect you'll sell very few boolits on a cast bullet forum. But if you're gonna cast and lube pistol boolits to a similar hardness that the majority of casters here cast them at and use a quality lube that isn't hard commercial lube. Then I have an idea for you...

FREE SAMPLES.
I suspect many of us castboolit forum members are members of a sportsman club with a pistol league and/or know other pistol shooters who reload, but don't cast. Use us as salesman for your cast bullets by providing free samples. Personally I won't pedal any hard cast, and I suspect most here wouldn't either, that's why I specified the details above.

There you go, that's my advice to your specific question. It ain't gonna be free, but that's how Big Business drums up new sales. I'll take a dozen sample packs (of at least 50 each) of various styles and calibers...I'll make sure they get into the hands of reloaders who don't cast.
Good luck,
Jon

[MT Gianni]

From another board, here is an online source of cast bullet sellers.

Alpha Bravo Bullets

Affordable Brass and Bullets

Badman Bullets

Beanie's Bullets

Bear Creek Bullets

Beartooth Bullets

Berry's Mfg.

Bootheel Bullets

The Bullet Barn Mfg. Co.

The Bullet Works

BULLETWORKS.COM

Bullets Direct

Carolina Cast Bullets

Cast Bullets Direct

Cast Performance (Grizzly Cartridge)

CB Bullets

Chey-Cast Bullets

Coyote Cast Bullets

Colorado Bullet Company

Dardas Cast Bullets

Dry Creek Bullet Works

Falcon Bullets

Friendswood Bullet Company

Heavy Metal Bullets

Hotshot Bullets

Hunters Supply Cast Bullets

Indiana Bullet Co.

Lead Head Bullets

Magnus Bullets

Mastercast Bullet Co.

Matt's Bullets

Meister Bullets

Mid Atlantic Bullets

Missouri Bullet Company

Mitchell Custom Guns & Bulletworks LLC

Montana Bullet Works

Moulton Lead

Moyers Cast Bullets

Northstar Bullets

Oregon Trail Bullet Company (Laser Cast)

Penn Bullets

Precision Bullets

Reloads N' More

Sinclair International

Slash K Hardcast Bullets

SNS Cast Bullets

Straight Shooters Cast Bullets

Quality Cast

Rim Rock Bullets

Tascosa Cartridge Co.

Tru Cast Bullets

Western Bullet Co

X-Treme Bullets

Z Cast Bulletz


Find out what you can do that is different than what these folks do.

[starmac]

I talked to a guy not long ago, that has a cast bullet business with enough customers to keep him a month or more behind, so you just need to find the right customers.
There is a guy here that cast mostly pistol bullets. He is retired and does it basically part time. He also loads most of them and sells loaded ammo, but I've bought boolits from him too. He seems to do alright for a part time business.

[TES]

The guy that marked up his bullets past the point of the "buyers market" and went BR. Go back to doing what works......save your money and then buy automated equipment. 90 hours turns into 9. If you are crazy enough to double your production again by saving and re-automating then your work goes to 40 hours and your profits go to heaven. Not to mention you can improve one or two people lives by providing them a job.

[deltaenterprizes]

You can get good exposure at gun shows, but be prepared for some out of the box questions!
Make up boxes of 100, people will take a chance on a couple of dollars to try a new vendor.
Look for any commercial reloaders in your area and check out pistol matches.
I was a commercial caster for 12 years and it was a lot of fun until the bottom fell out when Clinton got in office.

DON'T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB!!!!!!!!

[MtGun44]

PLEASE re-read William and Jeff's comments.

THE FIRST THING TO GET OVER IS:

"HARD CAST" - is NOT necessarily a good thing! Almost all other commercial
caster apparently do not understand this.


Using EXPENSIVE alloys to cast super hard boolits for cartridges that do NOT need
hard alloys is a waste and often makes the boolits perform MORE POORLY!

For .38 Spl, use .358, and .45 ACP size to .452 and cast to about 8-10 BHN
WITH A LOWER COST ALLOY and you will be able to sell cheaper than your
competition and still please the customer (perhaps even MORE than the
competition's TOO HARD boolits). If you offer 9mm boolits in .357 and
.358 diam and not very hard, say 12-14 BHN you may be deluged by customers
because YOURS will work where everyone else's .355 and .356 diam glass
hard junk-boolits will NOT.

If you have a web site, you might even try EDUCATING your customers that
hard is not important and FIT is super important. Point out that .357 or .358
and softer alloy will work much better in most 9mms. Some folks will
try it and be AMAZED.

Bill

[nicholst55]

PLEASE re-read William and Jeff's comments.

THE FIRST THING TO GET OVER IS:

"HARD CAST" - is NOT necessarily a good thing! Almost all other commercial
caster apparently do not understand this.


Using EXPENSIVE alloys to cast super hard boolits for cartridges that do NOT need
hard alloys is a waste and often makes the boolits perform MORE POORLY!

For .38 Spl, use .358, and .45 ACP size to .452 and cast to about 8-10 BHN
WITH A LOWER COST ALLOY and you will be able to sell cheaper than your
competition and still please the customer (perhaps even MORE than the
competition's TOO HARD boolits). If you offer 9mm boolits in .357 and
.358 diam and not very hard, say 12-14 BHN you may be deluged by customers
because YOURS will work where everyone else's .355 and .356 diam glass
hard junk-boolits will NOT.

If you have a web site, you might even try EDUCATING your customers that
hard is not important and FIT is super important. Point out that .357 or .358
and softer alloy will work much better in most 9mms. Some folks will
try it and be AMAZED.

Bill

While most of us here on this forum are aware of the supreme importance of bullet fit, the vast majority of non-forum members are not. They've been brainwashed by gun rag writers and retailers who insist that 'harder is better.'

I encounter this mindset nearly every time I try to discuss cast bullets with other shooters. 'Not cast, hard-cast is what I'm talking about.' Is a response that I frequently hear.

I personally believe that efforts to educate the masses on the virtues of properly sized bullets of appropriate hardness to the loading would be largely a waste of time, effort, and bandwidth.

Don't get me wrong, commercial bullet casting might be a good part-time business to engage in. Probably a very expensive one, because I wouldn't want to do it in my garage for a variety of reasons. You could spend your nights and weekends casting, sizing, lubing and packaging bullets, and then carry them to regional gun shows.

[KYCaster]

This discussion comes up occasionally and I usually try to stay out of it, but I made a comment earlier in this thread and it probably sounded a bit cynical. So let me try to explain.

To the guy who referred to "buyer's market" and "go back to doing what works".... The term buyer's market implies that the consumer has so many options available that he can negotiate a price that's lower than he would normally find. If, in order to make a sale, you have to "go back to what works", which was setting your retail price at your break even point, then you've defeated the entire purpose of a business, which is to make a profit. The reason for the low price to begin with is to get the customer to buy an unknown product and get a chance to show him that your superior product is actually worth more than what is available from the competition. If your customer is not willing to pay you enough to make your desired profit, then your business is a failure.

My biggest problem with these discussions is that you get lots of advice from people who have never tried to run a business of any kind. You get lots of personal opinion, but very little fact.

For example....Alloy....Consensus here is that "hard cast" is inferior to a softer "cheaper" alloy. It doesn't matter what alloy you use as long as your customers find it acceptable and continue to buy it. What really matters is the cost of the alloy and the availability. If your business is going to be successful you need to buy alloy at the best possible price. Just for starters look at Rotometals, a site sponsor here. Order 1000 lbs. of 92-6-2 the price is $2.62 per pound with free shipping on orders over $1000. OK, the going price for bulk cast bullets is around $3.20 per pound (quite a bit less at gun shows). So your cost of materials is 75% of the retail price of your product. And guess what...except for 40-1, that's the cheapest alloy they have. You obviously have to do better than that.

Don't despair, you can reduce that cost. Billy-Bob's Recycling has a TON of lead and if you take it all, the price is .75 per pound. Some of it is WW, some is sheets and some is in corn bread ingots. Twenty hours and two tanks of propane later you have 1800 lbs. of nice shiny alloy, now all you have to do is determine the exact composition of it.

So you fire up the casting equipment and start cranking out 45-230-RN at the rate of 3000/hr. and at the end of the third day your alloy is gone and you have a big pile of bullets that need to be sized, lubed, inspected, packaged, marketed and delivered. That should net you about $6120. Subtract the $1350.00 material cost and you have $4770.00 left to pay all your other expenses, like lube, boxes, labels, electricity, heat, gas, vehicle, computer, telephone, internet access, insurance, licenses, rent, maintenance, depreciation, etc., etc., etc. And it only took you 65 hours in direct labor to get the product ready to sell. That only accounts for the actual time spent in the shop, not the time spent on administration, marketing and procurement. If you depend on your buddy the ammo manufacturer for a substantial part of your sales then subtract 20% or so from that net income.

Just one more point and I'll shut up........

Now you're back home from the gun show at midnight Sunday. You're ready to start the whole process over first thing Monday, but Billy-Bob's Recycling doesn't have any more lead. It takes him a couple of months to accumulate a ton of mixed scrap. And the next batch you scrounge probably won't end up the same alloy, and twenty hours you spent over the smelter could be used to better advantage on other stuff so you find that you can buy guaranteed, certified, repeatable alloy for $1.35/lb.....you just have to buy a truck load at a time to get that price. All you need is $52,000.00 and it will be delivered to your door. So now you have 40000 lbs. of alloy that cost you about 40% of your retail sale price, but that is more than offset by the hours you would have spent smelting scrap and much better than buying in smaller quantities.

All it takes is CASH!!

So there you have it....how to make a fortune casting boolits....well, not exactly.....you still have to figure out how to sell 20,000 lbs. of boolits every month, but that shouldn't be too difficult compared to the other problems you'll have.

Anyway....here's the best advice I can give you...before you start a business.....any business, there's a resource available that you really need to take advantage of. It's absolutely free to anybody who wants to use it. It's the Small Business Development Center. They have a package with all the various questions you need to answer and all the calculations you need to do to estimate the start up cost and estimated return on your investment. Even if you choose not to believe what you learn from them, at least you'll know what to expect.

Good luck with your new business.

[MaryB]

My local college had a business center. Free to anyone thinking of opening a business. An afternoon appointment told me all the paperwork I needed to satisfy the state and feds to open my laser engraving business. Plus a free accounting program(older version of quick-books)

[detox]

Profit margin? What percentage would you clear on one box of your premium ladle cast boolits.

I learned this watching Shark Tank on Friday nights.

Hey... I can do this. Anybody need any premium ladle cast boolits? I have several .308, .357, .452, .458 moulds.....20/1 alloy, Linotype, Lyman #2. All boolits weighed within .5 grains with smooth sprue cut and sharp edges. Bullets come wrapped in John Wayne industrial toilet paper.

John Wayne toilet paper is rough and tough and won't take doo doo off no man.

[wv109323]

I would try to visit pistol/rifle competitions local to your area. Competitors shoot many more boolits than the average shooter. If you can identify the locals that would try your bullets in a Ransom Rest(pistol bullets) give them 20-30 bullets to try. If they perform word of mouth will sell your bullets.
If local enough take orders and deliver them at the competitions. Competitors will buy yearly supplies of one type bullet.This eliminates freight. Also offer a reduced rate for a bulk order of say 50,000 bullets of one or two types to clubs. Club members will pool their needs and order bulk amounts. An example, Most trap clubs will order shot once a year by the ton based on the needs of club members. Gun Shows may or may not work out. Most people at a gun show will buy 100 bullets and you never see them again.

[TES]

wow....I get as much lead as I can for free!

[quilbilly]

Make sure you file your form 720's and pay the fed excise taxes. They used to send you the forms quarterly but now it is up to you to find them, download and print yourself then pay on time. The IRS has no sense of humor at all.

[HNSB]

Find out what you can do that is different than what these folks do.

+1

Define your unique selling proposition and put it in writing. Keep it in front of you so it remains your focus.
Then use social media, forums, etc... to spread the word - keeping the focus on your USP. Don't muddy the waters and don't try to be everything. You're dealing with a saturated market. Focus on what makes you different and if it's what people want, social media will do the rest.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Sounds like someone who knows what he is talking about.

I would normally agree except for the fact that if you only sell at break even you will never make any money. DUH?

The proven markup needs to be 110-120% over total cost to produce, and that is the wholesale number.

Unless you sell at this level you will just be wasting your time. I know this for a fact,,,!!! since I wasted a lot of time before I found these numbers.

IF you can't sell your product for that much markup (IE: it's too expensive and nobody buys it) or you can't produce the product for little enough so that you can make those numbers (IE; you can't make the product cheap enough so that you can sell it at 110-120% over cost, and still be at a price that people WILL buy it.) then you have an unviable product.

Selling boolits is a brutal business and you must offer something that the other companies out there that have been doing it all along don't sell.

Trying to compete head to head with larger established companies in this particular business is going to be a tough Row to Hoe.

I personally don't see this working, since trying to sell something completely unique will quickly show that virtually every customer will want something slightly different than what you make. Offering more choices will only lead to customers wanting more choices.

The only way a bullet business will work profitably is to do large volumes of standard boolits like for Pistol cartridges styles in common calibers and sizes.

It is not that big a deal to size boolits in various sizes for the same caliber. It is a completely different matter to make every order a custom order and try to make money on small volumes.

AS far as promoting. Put and Ad in Handloader and Rifle Magazines and here on this site. It's got to be there for at lest a year for enough people to notice you.

If you run the business part time and don't quit your day job until it is paying the bills and then some, then you'll be able to see if the business is viable before you bankrupt yourself.

Try to keep equipment investment to a minimum until a significant demand must be met. Then tool up for the larger volume, and only buy equipment for cash, that way your equipment is always paid for and you're not having to make payments when the demand shortens,,, AS it will.

All businesses are cyclic in nature. That means your profits will have ups and downs. You still have to pay the bills during the downs.

Last bit of free advice. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Ship happens.

Randy

[HNSB]

If you decide at the beginning to cater to the bargain shopper, you're marketing yourself as a discount outfit. That becomes your identity and you'll always be at the mercy of the bargain shopper.
Have a different way to market your product (your identity or brand) and you can still establish a customer base without selling yourself as "the cheap guy".

[Shawn2571]

Brinell 18 is where it's at. Maybe skip the Indiana bullet company i ordered 10 days ago my account was charged 6 days ago and i haven't seen my bullets yet, emailed them, but get no reply!

[popper]

10% margin doesn't leave any pad for marketing costs, etc. when I was a kid selling light fixtures, 4x markup. For sales, inventory/facilities, tax man, profit.

[Lakehouse2012]

PalmettoShooter - so tell us how the business is going, 5 years later. Inquiring minds would like to know.... im guessing with only 32 posts, he isnt even active anymore?
I'm in the process of starting a cast bullet business and I'm looking for a little advice. First off I've been hand casting for years and I'm well read on the legal requirements of starting a bullet business. I'm applying for my FFL, have commercial casting equipment, and am finishing the final touches on some specialty molds (hush hush on that for now). In the meanwhile I have a commercial business contact that is interested in purchasing traditional cast bullets.

My question is what is the best way to drum up extra sales while I'm starting out? I was planning to spread word locally, have a website to do online sales, and offer discount sales through various forums, in particular group buys. Any advice for someone starting out commercially?

Thanks everybody, and of course CB members will always get a discount once it's up and running!

Joel

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

[Hossfly]

I was wondering the same thing. How is it going now?

[Tom W.]

JonB said something that was spot on. Use a quality lube if you are going to sell sized and lubed bullets. Don't use some cheap crayon looking junk for a lube that probably won't work as well as something that may be a bit more expensive, but worth the cost.

[fredj338]

I'm in the process of starting a cast bullet business and I'm looking for a little advice. First off I've been hand casting for years and I'm well read on the legal requirements of starting a bullet business. I'm applying for my FFL, have commercial casting equipment, and am finishing the final touches on some specialty molds (hush hush on that for now). In the meanwhile I have a commercial business contact that is interested in purchasing traditional cast bullets.

My question is what is the best way to drum up extra sales while I'm starting out? I was planning to spread word locally, have a website to do online sales, and offer discount sales through various forums, in particular group buys. Any advice for someone starting out commercially?

Thanks everybody, and of course CB members will always get a discount once it's up and running!

Joel
The internet is great, get s presence there. Look into all the competitions out there where guys shoot lead or coated lead bullets & offer to donate for the prize tables. It gets your name out there for a minimal cost. Personally, I think you need to go coated todays market to get buyers. The lubed lead bullet crowd gets smaller every year.

[brass410]

do something that you enjoy, become the best at it and you'll never feel like its work....YEA RIGHT if you re really lucky you might not go bust but for sure you wont retire when your 30 there wont likely be a big house with all the toys in your future unless you signifigant other has a real high paying job to support your dream. That being said there are excellent resources out there to help determine if you have a niche product for the target market of choice find them use them and good luck dream big and never give up!!

[MT Gianni]

Palmetto Shooter's last activity was 12-12 15.

[bobthenailer]

magnma engineering has a book with a lot of good info for starting a cast bullet business !

[lightman]

Palmetto Shooter's last activity was 12-12 15.

Yeah, I looked at that when I noticed that the thread was nearly 5 years old. I think the op is gone but I hope his business venture was successful. Personally I would not want the headaches and risk.

[wv109323]

I would approach large pistol matches to see if I could advertise my bullets for pre-orders. Then deliver bullets to that match. For precision pistol your business would be limited to 200 swc and 38 swc and rn. That way customer can avoid shipping cost.
If possible and you have a source for range lead you could cast softer bullets for the precision pistol group. We don't need Virgin hard alloy.

[RogerDat]

The bags of 100 or 200 bullets or "sample packs" of WC, RN, TC, HP or what have you that allow folks to buy a small amount of "goodies" without a big financial commitment might work at gun shows or in person at matches. I think .38's are around $60 a box of 5 hundred for laser cast last time I checked. That allows for some $12 bags of 100 or a slightly better price for 500 and still be profitable and competitive.

The whole hard vs fit & softer would require some amount of education of buyers. Don't make them think give them the correctly sized bullet for a lead bullet made from lead of a decent level of hardness for the caliber.

I agree with the folks that suggested limiting the calibers you have in stock, stock that sits is just capital tied up and not making you any money. There is a reason for 50% sales as clothes go out of season, the store needs to sell at cost (or below) to free up funds to pay for next seasons clothes. You don't want to have a bunch of odd calibers tying up your materials & labor. Now having special order for the older or less common calibers or small packs of unique weights & styles might make sense in moderation. You would have to know your market to make that work, or spend some lead and time to learn what works.

Maybe there is a good market for oversized .303 cast or a light weight .30 for small game. Maybe a heavy or light weight 45 where 6 gun junkies abound, our the 45 ACP is the popular choice. Could be a RNFP in a hunting caliber popular in your area. Could be something people shoot for prairie dogs where that is popular. But having every caliber from 25 to 50 in an assortment of weights would tie up major loot and a good chunk would sit and gather dust.

I have bought 500 cn't packs of cast at a gun show. I wanted that profile & weight but until I tried it didn't want to commit to a mold. Have also bought odd lots from an estate sale buyer & seller. I don't really "need" that style but a couple hundred already cast at a good price so why not. If it works great, maybe I buy that style mold, if not then not a lot of money wasted.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

The bags of 100 or 200 bullets or "sample packs" of WC, RN, TC, HP or what have you that allow folks to buy a small amount of "goodies" without a big financial commitment might work at gun shows or in person at matches. I think .38's are around $60 a box of 5 hundred for laser cast last time I checked. That allows for some $12 bags of 100 or a slightly better price for 500 and still be profitable and competitive.

The whole hard vs fit & softer would require some amount of education of buyers. Don't make them think give them the correctly sized bullet for a lead bullet made from lead of a decent level of hardness for the caliber.

I agree with the folks that suggested limiting the calibers you have in stock, stock that sits is just capital tied up and not making you any money. There is a reason for 50% sales as clothes go out of season, the store needs to sell at cost (or below) to free up funds to pay for next seasons clothes. You don't want to have a bunch of odd calibers tying up your materials & labor. Now having special order for the older or less common calibers or small packs of unique weights & styles might make sense in moderation. You would have to know your market to make that work, or spend some lead and time to learn what works.

Maybe there is a good market for oversized .303 cast or a light weight .30 for small game. Maybe a heavy or light weight 45 where 6 gun junkies abound, our the 45 ACP is the popular choice. Could be a RNFP in a hunting caliber popular in your area. Could be something people shoot for prairie dogs where that is popular. But having every caliber from 25 to 50 in an assortment of weights would tie up major loot and a good chunk would sit and gather dust.

I have bought 500 cn't packs of cast at a gun show. I wanted that profile & weight but until I tried it didn't want to commit to a mold. Have also bought odd lots from an estate sale buyer & seller. I don't really "need" that style but a couple hundred already cast at a good price so why not. If it works great, maybe I buy that style mold, if not then not a lot of money wasted.

I will still stick by my advice I gave 5 years ago.

I will add that before I was a caster, I was ordering boxes of 500 cast bullets in 4 different calibers (during my league shooting days)...and I was ordering a lot of them. If someone at a match handed me a free sample pack of 50 and pointed out why Hard alloy wasn't better and why their lube is better, and after testing those samples, I probably would have been a new customer to that cast bullet dealer.

[LAH]

Reading this was entertaining. I think KYCaster knows of what he speaks. The other best advice is do something very few do & do it better than anyone else.

[RogerDat]

Reading this was entertaining. I think KYCaster knows of what he speaks. The other best advice is do something very few do & do it better than anyone else. You can win on price or you can win on filling a neglected niche or you can win because you do it better. Better quality for bargain price is not likely, better price than comparable quality is possible.

Softer bullets being better or lube being better can be explained to a niche market (competitive shooter) because they are looking to gain every bit of accuracy possible and care enough to consider the arguments. Guy stopping at a table in a gun show may or may not care enough to discuss and consider the differences. He knows what he already buys, yours have to look as good or like a better deal to get him to part with some cash. Small sums are easier to get people to part with from their walking around money.

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive had a few buddys that tried it both small time and large operations. My advice is don't. Problem is without a large outlay of money you get swamped and if you buy the best equiptment you have to sell ALOT of bullets to break even. theres already lots of competition for you and the few big named companys about have the market cornered and its going to be hard to compete with them in price. Now if you want to make a few bucks get your batf permit and go to local shoots and offer custom bullets. Casted in alloys proper for the job and lubed with a good lube. The mail order thing about requires HARD bullets and HARD lube to handle the abuse the PO will give the package. But its going to be a rough road if you have to feed your family off what your going to sell. I considered it once myself but was talked out of it by a couple buddys who own bigger casting operations. Today one of them went under and the other sold out his business. I also had a buddy that was on here that tried it along with selling reloaded ammo. Last I heard he wasn't doing it anymore either. Im glad I didn't go that route. I cast for fun and as a hobby and it would have taken the fun right out of it to know I had to make X amount of money every month to break even.

[Traffer]

Interesting thread. I am working on a completely different way of making boolits. I had no intention of going commercial and actually trying to sell them. BUT NOW I DO. Thanks.

[toallmy]

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