Need help selecting a mold for a customer boolits.

[Adam10mm]

Some of you know me from other forums and that I've started my own boolit casting business. I specialize in hard to find calibers and weights. I'm doing this more as a favor for a forum member elsewhere.

He said he's looking at $140 for 1000 30-30 boolits with gas checks and posted a thread asking if there was a company out there that would size and lube them but leave the gas checks off and he'd do it himself. I offered to get a mold for a design he picks out and I'd sell him 1000 boolits for $70 plus shipping ($82 total). Cost me about $28 and change with the gas checks to make the boolits.

I'm going to work out some samples with a mold of various alloys and send them to him free to try out. Whatever alloy shoots good to his liking I will cast the boolits the same for his order. Kind of like a try before you buy type deal. I have access to pure lead, WW, and have a little bit of lino and mono. Suggestions on good alloys (BHN mainly) for hunting hogs? Deep penetration with good expansion.

Got a customer that wants a 170gr FN boolit for the 30-30 Marlin 336. Looking at this type of profile:

Saeco #305
http://www.lasc.us/number%20305%20SAECO-2.jpg

He's looking to push it to 2000fps if possible but mostly 1700-1900fps. Will be a hog hunting load for him.

Suggestions? I have a dealer account with Graf's so mold cost isn't too much of a concern. Saeco's are expensive as hell though. I'd like suggestions on a mold and alloy for hog hunting please. Thanks.

[Buckshot]

.................I'd suggest the RCBS 30-180 and regular ole WW. It will take him to those velocities. In fact, I'd also try 3 WW and one lead. Assuming 11 bhn for the WW you'll get about a 9 with that mix.

................Buckshot

[Jon K]

How about Lyman 311041? RCBS 30-180 & Saeco 305 are only $16 difference Graf retail pricing. Lyman being the cheapest

[Adam10mm]

Thanks guys. Will other brand handles fit the Saeco mold? I have Lee and RCBS handles.

[Buckshot]

Thanks guys. Will other brand handles fit the Saeco mold? I have Lee and RCBS handles.

.............The Lee's will. That's what I use on my Saeco's

...............Buckshot

[Adam10mm]

Excellent. I appreciate the help.

[Jon K]

RCBS handles will fit, but need a new set of mounting holes(larger)

Jon

[Lloyd Smale]

freekshow i tried the casting for money game and gave it up. I guess one of the biggest reasons is that when i figured what i was making at it for my time i was pulling in about 9 bucks an hour and i was using up my lead doing it. If i had to actually buy the lead i doubt if i was making enough to buy chicken noodle soup. Most casters make there bread and butter off of casting machines. they make tons of plinking bullets with very little labor and it allows them to cast there specialty bullet while the plinkers are being made. Another problem your going to run into is no matter how nice of a bullet you cast someone is going to complain. Some just because they think they know more then you and some legitimately. Its hard to spec out an alloy, especially for a rilfe, that is going to shoot well and not lead when you dont know if the guy is shooting it a 1000 fps or 2000 or trying to do both. You also dont know if hes shooting it in a good gun or a *** junk rifle. If hes getting leading hes going to blame your bullets and surely not his gun which no doubt hes going to tell you shot everyone elses cast bullets just fine. then theres the problem of shipping bulk bullets. YOu have two choies either stack your bullets in pretty little rows so they cant bang around (very time consuming) or go the route of most casting companys and use a useless hard lube and then wait for the leading complaints to roll in. Another thing looking at the senerio you talked about is lubing bullets without a gas check. Unless you have a star your going to have a mess. Bottom line if i were you and had what you had to work with and was certain you wanted to take this on. Id cast something like the lyman or rcbs flatnosed bullet cast it out of ww and water drop it. Your going to want harder then ww bullets if hes going to use them at rifle velocitys. No doubt guys on here get ww to work at rifle velocitys but they understand alot more about pressure and twist and what makes it work then the average gun. You can get there using ww/lyno 5050 but if your going to do that and have that much lynotype i sure wish you let me know where your getting it as id about bet when what you have is gone its not going to be easily repaced and your a young guy and id hate to see you using what you have to cast for someone else. You need to base your prices not on the fact you have free wws but on what it would cost you to replace the lead if you had to buy commercialy. Because even wws are drying up fast and you will find yourself out of lead. Basicaly i hate to say it but i think your spinning your wheels trying to make a profit casting bullets. Only way to do it is to quit your job and invest in big dollar equiptment and do it right. Ive talked to a buddy that is a comercial caster about doing it and he told me that i was about nuts. It would be a dirty crime to invest 50000 in equiptment only to have lead banned 10 years from now or gets so expensive that the shooting sprort about dies. I hope it works out for you and if i can do anything to help im only a short ride away
Some of you know me from other forums and that I've started my own boolit casting business. I specialize in hard to find calibers and weights. I'm doing this more as a favor for a forum member elsewhere.

He said he's looking at $140 for 1000 30-30 boolits with gas checks and posted a thread asking if there was a company out there that would size and lube them but leave the gas checks off and he'd do it himself. I offered to get a mold for a design he picks out and I'd sell him 1000 boolits for $70 plus shipping ($82 total). Cost me about $28 and change with the gas checks to make the boolits.

I'm going to work out some samples with a mold of various alloys and send them to him free to try out. Whatever alloy shoots good to his liking I will cast the boolits the same for his order. Kind of like a try before you buy type deal. I have access to pure lead, WW, and have a little bit of lino and mono. Suggestions on good alloys (BHN mainly) for hunting hogs? Deep penetration with good expansion.

Got a customer that wants a 170gr FN boolit for the 30-30 Marlin 336. Looking at this type of profile:

Saeco #305
http://www.lasc.us/number%20305%20SAECO-2.jpg

He's looking to push it to 2000fps if possible but mostly 1700-1900fps. Will be a hog hunting load for him.

Suggestions? I have a dealer account with Graf's so mold cost isn't too much of a concern. Saeco's are expensive as hell though. I'd like suggestions on a mold and alloy for hog hunting please. Thanks.

[MT Gianni]

There is no way I would lube with out a gas check on a gc mold. I would tell your customer that you will install his checks if he furnishes them or ship without lube. Gianni

[Adam10mm]

Thanks for the insight Lloyd. I base my prices on scrap lead prices. I get my lead from a mix of free to pay sources. 1000 230gr 45 Auto boolits cost me about $4.93 plus lube maybe $6-7. I charge $75 shipped, take off $9 for a FRB and the actual price is $66. Say minus the $7 cost to make the boolits is $59 in my pocket. Takes me say one hour to cast that, two to size on the LAM2 (getting a Star in a few weeks), say 15mins to pack and ship (PO is 8 houses down the street). So $59 for 3.25 hours of work is $18.15/hr. When I get my Star, I have read I can size about 1K/hr so then it would be about $26.22/hr.

I also sell reloading and bullet casting equipment as a drop ship to my customers. I mainly sell Dillon equipment and I offer both a Dillon 550 starter kit (bare necessities to start loading; $550 shipped) and a casting starter kit (Lee 4-20 pot, Lee 6cav mold and handles, Lyman book, thermo, and Lee size kit; $165 shipped). That is just to keep monney coming in.

I am in the process of building (having built) a website. I have a domain name reserved, email account active, and the site will launch by the end of the month, but probably in less than two weeks.

It took a while for me to say Let's do it. I've been in business since Oct 5th of 2007. In that short couple of months, til the end of the fiscal year, I had $1300 in sales which I got ROI on all my startup costs including my Type 06 FFL, accounting software, etc plus was in the black by a few hundred dollars. So far this year I have done over $1000 in sales in reloading equipment, running about 8-10% profit margin on that for next to no work. Everything is drop shipped from my supplier. I don't carry inventory. The only products I handle are my own.

I refuse to take out a business loan. I'm raising capital the old fashion way. Start selling and reinvest the profits in the business.

I'm one of those people who would rather say "Well I gave it an honest try and it didn't work out" than "Well I never tried". I'm young enough (26) to be able to have this business fold and not really hurt me much. I'm going at this with a serious effort.

My niche in the market is hard to find calibers and weights. I offer/will be offering designs such as 95gr boolits for the 38Spl/357Mag, a 225gr SWC for the 10mm or 38-40, formed .256 Win Mag brass (out of Starline .357 Mag) for half the market price, a 115gr half jacketed bullet for the 10mm/40S&W, and offer other services such as primer pocket swaging and if you don't have the time to cast I offer a service to cast the quantity of bullets you want with your mold you send me. I don't lube or size, just cast and cull and send the mold back with the bullets. If they want them lubed and sized, I charge for that too. If someone needs an alloy blend I can do that too. There are services I can offer but have to work out pricing etc.

I do it this way because there is no way I could compete with the commercial machines whose companies (like Missouri Bullets) are selling 1K for $50 shipped. It's a way to make decent money on the side but not be overwhelmed with 6 orders for 5K bullets all in one day.

[Slowpoke]

The only reason I would choose the 305 is if the Marlin has a .302--.303 bore , if it is .300-.301 you will have to seat the boolit deeper and the crimp groove with be in the case neck.

If it has a .302 --303 bore then it is the boolit of choice for the 336 as everything will fit nice.

good luck

[Lloyd Smale]

I wish you all the luck in the world. One of these days ill have to take a ride up and see your setup.
Thanks for the insight Lloyd. I base my prices on scrap lead prices. I get my lead from a mix of free to pay sources. 1000 230gr 45 Auto boolits cost me about $4.93 plus lube maybe $6-7. I charge $75 shipped, take off $9 for a FRB and the actual price is $66. Say minus the $7 cost to make the boolits is $59 in my pocket. Takes me say one hour to cast that, two to size on the LAM2 (getting a Star in a few weeks), say 15mins to pack and ship (PO is 8 houses down the street). So $59 for 3.25 hours of work is $18.15/hr. When I get my Star, I have read I can size about 1K/hr so then it would be about $26.22/hr.

I also sell reloading and bullet casting equipment as a drop ship to my customers. I mainly sell Dillon equipment and I offer both a Dillon 550 starter kit (bare necessities to start loading; $550 shipped) and a casting starter kit (Lee 4-20 pot, Lee 6cav mold and handles, Lyman book, thermo, and Lee size kit; $165 shipped). That is just to keep monney coming in.

I am in the process of building (having built) a website. I have a domain name reserved, email account active, and the site will launch by the end of the month, but probably in less than two weeks.

It took a while for me to say Let's do it. I've been in business since Oct 5th of 2007. In that short couple of months, til the end of the fiscal year, I had $1300 in sales which I got ROI on all my startup costs including my Type 06 FFL, accounting software, etc plus was in the black by a few hundred dollars. So far this year I have done over $1000 in sales in reloading equipment, running about 8-10% profit margin on that for next to no work. Everything is drop shipped from my supplier. I don't carry inventory. The only products I handle are my own.

I refuse to take out a business loan. I'm raising capital the old fashion way. Start selling and reinvest the profits in the business.

I'm one of those people who would rather say "Well I gave it an honest try and it didn't work out" than "Well I never tried". I'm young enough (26) to be able to have this business fold and not really hurt me much. I'm going at this with a serious effort.

My niche in the market is hard to find calibers and weights. I offer/will be offering designs such as 95gr boolits for the 38Spl/357Mag, a 225gr SWC for the 10mm or 38-40, formed .256 Win Mag brass (out of Starline .357 Mag) for half the market price, a 115gr half jacketed bullet for the 10mm/40S&W, and offer other services such as primer pocket swaging and if you don't have the time to cast I offer a service to cast the quantity of bullets you want with your mold you send me. I don't lube or size, just cast and cull and send the mold back with the bullets. If they want them lubed and sized, I charge for that too. If someone needs an alloy blend I can do that too. There are services I can offer but have to work out pricing etc.

I do it this way because there is no way I could compete with the commercial machines whose companies (like Missouri Bullets) are selling 1K for $50 shipped. It's a way to make decent money on the side but not be overwhelmed with 6 orders for 5K bullets all in one day.

[Adam10mm]

I'm going with a Saeco #305 mold and trying water dropped WW for starters.

My setup ain't pretty, but it works. Will have a more elaborate setup than I posted in the forum. I mounted my bulk smelter on a wheeled cart so I can bring it outside easily to make ingots. I'm getting a kitchen island from my SIL and that is going to be my new casting center. Place to store molds and such underneath and I can wheel it outside in the summer. For winter casting I'm using the workbench with an overhead fan still. In the spring when I reshingle the garage and build a carport off of it I'm going to run an exhaust system outside the soffit.