What should lead boolits cost?

[Tumtatty]

I have an acquaintance who asked me if I would cast him some .45 boolits.

This is no business opportunity or anything like that. I was just wondering what a fair price would be if I made him 1k or so.

Apologies if this is an improper question.

[Boerrancher]

I bought 500 Hornady 0.427 lead cowboy action bullets to try in my 44-40, while I was waiting on my new mould to arrive. I paid $25 for the box back in Jan. So that should give you a general idea of what they are worth.

As a side note, they shot like crap, so I still have 450 of those bullets waiting to be melted down and turned into 429 dia boolits.

Best Wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[epj]

Around here a box of 500 bullets of that general size would run $50-60.:( That's why I make my own.:castmine:

[Heavy lead]

I could care less what they cost. The reason I cast is that most cast bullets (or swaged) you buy are junk, harder than cast iron, or softer than chicken sh*& and junk crayon for lube or nothing at all and shoot like buckshot at 50 yards. Finally gave up and started casting. I now can make a much better boolit than anything I can buy.

[Tom Herman]

Around here, I'm seeing commercial hard cast lead running about 15 cents apiece (255 gr. 45 Long Colts).
The high cost of bullets, lack of what I wanted, and poor performance (leading) all caused me to invest in the casting gear to save myself money and turn out a product that is tailor made to suit my uses.
Casting for others, though, is another thing. Practically speaking, if I can't make at least $50/hr after hours on a money making project, it literally isn't worth it to me. My time is money as well. It takes me WAY too long to cast to make any decent money at it.
If I were going to make $$$, I'd do something like work in niche markets like turning out .455 Webleys for 50 cents each. Keep in mind that there is a reason why oddball bullets cost so much!
There are enough people making run of the mill stuff like .38/.357, .44, .45ACP/LC so it wouldn't be worth it unless you like working for $3/hr or less.
Just my two cents worth.

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[Heavy lead]

TTY,
Didn't really read your thread very well. Seems I really answered a question that you didn't ask. As far as what to charge, shucks it probably depends on how well you know him. I'd probably give him a good price, which would be about $10 a hundred. Personally I won't sell boolits, I'll give a few away, or help someone get into casting, but if they don't shoot good for them, I don't want to here them b&%tch about it. I get that enough at work.
Good Luck

[Bullshop]

I could care less what they cost. The reason I cast is that most cast bullets (or swaged) you buy are junk, harder than cast iron, or softer than chicken sh*& and junk crayon for lube or nothing at all and shoot like buckshot at 50 yards. Finally gave up and started casting. I now can make a much better boolit than anything I can buy.
Heavy lead
Ouch, that hurts!!! You may be right but I dont feel I belong in that bucket blended in with them others. Never have had any of the complaints you mention, just the oposite.
BIC/BS

[Doc Highwall]

Why don't you invite him over and show him how to load on your equipment, then maybe he want to learn how to cast and join us.

[selmerfan]

Bullshop,
I don't think he was including specialty dealers like yourself in the mix. I think he's referring to the bags of swaged or cast bullets that you can buy in bags at any gun shop that have zero lube on them and look terrible. I'm sure folks like you are not included in that rant. :)
Selmerfan

[compass will]

that is the problem with casting. We loose track of how much we really are saving!

Midway.
Hunters Supply Hard Cast Bullets 45 Caliber (452 Diameter) 250 Grain Lead Flat Nose Box of 500

$89.99 plus $14.00 shipping! Wow :roll:

[Echo]

My Zwei pfennig - I don't believe that you are really looking into making a living out of your casting effort, but will do it as a favor for friends, and just don't want to lose money.
If he is a friend, and I assume he is, $10/100, or 10 cents apiece. Makes the money easy, and you might clear a couple cents per boolit. 'Way cheaper than buying commercial, and if you work with him on bore diameter &cetera, he will have much better finished cartridges. Then maybe you can gradually work him into the casting game.

That's the way I would do it, if anyone asked. I reload for a couple of friends, and plan not to make any money on the effort. They are friends, and being retired, I have time.

[Blammer]

$50 for 1,000 is what I'd charge him.

It' fair, IMO.

[dwtim]

Third-ing the $10/100 for big bore pistol bullets. They go for $48/500 in .452"/250 grain, in my local shop. Since the topic came up, these are big name bulk bullets, not boutique shop, high-quality stuff that one could use for hunting.

Regardless, a fair price for a true friend is "free". The most I would do is charge him for the lead, but nothing else. And only if he insisted on paying me something. I would also encourage him to take up casting as a hobby.

[compass will]

$50 for 1,000 is what I'd charge him.

It' fair, IMO.

I can't cast them for that price. Do you have any molds that would work in my .308 :-D

Heck, How about some 500 grainer 45-70's? That would be over 71 lbs of lead!

[compass will]

Regardless, a fair price for a true friend is "free". The most I would do is charge him for the lead, but nothing else. And only if he insisted on paying me something. I would also encourage him to take up casting as a hobby.

My Range buddy has been getting "lead fever" since he has been watching me.
He pulled out this old rifle in 30-06 and went out and bought some .310 170 grain cast for it. Out of the 100 he bought, he already has it doing 3/4" groups at 100 yards (once he gets the barrel warm).

Next weekend I am going to take him a small pile of some 185 grainers sized to .310. I wish I had a .312 sizer because I bet he would do even better with them.
I can see him coming around :-D. We both decided we are going to start playing with the cast boolit association guys at our club.

[gon2shoot]

What I do is charge 150%, WW for finished boolits.

[trickyasafox]

these are probably the most reasonable prices I've found :

http://www.marlinowners.com/forums/index.php/topic,23847.0.html

ps great guy to work with, his name escapes me at the moment.

[docone31]

How much to charge?
I have a buddy who is a Yuppie, we shoot together, and my castings outshoot his jacketeds. He wants me to cast him some.
I told him, ok, I need some wheel weights.
So far, no wheel weights.
I told him, ok, c'mon over. I will show you how to do it, and we can take turns casting.
So far lots of excuses, no show.
I asked him, have you slugged your barrel?
Nope. He told me to do it. I told him, nope, it is your pistol. I will show you how.
So far, he has not even watched the video with his pistol as an example.
I feel sad over this, he significantly helped my wife on the path to really enjoying shooting. I do not feel ok about just casting for him. He will never lube them, I do not know the size he needs, he has done nothing to provide the information.
The offer still stand. He has not shot since.
I hope you and your friend work out a better deal. He should at least meet cost. A five gallon pail of wheel weights for example. Your time is involved also. The remainder is good compensation. If he gets them for nothing, you both are ahead.

[Echo]

It's more than simply cost of WW's - it's also cost of electricity to run the furnace, the cost of the propane for smelting, cost of lube, and amortization for equipment. Again, I doubt if you want to make any money off your friend, but providing a constant supply means charging enough to cover your costs. Granted, the electricity is cheap, the propane not so much, the lube not so much, but a few pennies add up. I stand by my 10 cents per. Makes the math easy...

[trickyasafox]

I'll make a friend a few for free- anywhere from 50- to maybe 100 or 200 if I can crank em out on a 6 banger- but I'm not going to just do it for my friends to shoot cheaply at my expense. that would be the mark of a crappy friend.

to answer your point though- I always felt weird about taking money from friends- maybe you could do an exchange of services? maybe he mikes good wine or something and would give you a few bottles? maybe he or she is great with wood working? I feel a lot better about those types of deals with friends.

[Tumtatty]

Thanks guys. :drinks:

I don't really know this guy so I don't have a problem taking his money[smilie=1:

I agree that friends get boolits for free or for nearly so.

I asked for .10 per boolit and have not heard back from him yet. I'll keep you posted.

[Shotgun Luckey]

I cast some up for a close friend....actually the relative that got me into cowboy shooting...He casts his own for the .44-40 boolits he shoots in matches, but wanted some .38's for practice. (he has identical guns in .38/.357 and .44-40) He didn't want to get "set-up" for the .38's and doesn't have a lot of time. I figured it a couple of different ways and came close with each method:

these figures are for 158 grain boolits using wheel weights + 2% tin
calculated using the following assumptions:
cost of ww if purchasing $1/lb
cost of tin $10/lb
1000 boolits = 22.6 lbs

1) $.02 for the alloy + $.02 for casting + $.02 for lube and sizing = $.06 each =$60/1k
2) 2 times cost of materials = $53.10/1k (an easy rule of thumb for craftshow type stuff)

I ended up charging him $60 per thousand and he was happy to pay it.

If you are casting 230 grainers, that's about 33 lbs of alloy. I would ask for at least $80 per 1k.

Just my $.02

[georgewxxx]

Tumtatty
I think you've got what info you need as far as price goes, but heres a different slant on it. Unless you've got a unlimited access to your lead source, drop the final price a bit on the condition that your buddy looks for a replacement of your lead supply. The more eyes we have looking around for a new source of lead the happier we'll all be. He just might see some lead that you overlooked. We all know how hard it is to find with all the new regulations and company policies demanding recycling and removal from our usual sources.....Geo