Realistic Expectations for Cast Boolits

[Lead Fred]

I expect my 45-70 to blow big holes through anything that walks in north America.

I expect the squirrel hiding on the other side of a nice thick tree to go splat when the boolit goes clean though the tree and there is a red mark on the other side.



My Realistic Expectations for Cast Boolits is a big ole smile on my ugly mug every time I pull the trigger

[unclebill]

Chicks dig me because I cast my own.

Paul

yep
it drives chicks mad with desire.

[Bulltipper]

SWMBO didn't jump for that one but we've found a happy middle ground. I cast up a big batch the night before Dancing is on then "watch" the show sorting out the culls and spending time with her. Works like a charm!

~ Jech
GENIUS!!

[songdog53]

I cast to reload..reload to shoot...is never ending circle of life and i am doing my best to enjoy every step i take. Besides i enjoy every step in circle and keeps me out of trouble. Yes, even old men can get in trouble.

[mold maker]

I cast to reload..reload to shoot...is never ending circle of life and i am doing my best to enjoy every step i take. Besides i enjoy every step in circle and keeps me out of trouble. Yes, even old men can get in trouble.

Aint that the truth?

[miestro_jerry]

I have been casting for many years, I enjoy it, but I can get bullets that work better than the factory ones, plus I can make them as soft or as hard as they need to be.

Good example are the RD molds, which I have several. They very well in my Marlin lever guns, but also my t/c Contenders.

Factory bullets are made to sort of fit everything, instead of one particular gun.

Jerry

[1Shirt]

Don't know who originally said that unless you were a caster, you weren't a reloader, but just an assembler. But I kind of like that! If I could make my own brass, would probably be trying that as well. Guess it is just a factor of satisfaction.
1Shirt!

[THOR5624]

I am new to casting but, I have been reloading for about 7 months now. I just enjoy shooting and taking pride in the accuracy I can get from loads I made myself. I love my mosin nagant 91/30. Its like a little brother to me. Some people say its just a rifle and a cheap one at that. I see it as a weapon of war and a fun firearm to take to the range and blow holes through paper. I may try hunting sometime with it when I get the chance. I am still trying to find a sweet spot in the loads I make. Experimenting with three different powders trying to find the best groups. Happy shooting and reloading fellas!

[krag35]

I started seriously into casting when I was shooting action Pistol, field pistol and handgun Sillywet. I never got really good at any of those sports, but I had fun. I used the excuse that it would "save me money" that is a flat out lie, cost the same or perhaps a bit more to cast and reload, but you get to shoot SO much more for those dollars.

I realy don't like experimenting, but I do it untill I achieve the results I want, then I have "the load" for that particular gun. Sometimes on here I'll read of something different than what I'm using, and will go test it against "The load for that particular gun" If it is better, I get to blast away all of the previous loads and load up a new "The load for that particular gun"

I guess to answer the original question

Defensive handgun Minute of Coffe can at 25 yards (if it is smaller than a coffe can I'm not afraid of it, if it is bigger I can hit it, and I have a head start running for a rifle)

Hunting handgun That is what they make rifles for

Hunting Rifle Peep sights 4" @ 100 yds , Scope 2" @ 100 yds

I'm a hunter, not a target shooter. 90% of the animals I have taken have been within 100 yds, and 90% of then have been within 50 yds.

JMO and YMMV

[Marine Sgt 2111]

My Realistic Expectations for Cast Boolits :
Well when I was 15 I started casting boolits for a Ruger SBH (when they were $125.00) and couldn't afford jacketed. I read every article that Elmer penned about his SWC, 2400 and how well they worked together. When I went through my "Colt" phase, I cast for my GC, using a Lyman 4 cavity mold 452460 and experimenting for the best load. In rifles I was just shooting jackets gullets in all but my Navy Arms rolling block .45-70. Again the cost of jacketed bullets was just too much and WW alloy boolits shot just fine for "hunting". It has been only since I bought this farm, have easy access to my 100 and 200 yd ranges that I have really taken the time to refine lead boolits for accuracy in a rifle. Now retired I make my rounds between .32-20, .30-30, .30-06, .308, .35 rem, .32-40, .38-55, .375 H&H and .45-70 Rifles. I really am now gathering practical information prior to reopening my cast boolit business. Kind of a mixture of business and pleasure. Now I expect my cast boolits to hover around 1" @ 100yds with velocity between 1900 and 2400 fps. I have a Marlin 336 that plops RCBS 200gr FPGC boolits into less than 3/4" with pleasant regularity. I have enjoyed this sport for some 40 years now and see no boredom in my near future or until God calls me home.

[skeettx]

I am throwning the gauntlet down
7 total pages and only two pirtures
Topper, thanks for your picture

Talk, talk, talk
Show um if you got um
Enjoy the day
Mike

[wch]

[B1 shirt's quote has me thinking that if you cast, size, lube, and load your own ammunition, then you might call the cartridges "handcrafted".
Then you would be able to tell folks that you are an "ammo craftsman".[/B]

[John Ross]

I'm surprised at the number of responses from people who say that they have not saved money casting bullets because of the equipment expense. I started casting in 1971 after I got my first .44 magnum, which I liked to shoot a LOT. I had been reloading (for rifles) for 3 years at that point. My uncle believed in good tools and equipment, and encouraged me to get top quality stuff. He contributed half the price of all the casting equipment I bought.

Let's look at what I got in 1971, at 1971 prices, with tax and/or shipping:

Lyman Mold Master bottom pour furnace $50
Saeco 20 lb. utility furnace $40
Star Lubrisizer with die and top punch $60
Pair of H&G #503 8-cavity molds $150

That's $300, a fair chunk of change in 1971. Mom gave me an old iron pot, soup ladle, and muffin tin for smelting, and I already had a Coleman stove. The result was I could now cast, size and lube .44 bullets for well under a penny each. Wheelweights and other scrap lead were maybe 10 cents a pound at most, and often free.

Let's do the math: Good jacketed .44 bullets cost about a nickel to six cents apiece in quantity in 1971. Cast slugs from a commercial caster might have been half as much, but there was no one locally who did that.

At a nickel a bullet savings, my equipment was paid off in 6000 rounds, or about 7 months of shooting. After that, it was all gravy.

How much labor was involved for this? With my setup, I could cast, size and lube 6000 bullets in ten hours. Add three more hours (or less) to smelt 240 pounds of alloy. $300/13 hours = over $23/hr., not bad for a kid in junior high school in 1971.

Let's do the math for 2011:

RCBS Pro-Melt $335
Lee 20-lb pot $55
Star Lubrisizer with die $310
THREE MiHec 4-cavity brass molds $300

$1000 for about the same quality stuff in 2011. But .44 Jacketed bullets are now 20 cents each. If you pay $1/pound for your alloy, your bullets will be 4 cents each. Get some wheelweights for cheap or free, and cut that number in half.

At 18 cents a bullet in savings, you amortize the cost in ~5500 bullets. Not much different than 1971, eh?

Of course you can get started in casting today for one caliber for a LOT less than $1000, but I wanted to illustrate that even buying top drawer equipment, it doesn't take decades of shooting to make the investment worth it. And good equipment may depreciate a bit initially, but then tends to retain its value, and the best stuff actually appreciates over time.

More later.

[a.squibload]

JR, thanks for that perspective, good writeup.
I was out in the hills Sat. attempting to amortize my equipment.
Don't get many chances to do so, but it sure helps having the equipment,
'cause factory ammo works OK but it's too dang expensive!
And heck it's more fun to punch holes in stuff with home-made anyway.

[BruceB]

"Saving money...."

Hey, I'm a NUT, and I have a lot of company on this Board. I'm such a nut, that I'd probably cast and load my own even if it cost more than factory ammo. Fortunately, it doesn't, so follow some arithmetic here.

Being a nut, I have some off-the-wall rifles.

On a recent check of my logbooks, I found that my .416 Rigby has fired over 1500 rounds since it was new. Looking at Midway's lists, the LEAST-expensive .416 Rigby factory loads are selling at over five dollars per round. Some are over $10.00 per bang! My cast-bullet .416s, even those loaded to factory levels, cost about twenty cents each.

Hmmm....1500 x $5.00 = $$7,500.

1500 x $0.20 = $300. Net "saving": $7,200!!!!

Of course, there's no way that I'd ever shoot that many factory loads, even in much-less-expensive loadings than the .416. It's the casting and handloading that makes it all possible.

My M1A has passed the 6500-round mark now, and again, there's no way that I would even contemplate shooting that many factory loads. In fact, the rifle has never even SEEN a factory load...nor has the Rigby, or the vast majority of the other rifles that live with us.

If I could ever itemize the costs incurred to date (after 45+ years) there's little doubt that it would be a daunting figure. However, whatever that figure might be, when divided into the elapsed time AND the vast enjoyment derived from the expenditure....it's dirt cheap.

Yes, the per-round costs are much lower. The per-round SATISFACTION is astronomically greater. Looking back, there is not the slightest doubt in my mind that this was the right course for me.

[a.squibload]

BruceB, another good analysis of our addic... er, hobby!
I was so pleased last Sat. to find that all my test loads functioned
(first time I've done taper crimp, was always a revolver nut).
The gravy: I could hit stuff with 'em too!
Probably wouldn't care if they cost me the same as factory stuff,
being less expensive is the icing on the cake.

Think I need a snack...

[testhop]

i want my groups to be as small as i can get at least min of deer .

[bprifle01]

I'm new to this group, but not to reloading/casting. I've been casting since I built my first muzzleloading rifle and my brother said "You have to cast your own round ball for that thing or you are'nt a real man". That was about four or five years ago and I got into reloading at about the same time.
My expectations of cast boolits is to be able to exceed the accuracy of the loads I've developed with yellow bullets although I'm not real sure of how to go about that!
My expectations of Cast Boolits is to give me the guidance to learn how to go about doing what I want with cast boolits.

[Worn_Holster]

I am new to casting, but not reloading. My expectations are to have bullets in times when components are hard to find, to be able to produce boolits for my 1958 S&W 44 Magnum that requires oversized boolits to shoot accurately and to enjoy myself performing another tinkering type hobby.

[LAH]

My Realistic Expectations for Cast Boolits?

That the casting & shooting said bullet would bring happiness.