How often do you cast boolits?

[dh2]

until 2 years ago I would cast about double what I wanted to load at that time, Now I am retired and health limits what I can do, so this spring I cast over 100 lbs of lead in to bullets and sized them plus others that have been setting around for years. trying to get to where every thing I have cast is sized and ready to load. Odds are good that I will not fire up a pot tell next year, and for 22 Hornet I may never cast again

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

Monthly.

Rich

[8mmFan]

I love turning scrap into something useful, whether it’s casting bullets from wheel weights or whatever, or taking a railroad spike, running it through my homemade forge and trying to turn it into something that resembles a knife.
Also, the most fun I get is when I have my kids casting bullets along with me. They enjoy it and I think there’s a lot of valuable small things learned there, for them.
That said, the issue for us is time. All three kids play a hell of a lot of sports now, and weekends are pretty much shot by the time you’ve had six or more sports events. The sports thing for kids these days is way different than it was when most of us were kids; that said, they love it and I like to watch them compete.
Now that they’re getting a little older, and I’ve seen them a gazillion times playing, I don’t mind once in a while just letting the wife take off and take them to their games. When that happens, a little free time comes up and once in a while I could squeeze in some casting or reloading. A lot of my casting stuff got destroyed in an accident last year (no need to go into details) and I just got a lot of it replaced by MidSouth recently. When my new garage gets finished, one of the things I plan to do is make some sort of space (maybe a lean-to of some fashion) on the sunny side where I can just leave my casting stuff set up, and I can then just show up, turn on the power, and go to town with casting bullets.

When I cast, I tend to stick with it for a few hours and do multiple calibers, just because I enjoy it so much. Sometimes I alternate molds and just water quench all of the bullets together in the same bucket and sort them out later. I’ve done 500-700 at a stretch, many times.

Sometimes I think I like casting, reloading, and load development even more than a long shooting session!

8mmFan

[Idaho45guy]

Sometimes I think I like casting, reloading, and load development even more than a long shooting session!

8mmFan

It can certainly be less frustrating!

I know when I decide to cast, I have to commit at least three hours to it. Turning the pot on and getting the lead to the proper temp takes about a half hour to 45 minutes. Then, even with the molds resting on the rim of the pot to pre-warm them, getting the mold to the proper temp takes another 15 or 20 minutes.

So, I am an hour into the process before I even start getting good boolits to drop. Then, all my molds are 2-cavity molds, so it takes me about an hour to get 200 boolits, if I am using two molds with two different designs so I can alternate between them to allow enough time for cooling.

I hate frosty boolits, so I tend to cast slower to prevent overheating of the mold.

My kids are grown and I get either 3 days or 4 days off work each week, so I have plenty of time for reloading and casting. But, I have a girlfriend who comes over on my days off, so I have to give her attention until she goes to bed. Then I am up another few hours doing whatever I want.

[trapper9260]

I cast when I run short of the ones I needed and do a good batch to last me. I just done some casting this morning for some I needed .

[44MAG#1]

Not often. I dont like to cast.

[kiwi]

I cast or process boolits most days for a few hours, I sell them to pad out the pension and keep me from going stir crazy
pretty busy right now with the shortage of every thing shooting related, Getting through three fills of my RCBS Pro melt
a week have trouble keeping up with demand, Great to feel wanted.

[kevin c]

Like some here, I cast in binges; 5-10K of the same boolit over a week, followed by coating and sizing. This provides enough fodder for loading and shooting action pistol for a few months (the loading also tends to be done in marathon sessions). I do tend to cast more in the cooler months, but mainly because I dislike outdoor shooting when cold or wet, rather than issues of comfort in casting. Actually, I think I cast better quality boolits in warmer weather when my outdoor setup doesn't have to deal with the alloy stream from my bottom pour being affected by ambient temperature, but I'd rather cast in cool weather than freeze on the range.

[Beaverhunter2]

Every chance I get! I was talking with my buddy and mentioned that if the SHTF I'd sure miss my electric pots. Then I realized I could easily store lead as "as cast" boolits rather than ingots. Since I only use 50-50 and COWW I'm in the process of converting 150 lbs of lead into a variety of projectiles I use across different calibers- mostly NOE 126 6.5mm, Lee Soupcans and 170FNs, RCBS 30-180-FNs, Lee 252 SWCs, and a few .458"s and .476"s

I like casting....

[Idaho45guy]

Sat down and finally casted today. Turned the AM radio on to a talk radio station, turned on the pot, opened the window a few inches, and sat on the bar stool and cast for about 2.5 hours today. Was not productive at all.

I had to go cut the 10 lb ingots of Lee #2 in half. Changed the blade on my chop saw to a metal cutting blade and cut them into thirds. Then took about 40 minutes to get the pot heated up.

Cast Lee .452 250 grain and 300 grain molds for my .45 Colt. Lee molds are finicky and once you get them to the proper temp, and the lead to the proper temp, they work wonderfully. For about 10 minutes. Then something goes wrong, lol.

Cast around 300 boolits, then wanted some more .400 180 grain boolits out of an RCBS mold. Much, much easier and quicker to get going. Did 100 of those and called it good.

Before I started, had to change my clothes into old jeans and an unwanted long-sleeve shirt, and some old shoes.

Discovered that my Alox lube had gotten thicker since the last time I used it, and when squeezing the bottle to get some out, the plastic shattered and ruined a bottle that was about 3/4 full. So, had to order some more online. Have never seen it for sale locally.

But, after going online and looking for boolits for sale for crazy prices, if even available at all, casting my own felt good.

[tmanbuckhunter]

Stuff for pistols, leverguns, and milsurps, I'll usually spend a day or two and cast up a years supply worth, size, lube, and store in an air tight container. BPCR bullets usually get cast as needed because the process is much slower, and lubed and sized about a day or two before being shot. It really just depends.