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Thread: How basic/old school has your cast setup been?

  1. #21
    Boolit Master
    405grain's Avatar
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    I started casting in 1982 with a Coleman 502 single burner stove, a small cast iron skillet, and a homemade dipper. The first mold that I ever owned was an RCBS 45-405-FN (hence my avatar "405grain") I cast thousands of bullets in lots of different calibers with that setup. Decades later I got a 20 pound Lee bottom pour and it was like going from an ox cart to a Lear jet. Today I've got a ton of different molds, and cast so much that I hardly have storage for all the bullets that I've made. (Looks like it's time for a trip to the range to make room for some more cast bullets)

  2. #22
    Boolit Master
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    When I was 15, taught myself how to run ball for a Navy Arms .36 51" navy colt on an old cast iron kitchen wood fired range. Funny how the the little cast iron melting pot fit so close in the smaller lid opening of the front lid. That old stove served me well for .22 thru .58 calibers, until I graduated to a 10lb. electric SAECO when I started shooting IHMSA.

  3. #23
    Boolit Grand Master

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    I smelt and alloy with a propane tank pot in a big burn ring ( stove) made from truck rims. wood or if I splurge stoker coal is the heat source with a blower at the start of the pot. I melt roughly 300 lbs at a time in this set up. Can do 3-4 pots a day.

    My casting set up is about the same smaller pot and a turkey frier stand with a propane weed burner. Ladle cast this pot holds 120 lbs

  4. #24
    USMC 77, USRA 79


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    Quote Originally Posted by dverna View Post
    Never been "old school". Started over 50 years ago with a 20 lb Lyman electric furnace, 10 cavity H&G #50 and Star lubersizer. Now have a PID, Lee bottom pour (JIC) and a Master Caster.

    Life is too short to use crappy tools. Plus, shooting was in my blood from an early age, and I looked at it as a lifetime hobby...which it has been. Why "make do" unless it is a necessity? Some folks take pride in getting good results using a basic setup. I want to get the task done efficiently and safely.

    Even at today's prices, a top end set up might cost $2000-2500. It will last a lifetime and has no depreciation.

    Amen Don…. This is also my method… I cast so I can eat!!! I try to use the best stuff I have available.
    Any technology not understood, can seem like Magic!!!

    I will love the Lord with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind.

  5. #25
    Boolit Master
    AZ Pete's Avatar
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    I started casting in 1965 with a bunsen burner under a cast iron pot. I cast .36 cal. round balls for a .36 Navy. Later got a Blackhawk, so also got a used Lyman single cavity mold for 148 g. wad cutters. Still have that mold and the bunsen burner, which dated from the 1940's. Now I have a Lyman bottom pour pot with an ammo can full of Lyman, RCBS and other molds for all pistol calibers and 45-70, and .50 cal. My first bottom pour pot was a Lee that I bought in 1977.
    NRA Endowment Life Member

  6. #26
    Boolit Master
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    Started out in 1978 with a 20 lb Saeco bottom pour pot, a Lyman 4500, and 2 Lyman 4 cavity molds. A few years later I added a 10 lb Lee bottom pour pot, a H&G 6 cavity mold, and 3 Star lube sizers. Now I have added many more molds of all sizes, a Lyman 20 lb dip pot and another Lyman 4500. I always needed more and more bullets, but never seemed to have enough time to do it any way except the most efficient.

  7. #27
    Boolit Buddy muskeg13's Avatar
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    I started with a Lee 20# bottom drip, but have used a Lee Magnum 20# to ladle pour for the past 30 years. I have also ladle cast using steel and cast iron pots over a 2-burner Coleman white gas stove and in the kitchen using an electric range. I got tired with the leaky bottom pour method and took a step backwards, but think I get better results using a ladle even if it might be a bit slower.

  8. #28
    Boolit Buddy 1eyedjack's Avatar
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    My outside casting bench
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Left side 4 layers of bath towels board at front to flip fresh casts to back to cool, lee 20 lb pot on p.i.d.right side hot plate with sheet metal garage I cast mostly when it's cold outside bench is under my deck facing the south
    Last edited by 1eyedjack; 01-24-2025 at 09:24 PM.
    Before you break into my house stand outside and get right with Jesus tell him you're on your way!!

  9. #29
    Boolit Master Gobeyond's Avatar
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    I love single cavity molds. That’s old time. Before electricity that a long time ago. Even longer than propanes beginnings. Cowboys and buffalo hunters on the range- wood fires. In the city coal fires in or on a stove. Not very efficient. Lead at the general store, melting in something iron. Dipping with a teaspoon. Those guys roughed in for a box of shell reloads. We do production.

  10. #30
    Boolit Bub

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    Started casting in the late 70s. First with a ladle and then with a 10# lee bottom pour. Early 80s build tripod base to hold cast iron dutch oven, used hot water tank burner running on propane. would feed lee pot with molten lead in cast iron pot to keep production up. two 4 cavity H&G molds 38 and 200 gr 45acp, 4 cavity Lyman 45 acp 185gr SWC and a bunch of 38, 44,45LC 2 cavities. late 80s got divorce and remarried inheriting kids which put casting on hold. 5 years ago bought 10# and 20# lee pots. added 3 - 6 cavity lee molds 38, 40 & 45. sold the H&G molds. bought 20 buckets of COWW, buddy picked up 300# of 22 lead plus a bunch of sheet lead. big cast iron pot on turkey fryer burner inside old round charcoal grill with door setup on end to be wind screen and molten lead explosion screen, 1,000# of COWW as ingots. started casting 30 cal for blackout, using lee bottom pour. jumped in big and bought Magma Engineering Master Caster one mold manual bullet casting machine, 50# pot. used my controls background to automate Master Caster. It came with 1 MC bullet mold. Now have 13 or 14 MC molds, 380 90gr thru 45-300gr. loading 124 gr 9mm loaded in 38spec for training friends. As part of the MC purchase, an additional 24 hand cast molds. sold off 7 that were duplicates with what I had or not interested in the caliber. along the way, picked up over 2,000# of used Linotype. built 12" dia by 12" tall pot out of heavy pipe, 200,000 BTU burner and have converted used slugs into 1,500# of Linotype ingots, 3.5% tin from being used. sold 300# of the Lino ingots and have another 300# spoken for. Lino source has about 50# per month. looking for pure lead to alloy with the Lino.

    MC in auto mode produced around 900 9mm per hour or 500 45-300gr per hour. working on automating a bullet sizing system. upside down lee press with push thru sizing dies works good but would like to be able to run sizing and MC in auto mode justing watching what is going on. Goodwill small counter top oven for powder coating.

    Rifle and hollow point bullets thru the 20# Lee. Having lots of fun playing with stuff. My Lee 6 pac is getting sorted out and produces good 30BO and 38 spec.

  11. #31
    Boolit Master

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    Single cavity Lyman molds.
    10# Lyman cast iron melting pot.
    Lyman cast iron dipper.
    Heat supplied by a Coleman white gas camp stove.
    I started casting in the mid 60s.

  12. #32
    Boolit Buddy ttd444's Avatar
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    cast iron dipper
    i think a 10lb cast iron pot
    Coleman stove and white gas
    i got an oversized stainless steel table spoon for dross
    sawdust too
    Russian Admiral said, after the Moskva sank, "we have the world's worst navy but we aren't as bad as our army".

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  13. #33
    Boolit Master schutzen-jager's Avatar
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    long ago

    started with these + the small Lee steel pot [ could not find it with quick search ] apx. 66 years ago on kitchen gas stove -
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails DSCN2247.JPG   DSCN2248.JPG  
    never pick a fight with an old man - if he is too old to fight he will just kill you -
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  14. #34
    Boolit Master memtb's Avatar
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    Pretty much the same as in the ‘70’s when I started…….though now I use an electric stove out in my pole barn, which I bought “well used” for near nothing.

    I also use the oven for my powder coating. Powder coating may be my only real change since I started.

    Still using the same cast iron pot and ladle…..still using wheelweights. memtb
    You should not use a rifle that will kill an animal when everything goes right; you should use one that will do the job when everything goes wrong." -Bob Hagel

    “LETS GO BRANDON”

  15. #35
    Boolit Bub
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    Just this afternoon I cast 125 358 wadcutters using an old electric single burner cooktop, a 1 1/2 quart cast iron pot, an old Lyman pressure laddle, and an ancient single cavity Lyman mold. It took freaking forever, but I cleaned up my work area a bit while waiting for the lead to reheat.

  16. #36
    Boolit Master


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    I started in 1988. I bought a used Lyman cast iron pot, maybe 4" in diameter, and a Lyman ladle. I was fortunate that my dad was a building contractor, he had a plumbers furnace, a large (20-30 lb?) pot, and a large ladle. (Not to mention a detached 2 car garage/workshop.) I smelted my wheel weights in his big pot and poured them into aluminum mini muffin pans (which I still have.) I used the small pot and ladle to cast.

    My dad was basically a non shooter (he was a rabbit hunter with a double barrel shotgun, and that was the extent of it for him) but he always took a keen interest in everything I was doing. He would suggest better/more efficient ways of doing things, and always supported anything I wanted to do. Even though he didn't specifically do the things I was doing, he was a smart cookie with years of practical experience in just about everything construction/building/using tools. I benefitted greatly from his wisdom.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check