After bunches of reading on here, I am going to take the plunge on making my own bullets. I have been reloading and shooting 45 acp's for a lot of years but never made my own bullets. I have built (almost finished) a large rubber mulch bullet trap to collect lead and I think this will pay itself off after a year of shooting 500 - 750 rounds per month. Anyway, some questions for you seasoned experts.
I'm going to get the Lee Pro 4-20 pot, the upgrade kit from My2ndRight, Lee ladle, and a PID.
I have only owned 45s until recently, and I picked up a 9mm for my wife so I will do those also and probably pick up another one of those to plink with...so those will be my two calibers. My 45 I have really only loaded 200 grain LSWC, and I have bought some 125 gr lead round nose for 9mm (no idea of what bullet to use here for paper punching). Reading about Lee molds it seems like the 2 hole ones are not the best quality but will work, but the 6 hole ones are much better quality but harder for a beginner until they get the swing of it. Should I get the 2 hole? Or go for the 6 hole and just practice for a bit on my timing, heck all I have to do is put them back in the pot, remelt and learn...thoughts? Or would I be better off getting a set of RCBS handles and a mold from Tom/Accurate? Need to save a bit somewhere as I have a lot of outlay going here.
Started a thread in the Star section as I'm going to get a Star sizer/luber.
Cast iron pot, my current propane fish cooker for heat, and lee ingot molds will be used for smelting.
My current stock of bullets are all from Missouri Bullets so a good alloy, I have purchased 75 lbs of lead ingots from a friend who had family member in it (not sure of alloy), and also picked up 60 pounds of Missouri Bullet ingots in Lyman #2. Friend of mine has a tire shop so I also have about 30 pounds of wheel weights to work with. Retrieving these from my rubber mulch bullet trap I should be in good shape for lead for quite a while.
Anything I am missing other than the sizer/luber?
Thanks for any advice...especially on the molds. I generally like to buy things once but considering I'm getting everything now will probably try the Lee and go from there.