Been thinking about doing this for a little while and finally just decided to go ahead and do it. Let me start by saying that I am not disparaging what others do as there are MANY knowledgeable people here that know more about casting bullets and shooting, than I will ever know. However, especially of late, I have noticed that there are getting to be more members that get off into the minutia of specialty casting...when they are posting to threads started by you new members that are really just trying to get your feet wet and have a little bit of success with what you would like to be, your new found hobby. For whatever reason, they seem to want to baffle you new guys with a lot of unnecessary steps or procedures by telling you that it must be done this way or that way, or it will not be right...simply because that it the way they choose to do it. There are a lot of folks on this forum that either don't know better or that never give any thought to how many of the things they do, can be done differently and not have negative effects on bullet performance. So, this is my attempt at encouraging you new casters by a very simple demonstration that shows success at making a great performing bullet is not dependent on these unnecessary ways of doing things, especially as it pertains to rendering usable alloy and powder coating. This is a real life example that...KISS...Keep it Simple Stupid...DOES work.
So, to do this, I cast and powder coated the bullets that I used, with only very basic equipment that is available for very little cost to anyone. I used a Lee 4-20 pot, an OLD and MUCH USED Lyman 429421 mold from way back in the day, a coolwhip bowl,Harbor Freight powder and a toaster oven that I literally got out of a dumpster behind my workplace.
Now, I used some old alloy rendered from UNSORTED wheelweights and other lead smatterings from I don't remember WHAT year, "back in the day", that is to say that I have no idea of the specific hardness or composition. All this means is that there was no special effort made to get any kind of exact mix for this project, but it will still work, just fine. These bullets were tumbled coated in a coolwhip bowl,dumped (not set individually on their base with hemostats) onto a nonstick foil covered pan and cooked for about 15mins at or around 400 degrees. Even though these bullets were dumped and not set on their bases, it will have NO effect on there performance...the only difference in them as compared to those set on their bases, will be purely cosmetic. After cooling, they were sized using a cheap Lee push thru die. Then they were loaded into the case...with each powder charge weighed individually...I do it this way on hunting loads to verify consistency, but is always a safe way of charging cases.
After the ammo was ready, I took it out to the bench and fired 10rds...and 10rds only. The first 5rd went in the paper plate target at 40 odd yds,the next 2 rounds were fired at 100yds at 2 45/8" diameter CD-R computer discs. The final 3 rounds were shot over the chronograph to check for velocity.
The shooting yielded a 5 shot group of .860" (1.29" widest diameter minus .430" bore= .860"), 2 CD-R discs busted and 3 shoots over the chrono showed an average of 1260fps.
I fired the ammo from an old Thompson/Center Contender 14" 44mag with an old Simmons scope...I am not a great marksman by any stretch, so I don't really shoot my hunting handguns much for groups at long distances. I mostly shoot targets with them out to my max range of 100yds. My requirement for myself is that I have to be able to put EVERY shot on either one of these discs that I have a ton of or on a 5" clay at distances out to 100yds...with any of the handguns that I hunt with...and, nowadays, that is generally this old Contender in one of several calibers. Let me add, the scope was set to this load prior to this shooting session...as this has long been a favorite 44mag hunting load...10grs of Unique.
My point with this is to show potential new casters that they can easily have pretty quick success if they are willing to just give this a try. And, then, after getting a base of experience...they can get as specific or specialized as they want and probably enjoy this hobby, even more...it will just be up to them as to how technical they want to get.
To summarize...this ain't rocket science...but it is easy be intimidated by all of the lingo and advanced caster jargon that is thrown around and posted to threads. However, starting is not difficult, if I can do it, anyone can... and it is not necessary to complicate it, to get good results. After you have produced and shot some bullets that WILL perform to your expectations, you can begin to delve into the more advanced parts of this.
Equipment used to make the bullets (except for Lee pot)
Paper plate target and CD-R discs like were splattered at 100yds
Old Contender used (barrel was an acquisition from forum member)the rest of it is OLD. I have owned it 30yrs and it was used when I bought it. But, this old gun and these easy, low tech bullets have proven to be a deadly combination.