Any casters out there?

First topic message reminder :

Last Saturday being a really nice day, I spent much of the day on the porch smelting down lead from my local scrap yard.   One of my really great finds was a bunch of brand new, never used lead wheel weights that must have come from a truck garage.   A lot of these wheel weights were 4 to 5 inches long and heavy.   Since NY hasn't allowed lead wheel weights to be installed for many years, I figure they sat on the shelf for a long time before the garage finally took them to the scrap yard.   Being new and clean was a big bonus, but the biggest bonus was the lead to steel clip ratio; I got 82% of the pre-smelting weight in lead.

Don

USSR wrote:

Keyholed wrote:Casting for cartridges such as we use--.32 S&W Long, .38 Special, and .45 ACP being the principle lead-spewers--honestly doesn't make a lot of sense on its own. Especially when a click or a phone call can get high-quality cast or swaged bullets delivered for not much more than the price of lead itself. All are pretty common, even the little .32, and "common" means there's enough volume to keep pricing down.

Ah, but you're missing some big points.   First, I cannot get a bullet consisting of the alloy I want in the size I want from the commercial casters.   Most of them buy high antimony content lead alloy from their suppliers, and then offer you bullets with a BHN of either 12 or 18.   I limit the antimony content and add a lot of tin, and therefor produce a much better alloy for low pressure rounds like the .38 Special and .45 ACP.   Also, I produce some cast bullets that are for the most part unavailable from the commercial casters.   And lastly, casting is just plain fun.

Don

Lemme clarify:

Casting for cartridges such as we use--.32 S&W Long, .38 Special, and .45 ACP being the principle lead-spewers--honestly doesn't make a lot of sense on its own for people who aren't crazy.   But yeah, same thing--special stuff costs special money.

Also they make the bullets on the hard side so that they survive USPS shipping gorillas without getting beaten to hell.

I haven't gotten into lead casting myself--yet. Not really a good place to do it. I'd either catch hell for dripping lead on the patio (yeah, I know, it'd pop right off once it cooled), or the lawn, or the neighbors would burst a blood vessel about their stupid kids inhaling all the lead fumes.

I cast with a Lee pot (cheap but works), I've used wheel weights (usually about $.50/lb per finished  ingot weight) and buy flat rate boxes from a guy I found on ebay (closer to $1.25 delivered but much easier than smelting down wheel weights). That gets my bullet price to $.013 to $.032 per bullet depending on the source lead, I also use a lot of Magnus bullets which are great but much more obviously. 

I enjoy casting with a double cavity mold on lazy Sunday's, its fun for about 600 bullets or so. They shoot great, I've never done ransom rest testing to compare their accuracy to Magnus but I expect them to be in the same ballpark.

zanemoseley,

You must be crazy to enjoy making your own bullets and saving money to boot.   tsk, tsk, tsk.

Don

It is fun whipping some butt with bullets you cast yourself.

zanemoseley wrote:It is fun whipping some butt with bullets you cast yourself.

+1!!!

Tim:H11 wrote:

zanemoseley wrote:It is fun whipping some butt with bullets you cast yourself.

+1!!!

It’s even better whipping butt with jhp you buy

Chris Miceli wrote:

Tim:H11 wrote:

zanemoseley wrote:It is fun whipping some butt with bullets you cast yourself.

+1!!!

It’s even better whipping butt with jhp

I think it would be more fun to me, to shoot at the upper end of a match with bullets I’ve made when others that you may have out shot, might have spent money on good jacketed bullets. Just me.

Tim:H11 wrote:

Chris Miceli wrote:

Tim:H11 wrote:

zanemoseley wrote:It is fun whipping some butt with bullets you cast yourself.

+1!!!

It’s even better whipping butt with jhp

I think it would be more fun to me, to shoot at the upper end of a match with bullets I’ve made when others that you may have out shot, might have spent money on good jacketed bullets. Just me.

Some one told me you ain’t anybody till you’ve shot 2650+ as a “nobody” I agree

Some one told me you ain’t anybody till you’ve shot 2650+ as a “nobody” I agree

Sure I can go along with that. But what’s that got to do with lead? Are you implying that a shooter using lead can’t shoot 2650+? If so I would disagree.

Tim:H11 wrote:

Some one told me you ain’t anybody till you’ve shot 2650+ as a “nobody” I agree

Sure I can go along with that. But what’s that got to do with lead? Are you implying that a shooter using lead can’t shoot 2650+? If so I would disagree.

I thought we were talking about whooping butt ?

Tim:H11 wrote:

zanemoseley wrote:It is fun whipping some butt with bullets you cast yourself.

+1!!!

it is even better with guns that you built AND bullets that you cast.

Well, at least I imagine it is...

I'll let you know soon!

You ain't a real caster ifn ya don't mine the ore yerself!

Quote from a nobody.

Ghillieman wrote:You ain't a real caster ifn ya don't mine the ore yerself!

Quote from a nobody.

+1 haha

Greetings,

I still have ten forty pound ingots I smelted down from back stop salvage at one of the local ranges.

The ingots are stamped 7-1995.

Looks like I need to start casting again.

With a hardware cloth screen you can sift quite a lot of spent bullets in a short time.

Yes, it's a bit messy. But it beats watching reruns of the Oprah channel.

Cheers,

Dave

I have 4 pots, two 10-s and two 20-s... would sell any if anyone needed one. Don't know what to ask and shipping won't be cheap. The 10-s are old, 20-s much newer.  Anyways...


I cast with h&g moulds for years running 2 pots at a timebut also one by Miller I believe...it is a 10 cavity aluminum mould that is just a dream shooting wise. It has a 68 shape with a flat point meplat.

The Lee version of the 68 in 6 cavity cranks out good bullets fast but, last year at Canton, l bought 5000 cast by Frank Bikar (a long time ago)

So all I have to do is lube them and I have star lubers...but even then, l am leaning towards buying what I use.

32s are bought...but Hornady doesn't make them anymore so I am using Speer 98s when I can get them.

All that said, l like the feel of jacketed in the 45. So I end my ramble here,

Hi Bruce,

Email sent to you.

Don

11-18-1990 I fired a 893-38 with my hand cast 45 bullets, 25 yd indoor  range. without doubt my hand cast bullets shot better then the cast I could buy. If there are any doubters PM me a email address and I will send a picture of the National Record.(one of seven, all with the 45 and my cast bullets)
Tom Ginovsky

Awesome!  Would love some details...what bullet, alloy, lube, load, etc. thanks

Of course, it isn't just the equipment....some skill required!

H&G 68 pb, sized .4515, 3.7/3.8 WST, Winchester large pistol primer, separate seat and crimp, I have a Star universal, when crimping I only ever straighten the case out, look at factory Federal or Winchester wad, I copied it, that is my 50 ft or 25 yd load. For 50 yds 4.2 WST with a H&G 68. When I got turned on to the Nosler 185 my Ransom Rest got quite a work out and 5.0 WST, 1.24 OAL and a Winchester large pistol primer was the winner in 3 wad guns, 4.8 WST in the 4th wad gun. Tried many other powders, WST was the winner.
 5% antimoney, 4 to 5% tin is my preferred alloy, half range scrap, half linotype and a bit of tin is my favorite alloy. I would cast in the 625 to 650 degree range in a H&G mould, tried other make moulds and quickly learned H&G was the way to go. Found the Star sizer with Star die to work out the best. 50/50 alox 2138F/beeswax was the lube I had the best results with.
Tom Ginovsky

bruce martindale wrote:
The Lee version of the 68 in 6 cavity cranks out good bullets fast but, last year at Canton, l bought 5000 cast by Frank Bickar (a long time ago)

Bruce, if you really have 5,000 bullets that my father casted, I will make an offer to buy them at a premium. I will want to know a little more back story to verify the lineage, but for obvious reasons those would be precious to me. PM incoming.

teg2658 wrote:11-18-1990 I fired a 893-38 with my hand cast 45 bullets, 25 yd indoor  range. without doubt my hand cast bullets shot better then the cast I could buy. If there are any doubters PM me a email address and I will send a picture of the National Record.(one of seven, all with the 45 and my cast bullets)
Tom Ginovsky

No doubt; I’ve seen you shoot!

teg2658 wrote:5% antimoney, 4 to 5% tin is my preferred alloy...

That is essentially Lyman #2 alloy.

Don

[size=32]smelt¹[/size]
smelt/
verb

[list=lr_dct_sf_sens]
[*]extract (metal) from its ore by a process involving heating and melting.

"tin smelting"

• extract a metal from (ore) by smelting.
  

[/list]


No one here, I hope, is doing any smelting.

Aufidius wrote:[size=32]smelt¹[/size]
smelt/
verb



No one here, I hope, is doing any smelting.

Aside from it's original connotation, the word "smelting" is commonly used by casters to describe taking lead in it's original form and pouring it into ingots to be used in casting bullets.

Don

If you're using a range backstop for your base, it can end up being about as much work as refining ore.