[WJB1260]

I have Realoaded For years and my Bro has Casted for me some off and on for a few years. Ok so now I am wanting to make my own boolits. What can you suggest I do to get ready to Cast my own? I have the basics ok mold furnace etc but there is things I dont know about the overall process. What do I need to do to get started on the right track. I shoot 357 mag and will probably shoot in the future 9mm and 45 acp. Please help me get aimed in the right direction, Thanks!!!!

 

[gbusmech]

I think that one of the casting handbooks from the bullet mold manufactures would be a great start. You will need to learn to "alloy" tin to your lead and that handbook should be a real help on that....

 

[Ranch Dog]

I would suggest the same thing as when you probably started reloading. Obtain a good reference manual and dig into it. The best online reference is: Cast Bullets For Beginner and Expert

The information is really beyond the scope of a simple reply just like trying to detail everything related to reloading would be (but more so). Lyman has a good reference book but I consider it a bit dated. Lee Modern Reloading has probably the best condensed material within their Modern Reloading manual.

 

[Ranch Dog]

I wanted to come back and add that the areas to study are not so much the equipment but concern your firearm and alloys.

You should understand the need to slug and chamber/cylinder cast your firearm and then choose a bullet based on it's needs. Alloys and their treatment are important in that you need to match them to the pressure requirements of your firearm. Forget about the "what velocity" question. It is pressure behind the bullet that dictates which alloy mix and the treatment of that alloy.

 

[WJB1260]

Sorry for not getting back to you guys. The wife has been sick so I have been busy trying to get her doctored back to health. I have only been on some welcomming new members. I finally got her to go to the Dr today. Anyway went by the local library and checked out Lyman Reloading and cast bullet guide. Ranch Dog thanks for the link. In the Lyman book and on You Tube as well as talking to other people they talk of using Wheel Weights. I know from working in the shop and I was a truck driver alot of the weights now days are steel or Zinc etc some are still lead but are being I guess for better words phased out. What other ways besides buying commercial ingots can a person get low cost lead?

 

[rexherring]

Check with a local metals salvage yard, some may sell at a decent price. Also check with local plumbers as they sometime get lead pipes (soft lead) replaced. I've also come across a deal now and then on ebay already melted into clean ingots. A local gun range for the police cleans out their traps and sells to the scrap yard cheap, mostly hard cast practice rounds.

 

[WJB1260]

Reading in the link that Ranck Dog posted I got some of that info last night. Thanks guys. I have a cousin that is a master plumber. I will check with him and some of the contractors around here. Living in Rural Arkansas the nearest range is 50 miles away and they collect all their brass and lead and sell it to the LGS but there is a scrap yard 30 miles from me. I will be going by there tomorrow and will check with them.