My first cast bullets....well sort of.

[JohnDY]

Here is a picture of my first cast bullets that actually look like bullets.

No more wrinkles, nice sharp edges and they released easily from the mold. It took four attempts to get it right.  But I learned a few things. One, don’t melt wheel weights in your furnace, use an old pot and camp stove for the initial melt. There is a lot curd in/on those things. Two, clean the mold well. I had to use soap and water and then acetone to remove all the residue. Don’t get any wax in the cavity either.  Three, smoke the mold real well. I used several matches to get the cavity good and black. Finally, flux the alloy really, really well. Scrap the sides of the pot with your ladle. Make sure all the curd is taken out.  After I did all of that I got 115 bullets in about an hour.

Thanks for your help. They are almost too pretty to shoot. :grin:

[quickdtoo]

Hey John, Congrats! First post on this forum, btw. The satisfying results of a good casting session is very rewarding....took me a couple trys too to get good results but I had some help from experienced bullet casters and it was a pleasant learning process. I'm in the process of gettin' an H&R .45-70 barrel for my Ultra Varmint and ordered a Lee Loader so now I need to cast some bullets. I have had lyman 457122 and 457123 molds for several years but only shot the bullets in muzzleloaders, now I'm gonna put em in cartridges! I'll be lookin for any tricks I can glean from this forum, thanks!   Tim

[Tom W.]

Isn't it nice when you can show your buddies a pile of bullets that you cast and compare them with some that were purchased? It makes one want to melt and recast the store bought ones!