Casting is like any other aspect of hand loading: if you get it right you get better results than you can buy. The only exception I ran into was a retired police officer who went into casting and got feedback from a high master shooter until he got his bullets really right. This was 20+ years ago, and I doubt he is still in business. Anyway, he would pack his work neatly in old cigar boxes, not just throw them into cartons will-nilly, so his didn't have all the dents and scraped-off lube the commercial stuff often does.
I have a couple of target pistols that like the Lee Tumble Lube bullet designs better than anything else I've tried and shoot groups with them almost half the size of the best cast bullet I can buy. Time constraints for casting are real enough, but the 6-cavity Lee molds cut that obstacle down to size. I can knock out 500 bullets in about two hours, including pot warm-up. I won't put anything else in these two guns for a match.
You can look up metal foundries and actually buy virgin alloy. Not free, like wheel weights, but you get exactly what you want. If you can cough up the money for a couple hundred pounds at a time and know someone who works the receiving dock at work, it isn't a bad way to go.
As for casting hazards: Welder's gloves and apron, full-face shield, outside-exhausting ventilating hood over the pot. More bother, but all doable on the cheap if you look around for these items.
Nick
