Inexpensive casting setup?

[knight0334]

I'm really considering to start casting for:

.224"-for varmint(22 hornet and 225win)
.32spl
.44spl/mag
.458"-lighter weight slugs for groundhog, 300-350gr for whitetail
.45LC-250gr for CAS type shooting, and also a mold for hunting/ccw.
12ga slug

I realize I'll have to buy the molds seperately, just a list of what I wanna cast for.

Is there a beginner's kit for people like me that are just getting started?  I'm not looking to do mass production, just cut some of my bullet costs in the long run and give me something to do when I'm bored with other activities.

[John Traveler1]

I can highly recommend the Lee series of bullet molds, casting pots, hand sizers and pan lubrication for starting out in bullet casting.  They are as economical as you can find in bullet casting equipment, and will serve you well untill you need higher production equipment.  The double cavity molds are good for most non-high volume casters.

I'd suggest casting your medium/large caliber bullets (.38 spl-.458") first to get the experience before trying the .22 caliber stuff.  It's more difficult to get acceptable results with the smaller bullets.

[knight0334]

Thank you.

Now how about jacketing my own slugs?  is there a way to do that?

[powderburner]

you bet you just wrap them in paper........ Dean

[John Traveler1]

Yes, you can add home-made jacketed bullets to your handloading if you want.  They are "swaged" or "cold-formed".  Buying jackets, and making or buying your lead cores (lead wire) will significantly increase your per-shot costs, but that can still be justified if you want custom bullets.  You will need a large, heavy duty press and swaging dies at the minimum.  I would suggest getting into bullet casting first.  

Custom swaging is usually the domain of extreme accuracy buffs.. benchrest competition, for example.

You will find that home casting and handloading will greatly increase stretch your ammunition dollar.  You get to shoot a LOT more than if you were restricted to buying factory ammo.

[knight0334]

Coolness.

The only ones I'd be interested in jacketing would be the .224" slugs to keep from leading the barrel at .225 Win velocities.   ...unless theres a way to make them hard enough to prevent that and still have an explosive impact on little critters.

[John Traveler1]

One last bit of advice for getting into cast bullets:

Get the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook...the leading authority on cast bullet making and loading.

AND...don't make the same mistake that I and many other new cast bullet loaders make.  The cast bullet in modern bottlenecked calibers is NOT suited for jacketed bullet velocities.  Sure, in most pistol calibers and medium-to-large bore rifle calibers, cast bullets can shine and duplicate factory velocities.  .30-30, .35 Remington, .358 winchester, .375 H&H, .444 Marlin, .45-70, etc come to mind.  For most of the rest, you need to use reduced loads for acceptable accuracy.  Also, the popular .30 caliber is a good rifle to start with because of the many good .30 designs.

[jgalar]

The first thing to do is find a cheap source of lead and start aquiring some. Old wheel weights are what I use. If you can't find a cheap source of lead than all the casting equipment that you have will be worthless.

I wouldn't bother with the 22s as the bullets themselves are available at reasonable prices and you will not be able to get close to the same velocity with bullets cast of cheap lead.

I use a 30+ year old coleman stove and a SS pot that I bought at Wal-Mart for $1.59 to melt the wheel weights. You'll need an old spoon to stir and remove junk, a ladel to pour the cleaned lead into an ingot mold.  Leather welding type gloves are nice to wear unless you like the smell of burning flesh. I use an automotive type magnetic retriever to pull the steel clips out of the molten lead.

After you get some ingots made you can get your furnace, molds, thermometer etc.

You have to lube, size and seat gas checks as needed besides of just casting them. I use the Lee sizers and tumble lube. They are very inexpensive and work well. Even custom made sizers are only $25 direct from Lee. I personally like the tumble lube - its cheap and works extremely well.

[jar-wv]

Hey guys. I don't want to hijack this thread, but I'm also just getting started casting. I have about 400 # of wheelweights to start with. I have a 8" cast iron skillet that I'm thinking of using to melt them in on a propane camping stove. I read in another thread about using cut off pop cans to make ingots.

My question. After melting, fluxing, and skimming off the trash, can I just pick up the skillet and pour it into the cans, or is that a recipie for disaster? I have also thought about getting a larger pot to melt in and ladeling into the cans, or pehaps even using the skillet as an ingot mold. I'm thinking the skillet may be too shallow to get most of the lead ladeled out. Any thoughts are appreciated.

jar

[knight0334]

One last bit of advice for getting into cast bullets:

Get the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook...the leading authority on cast bullet making and loading.

AND...don't make the same mistake that I and many other new cast bullet loaders make.  The cast bullet in modern bottlenecked calibers is NOT suited for jacketed bullet velocities.  Sure, in most pistol calibers and medium-to-large bore rifle calibers, cast bullets can shine and duplicate factory velocities.  .30-30, .35 Remington, .358 winchester, .375 H&H, .444 Marlin, .45-70, etc come to mind.  For most of the rest, you need to use reduced loads for acceptable accuracy.  Also, the popular .30 caliber is a good rifle to start with because of the many good .30 designs.

I'm probably gonna start with .452 and/or .458.  They are my most used calibers.  The only things I have below .321" are my 22 Hornet and 225Win.

I'll probably skip the idea of jacketing then if it'll be such an issue as you pointed out.  Maybe just gas check some??

[markcl]

jar

a kettel of lead is amazingly heavy,go to a thift shop and check their old kitchen tools ,find a rivited ladel to empty most of the kettel,make sure the pop can or cup cake pan is dry or the explosion and burns HURT

[Goatlips]

Hay Knight and Jar both,

When I started in this madness I found a lot of palaver and mighty few pictures so I set up this site for folks just startin' out:

http://goatlipstips.cas-town.com/smelting.html

Hope you find it useful.

Goatlips

[howdy doody]

Goatlips, pard I see you use a trick I do to score free wheel weights. I bought a toy soldier type mold from a seller on ebay. It has 3 indians on it. I live in California, so you don't know what you run into at the tire shops. I tell them I like to cast toy figurines and give them one I have painted up for them to use as a paperweight. I ask them if they can spare any wheel weights and most always they oblige me with about a 100 pounds or so. I thank them and give them an empty bucket left over from the last time I begged for weights. It works for me.  :-)

[jar-wv]

Goatlips
Nice site. Thats one of the more informative I've seen, with the pictures and all. I ended up using a ladle instead of trying to dump the pot into the pop can ingots. Seemed like a good way to get burn't bad. After all it's supposed to be a hobby. I now have several ingots that go about 6-7 lbs. each. Now waiting on molds and furnace to come from midway, then ready to cast bullets.

jar

[sundogg1911]

my suggestion is to start of with inexpensive new or used stuff. only start with 1 or 2 moulds. You will find that you have to put in an awfull lot of time to get about the same amount of bullets and you would by dropping $30 or so at the local reload shop. It can also get very aggravating (Mostly at first...but even sometimes after you've got a handle on it) When I started to cast, I started with 3 other friends. All of their casting stuff I eventually bought or it ended up on Ebay.  I still enjoy casting, but it's not for everyone.  Of course one of my buddy's that sold off His casting stuff ties flys. You could not pay me enough money to do that! (Now we trade....bullets for bugs!)
 :lol:

[qajaq59]

I've always used a baking pan for cup cakes to make my ingots. They aren't too big so they not only fit in the pot easier but they melt quicker.

[targetshootr]

What a swell website, Goatlips. I decided it's time to cast too and spent several days looking around for that very kind of info. It should be a sticky thread if it isn't already.