Boolit casting.

[ru44mag]

Well, I have been planning to cast my own boolits since the early 1980's. Today was the day. Better late than never I guess. I actually enjoyed it. Melted down a bunch of range scrap over a camp fire Saturday and poured it into ingots. Took advantage of the rainy day today, took sand paper to the Lee bottom pour that has been in the shed for the last 20 years. Then prepared the molds. I started with the 9mm, and a few 50 cal round balls. Later I did a few 240 grain 44 cals. I found the lead needed a little more heat for the larger cavities. All in all, a good day. A good start to a new hobby.

 

[Michigan Slim]

I casted 2500 .38s and 1100 .32s Friday. I couldn't make myself stop! Every time I open the mold I hear CHA CHING!

 

[Leadeye]

Can't beat it for larger handgun bullets.

 

[red_zr24x4]

I've got a ton of cast 9mm, loaded and waiting to load, I'll probably burn up the loaded ones and not load more.
We shoot a ton of .38's, 45Colt and 44 mag, those 3 are where casting pays

 

[DadSmith]

What all is needed to start casting your own bullets? I'm interested in this but not sure what to get or how to do it. Local tire shop has 12 5 gallon buckets of wheel weights he wants to get rid of.

 

[AmmoManAaron]

What all is needed to start casting your own bullets? I'm interested in this but not sure what to get or how to do it. Local tire shop has 12 5 gallon buckets of wheel weights he wants to get rid of.

Get the lead first and worry about the rest later. You will have to sort the lead weights from the zinc and steel weights, but that's not that hard.

I'll let other folks tell you about equipment, but for me the hardest part is finding inexpensive lead so that should be your first order of business. It's also easy to store or sell if you change your mind about casting.

 

[Leadeye]

Aaron is spot on, get the lead first.

For a start, you can pick up a cheap Dutch oven at Harbor Freight for a melting pot to clean your lead and convert into ingots. Anybody's ingot mold that will fit your casting pot will work. Get a large slotted spoon as is used for cooking to get the trash off quickly when you melt your lead. A thermometer is also handy. These days with zinc and iron weights you have to be careful to keep the zinc out of your ingots. Watch for weights floating on the melt and get them out ASAP. Add sawdust or candle wax and stir it into the melted material to bring out the bad stuff, known as fluxing. Skim and discard. Get a ladle and fill your ingot molds. Keep lead segregated as later you will want softer and harder lead for different applications.

 

[red_zr24x4]

We use old muffin tins for our ingot molds.
The zinc weights are usually marked ZN

 

[NKBJ]

Then you look at deer rifles and only want one that is cast friendly...
It's too late.

 

[John3354]

What all is needed to start casting your own bullets? I'm interested in this but not sure what to get or how to do it. Local tire shop has 12 5 gallon buckets of wheel weights he wants to get rid of.

You're going to need all the stuff that the other guys mentioned (dutch oven, slotted spoon, sawdust, etc.) for refining the wheel weights in to clean ingots.

Then to cast you are going to need a lead furnace (lots of guys use the Lee 4-20 pot, but mine constantly leaks so I will probably replace it with the Lyman), molds (Lee six cavity molds are great value for money and put out a lot of bullets in a hurry), mold handles (unless you get a Lee two cavity mold, Lee mold handles are great value for six cavity molds and you can swap one set between molds if you don't want to buy a set for each mold), some way to coat or lube them (I prefer powdercoating them using a Goodwill toaster oven, cheap setup costs and no lube mess), size them (Lee push through sizers are again great value for money) and you are good to go.

Lee lead furnace: $80 if you shop around, $100 if you can't find a deal. Can be much less if you find a good deal on a used one.
Molds: ~$43/caliber, plus $15 for handles
Bullet sizer: $20-$25 per caliber. If you have a Breech Lock press you can get the new set for a lower per caliber cost.
Powdercoating oven: Under $10 at Goodwill, plus powder. Harbor Freight red used to be a great powder for the purpose, but they stopped carrying it. Their matte black covers almost as well. Or you can order from powderbuythepound.com and get whatever color you want.

After all of that, if you have a source for free lead your bullets you cast are almost free, except for your time. If you get the Lee pot you might want to look in to building a PID controller for it. It really helped my casting to have super consistent temperatures that are easily set. Or get the Lyman pot and save yourself the drips and have a PID built in.

You can spend as much or as little as you want to on it. You can sometimes find great deals on the Lee pots on eBay or in the classifieds on here. I think I got mine for $25 off of eBay and it had 15# of lead stuck in it. Molds are