Jump to content

Anyone else cast their own bullets?


Boogieman
 Share

Recommended Posts

I still have smelted lead ingots to use and a couple 5 gallon buckets full of WW.  A friend from St. Augustine and I were talking about other sources of casting lead and I mentioned hearing about lead used as ballast in sail boats. He knew of a couple of sunken sail boats in shallow water and did the diving to bring up the ballast lead which seems to work well and is a bit softer than WW.  Lots of lead ballast in those sail boats and shoots as well as WW.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I cast my bullets from range scrap.  I shoot at an outdoor range, each time I do a little mining of the berm.  Just picking up spent bullets from the surface. 

.44 mag/.44 special

.38 Special/.357 mag

.45 acp

.45 colt

.600 round balls for my northwest muzzleloading trade gun. 

.And recently 7.5x54R

I purchased about 75 pounds of lead a few years ago.  I still have one of the ingots. 

Wheel weights are difficult to find around here.  I don't want to go begging for scrap from tire shops. 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recently received my custom cut LBT mold that was set up for a 340 gr LFN GC bullet I can shoot out of either .454 Casull or .45 Colt. I'm in the northeast US and normally this time of year the weather makes it impossible to get on my deck and do some casting but tomorrow we are going to be ~50 degrees! Can't wait to get out and throw some bullets through my new tool.

RBPxeeNVKuzOUGN32SWRL3zIK-4-fMtrYjrNF8xI

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I ran the new LBT mold this morning...by far the finest mold I've ever used.

I did have to tweak my pour method with it, but nothing major. Once I adjusted my pour, the LBT mold began producing perfectly filled bullets. The sprue plate allows the largest sprue puddle I've ever seen, and this aids greatly in filling out the base of the bullets. 

If you're a caster and looking for something personal (weight, diameter, nose length, meplat, GC or plain base), LBT can make it for you. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/20/2018 at 5:00 AM, norton said:

 

I purchased about 75 pounds of lead a few years ago.  I still have one of the ingots. 

Wheel weights are difficult to find around here.  I don't want to go begging for scrap from tire shops. 

 

I went to the local tire chain and asked about wheel weights for casting bullets.  He told me they mostly use the stick-on style that have a lot of zinc and that the shop guys snag all the old-school lead ones for their own casting.

Hazards of living in an area with a lot of gun owners...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Highspeedlane said:

I ran the new LBT mold this morning...by far the finest mold I've ever used.

I did have to tweak my pour method with it, but nothing major. Once I adjusted my pour, the LBT mold began producing perfectly filled bullets. The sprue plate allows the largest sprue puddle I've ever seen, and this aids greatly in filling out the base of the bullets. 

If you're a caster and looking for something personal (weight, diameter, nose length, meplat, GC or plain base), LBT can make it for you. 

My dad has dozens of molds; all steel and mostly RCBS.  I have maybe 5 or so, all Lee aluminum except one RCBS.

My Lee dies have worked great for me and I noticed I can get them up and running much faster and easier than the RCBS, but they pretty easily lose their "sweet spot" for temp.  The steel ones take longer and are harder to get just right, but once set, I can cast for hours with little trouble.

Those LBT molds look very nice!  Probably not $75 or less, though I'm guessing...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, PNWguy said:

My dad has dozens of molds; all steel and mostly RCBS.  I have maybe 5 or so, all Lee aluminum except one RCBS.

My Lee dies have worked great for me and I noticed I can get them up and running much faster and easier than the RCBS, but they pretty easily lose their "sweet spot" for temp.  The steel ones take longer and are harder to get just right, but once set, I can cast for hours with little trouble.

Those LBT molds look very nice!  Probably not $75 or less, though I'm guessing...

I know what you mean about getting the right temp. Honestly I was struggling for a bit trying to figure out the LBT at first. When I was using the technique I use for steel RCBS molds (pour nozzle in full contact with mold during pour) I was getting inconsistent fill out. After getting numerous rejects I finally upped my lead temperature then poured with a slight gap between pour nozzle and mold, and that did the trick. Perfect bullets fell every pour after that.

Another thing noteworthy about the LBT design is I've never had bullets drop out of a mold as easily. I have many RCBS molds and they all have the tendency to hang on to the bullets with a vengeance, making me tap the hinge of the handle vigorously to free them. Not so with LBT...as soon as the halves begin to separate they are wanting to drop out! Veral Smith says as much in the literature about these molds and he is right.

The two-cavity molds currently sell $125 plus $10 shipping and that is without handles (they use RCBS style), so they are not cheap, but these molds are custom cut for precisely the specs you send him, including drop diameter as per the alloy you are using. 

I can cover 90% or better of cast bullet needs either with commercial cast or using a mold from Lee, RCBS or Lyman but there was just nothing out there for my .454 Casull that was what I was looking for (a 340 grain GC LFN design) and that's where this custom mold service really fills the bill :)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use a hot plate and grill thermometer to preheat my molds to 450-500F to get perfect bullets out of the first throw. I use NOE aluminum molds and my pot temp is 750F. I cast rifle bullets in 6.5mm and 30 cal so I deal with long skinny bullets.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Share

  • Please Donate To TBS

    Please donate to TBS.
    Your support is needed and it is greatly appreciated.
×
×
  • Create New...