Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Set me up with a casting kit!

I'm looking at getting into casting handgun bullets. I have a bit of experience casting with friends, and am now looking to take the plunge and buy my own setup.

I'm looking at one of the Lyman kits, but really want bottom pour capability. I'm really not looking to cast thousands of pounds of bullets, but want good production. How should I set myself up?

I started out 40+ years ago casting with an iron pot and dipper. Served me well for a couple of decades. Then I discovered the joys of using a bottom pour furnace and I never looked back.

I honestly don't know what is contained in the Lyman Kit. If it contains a good mold or two, a bottom pour furnace (in all honesty a pot and dipper is ok too), a luber-sizer with the proper size die and top punch, and a decent lube- then go for it, especially if there's a good deal on it. Lyman certainly isn't the be-all-end-all in the world of bullet casting, but it's a good place to start. If the kit doesn't contain a copy of Lyman's cast bullet handbook, spring for that too. The incidentals needed in conjunction with those basics can be added using your own ingenuity.

Lee Pro IV 20lb bottom pour pot, an ingot mold of any manufacture, a lee hardness tester kit for your lead, a baking pan large enough to fit your mold in with a wet dishcloth folded up inside for steaming BTU's off your mold.(and for dropping bullet/boolits into) and the Lee volume 2 guide to modern reloading.(has lots of good info on casting/lead hardness/load pressures etc. Very informative, and has tons of cast load data.
...oh and forgot one spoon to stir the pot with.

That should get you started along with the mold of your choice...I would reccomend buying a Lee sizer die and pan lubing your bullets to start with as this would be the most cost effective way to start out, or use a tumble lube type bullet mold to start(probably the easiest way to start)

Hope this helps, and feel free to ask lots of questions,
johnny

The thing with using the Lee stuff (and mind you it's good stuff) is that pan lubing and push through sizing is slower than using a good luber-sizer. Guys I've helped get started invariably gave up and went to a machine, wishing they had just gotten what they were going to end up with right off the bat. On top of that, I've never been a fan of tumble lubing bullets. Not that there's anything wrong with that, just not for me.

To the OP- are you talking about feeding a hungry pistol, requiring 1000's of bullets a year or just some bullets for occasional rifle practice? The quantity you plan on producing will ultimately drive your selection of equipment.

Thanks for the help!

I'll be feeding handguns, so I'd like to have a decent production rate. I'm thinking I'll go with the Lyman Master Casting kit, which includes a luber/sizer, and the Cast Bullet Handbook.

In addition, I might try a Lee Pro 4 pot.

If you're looking to crank out bullets, get a lee bottom pour pot, lee 6 cavity molds, and a star lube/sizer.

Pretty spot on. The only component here that I don't have is the Star lubesizer--mine is an older Saeco. While not as fast, it serves its purpose.

I did the tumble lube. Experimenting with different recipes of lubes and liquid Alox and Johnson's paste wax. A good lubesizer was definitely better for me and MUCH cleaner.

Other than that, my Lee bottom pour pot and 6 cavity moulds are serving me quite well. One more bit of advice, if you do go with any of the Lee moulds, go ahead and spend the few extra dollars and puchase the mould handles and 6 cavity mould. The difference in craftsmanship between this and their 2 cavity moulds is quite dramatic.

My biggest problem now is maintaining stocks of lead.

For feeding a pistol, I would definitely go with the Lee 6 cavity. Quality is indeed decent and nowhere near as pricey as some of the others. Avoid the big cast iron gang molds unless you have arms like Popeye! Talk about user fatigue setting in quickly. You'll be setting it down often enough to rest that overall production isn't a heckuva lot more than with a 2 or 4 cavity. JMO gained from personal experience. Others experiences may vary!

Good info fellas! Thanks for the help.

I'll differ from the others in that I prefer Alox tumble lubing and the Lee sizing method to either tedious pan lubing, or lubrisizing.
For those who lubrisize but have used Lee's tumble lube process in the past: why did you switch to lubrisizing? I'd concede that it's messier to tumble lube, but it certainly doesn't seem slower to me. Lubrisizing is definitely much more expensive, with lubrisizers running $100-150 at least,and top punches running about the same price as the Lee sizing dies that handle all bullets of the same diameter. It seems a lot of kit to accomplish two fairly simple tasks. I use alox tumble lube applied even with 30/30s at 2200fps, and have no leading, and my lee dies seem to size pretty accurately.

Primarily the messiness, and I found I could get my gas checks on more uniformly using a machine vs. a push through die- adding another step seemed redundant. I had made the switch to a machine instead of pan lubing/push through sizing a year or two after first starting to cast my own, back in the late 60's. The trial of the tumble lube system came long after that when Lee introduced it. Since I was already set up with the Lyman 450, I didn't see the need to continue.

I picked up the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook from the library today - LOTS of good info! Think I'll read through this before I make an ultimate decision on what I buy.

Now your cookin'!