Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Say a guy wanted to start casting lead.....

Bullets, sinkers etc, what are the best bang for the buck products to get me started. Assuming I have nothing but time and money to start with and practically no experience.

Thanks

camping stove, lead pot and a ladle

I use a lead pot over a Coleman gas stove.

Be sure to be in a well venelated area.

This is a good place to start-

https://www.rotometals.com/bullet-casting-alloys/

castboolits.gunloads.com is a great site for all interested in casting their own, whether your a beginner or a master caster.
k2nd

1) Get on Cast Boolits forum. Ask your questions there. These guys are the real deal.
2) I started with a Lee 20# bottom pour furnace for casting. I use a hotplate and an old saucepan for smelting (melting down scrap lead)
3) Lee aluminum molds are inexpensive, and they get the job done. Start with them if you can.
4) My accessories are fairly sparse. Most of it is dollar store stuff. I have a soup spoon for removing dross, a couple pairs of pliers, a pair of leather gloves and a hatchet handle for whanging the sprue off.

I churn bullets out by the hundreds when I have a mind to.

highcountry;
Good morning to you my cyber friend, I hope the weekend was decent for you.

While you surely can start out with a cast iron pan and a Coleman stove - like the one we bought at White Elephant years ago, they're not as easy or safe to use as something like this.



If you're going to get into processing old wheel weights, an ingot mold is a logical thing to have as it makes for easy and compact storage of the lead.



There's many, many roads to Mecca with this as with most things I suppose, but folks like Digital Dan come to mind that would make this collection of bullet molds looks like a starter pack.



That said, I do fool with it a wee bit and would be happy to answer any questions and am still not afraid to say when that's beyond my scope of experience.

Hopefully that was useful to you or someone out there this morning sir.

All the best regardless of which direction you go.

Dwayne

I'd be willing to part with my whole casting setup. Depending on how far north you live, I'd meet you halfway and turn it all over. Lee pot, lead, moulds, lube, sizers, the whole shooting match. Haggle when you see it all.

PM me.

Thanks for the replies all. Dwayne.....that's exactly what I had in mind. Thank you.

Coming at you Rocky.

Moulds for casting 1# ingots after smelting dirty/scrap lead to clean and flux it. I have a Lyman ingot mould.
Moulds for what you wish to cast.
A cast iron lead pot. A 10# pot is about the size of a 12-14oz coffee cup.
A pouring ladle. I recommend the Lyman because the handle screws in from either side for left & right-handed pours.
A propane or liquid fuel stove (ideally). I have done melts on my kitchen stove. But I don't make a habit of it.
A thermometer.

The above items will get you started. Bullet moulds and handles are going to be the biggest expenses. Everything else is relatively cheap. You could even skip the thermometer for a bit and control the temperature by eyeballing the melt. Basically once it melts, reduce the heat and watch it to ensure it stays melted. If you see visible vapor coming off it, it's too hot. Lead melts at about 620* F. Slightly higher if you are adding antimony or melting wheel weights. Fluxing to clean the melt can be done with saw dust, paraffin wax or a dedicated fluxing compound. Absolutely DO NOT allow any liquids or moisture around the area where you're going to be smelting. The only exception would be 5gal bucket of water on the floor, shielded from the melt if you are going to water quench your bullets.

A copy of the current Lyman Bullet Casting Manual would be helpful or you can you read this:

http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_Contents.htm

Or you can download this:

http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_textonly2.pdf

You will not want to use a bottom pour with anything but clean alloy, unless you want to fight it dripping forever

high country;
Good stuff sir!

About half of the newer weights up here are some non-toxic mess that smokes a lot but doesn't really melt, but there's still literal tons out there that are still good for casting.

Last spring I went through my shop and found all the 5 gallon pails and partial bags of wheel weights, diving weights and roof flashing that I'd squirreled away for decades and melted most of it into ingots.

There's still some roof flashing that will need an outside fire and pan because of the roofing tar.

It's fun on a number of levels for sure though or at least I enjoy it.

If you can find someone like Rocky and get all the gear that's absolutely the way to fly.

Again give me a shout if you run into a snag and good luck.

Dwayne

I inherited a bunch of casting stuff when my dad died.
He did it for fun, up to about age 79.
As a kid I did a fair bit, but never really enjoyed it. Was just something to do on a rainy day.

My dad would shoot multiple times a week at the local club so sent quite a bit downrange.

IMHO its definitely a hobby for retired folks, or guys that shoot way more than I do.

This!

Local scrap yard near me WILL SELL TO THE PUBLIC (most do not). Everything from wheel weights, to old gill or seine net weight (instant fishing weights)... to #4,000 boat keels (obviously discounted big time because of the cut down need).

We fabricated a shot dripper (bird shot... we shoot a lot of sporting clays)... it was a failure (couldn't get the coolant/drop distance right)... tear drops only. Gave it away to a guy that said he would futz with it until perfect... drip what he needed and give back running... he lied and never did. He is from Maryland... and he is with the FBI... I had my doubts from the get go... so be it.

A good friend (guy I am trying to help find land in eastern TN) bought a prefabricated dripped and followed a lot of videos and had tremendous success... and has quite literally dropped tons of shot. He has a source for free lead. Glad for him/them... we have since moved and shoot far less... so I do not partake in his free shot any longer.

Anyway... In the learning process of smelting (outside with a cast iron stockpot over a turkey cooker)... I discovered things such as:

1) A long Harbor Freight magnet strip is fantastic for pulling out the steel clips on wheel weights that float in the molten lead.

2) Presorting zinc and steel wheel weights out from the lead ones is worth the trouble.

3) Muffin tins make reasonable ingots for reuse later.

4) Wind is a PITA, but inside smelting can be very dangerous (in theory)... tin and antimony... I am NOT an expert for details.

5) Casting large round disks in old Teflon frying fans is the BEST MONEY for lead resale. Guys bought these for Wake Boats as fast as I could make them. I made a small fortune with these... and simply bought the bullets I needed with that money instead of casting.

6) Casting is super fun for some folks... and I respect those that do it.

Great link, Dan.
Thanks for posting that up.

Lee bottom pour melting pot.

RCBS mold and handles of your choice.

RCBS lube/sizer

Magnaflux

Circular cup wire brush that fits into a power drill to clean the pot.

The book, "The Art of Bullet Casting"

You need to go to smelting college

😃

The lead doesn't make a guy retarded?