Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I cast bullets in 1980

With a borrowed melting pot filled & wheel weights. Then lubed them in a pan heated on the kitchen stove. Then hammered them through a hand held sizing die. Then loaded them on a single stage press on the back porch during rain, sleet, snow, even blizzards. The press had been elsewhere, if I had room to sleep, eat, or crap, I had room for a press. A Lee hand primer gave me a bit of time in a heated room, maybe some TV. Otherwise, I loaded my ammo whenever, wherever I could.
I usually shot 150 38's, a box of 357 & a box of 44 mag or 45 Colt every Sunday with my buds. Good times without an ammo store or going broke.



I also walked 12 miles to school, each way, all up hill & this drink I've got is goood. But the above is true. It wasn't all that hard come to think of it. And I know guys accomplished the same with a Lyman tong tool or a Lee loader.

Just musing, flame me if ya have too.

Cool story bro..

For several years my loading was done on a single stage Pacific press mounted on the end of a piece of 2x10 plank laid over a plastic milk crate. I sat on the plank to hold it down and operated it over the top, from behind. I weighed every charge on my Redding No. 2 scale because I didn’t have a powder measure. I did have a Lee priming tool. I had a Forster case trimmer I held in one hand and cranked with the other. I cranked out a lot of ammo that way, for myself and my friends.

I started loading at age 11 in 1983. First it was a lee load all 2 in 12 gauge loading hot loads for my new single shot H&R 12 gauge. I loaded them hot with 1&1/2 ounces of lead, a red wad, and hs7. I still use a similar load with Longshot to this day. A year or 2 later I got a RCBS partner press kit and started loading 30-06 and then 6mm rem.

My step moms sister ran a uniform store in SLC back then and it was right next to Gallensons old down town shop. It was a 4 hour drive from Burley at 55 mph but I'd ride down on occasion just to get reloading stuff at gallensons. I remember the day I found a 10 pound bag of copper platted #2 lead there. I loaded some hot #2s and used them to kill my first Canadian geese before everything went steel. They kicked in that light single shot 12 that had no recoil pad just a hard plate.

I loved those mornings wandering drainage ponds along the snake as a kid and hunting ducks geese and pheasants with my own reloads. Steel shot ruined it shortly later.

Bb

I wasn't borned in 19 and 80.

If I had been....I would have bought enough lead to alter the orbit of Mars.

I'll have to admit, when I found a guy that would sell me a neatly stacked cigar box full of bullets for 25 bucks I quit casting... until Obammy.

Something told me things were gonna get tight & bought a pot, sizer & some more molds. Like a good loader, I had scrounged lead & WW's for years. It definitely worked out for the best.

But, it's not too late to scrounge lead. Heck, I've read of zinc bullets, lighter, but maybe effective.

Through the extreme generosity of a member here....I got set up to cast.


I am one of those people who is pretty good at most things I do. Nothing is really a challenge.



For the life of me I cant cast a decent bullet to save me. Its wilder'n hell.

I struggled getting going again recently too. It's a lot about temp control and rhythm. I also have to really work to get my alloy clean. I've found a rhythm casting with 2 different molds at 1 time and or using a damp rag to cool my mold between forms. I've made some pretty bullets but early ones were often frosty. Although it seems like the frosty ones powder coat nicely so I'm not sure why I worry about it.

Bb

My bullets can be frosty, too much temp, but hard to control with my setup. Or maybe I'm not letting the mold get right between pours.

But, a frosty bullet in your own reclaimed brass is better than looking all over the country for ammo.

Casting can be challenging, but rewarding.

My buddy scavenged a bunch of lead from a Naval Shipyard.


That stuff fugged up my pot pretty well! Hahaha! It was free anyhow.


What ever it is.....it dont make very good bullets.

Learned to reload with dad's old RCBS A2 on a stand in the kitchen.
Been reloading since '76 (elementary school.....got my 660 in .222 then).
Switched to turret press around '90.

If it was raining, we didn't go groundhoggin on shootin, instead fired up the pot and cast boolits.
Haven't cast anything for ages, as I don't target shoot anymore.

Got a Lyman Mag 25 still new in the box LOL

I think decent alloy is very important. I've been using some wheel weight stuff that I melted in bulk in a Dutch oven on a turkey burner a few years back. I tried to keep the zinc out. I also have maybe 1000 pounds of mono type I bought from an old typesetter in Idaho Falls. I add about 1 pound of it to 4 pounds of my wheel weight stuff and it seems like a decent alloy. It's way to hard to use without watering it down with lead. It has enough tin and antimony in it that it sweetens most other alloys to cast well. If your ever near idaho falls I'll give you a pig of it to add to your alloy. It really fills out molds well because it was used to make type. It's about 73 % lead and the rest is Tin or antimony. I've got it stacked all over my garage.

Bb

Started reloading with my dad when I was about ten years old, would have been around 1960. He used the old Lyman pliers type reloaders and I still have some of them. We cast bullets in a cast iron pot over a Coleman camp stove. Then one day a Herters cast iron C press arrived. Really made things a lot easier and faster. Then he started buying ready made bullets with copper jackets. I have and have used several other kinds of presses but I still like that big, old, heavy Herters press. Have two of them now. They use a special shell holder and I have a complete set. Have to use an adapter for regular 7/8" dies but I have them also. I still enjoy casting bullets when I have some time to kill, which isn't often.

Casted thousands of 38 and 45 bullets in the 80s and 90s, when my dad and I were shooting IPSC. We'd shoot 2-3 thousand a week practicing. I still have all the equipment.

I should mind my own business....but. Clean your lead using a little borax and scrape the sides of your pot real good, you need clean pots and molds. Cast the lead into 1 - 2lb ingots, then put the lead into a Lee production electric pot, keep the pot skimmed off with a table spoon and don't let the pot get more than 2/3rds empty. Use a infrared heat gun to keep the lead around 700 degrees. Pre heat the molds by remelting the first couple of bullets, you need 2 molds to get a rhythm going. You got this it's not rocket science.

In 1966, there was a gun store in a small west central Ks town. The owner had a shot shell loading press in the back room. If a customer supplied the empties, he let you load shot shells. The owner charged a very small amount to cover the components used. That was my start in reloading at the age of 14. I loaded many boxes of shells in that gun store in my early high school days. I suppose that store owner would go to prison in todays world.
I soon graduated to Lee hand tools in 12 ga., then Lee hand tools in 38/357, 25/06 and 7 mag. Then a few years later to a Rockchucker for metallics and MEC Sizemaster for shot shells. I still load, 24 metallic cartridges, and four shot shell gauges on those original single stage presses. I dabbled in casting muzzle loader ammo for a bit, but never got far in casting bullets.

JiJim, it well could be that you just need to add more Tin. I buy Tin and also super hard 30% Antimony from Rotometals. I use these to sweeten my scrap lead.

I attempt to achieve 5 to 7% Tin and 3 to 4% Antimony.

The Tin contributes to "wetting" quality of your alloy which helps to fill the mold properly, so as to avoid wrinkles and voids in your finished product.

Tin also enhances hardness, slightly. Antimony much more so.

I learned to reload with Uncles and Cousins on their equipment. Then I started buying pieces as cash became available.

I eventually found some equipment including an RCBS RS 5 press at a farm sale which I picked up reasonably.

But space became very limited when my wife and I with three kids moved into a 10' x 50' trailer in order to get out onto the farm and eliminate rent payments.

I loaded for several years with a Lee hand press (found on clearance at Bi-mart for $6), Lee auto-prime, and RCBS 505 scale. Thousands of rounds for 30-06, 30-06AI, and 22-250. All done with my son and daughter on the coffee table, sitting on the front edge of the couch.

I have 2 Herters turret presses, and an O frame. Had a C frame too. All got the RCBS adapter to use reg shell holders.

My Dad didn’t hunt or shoot, or handload…..I was on my own to learn how and buy equipment!


I started casting ( 2 different bullets for a .357 Mag) in the early ‘70’s (I didn’t start my ledger until ‘75) @ around 19 or 20 years old. I already had a press (Lyman All American Turret) bought around ‘72 ish, though had been loading with a Lee Loader since around ‘67 or ‘68.

I bought a bullet sizing die for the Lyman Tong Tool and an adapter so the die could be placed into the press. I put the sizing die “push rod” into a shell holder (caveman soldering to hold the rod centered in place)….using the press to push the bullet through the die. I still have that “push-rod” monstrosity somewhere in the reloading room!

I originally used beeswax and a cookie-cutter to cut the bullets from the beeswax. I didn’t like the beeswax method and quickly went to lubing with a lightweight Lithium grease tumbled in an old “tube sock”…..messy as hell but fast. The lubed bullets were placed in a metal coffee can until loaded. At the time of loading, I would wipe the bullet base on an old towel or similar to remove the grease from the bullet base and then load.

The bullets gave a slight “puff” of smoke and had a funny, unusual smell when fired. I used this method until I got “rich” 😁 in the mid ‘80’s when I bought a Lyman Sizer/Lubricator.


There you are…..a “poor boy” start to casting bullets! memtb