I’ve never cast a bullet or even watched anyone cast bullets. I have watched a few videos lately. How much $$$ to get started from scratch ?
I started at about age 19 with a bullet mold, a cast iron pot, a lead dipper, and a bunch of wheel weights. Melted my lead on our kitchen stove, making certain to run the ventilation fan, fluxing (a multitude of things can be used as flux) the lead occasionally to keep the tin from separating from the alloy.
For me, very little has changed today…..except my heat source is no longer the kitchen stove and wheel weights are no longer free…….plus they require sorting out the undesirable weights.
Today, with the advent of powder coating bullets……you no longer need a sizer/lubricator, which saves you $. And there are some sizing methods that allow you to use your reloading press for the sizing step. With some molds, sizing may not even be required!
I was a poor boy when starting out, I used a sizing die from a Lyman Tong tool in my reloading press. My bullet lubing consisted of……putting my bullets into a small canvas bag with a tablespoon or two of lithium grease, roll them around a bit, and dump them into a plastic container. When loading them, grab one, wipe the bullet base on an old sock or towel, and start the bullet into the case. It doesn’t get much cheaper than that…..or more Neanderthal! But, I was able to do a lot of shooting using that system!
Today you have vast resources (books, YouTube, shooting forums, ect) of information available to learn the fundamentals, that weren’t available in the early ‘70’s!
Summary…….it cost very little to set-up to cast bullets! memtb
