Getting Started in Bullet Casting

With the current shortages in reloading components, many of our customers have expressed an interest in bullet casting.

If you’re a scrounger, lead can be had cheap or free from tire shops, scrap yards, your local shooting range, plumbers, roofers, and a number of other places.  A basic casting setup can be assembled for about $200 to which you add your consumables (lead, flux, lube, …), molds, and sizing dies.  It doesn’t take a lot of casting to quickly ‘earn’ back your initial investment – especially if you cast for the higher handgun calibers or for rifles.

Here are the basics we recommend with recent ‘out the door’ pricing from Ranger Firearms:

Equipment

1. A Lee IV-20 Melting Pot ($65 – $75)

The Lee pot can hold up to 20 lbs of lead or alloy and has an adjustable temperature range up to 900 degrees or so.  It has a bottom pour spout for filling molds and you can also ladle lead out of the top for larger molds.  The pot is electric and uses a standard 110V plug.

2. An RCBS or Lyman Casting Thermometer ($35 – $40)

If you’re recycling lead, the melting temperature is one indicator of the purity of your metal.  You find that for a given mold and alloy, certain temps work best for casting and a thermometer is a must for adjusting the heat during casting.

3. Lee Lead Hardness Tester ($55-$60)

The Lee hardness tester is one of the most reasonably priced and is simple to use.  It works with your reloading press.  Use it to test scrap alloys and to verify that cast bullets are the desired hardness after curing.  You can also use it to test commercial cast bullets.

4. Lee Casting Ladle ($4)

This is a small ladle and is great for fluxing, stiring, etc…

5. RCBS Casting Ladle with Pour Spout ($25)

This ladle is especially designed to fill molds.  It can hold enough lead to fill most double cavity molds from a single pour.  We’ve found that for mold over 300grs or more per bullet, ladle casting often works better than using the bottom pour on the pot due to the ammount of lead involved.  If you don’t plan on casting heavy bullets, you might not need this.

6. You’ll also want leather gloves, safety glasses, a workbench, basic tools, etc. – but we expect you already have these around the house or shop.

Molds and Sizers

Lee molds are a great way to start out.  They’re inexpensive at $25 each for double-cavity molds with handles and available in just about every popular caliber and bullet weight for handguns and rifles.  Constructed from aluminum, Lee molds are easy to use if you follow their instructions for the initial mold prep and periodic lubrication.

Depending on your caliber, firearm, alloy, and bullet sizing is not always required.  Lead bullets are usually sized a bit larger (~.001″ to .002″) than the jacketed bullets for the same caliber and can be tailored to a specific firearm. Lee makes a full line of bullet sizing dies that fit in a standard reloading press.  Bullets are lubed with Lee’s Liquid Alox lube, dried, and then pushed through the sizer (a gas check can be seated during sizing when needed).  After sizing, bullets are usually lubed again.  Lee sizing kits are $18 and include a bottle of Liquid Alox.

Consumables

1. Lead – you won’t cast many bullets without a supply of lead.  If you don’t have access or time to scrouge lead, e-bay is one source.  Spot prices are in the $0.75 to $1.00 per pound range including shipping at present.  Most recycled lead is either ‘wheel weight’ or ‘mostly pure’.  Wheel weights contain tin and antimony which harden lead and improve ‘fill out’ in the molds.  Wheel weight can be used directly for a wide range of handgun and mild to moderate rifle loadings.  A mix of pure lead and wheel weights can be used in mild handgun loads (such as cowboy action) while pure lead is usually preferred in muzzle-loaders.  For exactling applications, foundary lead, which has fully known properties and allows, is available from many sources including rotometals.com and the Missouri Bullet Company (which also makes a full line of cast bullets at great prices)

2. Flux – Flux is used to remove impurities from lead and alloys while casting.  There are scores of flux products and most run $6-$10 per 1/2 lb (which will last a very long time).  Some flux with simple parafin, beeswax, or even saw dust.

3. Bullet Lube – After casting, bullets are usually lubed and sized to reduce barrel leading during use.  Lee Liquid Alox is a popular method as it does not require a stand-alone sizing press or special equipment to use.  When using Lee molds, you’ll also want at least one ‘stick’ lube for preping molds – the Liquid Alox won’t work for this.  Stick lubes are only $4-5 per stick and will prep 1000’s of casting sessions from a single stick.

4. Gas Checks (GC) – For loads over 1800 FPS, most sources recommend gas checks be used.   GC bullet designs have an undersized shank at the bullet base to allow GC seaing.  The gas check is simply a copper ‘cup’ which is crimped onto the bullet base during sizing.  Hornady makes most gas checks and they are sold by the 1000 for $22 – $40 depending on caliber.

If you live in Northwest Florida, Ranger Firearms would be glad to help get you started in bullet casting.  We try to keep everything in the lists above in stock for popular calibers and can special order as needed.

With everything, use proper safety procedures and reliable information sources for reloading and casting activities.