Bullet Casting

[asmurff]

Who cast their own bullets? I'd like to start and would like any references and equipment recommendations.

[Dusty44]

I have considered the possibility of casting my own bullets several times.  I do not have the volume to justify it.  I like to tiptoe into these things if it is possible.  When I began to shoot blackpowder I thought it would be cool to cast my own rifle balls.  I read about it in magazines and in some NRA publications.  (That was decades before there was an Internet.)  Then I bought a couple of pounds of lead,  a melting pot,  mold,  ladle.  I followed instructions from the guys who do the Mountain Man thing and tried to cast some .50 cal rifle balls.  There was a fire in the big fireplace on most cool days because my wife loved having a fire.  So,  I figured,  heat to melt lead was right there.  Smoked the mold with candle soot,  yep.  Heated the mold,  poured some lead.  LOL.  Money was tight,  I figured I could make do without extras like handles for the mold and a lot of the other niceties.  Wrong.  Nothing worked--  at least not well enough. 

It became obvious that a serious electric lead pot was minimum,  a whole bunch of supplies and tools was needed,  a better place to work was essential.  A place where hot liquid lead spatters and spills would not cause disasters; good ventilation like a ventilator exhaust fan to take away fumes,  heat or air conditioning when needed for a comfortable work station--  the list goes on and the cost keeps climbing rapidly.

I have been happy with boxes of bullets other people have made.  These bullets,  big-company sophisticated projectiles or small-company cast boollits are more nearly perfect than I can tell either way and have the lube rings already filled with what is usually better lube than I could otherwise consider buying.  That cost of lube is the actual cost of the lube and more equipment/tools to put it in place properly.

You already know what is needed.  Most of this is for the casual reader.  My answer to your question is pick up a Midway and a Brownells catalog and make a list of what you think you want and what it all will cost.  I know that over a long period of time I have read many postings and articles in books,  magazines,  and a dozen gun forums about casting bullets and about all the details involved.  Low-end is probably not a good idea.  Most good equipment will probably cost about the same.  Details and specific features vary but a higher priced item may have something included that a lower-priced item will need as a separate tool.  You know.

All that said,  I bought a couple of pounds of beeswax last week;  delivery maybe next weekend.  I have a couple of hundred .452 cast bullets with no lube in their grooves and I might sometime load them for a black-powder-only revolver.  Beeswax & Crisco lube;  possibly with some shoe-polish mink-oil waterproofer mixed in;  too many ideas from some of those web site postings that I do not adequately understand.  I am going to have to buy a lube device and sizer.  But not real soon.  Alternatively,  I could load them into the fired brass I recovered and saved from my .45 M1911.  Different lube,  hopefully the same lubing devices.

Keep us informed,  please.  Would like to know what you decide to buy and how it all goes?

[asmurff]

After checking the cost of start up and research the health issues I've decided to pass, mainly because of the health part. I have enough health problems without possible added any kind of hazard around me.

[techmike]

On an Ohio forum, an experienced caster had a mold blow up in his face - unnoticed by him was the moisture in the mold....

[Madhouse]

Is your interest peaked by this type of info?

Back Door Gun Control

EPA Shuts Down Last Lead Smelter

There are numerous alarming reasons why the US government and the military

have been buying up all the ammo. Here's one of them.

Obama and the EPA just shut down the last lead smelting plant in the US.

They raised the EPA regulations by 10 fold and it would have cost the plant

$100 million to comply. You can own all the guns you want, but if you can't

get ammo, you are out of luck.

Remember when Obama promised his minions that he was working on gun control

behind the scenes? Welcome to it. Now, all domestic mined lead ore will have

to be shipped overseas, refined and then shipped back to the US. Not only

will ammo now be even harder to come by, the demand and the process of

supply will cause the price to skyrocket even more.

And ponder this. there is an excellent chance that Obama will rig the market

to where all ammo has to be purchased from a government entity instituting

de facto ammo registration.

So much for the Second Amendment. There has not been a peep about this in

the major news outlets and it is done. With the US no longer producing lead,

all supplies will now have to come from China, Australia or Peru, with the

overwhelming emphasis on China. More redistribution of wealth; more economic

and liberty crippling of the US on tap.

The asshats at the EPA (evil protection agency) had this to say:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the company "made a business

decision" to shut down the smelter instead of installing pollution control

technologies needed to reduce sulfur dioxide and lead emissions as required

by the Clean Air Act.

The Doe Run Co. announced last year that it had dropped plans to build a new

lead processing facility in Herculaneum that would have used a new, cleaner

lead production technology. The company cited the $100 million project as

too financially risky.

The EPA is playing Mafioso I guess - we didn't make them shut down, they

made a business decision. In other words, they couldn't pay the extortion,

so the thugs shut them down. I'm pretty sure that Americans are getting

ready to make their own business decision regarding the Marxists and I don't

think it will be pleasant. But Marxists will do or die and are doubling down

on the destruction of energy in America, our way of life and the

Constitution.

The smelting plant has known since 2010 this was coming. They couldn't stop

it and no one else rose up to stop it either. The business had been in

production for 120 years and now goes the way of our auto industry.

The military's obsession with ammo was related to security and supply. They

knew this was coming too, so they bought up all they could get before the

plug was pulled. Screw the average American.

It's as Chris Muir said, he's not as worried about where the bullets will

come from, as much as how the government will deliver them and I'm right

there with him on that one.

So, back door gun control is moving forward and while we are all distracted

with shiny stuff, our Second Amendment rights are just about gone. Obama is

one Marxist dictator who is savvy at political chess. He has flanked the

Second Amendment. Now it's our move.