New to Casting bullets

[david w]

One thing I would like to add, is use a good soap after casting. Use warm water. Do not wash with hot water because it will open up your pores.
https://www.amazon.com/Hand-Soap-Ho...ocphy=9027791&hvtargid=pla-1091038168023&th=1

 

[Whughett]

I generally buy my lead balls. Have a good source, and I dont shoot a ton. But, I do have a bag mold and copper ladle from Larry Callahan that I bought, but have yet to actually use. While "how" to use it is pretty self explanatory(hey, I've seen "The Patriot" a time or two!), does anyone have any pointers? I'd make a small fire, get a good bed of coals, make a green stick handle for the ladle, and the bag mold would need some sort of handles(someone said corn cobs) or leather pieces to hold the hot metal. Someone told me to preheat and "smoke" the mold to get some soot on it to make the balls easier to get out. I have several 1lb pure lead ingots. For backcountry use, should I hacksaw these into manageable pieces?

Anyone care to expound on the best way to use a bag mold and ladle in the backwoods? I don't intend to ever NEED it, but it's nice to know I could make ammo if I had to.

Not my thing, back woods, but on the face of it, I’d think you’d have to weight packing already cast balls against the raw lead plus weight of the equipment.
Be cool though at an established base camp or off grid cabin.

 

[Ben Meyer]

Not my thing either! Don't play on EVER NEEDING to make ammo. But I have the stuff, haven't used it, want to hear best practices for using it. That's all.

Not my thing, back woods, but on the face of it, I’d think you’d have to weight packing already cast balls against the raw lead plus weight of the equipment.
Be cool though at an established base camp or off grid cabin.

 

[maillemaker]

Well I am heading down that road, I bought myself a Lee melting pot, mallet, flux compound and a couple of molds to start casting .575 Mini's and .550 Pritchett's. The only problem is, i have no experience in casting lead bullets. Can anyone recommend a good resource, ie book or video for me to gain some knowledge? If this is in the wrong area, my apologies.

First, for expanding ball type bullets, like "Minies" or "Pritchetts", you will need to use pure lead. Alloyed lead is too hard and the bullet will not expand and take up the rifling.

A lot of people try to find scrap lead, but for bullets that have to deform to work, you are better off buying known pure lead. I have shot competitively for 10 years and I can't tell you the number of times I have heard, "I guess I must have gotten some hard lead" as an excuse for poor accuracy. Bite the bullet and buy pure lead. If you don't have a good local source, buy pigs cut in half from rotometals.com.

I have tried every "trick" for bottom-pour casting hollow-base bullets, and am convinced it just does not work. You will either end up with voids (bubbles) at the top of the hollow cavity, or they will be hidden inside where you can't see. You can tell they are there though buy weighing batches of bullets and noticing the variability.

Instead, I have found that ladle-pouring is the only way to get consistent results with hollow-base bullets. You will want a good ladle with a submerged spout like the Lyman ladle. The Lee ladle, which is basically just a spoon, will pour dross into the mold.

https://www.amazon.com/Lyman-Casting-Dipper-2867790
I like to run my lead pot hot - 875F.

 

[Whughett]

Not my thing either! Don't play on EVER NEEDING to make ammo. But I have the stuff, haven't used it, want to hear best practices for using it. That's all.

Well despite what you read in these and other pages it’s a very basic procedure. Melt the lead and pour it into a mold. Heat source is subjective. Lead does have an optimum pouring temperature and the mold needs to be hot enough to keep the lead molten until the mold has filled out. Too hot and the bullets/balls will have a frosted appearance. Too cold and the same will be wrinkled or poorly formed. The upside is all mistakes are completely re-doable and experience will teach you what’s right when.

Of course lthat’s an oversimplification. But if one can perform all the nuances of muzzle loading, flint or percussion, one can soon get the hang of casting lead projectiles.
Have fun.

 

[Ben Meyer]

Thanks ^. Those are the tips I'm looking for. So, over a small fire/bed of coals, are there visual clues as to when the lead is near optimum pouring temperature? If an Ash puffs up into the ladle, dump it or keep pouring? I've never done it before.

 

[TFoley]

I guess that with the bulk-buy facilities you guys have over there that buying in bulk from a supplier works out pretty cheap. TBH, I have no idea how much you'd pay for a hundred .44cal ball, but I can tell you that here in UK, with NO bulk suppliers, it's a pretty fast way to use up your children's inheritance - a pack of a hundred Pedersoli .44cal ball cost around $18 or so.

Now to me, that is a price too far, and I've been a caster since returning from an eight-year posting in Germany, back in 1984.

I've figured out that in spite of having to acquire the lead [luckily, as I've mentioned earlier, from a very cheap source] and figuring in the cost of electricity, I can make around 500 for a dollar.

That is all the excuse that I need for casting my own.

Don't even ask the price of a store-bought 500gr Minié bullet.

 

[Whughett]

Thanks ^. Those are the tips I'm looking for. So, over a small fire/bed of coals, are there visual clues as to when the lead is near optimum pouring temperature? If an Ash puffs up into the ladle, dump it or keep pouring? I've never done it before.

With out a thermometer it’s a guessing game as to actual temp. Clean molten lead at 850 + degreesF will have a bluish appearance on the surface. 850 is generally too hot for most pours under 300 grain weight.
For thirty years I worked in the telephone industry and handling lead cable, molten lead and solders was normal to the job. We didn’t use thermometers but a rough test was to thrust a strip of brown craft paper into the pot. If it browned and curled up the lead was hot enough to pour, if it flashed into fire it was too hot.
Today I have a lead thermometer but rarely use it, letting bullet appearance dictate how hot to run the pot.

Small amounts of dross by its nature, floating on the surface, isn’t a problem when pouring by ladle especially with an RCBS or Lyman spouted model.

 

[1BadDart]

I guess that with the bulk-buy facilities you guys have over there that buying in bulk from a supplier works out pretty cheap. TBH, I have no idea how much you'd pay for a hundred .44cal ball, but I can tell you that here in UK, with NO bulk suppliers, it's a pretty fast way to use up your children's inheritance - a pack of a hundred Pedersoli .44cal ball cost around $18 or so.

Now to me, that is a price too far, and I've been a caster since returning from an eight-year posting in Germany, back in 1984.

I've figured out that in spite of having to acquire the lead [luckily, as I've mentioned earlier, from a very cheap source] and figuring in the cost of electricity, I can make around 500 for a dollar.

That is all the excuse that I need for casting my own.

Don't even ask the price of a store-bought 500gr Minié bullet.

Wow, very cheap lead, about $.08 per pound? I bought 200 pounds back in the summer, figuring a 5% loss for scrap, it'll cost me $.84 per 100 just for the lead. Still way better than $10 a hundred for Hornady balls.

 

[TFoley]

Wow, very cheap lead, about $.08 per pound? I bought 200 pounds back in the summer, figuring a 5% loss for scrap, it'll cost me $.84 per 100 just for the lead. Still way better than $10 a hundred for Hornady balls.

I'm also factoring in the price of the electricity I use on my melting pot. 500 ball for a dollar beats your 84c/hundred.

 

[1BadDart]

I'm also factoring in the price of the electricity I use on my melting pot. 500 ball for a dollar beats your 84c/hundred.

Your math works just like mine.