Casting your own Boolits

[mktacop]

I’ll start by saying that I love to tinker with things and I tend to go overboard with any hobby I undertake (much to my wife’s chagrin)….

I’m writing this post to chronicle my recent casting/reloading efforts in the hope that it encourages someone out there to take the plunge and start reloading or casting….or both. Please bear in mind that the costs for 50 rounds listed below DO NOT include the money I have spent on equipment, just on consumables (cases, powder, primers, and lead/bullets). The costs of my reloading equipment have already been recouped after 6 months of reloading my own ammo, and the costs of my casting equipment will be recouped after I cast about 1000 boolits.

I started reloading my own ammunition a few months ago with the intention of saving some money so that I could use the savings to buy more reloading supplies and shoot more. I quickly learned that all I’m really doing is spending the same (or more) money to fuel a new aspect of my shooting…but I do get to shoot more. Prior to reloading, I was paying an average of $23 for 50 rounds of factory FMJ ammo. Now I can reload 50 rounds for about $8.

As a natural progression, I started looking into casting my own bullets so that I could shoot even more for the same amount of money spent (again, I’m spending more, but shooting more as well). Now that I’m casting my own boolits, I can cast/reload 50 rounds for about $4.

I started out by researching the process on various websites and other forums. Armed with my newly acquired knowledge, I set out to procure what I would need to get started casting my own boolits.

I managed to get about 8 lbs of used Wheel Weights (WW) from a local tire shop. My step-brother got me about another 40 lbs of WW from the tire shop where he works (only problem here is that he lives 9 hours away, but I picked them up when we went to visit family for Thanksgiving). I purchased another 14lbs of WW @.60 per lb ($8) from a local recycling center (all they had at the time).

I bought a 5 qt cast iron Dutch oven ($38) at BassPro to use as a smelting pot. I bought a pair of heavy welding gloves ($10) and a leather apron ($26) from Northern Tool. I bought a full-face polycarbonate shield ($15) from Lowe’s, and a Stainless Steel ladle and slotted spoon ($10)from Wally World. I also bought a Lee 2-cavity 200gr .452 SWC mold off eBay for $30. I took a scrap piece of 1x2 oak that I had lying in the garage and cut myself a piece about 12” long to use as a mold mallet. The I used my belt sander to round the edges of about 1/3 of the length so that it would be easier to grip. I have spent about $140 on casting supplies at this point.

[mktacop]

Part 2

With these supplies, I put about 25 lbs of WW in my cast iron pot, put that on top of my propane turkey fryer (outside, on concrete, under cover to prevent ANY stray water from getting into the molten lead), and cranked up the heat. After about 15 minutes of some SERIOUSLY stinky smoke coming off the pot, things had settled down and I started skimming the crud (steel clips and other impurities) off my now molten lead. Once I had all that stuff off, I fluxed my melt with a couple tablespoons of sawdust (ok, it was really about a handful). I stirred this into the melt and lowered the flame on my lead. Next, I skimmed off the crud from the sawdust and started ladling lead into an old mini-muffin tip I found in the cabinet (Shhhh, don’t tell my wife). The ingots from this pan weigh about ½ lb each.

Before I made all the lead into ingots, I tried casting some bullets by pouring the lead into my mold using the ladle. It’s not the most elegant solution, but it did work, and would certainly be a choice for someone on a tight budget. I used an old aluminum cake pan to catch the sprue when I broke the sprue plate free using my improvised mold mallet. Then I would dump the freshly cast boolits out of the mold onto an old towel. It took a bit of experimentation to get the rhythm of casting down where the boolits were not frosted and were well-formed. I know I had some heat issues with the mold and the melt at first, but after playing with it for a while, everything settled down and I started dropping some nice boolits. After about 40 minutes, I had approximately 100 boolits lying on my towel. I poured the rest of the melt into ingots and waited for everything to cool down so that I could put it away.

Of my 100 or so boolits, I ended up with 72 “keepers”. Some were better than others, but all the really bad ones will be re-melted soon.

I measured about 20 of my new boolits and diameters ranged from .451-.454. I took a couple of the larger (.454) and seated them in a spent .45ACP case to make sure they would chamber in my 1911 since I don’t yet have a sizer. These largest boolits chambered without any issues, so I pulled them from the cases and added them to the pile for re-melting. I also weighed 20 of my new boolits using a RCBS 10-10 scale and they all weighed 200-205 grains.

Using a recipe for “Darr Lube” that I found online, I set out to pan-lube my boolits. I stood 50 boolits in an old cake pan and melted the lube ingredients together in an old double-boiler. I poured the lube into the pan of boolits to just above the lube groove and allowed the lube to harden. Once hard, I placed the pan in the freezer for 3 minutes and then turned the disk of lube and boolits out onto my old towel. Then I started pressing the boolits out of the lube. I was disappointed to see that the lube did not completely fill or stay in the lube groove, so I went back to the site where I had read about pan-lubing to see if I could figure out what I had done wrong. It didn’t take long to realize my error. I discovered that I had omitted 2 crucial steps to success in pan-lubing. I had not allowed the boolits to reside in the molten lube, thereby reaching the same temperature of the lube prior to standing them up and allowing the lube to solidify. I had also not allowed the lube/boolits to come back to room temp after the freezer step. So, I started the lubing process again. This time, I followed the instructions and was rewarded with 70 boolits having a nice, completely filled lube groove after I pushed them out of the lube disk. My lube-making supplies cost about $15 and I should be able to lube several thousand bullets with how much I have right now.

The next day, I took my newly cast and lubed boolits and loaded up 50 rounds for testing. I had already loaded some rounds of the same weight/type using purchased bullets so I had a baseline of performance to work from.

A few days later, I was able to go to the range and test my new boolit loads. The average velocity was about 5-10 fps slower than the loads made previously using purchased bullets, but this could be attributed to the fact that it was about 40 degrees cooler when I fired my new boolits (the same 1911 and chrono was used for both velocity tests). Accuracy of my new boolits was as good as with purchased bullets, but the best part was yet to come.

[mktacop]

Part 3

With the bullets I have purchased, I ALWAYS get leading in the barrel. I have tried bullets of 12, 14, and 21 BHN, all with varying degrees of leading after firing. I purchased a Lewis Lead Remover (LLR) just to make cleaning easier after a shooting session. When I returned home from shooting my new boolits, I stripped my 1911 and looked down the barrel…..no visible leading. Using a new brass disc on my LLR, I ran it through the barrel and there were NO lead flakes present…I made 3 more passes through the barrel with the LLR and had the same results….no leading!!

Based on my experience so far, I decided that casting my own boolits is definitely something I want to do more of, but that I “needed” better equipment. To convince my wife of the savings that casting would provide, I made up an excel spreadsheet that calculates everything out, especially the savings over buying factory ammo. She agreed, and I ordered a Lee 6-cavity 200 gr SWC mold and handles ($50), a Lee bottom-pour melter ($58) with 20lb capacity (strictly for bullet casting, I’ll use my Dutch Oven for smelting and ingot casting), a Lee single-stage reloading press ($25) and a .452 Lee sizing kit ($15)…(these last two are strictly for sizing my boolits, I’ll continue pan-lubing instead of tumble-lubing). Once I get these new supplies, I’ll begin casting in earnest and should be able to produce enough boolits to offset the new equipment costs in a few weekends of casting. Grand total for casting supplies is now up to about $300

If you have made it all the way through this lengthy account of my experience, thanks for taking the time to read it all. I hope that this inspires someone to take the next step and start reloading or boolit casting, or both. It really isn’t very hard, and if you shop around some, you could probably get started for less than I have spent. I find that I enjoy casting and reloading almost as much as shooting. If I can make my own loads for significantly less than buying factory ammo, I get to shoot more for about the same amount of money spent.

I think my next project will be to build a PID Temperature Controller to get finite temperature control over my new Lee pot….I’ve been reading up on doing this in another forum and my interest is piqued. This will push my total cost of casting supplies at this point up to about $440.

MKTacop

[MoJo]

A lubricator-sizer is a necessity if you are producing a lot of boolets or, get a Lee tumble lube die. I have tumble lube dies in 9mm/.38 .40 caliber and .45 they all shoot better than I can most of the time and lubrication/sizing is a snap. I found the 9mm to be great in .38/357 by just lubing them and shooting them unsized to use them in 9mm I find they they need to be sized. The .45 shoots great unsized the .40 needs sizing. The Lee sizing tool is simple, inexpensive and, efficient I highly recommend it for sizing any bullets whether you tumble lube or pan lube. I have almost retired my Lyman 450 except for one .38 swc boolet I like and my .30 boolets.

[Jumping Frog]

... or, get a Lee tumble lube die. I have tumble lube dies in 9mm/.38 .40 caliber and .45 they all shoot better than I can most of the time and lubrication/sizing is a snap.

You can use the Lee tumble lube method on ordinary bullet molds. They do not have to be the tumble lube design.

[Jumping Frog]

I’ll start by saying that I love to tinker with things and I tend to go overboard with any hobby I undertake (much to my wife’s chagrin)….

I’m writing this post to chronicle my recent casting/reloading efforts. . .

Good job writing it up and good job getting started with a fun hobby. Now you need to add some pictures!

I started reloading my own ammunition a few months ago with the intention of saving some money so that I could use the savings to buy more reloading supplies and shoot more. I quickly learned that all I’m really doing is spending the same (or more) money to fuel a new aspect of my shooting…but I do get to shoot more. Prior to reloading, I was paying an average of $23 for 50 rounds of factory FMJ ammo. Now I can reload 50 rounds for about $8.

As a natural progression, I started looking into casting my own bullets so that I could shoot even more for the same amount of money spent (again, I’m spending more, but shooting more as well). Now that I’m casting my own boolits, I can cast/reload 50 rounds for about $4.

You'll find it is even cheaper than that. I've gotten all my lead for free and have plenty of range pickup brass from friends so my only real incremental cost is the cost of primers and powder. I have previously posted 200 gr LSWC cost for various powders here. When I am loading using Clays, my powder cost is $0.79 per hundred. I have paid $23 per thousand for my primers (including shipping/hazmat), or $2.30 per hundred.

My total reloading cost for .45 ACP with 200 gr LSWC is currently $3.09 per hundred.

After about 40 minutes, I had approximately 100 boolits lying on my towel.

When you get into a rhythm with a Lee 6-banger, you'll find you can cast at a 1000 per hour rate. You can get 1000 in an hour if casting 9mm, but you can't actually do 1000 200 gr .45's in an hour because 1000 200gr bullets is about 28.5 lbs of alloy -- which is more than a pot full.

A full 20 lb pot will get you about 700 of the 200 gr bullets before it is time to reload the pot and take a break while the ingots melt.

You can also size/lube about 1000 per hour, so I usually figure I have about 2 total man hours per thousand bullets ready to reload.

I ordered a Lee 6-cavity 200 gr SWC mold and handles ($50)

I hope you didn't get the tumble lube design, or if you did get that mold I hope the design will feed in your .45. I couldn't get the TL design to feed reliably (required 1.190" COAL, which was too short for my gun) and got rid of the mold. The nose is too short. I switched to the classic Keith-style mold which lets me use a 1.250" COAL and that feeds just fine -- see below. I sold the Lee mold to a buddy of mine because his gun would feed them just fine.


Here is a picture of the profile differences between the Lee TL design and the more traditional Keith-style profile:

[mktacop]

I'm using Lee molds that are clones of the H&G 68 design, except that they have a beveled base.

[mktacop]

Here are some pics

[Jumping Frog]

Bob, is that one of Miha's H&G #68 style molds?

I want one of those badly!

Yep, it is the non-hollowpoint with flat base. Casts like a dream.

I like his mold a lot, enough that I am also keeping my eye open to pick another Miha Keith-style mold in .430 for my .44 Mag.

Here are some pics

Good, you got the right Lee mold. They should work great. The 6-banger can really pump out the production.

[Seabear]

Great write up! I have been piecing mine together as well. As soon as I can lift more (recovering from neck surgery) I am going to get back at it. I almost have everything I need. Do we ever have all we need?