With the high cost of ammunition in our current economy, an economical way to keep centerfire rifles fed, is a must. With that goal in mind, cast bullets seemed like a good way to achieve our objective. While commercial cast bullets are available for a somewhat reasonable cost, casting our own bullets seemed to offer an even more economical option. Besides that, casting our own bullets is an enjoyable activity.
Getting Started
The first step in casting your own bullets is gathering up the equipment needed to cast bullets. If you are new to casting, the first thing to obtain is good information. The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook is excellent resource. This book covers most aspects of making cast bullets as well as loading the bullets into ammunition. Lead, molds, melting pot or pan, dipper, lubes, gas checks and sizers need to be gathered. A good manual and a little time reading it will make all these things understandable. Bullet casting is not overly complicated once you have good information and learn the right way to do it.
casting bullets video
Casting Bullets
Melting the lead is the first step once you get everything together. An electric pot is nice, and they are available from Lee and Lyman as well as others. The Lee is the cheapest and they work fine. An aluminum pan on a stove top will work if your budget is really tight, however the temperature is easier to regulate with an electric melting pot. Getting the lead and the mold to the correct temperature is really important to getting good bullets.
Once a supply of bullets have been cast, they can be sized and a gas check applied. This is done in one step. The gas check is placed on the base of the bullet and run in to the sizer. The sizing die sizes the bullet and crimps the gas check onto the base of the bullet. The sizer we used is made by Lee and is reasonably priced. Gas checks are a copper or aluminum cup which are crimped onto the base of a bullet. This protects the lead from the flame and hot gasses of the powder when the cartridge is fired. When shooting cast lead bullets from a cartridge that produces high velocity, the gas check protects the bullet base and fowling from the bullet is reduced or at least minimized.
Lubricating Cast Bullets
After the bullets have been sized and the gas checks have been crimped on, the bullets need to be lubed. We lubed these bullets with White Label Lube Co. Carnauba Blue lube. There are lots of other lubes available from several manufacturers, but they are all going to be used in similar fashion. To pan lube cast bullets, the bullets are placed in a pan, (we used an Altoids tin), the lube is melted, and is poured into the pan until the level reaches the top groove on the bullets. After the lube has solidified, the bullets are pushed out of the lube or cut out with a punch. The bullets are now ready to load.
These bullets were loaded into 30-30 Winchester cartridges. The Load used is from the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook. 16.4 grains of IMR 4227 in Remington cases produced an average velocity of 1503 FPS. There were no signs of excessive pressure and recoil was very light. No leading was observed after shooting these bullets through a 1894 Winchester. This makes an excellent load for practice or varmints and also a good load for the kids to shoot. It will not take a long time to recoup your initial investment in equipment and supplies when the cost of factory ammunition is factored. Casting your own bullets and developing loads whether for practice or hunting is a rewarding project.
WARNING: Reloading can be dangerous if you have not been properly schooled in how to reload ammunition. The loads shown are for informational purposes only. They are only safe in the rifle shown and may not be safe in yours. Dangerous chamber pressures can occur resulting in serious injury, damage to rifle, or even death if proper reloading steps are not followed. Consult appropriate load manuals prior to developing your own handloads. Craigsoutdoorsports.com and its authors, do not assume any responsibility, directly or indirectly for the safety of the readers attempting to follow any instructions or perform any of the tasks shown, or the use or misuse of any information contained herein, on this website.