Bullet Casting

[MilesTeg]

I don't know if these would work for you, I'm not familiar with that round. But I'm pretty sure this guy will make any size you need. I plan on using this system once I actually start casting.
366Cal Bushings, NOE Bullet Moulds

As far as price, to me if you can find the lead for free it's definite worth it. If you can find it cheap it might be worth it if you don't mind casting. I shoot a lot of 45ACP and those bullets are almost twice(well 2/3) the price of 9mm. So for me the savings would be pretty big. I like the idea of shooting only costing my a primer and a little bit of powder.

If this endeavor goes well I have kicked around the idea of taking up swaging for rifle rounds.

 

[Magnus]

@MilesTeg I'm looking to get into cooking, what's your smelting setup? What do you use as fuel? Where did you get your stand?

 

[MilesTeg]

Right now I use a dutch oven from harbor freight with a turkey fryer. The turkey fryer burner is new from Runnings but I had to put it on an old turkey fryer stand because the new one was too flimsy. If I had to do it again I would probably get one of these.
Jet.com - Prices Drop As You Shop

I also use an ingot mold, because I found that the muffin tins were more of pain than they were worth.
Lyman 4-Cavity Ingot Mold Handle

One thing I did miss and didn't realize on my first melting expedition was a sturdy enough container to put the trash and dross in. I used the pan that came with the new turkey fryer. If I didn't have that I would have probably grabbed a heavy duty pal from TSC.

 

[MilesTeg]

 

[MilesTeg]

I finally got a chance to melt some more lead today. It's one of the few shooting/reloading things I can still do while in house limbo. There was enough room in my father's workshop to keep everything still accessible.

Anyways I think I finally have this part of the process figured out. Before I would make a moat of the lead scraps and then pull some through the molten lead. Then when everything was melted scoop out the jackets and other junk. This made for a very laborious process. I forgot if I read or saw it on YouTube but there's a different process that I tried out today. The new process was to dumb 2 coffee cans full of scraps in. Then as it was heating up occasionally stir it with a sick. After a while all the lead would be molten and all the remnants would be floating. I then would scoop up the big stuff the a wire scoop used for fish fries. I would leave the fine sand until I was ready to pour ingots and then would go after it with a spoon.

Using this new technique in 3 hours I was able to process a whole 5 gallon bucket. Before I would usually only do half a bucket in that time. I ended up making 32 ingots and I left a decent heal in the pot for next time.

Hopefully at the next house I will have somewhere to actually cast bullets. Until then I'm going to keep melting and gathering as much as I can.