OK so with the end of ammo as we know it dragging on, I am looking into casting bullets as a way to cope. I have some questions:
1. What melting and casting equipment do folks use and like or dislike?
2. Where do you get your lead and if you salvage it from a range backstop how do you clean it up and get all the junk out of it?
3. do you resize and what lube do you use?
On your mark, get set, start the thread drift
Joe
1. Propane fired turkey fryer base with a cast iron dutch oven to render all the crap into useable ingots. Use a Rowell bottom pour ladle to dip the molten lead out of the dutch oven into ingot moulds I made myself. Before that I stir the melt with a pine stick. I suppose it acts like flux. All the crap that then floats spins around and spins to the middle. That makes it easier for me to grab any wheelweight clips and other dross with a long handled perforated spoon like you'd see at a cafeteria dishing out green beans. Then the clean ingots go into my 20 pound RCBS pro melt furnace. I have only 4 of the Lyman steel 4 banger pistol moulds.
2. I had a friend who was a mechanic at a Toyota dealership. He and his girlfriend would shoot a lot of trap and skeet. I made my own birdshot maker from scratch. He would bring me 100 pounds in wheelweights, and I would bring 50 pounds of birdshot. So I kept the other lead for myself. I am also a member of a gunclub which has like a steel backstopped pit area for bowling pin matches. I'll scoop the bullets and sand from there.
3. a Star Lube sizer which I never did get timed just right. I probably got the holes in the sizing dies drilled in the wrong spot. But that might not matter if I start powder coating boolits
Now for the thread drift, I used to shoot an IDPA style match every Tuesday night at an indoor range. My blood lead levels were the highest when I shot there. I stopped shooting there, picked up casting and making shot, and my lead levels continued to drop.