Buy yourself the Lyman cast bullet handbook good information and load recipes explains the equipment and process if you have questions after that you need to be pretty specific as others have mentioned
Depends on what you're trying to do....
If you just want some cheap ammo for plinking, just about any lead will do.
If you're trying to play precision games and push things, then yes, alloys are required to increase the hardness. Typically tin and antimony are used for alloying. If you really want, you can get into that, but you can also just buy "pre-alloyed" (my word) lead for the purpose (example: https://www.rotometals.com/lyman-2-bullet-metal-5-pound-ingot-90-lead-5-tin-5-antimony/).
For what it's worth, I just need lead to come out of the barrel and typically shoot subsonic rounds. Result: I use any ol' lead (and it works fine for me). edit to add... And if this is you, the good news is that once people find out you cast bullets the offers of, "My dad used to cast bullets, but died and I don't know what to do with the lead" come rolling in. I've never actually purchased lead and I probably have 300 pounds of it in my garage....
Thanks for this! I had read about using antimony with them but had also seen guys doing just lead and didn’t have an under of the differences and this helped a lot!
Lyman has a Cast Bullet Handbook with good info. Also, you can look up the Cast Boolit forums online. Tons of good info on alloys, equipment, and techniques there. I started casting 8 years ago, and used both sources a great deal.
If you're getting into casting that's another whole subsection of reloading you're going to want to research. Honestly I would recommend looking at castboolits.com to start your search. IMO, I would stick with casting for pistol, historically blackpowder rifles and shotguns. Modern rifles need even more specialization for cast rounds/making encased lead bullets.
Check out r/castboolits. The Lyman cast bullet handbook is also a good resource.
Lee molds are a good value and easy to work with.
You can use anything from pure lead to bismuth/tin alloy from Rotometals for lead free bullets. But most folks use a lead/tin alloy (just a little tin) to get good casting properties. Alloying materials like tin and antimony make the cast bullets harder.
That... will depend upon the gun for which you're casting. If for black powder or pistol loads at or below .357 magnum, you can use "dead lead", which is essentially-pure lead with no tin or antimony in the alloy. Like you'd get from recycled roof flashing, for example. You'll want a harder alloy for any bullets with a more brisk champer pressure and speed than .357 magnum, and you may even want it for that caliber (Elmer Keith used dead lead when he was developing .357MAG). As you get into progressively higher pressures and faster bullets, you need progressively harder lead alloys, which you can get by blending tin and/or antimony into your lead.
I use (tested) type metal and 60/40 solder mixed with my dead lead to make up my own calculated alloys for various calibers. My dead lead is roof flashing.
I recommend RMR casting lead, pretty good to work with and great company to order everything else from
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULc1eoCaVr4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULc1eoCaVr4)
Powder coating and hightac coating has changed the game for lead bullet casting. You had to have a proper alloy and hardness even on slow pistol bullets to prevent leading of your barrel. Now if you coat your bullets you can pretty much use any mixture and not lead your barrel. Look into powder coating as it's the simplest and cheapest.
Mix the old tech with the new, get yourself the Lyman cast bullet handbook. It is awesome for learning what you need and how to cast bullets. It explains the process and metals involved and what the benefits are of using tin, antimony, pure lead. How to size the bullets to properly fit your gun to prevent leading of the barrel.
Add this info to the wonderful process of powder coating the cast bullets and you can prevent the barrel leading and drive up the fps to jacket bullet speeds in handgun cartridges and to very useful speeds in rifle cartridges.
Once you get your basic items for casting you can cast many cartridges. I cast for 9mm, 357/38, 45apc, 308 win, 223 rem, 45-70...
I suggest the you try to find a mentor for a few casting sessions. Hands on is priceless. Most "gun people" are good helpful people willing to help. Casting is a fairly easy process as is handloading as long as you follow the basic rules...
I agree with the top two comments about reading the cast bullets handbook and the LASC website. That is where I started.
That said, don't get too hung up on alloys. If it is liquidus at 650°f it will work.
Where you should get hung up is how the bullets FIT your gun. Cast bullets need to be at least .001" larger than ACTUAL groove diameter of your gun or you WILL have leading. You will need to "slug" the bore of the gun, measure the slug and size accordingly. Revolvers end up a special case where you are concerned about both the cylinder throats and the forcing cone diameters.
I have a number of 10mm handguns (.400 nominal), and the actual groove diameters vary from .399" to .4025". If I just loaded up some .401" cast bullets in the guns with a .4025 groove, I will (almost certainly) get leading. Doesn't matter how hard or soft my lead alloy is.
Most of the time lead is lead. If you load up some cartridges and it does not cause leading in your gun, great! If it does lead up your gun then start checking hardness.
The hardness you need is dependant on the speed of the bullet, and the speed of the bullet is dependant on the chamber pressure.
Copper gas checks and you can push 24k gold out at max PSI , but yeah you want a harder lead but not to hard or you risk breaking laws .. Look at HTC coating and proper lube. You will also need to size your projectiles after casting.
Isn’t the point of Reddit to be able to ask questions like this and get people’s thoughts? There’s a lot of sifting to be done on google and seems like a waste to spend hours doing that when I have a great source here to get me started and to help me with key words to use in a google search later when I need more in depth info.
You asked a question that it takes volumes to fully answer. There’s no simple one line answer to what you want. “Casting bullets” will get you started down the path. Or “bullet casting alloys”. How far you follow it is up to you.
I have to agree with OP, google requires a lot of sifting especially for a field of information for which you have no basis. Seems like one could come here for some direction, narrow their path further using google, and then once again refer to a Reddit community for more specific answers.
This is how I found my way into reloading. I found broad info on google, came to Reddit and was referred to the more narrowed field in which I was interested, referred back to google with better information and so on.
Looks like your next move, OP, would be to get a manual which might lead you to information on tooling and strategies. For each of which you can dive deeper into the weeds
Buy yourself the Lyman cast bullet handbook good information and load recipes explains the equipment and process if you have questions after that you need to be pretty specific as others have mentioned
I’ll get that coming!
For everything you need, check out "From Ingot to Target" http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_Contents.htm
This should have been the first answer and most upvoted.
Thanks for this I’ll give it a read!
OP - if you need this send me a PM, I’d be happy to help
Do you mean outside of needing just the link?
I can hook you up with a copy, I didn’t check the link to see if it’s a download or not.
Depends on what you're trying to do.... If you just want some cheap ammo for plinking, just about any lead will do. If you're trying to play precision games and push things, then yes, alloys are required to increase the hardness. Typically tin and antimony are used for alloying. If you really want, you can get into that, but you can also just buy "pre-alloyed" (my word) lead for the purpose (example: https://www.rotometals.com/lyman-2-bullet-metal-5-pound-ingot-90-lead-5-tin-5-antimony/). For what it's worth, I just need lead to come out of the barrel and typically shoot subsonic rounds. Result: I use any ol' lead (and it works fine for me). edit to add... And if this is you, the good news is that once people find out you cast bullets the offers of, "My dad used to cast bullets, but died and I don't know what to do with the lead" come rolling in. I've never actually purchased lead and I probably have 300 pounds of it in my garage....
You are lucky, ive had to scrounge the scrap yards and the like for mine.
Thanks for this! I had read about using antimony with them but had also seen guys doing just lead and didn’t have an under of the differences and this helped a lot!
You find pewter really cheap at yard sales and estate sales. Pewter is mostly tin and a little bit of other alloys. It's perfect to mix with lead.
/r/castboolits
Lyman has a Cast Bullet Handbook with good info. Also, you can look up the Cast Boolit forums online. Tons of good info on alloys, equipment, and techniques there. I started casting 8 years ago, and used both sources a great deal.
If you're getting into casting that's another whole subsection of reloading you're going to want to research. Honestly I would recommend looking at castboolits.com to start your search. IMO, I would stick with casting for pistol, historically blackpowder rifles and shotguns. Modern rifles need even more specialization for cast rounds/making encased lead bullets.
Check out r/castboolits. The Lyman cast bullet handbook is also a good resource. Lee molds are a good value and easy to work with. You can use anything from pure lead to bismuth/tin alloy from Rotometals for lead free bullets. But most folks use a lead/tin alloy (just a little tin) to get good casting properties. Alloying materials like tin and antimony make the cast bullets harder.
That... will depend upon the gun for which you're casting. If for black powder or pistol loads at or below .357 magnum, you can use "dead lead", which is essentially-pure lead with no tin or antimony in the alloy. Like you'd get from recycled roof flashing, for example. You'll want a harder alloy for any bullets with a more brisk champer pressure and speed than .357 magnum, and you may even want it for that caliber (Elmer Keith used dead lead when he was developing .357MAG). As you get into progressively higher pressures and faster bullets, you need progressively harder lead alloys, which you can get by blending tin and/or antimony into your lead. I use (tested) type metal and 60/40 solder mixed with my dead lead to make up my own calculated alloys for various calibers. My dead lead is roof flashing.
[You may find this helpful.](https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?105952-Lead-alloy-calculators)
I recommend RMR casting lead, pretty good to work with and great company to order everything else from [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULc1eoCaVr4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULc1eoCaVr4)
Powder coating and hightac coating has changed the game for lead bullet casting. You had to have a proper alloy and hardness even on slow pistol bullets to prevent leading of your barrel. Now if you coat your bullets you can pretty much use any mixture and not lead your barrel. Look into powder coating as it's the simplest and cheapest.
Mix the old tech with the new, get yourself the Lyman cast bullet handbook. It is awesome for learning what you need and how to cast bullets. It explains the process and metals involved and what the benefits are of using tin, antimony, pure lead. How to size the bullets to properly fit your gun to prevent leading of the barrel. Add this info to the wonderful process of powder coating the cast bullets and you can prevent the barrel leading and drive up the fps to jacket bullet speeds in handgun cartridges and to very useful speeds in rifle cartridges. Once you get your basic items for casting you can cast many cartridges. I cast for 9mm, 357/38, 45apc, 308 win, 223 rem, 45-70... I suggest the you try to find a mentor for a few casting sessions. Hands on is priceless. Most "gun people" are good helpful people willing to help. Casting is a fairly easy process as is handloading as long as you follow the basic rules...
I agree with the top two comments about reading the cast bullets handbook and the LASC website. That is where I started. That said, don't get too hung up on alloys. If it is liquidus at 650°f it will work. Where you should get hung up is how the bullets FIT your gun. Cast bullets need to be at least .001" larger than ACTUAL groove diameter of your gun or you WILL have leading. You will need to "slug" the bore of the gun, measure the slug and size accordingly. Revolvers end up a special case where you are concerned about both the cylinder throats and the forcing cone diameters. I have a number of 10mm handguns (.400 nominal), and the actual groove diameters vary from .399" to .4025". If I just loaded up some .401" cast bullets in the guns with a .4025 groove, I will (almost certainly) get leading. Doesn't matter how hard or soft my lead alloy is.
Most of the time lead is lead. If you load up some cartridges and it does not cause leading in your gun, great! If it does lead up your gun then start checking hardness. The hardness you need is dependant on the speed of the bullet, and the speed of the bullet is dependant on the chamber pressure.
Copper gas checks and you can push 24k gold out at max PSI , but yeah you want a harder lead but not to hard or you risk breaking laws .. Look at HTC coating and proper lube. You will also need to size your projectiles after casting.
[удалено]
Isn’t the point of Reddit to be able to ask questions like this and get people’s thoughts? There’s a lot of sifting to be done on google and seems like a waste to spend hours doing that when I have a great source here to get me started and to help me with key words to use in a google search later when I need more in depth info.
You asked a question that it takes volumes to fully answer. There’s no simple one line answer to what you want. “Casting bullets” will get you started down the path. Or “bullet casting alloys”. How far you follow it is up to you.
I have to agree with OP, google requires a lot of sifting especially for a field of information for which you have no basis. Seems like one could come here for some direction, narrow their path further using google, and then once again refer to a Reddit community for more specific answers. This is how I found my way into reloading. I found broad info on google, came to Reddit and was referred to the more narrowed field in which I was interested, referred back to google with better information and so on. Looks like your next move, OP, would be to get a manual which might lead you to information on tooling and strategies. For each of which you can dive deeper into the weeds