bullet casting 101?

[mapper]

I am about to go down this rabbit hole, and start casting. Mainly pistol, but like everything else, who knows where it will end up.
I have seen a few threads on it, such as this one http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=346199
Have the lyman load manual ( not the cast bullet manual) lee load book, abc's of reloading. That I'm going through.

I have seen a few diffrent methods, from electric melt furnaces to cast iron pots on turkey fryers.
Bullet lube, wax, sawdust, candles for flux, solder to add to tin content, air cooled vs water quenched, bullet lube/sizers vs sized and pan lubed, vs tumble lubed, vs powder coated.

My main question at this time is the furnace, and accessories required ( not counting lead, and molds) wooden dowel to break sprue plate loose, or wood/rawhide hammer, and temp guage.

I'm probabally going to ladle instead of use a bottom pour pot unless someone can convince me otherwise.
Smelting if done in a cast iron pot with propane stove.

Molds are a mix of old lyman, lee, and noe, some 2 cavity, some 4, some 6.
Is a ladle size big enough to pour a 6 cavity mold a valid concern?
Any suggestions for a temp guage, or if one is a necessity?

I haven't scoured castboolits dot com for some answers, but I'll head that way.

Any insights/advice would be helpful.

[AB]

Bottom pour for volume, ladle for higher quality is what I've heard from the gurus. I'd check out the books by John Taffin and read this:

http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_Foreword.htm

[seadog]

I have no experience with the ladle but with bottom pour. I did not know it wasn't as precise.

[mapper]

Found this, bottom pour vs ladle for long heavy bullets

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=566371

[seadog]

Found this, bottom pour vs ladle for long heavy bullets

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=566371

Cool,the more I know the better. Thanks for sharing.

[WinterSoldier]

Like everything else about hand loading, what best to do it with depends largely on EXACTLY what you are trying to do... I mean, are you going to make thousands of 115 gr. 9mm parabellum bullets, or just a few 500 gr. .45-70 cal. bullets... or, like me, are you going to cast anything and almost everything between 5.56mm and .75 cal. round ball? Are you loading for high velocity, medium/low velocity, smokeless powder or black powder. By and large the specific alloy needed varies by velocity. Say you are making 5.56mm bullets... You need some alloy on up there in hardness, like linotype... or maybe in some cases Lyman #2 is hard enough. For high velocity, you will also need gas checks and a bullet sizer or lubrisizer capable of installing them. For 9mm, wheel weights or recycled pistol bullet lead would be good. For a Land Pattern .75 cal. musket... you would use dead soft, pure or nearly pure lead. And, as likely as not your lubricant is also dependent on the kind of powder used, and velocity to be achieved. If you want to go the easy route, a lot can be done in smokeless with Lee bullet sizers and pan lubing with liquid allox. Or if you want the full monte, get a Lyman or RCCBS lubrizizer and lube your bullets "the old fashioned way" in the grease grooves while sizing them.

As to lead melting and pouing, I started with a 10 lb. Lee bottom pour pot but when it gave up the ghost after a number of years I went to a 20 lb. Lee bottom pour. The 20 lb. is a little easier to use... BUT... the main reasons to use it are (1) that it's pretty easy to get chunks of lead too big to fit into a 10 lb. pot. Then you have to melt them some other way and pour them into ingots. I always melt down and flux scrap lead and any lead I buy on eBay and make it into half pound ingots. The half pound ones are easier to handle but more importantly, using them to replenish the pot one at a time causes less of a fluctuation in the temperature of the pot. AND (2) If you are pouring big bullets (say 250 gr. - 500 gr.) , you can go through a 10 pound pot of lead in a big hurry. A conversion you need to always keep in mind is that one pound = 7,000 gr. Making 71 gr. .32 cal. pistol bullets you get 98 per pound of lead. Making 500 gr. bullets you run through a pound of lead with 14 bullets, IF you are religious about putting the sprue back in the pot. If you leave the sprue laying around, a pound would equal maybe only 10-12 bullets at 500 gr., depending on how much of a sprue you make. Sprue is your friend. Among other things it is a source for the bullet to suck molten lead in at its base as it begins to cool and shrink. Without a good sprue, you can end up with irregular sized and shaped void areas at the base of your bullets.

As to pouring bullets with a ladle... That's supposedly a better way to do it bullet quality-wise, but I'm just not THAT much of a perfectionist. Plus, I think it would put you more up in there in the heat... and I'm not big on getting any hotter than I have to. Maybe it this was South Dakota, or Michigan... but it ain't. This is FLORIDA!

The most important thing about casting bullets, is to get started and get some actual experience under your belt. You can read all of the books in the world and only half understand anything they say about bullet casting, till you try it... and screw up... and keep going till you figure out how not to screw up.

[WinterSoldier]

BTW: Most pistol bullets are about as easy as they come, just like straight walled pistol cartridges are the easiest to hand load. They aren't quite a "no brainer"... but close. Unless you are loading for black powder guns, wheel weight or Lyman #2... or recycled pistol bullet lead... is fine, and if you want the easiest and simplest and by far cheapest lube procedure, get Lee sizers and use Lee allox tumble lube. The ONLY "bad" pistol bullet I ever made that way was when I used wheel weight lead to make bullets for a Webley. It was too hard and left hundreds of lead splinters all up and down the bore. That wasn't a lube failure. It was an alloy failure. I've used Lee allox lube in all kinds of pistol calibers with no problem. I've got a Lyman and a RCBS lubrisizer and if you select the right lube for the application at hand they work fine too... but it takes a bunch more money to go that route. I eventually went to lubrisizing some rounds including some pistol rounds, because that is what you need for black powder cartridges.

[mapper]

As far as intended use,
(357)147 gr wadcutter, (357)158 semi wadcutter,(452) 200 semi wadcutter, (452) 230 rn, 123 gr 30 cal, and a 240-300 gr in 454-452 size.
Sizing lubing done in a star lubrisizer for the 38/45's
Push through sizer and tumble lube on the 30 cal,
Alloy probabally ww but it is what dad had used previously.

So to start nothing exceeding 38 spec 45 acp velocities.
Of course 9 mm would be next,


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