cost of casting bullets

[WeagleMCvet]

If anyone cast their own bullets, do you have an average cost per bullet? I'm trying to decide if casting is something I want to get into to save money or if it's even worth getting into. I'd like to hear first hand experience and not the "I get my lead free" exceptions. Can't seem to find an actual cost per bullet anywhere

[Jonnin]

well of course if you get the lead free its going to be virtually free bullets.

 

FWIW buying pre-made cast LEAD bullets in bulk is "almost" the exact same price as buying *quality* lead ingots from a trusted source.   If you are willing to risk dirty, impure, hard, and generally aggravating lead sources,  that price can go lower for the lead blobs.  

 

But if you are paying for the lead, you are going to be saving just a few cents over buying cast bullets.    Cast bullets are a significant savings over copper plated though.  

 

I do not cast.  Ive done it, and I don't like it and the savings isn't there.  I learned how and put it aside.   But for reference I can get 500 9mm cast bullets for less than $40 to my door, and I think there are cheaper places but I have some loyalty because the place I use has some oddball calibers that I need.  That means that you would have to cast for less than 8 cents / bullet, which is very doable.   I saw a 1 pound pure lead ingot for 10 bucks.   That is 75 light 9mms.   That is ... 7.5 cents each and you have to sit there and DO the casting which is time consuming.   I saw a 25 pound bag of lead shot (shotgun pellets??)  for $2/pound.   But I don't know if that stuff is usable or if it has some weird coating or whatever??? 

 

So if you want to save "real" money you need to find someone selling scrap lead (old boat ballast or plumbing or whatever) so you can get 100 pounds or something for a few bucks and then you have to purify it yourself which is aggravating.  You could potentially do it for less than 4 cents / bullet or less if you really worked hard on the economics of it.  All I can tell you is try to find some lead for sale, convert the # pounds to grains,  divide that by bullet weight, figure out how many rounds it makes @ the cost and see for yourself.

Edited March 30, 2016 by Jonnin

[Dolomite_supafly]

Casting is not about cost for me. It is about always being able to shoot regardless of what the market does.

Another is it is a skill that can come in handy. I swap Bullets and molds around so we can try out a bullet before buying.

But if there is one thing I can say it is this. No matter what you do you will never save any money but what you get to do is shoot more.

[Sidecarist]

Where are you getting your cast bullets?

[RED333]

Well, to be honest it take a good investment to get started. I have over 30 molds,

little 25 ACP up to 12ga slug. I do not think about how much I have spent on molds.

If you take care of a mold it will a few life times. A good mold will cost from 40 to well over 100 dollars.

Save money, NO, just get to shoot more.

[Omega]

Saving money by casting is the same as saving money by reloading.  You can go cheap, such as using a homemade lead melting setup and use a laddle to pour your molds to start, Lee molds etc but soon you will be looking to upgrade.  Then you will need to get something to size and lube your bullets, collect or purchase lead which can be anywhere from $1 to $2.50 lb for wheel weight ingots.  So short answer is no, not much savings but you will shoot more, learn a skill and as Dolo said, you can shoot no matter what the market does.

[Preacher357]

Where are you getting your cast bullets?

I have been buying my cast bullets from http://monmouthreloading.com/.  They have some of the best prices I have seen and they are 18 on the Brinell scale so you can use them in magnum loads without any issues.  

[Jct1911]

Got a couple I cast that are in the 1/2cent range. I've got we'll over $1k in molds though. Cost is only a partial factor, availability was the big one during the last drought of supplies. On average, I'd say each bullet w/o counting electricity, powdercoating, molds and time is in the actual $0.03 range. Savinsg are more prevalent on larger or odd calibers. 45acp, 300blk subssonic, 50beowulf really save over plated or jacketed.
If times get tough I keep a stockpile of factory bullets. Edited March 30, 2016 by Jct1911

[mikegideon]

Casting is not about cost for me. It is about always being able to shoot regardless of what the market does.

Another is it is a skill that can come in handy. I swap Bullets and molds around so we can try out a bullet before buying.

But if there is one thing I can say it is this. No matter what you do you will never save any money but what you get to do is shoot more.

 

Same deal as reloading in general. The skills and the tools give you lots of freedom to deal with ammo shortages and other unpredictable things. I don't cast, but only because I haven't got to it yet. I will ALWAYS be able to sling lead because I can make up my own ammo. Casting needs to be part of it eventually. Got nothing to do with cost

[nightrunner]

I know Caster will be here shortly to comment.

I don't cast but I have read up on it. You could compare cast bullets to loaded cartridges. You can reload yourself and same a little money but it's more about being independent of the market which is unstable at best. Also you can make loads that can't be bought on the market. Same with cast bullets, you might save a little, but as long as you could get ahold of some lead somewhere, you could make bullets. There are some bullet styles that aren't even made if you want something specific. Heck there are bullet molds that aren't made anymore, such as some Lyman molds and others.

It's something I want to get into eventually simply for the knowledge and independence.

You can make blackpowder if it comes down to it, but I'm unaware of a way to make primers.

Edit: mike said basically the same thing as I was typing this, oh well. Edited March 30, 2016 by nightrunner

[Sunfish]

There is the size thing, the lube thing, gas checks if your going to push them fast in a rifle. You'll need a melter, and a lubrisizer a host of patience and forget what you know about loading jacketed stuff because this is a whole new world. Lead bullets are a lot like making moonshine whiskey. You can make some very good stuff but it's not cheap and there is a lot of work to be done. Sunfish    

[Jonnin]

I know Caster will be here shortly to comment.



You can make blackpowder if it comes down to it, but I'm unaware of a way to make primers.

Edit: mike said basically the same thing as I was typing this, oh well.

 

You can make crude priming compound in a variety of ways from strike anywhere matches to pure black powder (which ignites if struck hard, think old time toy cap guns) and a few other similar substances.   Making the metal cups might be tricky -- I do not know if used primers could be salvaged and reused a few times each or not.   I don't know if you could make a working cup with a 3-d printer or not.    My solution is that primers are just a few bucks per thousand.   If you shot once a day for meat a box would last 3 years ... stack them deep while you can?

 

You could also think outside the box.  We don't really need a primer.   A future home-made  gun could have a battery, a switch for a trigger,  and you heat up a lightbulb type wire where the firing pin used to be, melt thru a piece of tape and on the other side of the tape is your powder....

Edited March 30, 2016 by Jonnin

[Patton]

When I buy lead I generally pay no more than $2 a pound. So using paid for equipment belonging to friends I can produce 50 125 gr .358 bullets for no more than $2.

[Jamie Jackson]

Same deal as reloading in general. The skills and the tools give you lots of freedom to deal with ammo shortages and other unpredictable things. I don't cast, but only because I haven't got to it yet. I will ALWAYS be able to sling lead because I can make up my own ammo. Casting needs to be part of it eventually. Got nothing to do with cost

 

100% agree with this concept as voiced by Mikegideon, Dolomite and others.

 

Having the knowledge, skills and easily stored components gives you freedom for market constraints and supply demands...which have been totally unpredictable (at least irrational) the past several years. And being an election year? Well...more irrational behavior is coming our way.

 

Lead can be a challenge to find for free...but it is doable...and does take a lot of networking.

 

Components are the most broadly available and affordable currently than they have been for the past several years...and are easy to store for a seriously long time. (I'm still using some powder and primers I purchased in the early 1990"s...but continuing to purchase more components as I find good deals on them.)

 

I agree...save money? Not really....shoot a lot more and more affordably...Yep.

 

fwiw...even buying lead off of a site like Amazon would yield you 124 gr 9mm bullets at around $.04/each

http://www.amazon.com/Ingots-Reloading-Bullets-Casting-Sinkers/dp/B00DJUBVAQ

 

We (our group) cast and powder coat, this gives us exactly what we want and need, when we want and need it. That's a good feeling as we know we can keep shooting what may come down the pike.

 

:2cents:

Edited March 30, 2016 by prag

[Omega]

I pay no more than about $1 a lb for lead, many on the Castboolits site sell it off and on and there are steady supplies at or around that price, here is one for about $1.07 a lb for range lead: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?303176-range-lead-for-sale

 

I have also found locals selling lead from boat keels, got free lead from tire shops etc, so scrounging can definitely bring some of the costs down.  The most expensive thing this and reloading takes is time, you have to commit yourself to learning all the ins and outs of casting and reloading for cast or you will just frustrate the living snot out of yourself, or worse injure yourself.

 

But what I like is that I can experiment with different weights, shapes and coatings to see exactly what my guns like, and most of the equipment has resale value if you decide its just not for you.

 

[Ray Z]

Casting is not about cost for me. It is about always being able to shoot regardless of what the market does.

Another is it is a skill that can come in handy. I swap Bullets and molds around so we can try out a bullet before buying.

But if there is one thing I can say it is this. No matter what you do you will never save any money but what you get to do is shoot more.

Yeaah, what he said! I don't like to buy cast bullets. They are usually a lot softer than mine and the hard lube the pros use is crap. Between the NRA formula lube and the hard lead formula that I use, my guns never lead. They shoot a little smokey, but that's the lube.

 

I get my lead from tire dealers. Sometimes I've got to beg a little, but I get what I need most of the time. I've got a plumbers pot for melting the dirty lead down, " left over from the olden days when they used soil line and leaded the joints".

 

 Getting started in casting is expensive. But if there is a bullet shortage, it's because you haven't been casting lately.

 

Hunting with cast bullets is not something I'd do. Expansion is very unpredictable, but for target and plinking you can]t beat cast bullets.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Powder coating is the way to govfor rifle calibers. I have tested it and vrlocities were above 3,200 fps before i started to see leading problems.

[Caster]

If you're a bean counter, casting probably ain't for you.  It's NOT a frugal endeavor.  If you want more control over what you shoot...well, then it may be for you.

[Caster]

 

 

Hunting with cast bullets is not something I'd do. Expansion is very unpredictable, but for target and plinking you can]t beat cast bullets.

 

 

 

I could not disagree more.  I have MUCH more control over expansion with a cast bullet than any jacketed bullet and can do it at much lower velocities.  Cast bullet expansion can be easily controlled by alloy.  I can cast a hollow point from 50/50 wheel weights/soft lead and they will dang near splat on impact.  I cast a 230g bullet for my .358 Winchester with about a 70% meplat from a copper enriched babbit alloy that will barely deform when penetrating water jugs.  At 1880 FPS, it takes nearly a dozen to stop it.  

 

Not to derail the discussion but expansion is a silly over analyzed bunch of crap any way.  Much like energy transfer.  Simple fact...Holes kill stuff.  A large heavy bullet at modest velocities will out penetrate any lightweight speedster.  Add a healthy meplat to a tough alloy and a cast bullet can and often does out perform premium whizz bang jacketed gimmicks with boring regularity.  Two nice big holes spewing blood like a hot can of beer.  That's real world performance.  

 

 

 

If a cast bullet wasn't reliable to hunt with....there'd be Buffalo EVERYWHERE.  

Edited March 30, 2016 by Caster

[Hozzie]

I have two pots, about 5 molds for my most common calibers, and 200 lbs of good lead sitting and waiting for the day I need it.  I figured it was cheaper to buy a couple of years ago vs 15 years down the road when bullets may be harder to come by.  If I am honest, I hope I never have to cast, but I like to be prepared.