Going to get a Lee REAL .50 cal bullet mold to try them in my ML rifle.

Never casted any bullets before. Gonna use wheel-weights.

What else do I minimumly have to have to begin?

Or...can you buy those anywhere???

A pot with a heat source to melt the lead and a dipper to pour lead into the mould and something to use as flux (wax is good). You can melt over a propane or camp stove and use a bent spoon to get started though you'll soon want better. To use wheel weights you'll have to melt them, remove the clips, zinc weights, valve stems, and gum wrappers, and flux, flux, flux before you get a clean enough melt to make bullets. Wheel weight alloy is usually a bit harder than desirable for muzzle loading bullets but will work. Casting is not hard but it does take experience and perseverance to become good. The Lee moulds are good places to start as they are inexpensive and you are likely to ruin one or two in the learning curve. None-the-less you can cast good bullets with minimal equipment.

Jerry Liles

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:
Going to get a Lee REAL .50 cal bullet mold to try them in my ML rifle.

Never casted any bullets before. Gonna use wheel-weights.

What else do I minimumly have to have to begin?

Or...can you buy those anywhere???

Not trying to be mouthy
But Pure lead or Stick on wheel weights is what you should use
IMO Clip on WW are way to hard for a front stuffer

When I started
I would cast from a med sized stainless steel pot
Heated on either a single burner Colman stove or on a electric single burner from Walley World
I used a long handled spoon as my ladle

I think I picked up everything at the Salvation Army store for $2

It worked
Not the fastest , but I was poor and cheap

John

Thanks guys. How do you flux?

A common way to flux is with a pea sized bit of wax for 10 to 20lbs of melt. Put it on the hot melt and stir it in making certain to scrape the sides and bottom of the pot. If the melt is really hot the wax might ignite so be careful. This helps the crud and oxides (dross) come to the surface and reduces them to a black, granular substance that can be skimmed off. With reclaimed metal this may have to be repeated several times. The surface of the melt should be left bright shiny silver. Some people use sawdust, or oil, old bullet lube, or any one of several commercially available products.

When working my 20lb pot casting bullets for the Sharps one at a time I'll generally repeat the procedure after 20 to 30 bullets and after I add fresh metal to the melt. When reclaiming wheel weights in the 80lb pot I'll go through quite a bit of flux before I'm satisfied.

Jerry Liles

T Y Jerry!