I'm wantng to start casting. So far I have some pure lead. I know I'll need a melter, molds, antimony, tin, a ladle, PPE, and a manual of some sort. Anything else? Any leads on metal or advice? All helpful posts are appreciated.

Get Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook. Rotometals is a good source for bullet metals.

http://www.rotometals.com/Bull...sting-Alloys-s/5.htm

castboolits.com is the place

Tell the guys at castboolits what you want to shoot.
Castboolits

Then go to the Los Angeles Silhouette Club site.

Los Angeles Silhouette Club cast bullets information

There are an infinite number of metal alloys but there are only about 5 basic ones that you can approximate. Many people can get by with only one or two alloys.

The 5 alloys are

1. linotype
2. Lyman #2
3. Hard Ball
4. Wheel Weight
5. 20 parts lead to 1 part tin.

Thanks for all the replies, everyone. I just joined cast boolits and I bougt the Lyman #4 Cast Bullets Handbook. In the process of readng the front matter of it for the first of at least three times before I melt any metal. I still welcome all advice.

There are a LOT of simple tools you can pick up here and there from the Dollar type stores such as ladles, spoons, steel muffin pans, and small bread pans, that will help you along the way and are very inexpensive.

One thing I would recommend you getting is a good thermometer so that you can monitor your alloy both when smelting your raw lead into ingots and when your poring up your bullets. I have one that I picked up from NOE molds which is about as cheap as you will find price wise but is a very good unit. Lead Pot Thermometer

He is also one of the sponsors over on CB's as well and makes great molds to boot. Plenty of folks get by without using a thermometer, and thats fine. If you want things to be consistent they help you maintain your alloy temp where it pours the best, it helps you to keep the temp in your pot relatively the same from start to finish. Once you get started you will find that your bullets will be bigger, smaller, lighter, and heavier. This is one thing keeping the alloy temp consistent helps to level out. Once you have that under control the rest is up to you and the mold temp. I always try and start with the temp as low as I can keep it while still pouring nice bullets. If need be I can easy add in more heat, but I hate to have to cool molds, and wait longer than need be for the sprue to harden up before cutting.

For a smelting pot most use something like a cast iron dutch oven, other use any manner of steel or SS cook pots. To get into things just find something like a 3-5qt pot that is fairly well made. Steel or SS is best since you don't have to worry so much about things going weird on you right in the middle of a smelting operation if you get it too hot. A lot use cast iron dutch ovens they pick up at garage sales and such, and I do as well for my big smelting, but you need to make darned sure it doesn't have any cracks in it before you load it up with a hundred pounds of 700 degree lead. That ain't the time to find out it's defective.

A lot of folks use a small propane stove which works out great not only for smelting up small batches but also for pouring up bullets if your dipping. I use the Lee 4-20 for pouring and my big turkey cooker to heat up and smelt my alloy on. If you go the latter route make sure the frame is substantial enough to hold up plenty more than you feel you will ever smelt in one batch. Again 700+ degree alloy making surprise escapes from your pot isn't something you want to have to deal with.

Cowboy Dan, casting bullets is not rocket science, but there are more than a few that try to make it that way. Reading the Lyman manual is great in my opinion. Most of it makes sense. I disagree with them that you can take an unknown (wheelweights) and use that for 95% of your mix and add about 5% exacts and come up with an exact. Wheelweights with nothing added make great bullets. Many folks do refer to melting or remelting alloys as smelting. You wont actually be smelting anything. Smelting is the process of removing the lead from the ore and is a whole nuther ballgame. (Google smelting and you'll see what I mean.) If you go very large on your melting pot, it will be too heavy to handle and you'll need a large ladle to pour with. In my books, spend a few bucks and get an ingot mold and be done with it. You can use muffin pans for example, but in the long run, get an ingot mold--mines 50 or so years old and is as good as ever. You didn't tell us what you'll be casting nor what you'll be using them for. Verbal Smith does have a "book" Jacketed Performance With Cast Bullets. That doesn't really happen. Cast bullets wont expand like jacketed bullets so for hunting purposes you'll need a larger bore. You wont have a flat shooting smaller bore as you can have with jacketed. Get your feet wet, if you cast a bullet that doesn't appear right, remelt and try again. Let us know what you are casting.

Thanks for the further advice.

As far as calibers go, I'll be starting with .44 special and mag, 7.62x54mmR, and .30 Tokarev (7.62x25). Mostly for target practice/plinking. The .44 specials are for my ccw, so if I find a mold with a hollow point I would possibly use the same bullets for practice and carry. The .44 mags are for a levergun if that's relevant.

The thermo is a great idea. I learned the value of tempreture control homebrewing. I was planning on using the same turkey frier propane stove.which I use for brewing for casting and ingot making purposes. Should I have seperate pots for casting and wheel weight processing (I hear raw ones clog bottom pour furnaces)?

Cowboy Dan--Turkey Fryers are typically a thinner walled material than what you want to put a heavy bunch of lead in. Cast iron is much better choice. My melting pot is a small 10 pounder. It has the advantage that I can use a pair of pliers and lift it and pour. The disadvantage is that I have smaller batches. If you use a larger capacity it will be too heavy to lift and you'll need a large ladle. Melting wheel weights should be done outside, lots of smoke and fumes. A Coleman stove works great for this and they are fairly abundant at garage sales. Once melted and well fluxed and cast into ingots, you are ready for your casting pot. I much prefer a bottom pour, some think a casting ladle is more precise as the pressure on the lead remains more constant. I'll have several disagree with me, but that comes under the category of liquids being compressed. A small weight variation is actually a very small percentage of the bullet weight and I don't think you'd ever notice it when shooting. There may be some folks around that are precision shooters enough that they can say it made a difference. If so, I'd like to observe them shooting. For the most part, I'm not a fan of Lee products, but I think their melting pot is a good buy. They have reputation of dripping, but mine has not been too bad and it's several years old.

Carpetman, I understand your concern over using the turkey frier pot. It is flimsy and aluminium. I don't even use it for brewing. For that I have a stainless steel, resteraunt-grade stockpot. My plan was to use the frier's stove in conjunction with a dutch oven or some sort of stainless pot. Should I get 2 of these, or is it ok to use the same one for processing wheel weights and castng?

No problem using same one. I'd still consider a bottom pour electric furnace for casting.

I've been casting only a short time(8 years) so I am far from an expert. I got into casting since I was shooting more and more store bought cast bullets and fewer jacketed bullets through my handguns. I figured that I could save myself some money (wrong) by doing it myself and have fun in the process.

With that said I have found a wealth of knowledge from the castboolit forum as well as watching many youtube videos on various techniques. I have experimented with various types of techniques to make expanding (soft nose) hunting bullets for handguns and rifles.

A good source of finding lead is either buying from Rotometals or buying from a trusted source that recycles lead. Stay away from lead used in batteries. I have bought lead from a few vendors on castboolits and it has all been good stuff. For most of my shooting I use mostly plain wheel weights. They will cover the vast majority of your shooting needs. If you want them harder you can add some tin solder, drop them straight from your mold into ice cold water, and oven heat treating them. For softer alloy you could run 50% wheel weight to 50% pure lead. That will allow good velocity and will still expand and is a good alloy for use in hunting.

Palladin--What methods have you used for getting soft noses for expansion? How much expansion and what size game? To me the trick seems to be to use a large cal to begin with and expansion not needed. For me, I prefer to use jacketed bullets in smaller cals for hunting and have a flat shooter versus a rainbow trajectory. What signs do you look for to tell you you need a harder bullet? Bullet alloy cannot be tempered and the water cooling may harden the surface but it is not known how deep the hardness goes and at what period of time you measure the hardness makes a difference. As I stated I don't use cast for hunting, but I have culled a whole bunch of jackrabbits with .22 cal cast. They do a number and are good to about whatever range you can get a spotlight on the jack.

I haven't tried it yet but from some of the reading I have done, What ever bullet you are casting, Cast up a bunch in pure lead. Cut the nose off the bullet, just a head of the front driving band. Place these cut of noses back in the mold, fill with your regular alloy.
Now heat the mold on a hot plate or other heat source till the sprue melts This means that every thing in the mold has melted. Let cool.
The pure lead of the nose has no bonded with the harder base of the bullet with out mixing. You now have a soft point hard lead bullet.
This isn't very fast, so making a lot takes a lot of time but for hunting you won't need many. Just use regular bullets for load development then switch the soft points for hunting.
A similar method is to have two pots going, one pure lead the other hard alloy. Use a small dipper for the pure lead. Make one out of a 32 acp case.
Then quickly fill with the harder alloy. You may get some mixing of the alloys in the mold or voids between the two but they will still work.
Leo

I am also a newcomer to casting. The advice given above, covers it all. I would add that you might be looking for a mix/alloy of about 94/3/3 for hunting and adding pure lead to Lyman #2 will do it.
Also: Right now the USD is goes a long ways in Canada. You might google an industrial lead supplier in Eastern Canada for a 60-70 lb. ingot of pure lead and then get a few lbs. of Lyman #2 in the USA.
The Cast Boolet site is very helpful.
Many folks scrounge for lead. I don't. I think that's like straightening nails. Brian

I just checked the price for pure lead in Western Canada. The price for a 60 lb ingot of pure lead is 90 cents USD per lb. plus shipping. From Metalex Products in Vancouver BC Canada. Should be the same in Ontario. That is less than half of rotometals. It's due to your very strong US dollar, I guess.

Brian---Time was it was very simple to get wheel weights free. Even now, I can still do it, but I've not had need to do it in several years. I know one guy that took up casting in the last few years and his travels took him to many little mom and pop country stores, and he amassed a large supply of wheel weights in short order. I don't consider that bent nails at all.
You can go through all those gyrations for making a soft nose, but you are not going to duplicate a jacketed bullet. You can read by candlelight, but that wont be like an electric light. Basically you need a large bore to begin with and you wont need as much expansion. This is going to mean a heavy bullet and pretty much a rainbow trajectory and possibly heavy recoil. For the sake of saying I used a cast bullet to hunt with, I don't want to have the rainbow, the recoil and decrease my range. The range is no big deal as I don't do long range shots. I do want the animal to die right now and a low recoiling, bang flop flat shooting gun is to my liking. This is not to say that a big heavy bullet wont kill right now.