Doktor_Jeep
Member
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2008
- Messages
- 943
Alrighty lets talk about reloading.
Who here does it? How many guns owners actually do? What's going on here? Which one is better, Ginger or Maryanne?
Seriously there is much to say about reloading. I will get into prices at the end of this rant. But right now I can say that reloading is important for two things:
1)The tyrants have less control over you.
2)You can shoot more and be a better shot for when the tyrants have to be dealt with.
Let's face a hard, cold, raw fact:
Most gun owners suck.
How many times a year do they shoot? OK those of you who live in a state with millions of people in it and only 5 last names to go around might expend a brick of .22 a month and that's fine. But I am talking of the nation as a whole here. I think we can count on our hands how many times the average gun owner shoots per year(and if you live in one of those state you would) and not run out of digits.
I think one of the reasons for this is the price of ammo.
Nothing rubs my rubarb more, or burns my ass more than a 3' tall flame, than the fact that ammo is expensive, or was in the past, because there are think tanks, enemy think tanks, that know full well making ammo expensive is a measure of control they put in place to make sure their minions can outshoot the citizenry. I noted the past. Well thanks to the Bush family and their Carlisle group purchasing the major ammo sellers, and making ammo nearly double in price since the last 7 years, it's nothing other than deliberate: make our guns completely useless by making ammo too expensive.
Sure you can spend 8 bucks for your 20 rounds of ammo or perhaps 12 bucks for that fifty rounds of pistol ammo and feel like you got ammo and then 50 rounds later you are out of ammo. Meanwhile, their minions train with thousands of rounds per month, all paid for by you. Not directly. They print money to pay for all those jurisdictions and departments to train and while your dollar is devalued you get to spend nearly 4 bucks for a gallon of fuel and go broke paying utilities.
And in the end they have trained killbots who will deal you the instant smackdown and hang your fancy rifle on their "I love me" walls at home - the one with all the training certificates they get from all those tactical schools that we also pay for - and boast about that day they killed you. And every time the story is told you will be bigger and meaner. (That's and old hunter joke).
So lets look at some ammo prices, shall we?
I see that Lake City .223 is going for over $10 a box of 20. Wow I remember back when you could get that for $4.99 at outdoor world back in 2002. Surely there are old-timers who can chime in an even better price than that.
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/AMM223-46090-66.html
Wow - $380 for 600 rounds of SS109? Incredible!
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/AMM236-48295-66.html
Additional searching on that website shows nothing cheaper than $9 for a box of 20.
And Holy Cow! (Where is Phil Risuto when you need him?) Look at this price for a box of pistol ammo!
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/AMM540-3214-184.html
C'mon now.
We all know what this is about.
And another thing. Sometimes there are some tyrants, sitting in various positions of stolen power (any politician elected by the mindless sheep mislead by the media is not in power of anything), who want to tax ammo even more, or ban the sale of it, or require a serial number on every case, or pretty much name the idea that has gun control all over it.
Not reloading your own ammo, in this case, is like not having any food stored up. You leave yourself open to any tyrant who wants to get rid of you by starving you. And starving you to death or starving your guns go together, because a free market and competing currency will be the only things that can put food on the table. But those who would also take your guns will see to it that certain voting blocks are denied those means and left to starve while the compliant masses at least get to wait on a bread line.
So get with it. But here is a motivator.
I put in a link for 40 caliber because I reload my own .40 and I want to share the material costs of 50 rounds of my ammo.
Ready?
Approximately $3 per 50. Yes I am using cheaper powder.
Yes and I shoot somewhere between 500 and 800 rounds a month. My all-around pistol in .40 has roughly 12000 rounds in it and it's only 6 years old. I need not go into how many rifle rounds I reloaded and shot, but I have let the rifle ammo run through my fingers the way Ebenezer Scrooge relished in his coins.
Now those of you who blow half a paycheck for one trip to the range and thus shoot, what, once or twice a year, read up.
My $3 price on pistol ammo is actually a high number when I purchase the bullets. It's cheaper when I dig the lead out of the berms and remelt them and cast my own. And I pick the spent brass up at the range. So let's get with the math:
A box of 1000 primers I am told (I buy by the sleeve) is $21. And a pound of Bullseye pistol powder (those of you old school reloaders stop laughing) I think is up to around $17. I load 4.4 grains of powder in each round so 7000 grains (a pound) divided by 4.4 is enough for more than 1000 so leave it at that. So $21 + $17 (hold on I need my fingers) is $38 dollars PER THOUSAND. But wait what if I purchase the bullets? I have gotten 1000 rounds of cast bullets as cheap as $32 (though lead has gone up last time I checked) so that's $70 per THOUSAND fiat dollars.
Gee, that's cheap compared to this:
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/15944-15115-184.html what's that, 250?
Ok so with purchased bullets it's $3.50 a "box" of 50. But most of the time I cast my own bullets with lead I salvage from the range and melt down.
Now to be honest if I had to purchase my ammo off the shelf I would not be able to afford to shoot. I would shoot a few times a year like everyone else, probably bump-firing into a pile of dirt gaining ZERO skill from it with a big stupid "look at me I am getting ready to be squashed like a bug by a SWAT team and I am too stupid to know it" grin on my face.
Instead I shoot a lot and shoot accurately.
Now you might be thinking that you are ready to reload, and you should be not because you should want to but because you NEED to. This is not some f**king game. The enemy is quite serious about this stuff. They will print enough money to take away everything you have just so they can have all the armor piercing (your jacket, your car, your front door, the walls of your house, etc) ammo they need.
First I will say that the BEST reloading press is the progressive press. What is a progressive press? Well it has nothing to do with fabian socialism. A progressive press is the type of reloading press that does several things at once. Every time you pull the lever, like a slot machine, you are resizing and depriming one cartridge, putting powder into another, seating a bullet in a third, and putting a crimp in a fourth, and on the up stroke you seat a new primer into the one you just resized and deprimed. What is a primer? A primer is that little circle on the back of the cartridge (the end facing toward the back of the gun) that lights up the whole round. No primer no bang. And if push comes to shove, the white tip from a strike anywhere match will work to recharge a primer well enough. Take the little metal thing out, tap the dent out of the primer body, press the crushed match tip into it (carefully) and then carefully put the little metal thing, called an "anvil" back in and it can be pressed into a new cartridge. I have done this and tested it and it works.
Now there are single stage presses out there, and even hand held ones. I do not mention those first. My first press was an RCBS single stage press and it was given to me. If you want to reload hundreds of rounds at a time, don't go with a single stage. Single stage presses are perfect for reloading precision rifle rounds where you need to be consistent and accurate with each reload. But if you want to reload training ammo or pistol rounds, you need a progressive. On average I can reload 300 rounds an hour with a progressive press.
Now for some images and websites.
First, here is a web page for an RCBS "Rock Chucker" single stage press. Don't let the price scare you, seeing that the price of this kit is roughly one case of expensive ammo this thing will pay for itself in short time:
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=646599
Again, not for loading in quantity but perfect if you only shoot 100 or so rounds in a session and you like your rifle ammo to be perfect. If you are that accurate, spend the extra $$ on one of these:
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=713372&t=11082005
That is NOT the best digital scale out there. Some scales indicate when you breath near them, those are the best.
I used to reload pistol ammo by the hundreds with a single stage and honestly I do not look back on those days as good ones.
Now I will link to a cheap progressive press. Cheap but highly regarded. But most reloading dies are interchangeable - I mention this now because the dies are proprietary for this first press and that is one reason not to get it unless you intend for only one caliber.
Dies? Reloading dies are the actual things into which the cartridges go. They are mounted into reloading presses and are sized by caliber.
These are reloading dies:
http://www.dillonprecision.com/#/Reloading_Dies-8-4.html
Now let me show you a nice entry-level press that is cheap and well known for beginners:
It's the Dillon Square Deal B.
http://www.dillonprecision.com/#/content/p/9/pid/25237/catid/1/Dillon_Square_Deal___039_B__039_
This one differs in that the dies for it are specific and if you want to swap dies from the Rock Chucker or other types you can't do it with this one. I know some sport shooters who buy used Square Deal Bs and set them up for one caliber only and leave them like that. Some of them have nearly a dozen like that set up.
Now if you want to use the common threaded dies (they screw into the press body or "heads" - the thing that hold a die set) you need then to consider another press that I can speak for. The Dillon 550. I am not playing brand favorites here. I have been a competition shooter for years and they all reload their own, and I say that 80 percent of competition shooters use the 550. Sure there are other brands, like the Lee press (which is known to explode if you use the wrong brand of primers - i have one in pieces that was given to me and have yet to put it together), but this is a tried and proven press. Just go to a USPSA or IDPA match and ask anyone there who reloads and they will tell you that you should not go with anything less than the Dillon 550B.
http://www.dillonprecision.com/#/content/p/9/pid/23594/catid/1/RL_550B
You will note it "uses the standard 7/8 by 14 thread" . This means you do not have to use Dillon dies. You do need to buy the plate and pins with the powder charge insert for each caliber, but can use any brand dies with the standard thread. I use Lee dies on my Dillon.
Now there are better models than the RL550B on the Dillon website and honestly, they are overkill. I know some shooters who have the top of the line most expensive rig on there:
http://www.dillonprecision.com/#/content/p/9/pid/23877/catid/1/Super_1050
It's the Cadillac of Reloading presses but it's for the same shooter who likes to roll up to the range in a H2 or Mercedes. Get one if you can afford it but you can survive quite well with just the RL550B.
Now one last thing. What about casting your own bullets? Well if you are a raving right wing militia nut case like me and want to go collecting wheel weights, buying up SCUBA weights are garage sales, and digging used bullets out of a berm to melt back into bullets, then step right up and let me give you one of my uniforms and a shotgun to have one-side conversations with.
You need several things to cast yer own.
First I recommend a large iron pot and one of those outdoor cooker stands. You know the type: the metal stand for that large pot used for deep frying turkeys or outdoor crab boils. DO NOT use that nice metal pot you get with this kit! Put that aside and use the low heavy iron pot.
Yes you need propane.
What is this for? You need to take all that old lead and refine it. Especially old bullets and those that had jackets on them or are jacketed. They will be dirty too.
MAKE SURE OF THREE THINGS:
1 - EYE PROTECTION EYE PROTECTION EYE PROTECTION
2 - YOU DO NOT PUT A LIVE ROUND IN THIS POT
3 - YOU DO NOT PUT ANYTHING WET INTO THIS POT WHEN THE LEAD IS MELTED, OR BE OUT IN THE RAIN, OR PUT IN AN OLD JACKETED BULLET THAT HAD WATER IN IT.
When water hits that molten lead it nearly blows up and that 700 degree lead splattering all over you will leave millions of nice little pock marks. Without eye protection you will be permanently blind thereafter and you might end up on a blind date with me sometime in your life. You don't want that.
Also, sometimes the jacket of a bullet will pop off in the molten lead. I have been hit 3 times by these. So stand back and wear good clothes and NEVER let that thing tip over. Molten lead is no joke.
And finally, ventilation! Don't breath that stuff in. It's too late for me. I am old and stupid but some of you younguns still have a chance at a healthy happy life.
Now you need something else: wax!
Oh great after the prospect of getting burned, blinded, and dating me, now wax?
Yes. When you have a pot of melted, mixed, dirty lead, you should put wax in there. Candle wax will do. If you are high budget, then you can use flux but at this stage it's a waste of money.
For a large pot I say enough wax to fill a table spoon will do.
The wax, when thrown in will melt, smoke, and there might be a flame, but what it will really do is cause all the junk in the lead, the jackets, dirt, small stones, and other stuff, to float to the surface. There you can skim this stuff off carefully and put it aside.
What will be left is a nice pot of lead but there is one more thing.
You need to put in some tin.
Tin is what makes the lead harder. Now some of you might suggest some of that special alloy to put in that can be purchased at reloading suppliers. I say that is a waste of money for training ammo but if you are casting precision rifle rounds then go for it. What you have is a mix of lead and you need to put in some tin here for a harder round. Only the old muskets used pure lead ball but the higher pressure guns of today need a harder cast bullet.
How much to add? Well this is an art part. Because these are former bullets, mixed in with wheel weights that are also harder, and SCUBA weights which are pure lead, I add solder. Yes, Solder!. Solder is great because it has tin and flux in there too How much to add depends on how hard you want that bullet. You have to experiement. If you are starting out with a pot of pure lead you might have to put the whole role of solder in there (electronic or plumbers brazing solder, makes no difference).
Now having done this, cast your lead into an ingot mold. Like these:
http://www.midwayusa.com/ebrowse.exe/browse?TabID=2&Categoryid=10487&categorystring=685***8657***
I am so low budget on this I used small metal ice trays, the one piece kind, but use an ingot mold - don't be like me.
Now what do you do with ingots of lead? Put them in a trebuchet and attack your state capitol.
Seriously, they are easy to handle for when you are ready to actually cast bullets. The proper thing to use for bullet casting is a melting pot, they have a nice spigot on them and controllable tempurature (unlike the propane refining setup).
http://www.midwayusa.com/esearch.exe/search?search_keywords=furnace&category_selector=all_products
Why is something with tempurature control important? Because to cast bullets with efficiency you need to constant tempurature of the lead and the mold.
Molds? We making jello?
No, bullet mold. Here are a few.
http://www.midwayusa.com/ebrowse.ex...ryid=9255&categorystring=685***8657***9247***
As you can see there are many sizes, weights, and shapes. Pick the kind of shape your guns likes (some cannot handle semi-wadcutters) and a weight you like to shoot.
Bullet molds are easy to use. The plate on the top is the sprue plate. You put it over the mold cavity, pour the lead in, and it hardens in seconds (if the lead or the mold or both are not too hot, hence the temp control on the pot). Then you whack the plate and open the mold and dump the bullets out.
You should use a large open bin to drop the bullets into (NOT A WATER BUCKET). Put a wet (damp) towel in the bin to break the fall of the bullets. You wet it so it does not catch fire. Those bullets will give you a third degree burn.
Here is a note. When I smack the sprue plate, I do it over another container to catch the lead. I can then put those "cuttings" back into the melting pot when the pile up.
Now the bullets may or may not need an additional step. This depends on the kind of mold. Some molds are special types that do not require the resizing of the bullet. You just put bullet lube on them and you are ready to go.
But the other type requires resizing. Here is where a single stage press is handy to have around because the resizing die is threaded in like a reloading die:
http://www.leeprecision.com/html/catalog/lubesize.html
This one is shown with a Lee single stage press. The press is not sold with this die.
Now there is a lot of option with sizing but I like to put the Lee Liquid Allox on the bullets after I cast them when the bullets are still warm, then wait until next day to resize them. The cured lube is worked into the sealing grooves during resizing and then a light coat of more lube does the trick. The lube helps seal the barrel and cuts down on smoking when in use, also reducing lead fouling of the barrel.
That is pretty much it for now. I hope some of you old schoolers help out in this thread and pick up where I left off or went wrong.
There are courses out there for reloading and many instructors and gun shops are happy to offer classes. If you go to a gun club to shoot you can find someone to teach you. Reloaders know that you save a kings ransom in costs, and are not a subject to the tyrants. Many want to see more reloaders out there because that means more ammo for the liberty teeth, more reloading presses, and more free people.
If anyone is in Western Washington and would like some training, let me know and I will be happy to demonstrate everything explained in this post.
Who here does it? How many guns owners actually do? What's going on here? Which one is better, Ginger or Maryanne?
Seriously there is much to say about reloading. I will get into prices at the end of this rant. But right now I can say that reloading is important for two things:
1)The tyrants have less control over you.
2)You can shoot more and be a better shot for when the tyrants have to be dealt with.
Let's face a hard, cold, raw fact:
Most gun owners suck.
How many times a year do they shoot? OK those of you who live in a state with millions of people in it and only 5 last names to go around might expend a brick of .22 a month and that's fine. But I am talking of the nation as a whole here. I think we can count on our hands how many times the average gun owner shoots per year(and if you live in one of those state you would) and not run out of digits.
I think one of the reasons for this is the price of ammo.
Nothing rubs my rubarb more, or burns my ass more than a 3' tall flame, than the fact that ammo is expensive, or was in the past, because there are think tanks, enemy think tanks, that know full well making ammo expensive is a measure of control they put in place to make sure their minions can outshoot the citizenry. I noted the past. Well thanks to the Bush family and their Carlisle group purchasing the major ammo sellers, and making ammo nearly double in price since the last 7 years, it's nothing other than deliberate: make our guns completely useless by making ammo too expensive.
Sure you can spend 8 bucks for your 20 rounds of ammo or perhaps 12 bucks for that fifty rounds of pistol ammo and feel like you got ammo and then 50 rounds later you are out of ammo. Meanwhile, their minions train with thousands of rounds per month, all paid for by you. Not directly. They print money to pay for all those jurisdictions and departments to train and while your dollar is devalued you get to spend nearly 4 bucks for a gallon of fuel and go broke paying utilities.
And in the end they have trained killbots who will deal you the instant smackdown and hang your fancy rifle on their "I love me" walls at home - the one with all the training certificates they get from all those tactical schools that we also pay for - and boast about that day they killed you. And every time the story is told you will be bigger and meaner. (That's and old hunter joke).
So lets look at some ammo prices, shall we?
I see that Lake City .223 is going for over $10 a box of 20. Wow I remember back when you could get that for $4.99 at outdoor world back in 2002. Surely there are old-timers who can chime in an even better price than that.
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/AMM223-46090-66.html
Wow - $380 for 600 rounds of SS109? Incredible!
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/AMM236-48295-66.html
Additional searching on that website shows nothing cheaper than $9 for a box of 20.
And Holy Cow! (Where is Phil Risuto when you need him?) Look at this price for a box of pistol ammo!
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/AMM540-3214-184.html
C'mon now.
We all know what this is about.
And another thing. Sometimes there are some tyrants, sitting in various positions of stolen power (any politician elected by the mindless sheep mislead by the media is not in power of anything), who want to tax ammo even more, or ban the sale of it, or require a serial number on every case, or pretty much name the idea that has gun control all over it.
Not reloading your own ammo, in this case, is like not having any food stored up. You leave yourself open to any tyrant who wants to get rid of you by starving you. And starving you to death or starving your guns go together, because a free market and competing currency will be the only things that can put food on the table. But those who would also take your guns will see to it that certain voting blocks are denied those means and left to starve while the compliant masses at least get to wait on a bread line.
So get with it. But here is a motivator.
I put in a link for 40 caliber because I reload my own .40 and I want to share the material costs of 50 rounds of my ammo.
Ready?
Approximately $3 per 50. Yes I am using cheaper powder.
Yes and I shoot somewhere between 500 and 800 rounds a month. My all-around pistol in .40 has roughly 12000 rounds in it and it's only 6 years old. I need not go into how many rifle rounds I reloaded and shot, but I have let the rifle ammo run through my fingers the way Ebenezer Scrooge relished in his coins.
Now those of you who blow half a paycheck for one trip to the range and thus shoot, what, once or twice a year, read up.
My $3 price on pistol ammo is actually a high number when I purchase the bullets. It's cheaper when I dig the lead out of the berms and remelt them and cast my own. And I pick the spent brass up at the range. So let's get with the math:
A box of 1000 primers I am told (I buy by the sleeve) is $21. And a pound of Bullseye pistol powder (those of you old school reloaders stop laughing) I think is up to around $17. I load 4.4 grains of powder in each round so 7000 grains (a pound) divided by 4.4 is enough for more than 1000 so leave it at that. So $21 + $17 (hold on I need my fingers) is $38 dollars PER THOUSAND. But wait what if I purchase the bullets? I have gotten 1000 rounds of cast bullets as cheap as $32 (though lead has gone up last time I checked) so that's $70 per THOUSAND fiat dollars.
Gee, that's cheap compared to this:
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/15944-15115-184.html what's that, 250?
Ok so with purchased bullets it's $3.50 a "box" of 50. But most of the time I cast my own bullets with lead I salvage from the range and melt down.
Now to be honest if I had to purchase my ammo off the shelf I would not be able to afford to shoot. I would shoot a few times a year like everyone else, probably bump-firing into a pile of dirt gaining ZERO skill from it with a big stupid "look at me I am getting ready to be squashed like a bug by a SWAT team and I am too stupid to know it" grin on my face.
Instead I shoot a lot and shoot accurately.
Now you might be thinking that you are ready to reload, and you should be not because you should want to but because you NEED to. This is not some f**king game. The enemy is quite serious about this stuff. They will print enough money to take away everything you have just so they can have all the armor piercing (your jacket, your car, your front door, the walls of your house, etc) ammo they need.
First I will say that the BEST reloading press is the progressive press. What is a progressive press? Well it has nothing to do with fabian socialism. A progressive press is the type of reloading press that does several things at once. Every time you pull the lever, like a slot machine, you are resizing and depriming one cartridge, putting powder into another, seating a bullet in a third, and putting a crimp in a fourth, and on the up stroke you seat a new primer into the one you just resized and deprimed. What is a primer? A primer is that little circle on the back of the cartridge (the end facing toward the back of the gun) that lights up the whole round. No primer no bang. And if push comes to shove, the white tip from a strike anywhere match will work to recharge a primer well enough. Take the little metal thing out, tap the dent out of the primer body, press the crushed match tip into it (carefully) and then carefully put the little metal thing, called an "anvil" back in and it can be pressed into a new cartridge. I have done this and tested it and it works.
Now there are single stage presses out there, and even hand held ones. I do not mention those first. My first press was an RCBS single stage press and it was given to me. If you want to reload hundreds of rounds at a time, don't go with a single stage. Single stage presses are perfect for reloading precision rifle rounds where you need to be consistent and accurate with each reload. But if you want to reload training ammo or pistol rounds, you need a progressive. On average I can reload 300 rounds an hour with a progressive press.
Now for some images and websites.
First, here is a web page for an RCBS "Rock Chucker" single stage press. Don't let the price scare you, seeing that the price of this kit is roughly one case of expensive ammo this thing will pay for itself in short time:
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=646599
Again, not for loading in quantity but perfect if you only shoot 100 or so rounds in a session and you like your rifle ammo to be perfect. If you are that accurate, spend the extra $$ on one of these:
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=713372&t=11082005
That is NOT the best digital scale out there. Some scales indicate when you breath near them, those are the best.
I used to reload pistol ammo by the hundreds with a single stage and honestly I do not look back on those days as good ones.
Now I will link to a cheap progressive press. Cheap but highly regarded. But most reloading dies are interchangeable - I mention this now because the dies are proprietary for this first press and that is one reason not to get it unless you intend for only one caliber.
Dies? Reloading dies are the actual things into which the cartridges go. They are mounted into reloading presses and are sized by caliber.
These are reloading dies:
http://www.dillonprecision.com/#/Reloading_Dies-8-4.html
Now let me show you a nice entry-level press that is cheap and well known for beginners:
It's the Dillon Square Deal B.
http://www.dillonprecision.com/#/content/p/9/pid/25237/catid/1/Dillon_Square_Deal___039_B__039_
This one differs in that the dies for it are specific and if you want to swap dies from the Rock Chucker or other types you can't do it with this one. I know some sport shooters who buy used Square Deal Bs and set them up for one caliber only and leave them like that. Some of them have nearly a dozen like that set up.
Now if you want to use the common threaded dies (they screw into the press body or "heads" - the thing that hold a die set) you need then to consider another press that I can speak for. The Dillon 550. I am not playing brand favorites here. I have been a competition shooter for years and they all reload their own, and I say that 80 percent of competition shooters use the 550. Sure there are other brands, like the Lee press (which is known to explode if you use the wrong brand of primers - i have one in pieces that was given to me and have yet to put it together), but this is a tried and proven press. Just go to a USPSA or IDPA match and ask anyone there who reloads and they will tell you that you should not go with anything less than the Dillon 550B.
http://www.dillonprecision.com/#/content/p/9/pid/23594/catid/1/RL_550B
You will note it "uses the standard 7/8 by 14 thread" . This means you do not have to use Dillon dies. You do need to buy the plate and pins with the powder charge insert for each caliber, but can use any brand dies with the standard thread. I use Lee dies on my Dillon.
Now there are better models than the RL550B on the Dillon website and honestly, they are overkill. I know some shooters who have the top of the line most expensive rig on there:
http://www.dillonprecision.com/#/content/p/9/pid/23877/catid/1/Super_1050
It's the Cadillac of Reloading presses but it's for the same shooter who likes to roll up to the range in a H2 or Mercedes. Get one if you can afford it but you can survive quite well with just the RL550B.
Now one last thing. What about casting your own bullets? Well if you are a raving right wing militia nut case like me and want to go collecting wheel weights, buying up SCUBA weights are garage sales, and digging used bullets out of a berm to melt back into bullets, then step right up and let me give you one of my uniforms and a shotgun to have one-side conversations with.
You need several things to cast yer own.
First I recommend a large iron pot and one of those outdoor cooker stands. You know the type: the metal stand for that large pot used for deep frying turkeys or outdoor crab boils. DO NOT use that nice metal pot you get with this kit! Put that aside and use the low heavy iron pot.
Yes you need propane.
What is this for? You need to take all that old lead and refine it. Especially old bullets and those that had jackets on them or are jacketed. They will be dirty too.
MAKE SURE OF THREE THINGS:
1 - EYE PROTECTION EYE PROTECTION EYE PROTECTION
2 - YOU DO NOT PUT A LIVE ROUND IN THIS POT
3 - YOU DO NOT PUT ANYTHING WET INTO THIS POT WHEN THE LEAD IS MELTED, OR BE OUT IN THE RAIN, OR PUT IN AN OLD JACKETED BULLET THAT HAD WATER IN IT.
When water hits that molten lead it nearly blows up and that 700 degree lead splattering all over you will leave millions of nice little pock marks. Without eye protection you will be permanently blind thereafter and you might end up on a blind date with me sometime in your life. You don't want that.
Also, sometimes the jacket of a bullet will pop off in the molten lead. I have been hit 3 times by these. So stand back and wear good clothes and NEVER let that thing tip over. Molten lead is no joke.
And finally, ventilation! Don't breath that stuff in. It's too late for me. I am old and stupid but some of you younguns still have a chance at a healthy happy life.
Now you need something else: wax!
Oh great after the prospect of getting burned, blinded, and dating me, now wax?
Yes. When you have a pot of melted, mixed, dirty lead, you should put wax in there. Candle wax will do. If you are high budget, then you can use flux but at this stage it's a waste of money.
For a large pot I say enough wax to fill a table spoon will do.
The wax, when thrown in will melt, smoke, and there might be a flame, but what it will really do is cause all the junk in the lead, the jackets, dirt, small stones, and other stuff, to float to the surface. There you can skim this stuff off carefully and put it aside.
What will be left is a nice pot of lead but there is one more thing.
You need to put in some tin.
Tin is what makes the lead harder. Now some of you might suggest some of that special alloy to put in that can be purchased at reloading suppliers. I say that is a waste of money for training ammo but if you are casting precision rifle rounds then go for it. What you have is a mix of lead and you need to put in some tin here for a harder round. Only the old muskets used pure lead ball but the higher pressure guns of today need a harder cast bullet.
How much to add? Well this is an art part. Because these are former bullets, mixed in with wheel weights that are also harder, and SCUBA weights which are pure lead, I add solder. Yes, Solder!. Solder is great because it has tin and flux in there too How much to add depends on how hard you want that bullet. You have to experiement. If you are starting out with a pot of pure lead you might have to put the whole role of solder in there (electronic or plumbers brazing solder, makes no difference).
Now having done this, cast your lead into an ingot mold. Like these:
http://www.midwayusa.com/ebrowse.exe/browse?TabID=2&Categoryid=10487&categorystring=685***8657***
I am so low budget on this I used small metal ice trays, the one piece kind, but use an ingot mold - don't be like me.
Now what do you do with ingots of lead? Put them in a trebuchet and attack your state capitol.
Seriously, they are easy to handle for when you are ready to actually cast bullets. The proper thing to use for bullet casting is a melting pot, they have a nice spigot on them and controllable tempurature (unlike the propane refining setup).
http://www.midwayusa.com/esearch.exe/search?search_keywords=furnace&category_selector=all_products
Why is something with tempurature control important? Because to cast bullets with efficiency you need to constant tempurature of the lead and the mold.
Molds? We making jello?
No, bullet mold. Here are a few.
http://www.midwayusa.com/ebrowse.ex...ryid=9255&categorystring=685***8657***9247***
As you can see there are many sizes, weights, and shapes. Pick the kind of shape your guns likes (some cannot handle semi-wadcutters) and a weight you like to shoot.
Bullet molds are easy to use. The plate on the top is the sprue plate. You put it over the mold cavity, pour the lead in, and it hardens in seconds (if the lead or the mold or both are not too hot, hence the temp control on the pot). Then you whack the plate and open the mold and dump the bullets out.
You should use a large open bin to drop the bullets into (NOT A WATER BUCKET). Put a wet (damp) towel in the bin to break the fall of the bullets. You wet it so it does not catch fire. Those bullets will give you a third degree burn.
Here is a note. When I smack the sprue plate, I do it over another container to catch the lead. I can then put those "cuttings" back into the melting pot when the pile up.
Now the bullets may or may not need an additional step. This depends on the kind of mold. Some molds are special types that do not require the resizing of the bullet. You just put bullet lube on them and you are ready to go.
But the other type requires resizing. Here is where a single stage press is handy to have around because the resizing die is threaded in like a reloading die:
http://www.leeprecision.com/html/catalog/lubesize.html
This one is shown with a Lee single stage press. The press is not sold with this die.
Now there is a lot of option with sizing but I like to put the Lee Liquid Allox on the bullets after I cast them when the bullets are still warm, then wait until next day to resize them. The cured lube is worked into the sealing grooves during resizing and then a light coat of more lube does the trick. The lube helps seal the barrel and cuts down on smoking when in use, also reducing lead fouling of the barrel.
That is pretty much it for now. I hope some of you old schoolers help out in this thread and pick up where I left off or went wrong.
There are courses out there for reloading and many instructors and gun shops are happy to offer classes. If you go to a gun club to shoot you can find someone to teach you. Reloaders know that you save a kings ransom in costs, and are not a subject to the tyrants. Many want to see more reloaders out there because that means more ammo for the liberty teeth, more reloading presses, and more free people.
If anyone is in Western Washington and would like some training, let me know and I will be happy to demonstrate everything explained in this post.
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I don't reload yet but I plan to start getting set up soon.
