Centaur 1

The bullet caster is to shooting and hunting, as the fly tier is to fishing. The guy who works six days a week, and still has house chores and family obligations, If this guy wants to enjoy either hobby, he'll need to pick up ammunition or dry flies before heading out. On the other hand there's people like me, medically retired when I was 48 years old. I used to work between 48 and 60 hours a week, and now I'm 58 years old on Social Security. I still have my Palmer Hot Pot that I bought back around the early 1970's to make sinkers with. Well one day I was hanging out with a good friend who I worked with before I got injured, he also likes to shoot, but he was still working. I told him about making sinkers and that if I ever found a source for lead, I wouldn't mind attempting bullet casting. He told me "hold that thought, I'll be back in a couple minutes". A couple of minutes later his back yard gate opened and he wheeled a five gallon bucket of reclaimed bullets from an indoor pistol range. He said this should get you started, and if the hobby works out to see him for more lead. Those first bullets were nasty ugly, but shooting at the 7 yard line my groups weren't any worse than bulk factory ammo.

That was over 9 years and my bullets look like they should. I now have 2 Lee bottom pour pots and a couple dozen molds. As far as the original question, yes I have bought 3 rifles and 3 pistols just to shoot cast bullets, and even the guns that use jacketed bullets for hunting or self defense will see a diet of cast bullets throughout the year. It also helps that our gun club has a store for members to buy reloading supplies at their cost. I combine these low cost supplies with my cast bullets and I can make ammo for most standard handgun calibers for $35 per 1,000 rounds.