Wheel weights I personally avoid. The problem is you do not know the amount of pure lead in the weight. One must consider the BHN (Brinell Hardness Numbers) of the lead when they take into consideration casting. Some people do use wheel weights but they they add a lot of pure lead to the mix. I want a soft lead conical for my target and hunting loads.

I bought 30 pounds of pure lead from MidWay USA. This is a real nice lead to work with. I also air cool all my casted conicals because if you water cool them it increases the BHN. I have posted a couple of links that explain all of this much better then I can.

As for the satisfaction of casting your own bullets, your right. It is a kick. Just today I was out in the back yard shooting off 380 grain LEE concials that I made. They shot fantastic out of my T/C .54 caliber Renegade and 70 grains of Pyrodex RS and wonderwad. We were shooting eggs at 30 yards off shooting sticks I made. I really enjoyed myself, and the trap behind my target catches all my lead which I will later recover and re-cast into more conicals.

Hope these sites help answer your questions....


http://www.sixguns.com/crew/castbullet.htm
http://www.sixgunner.com/backissues/taylor/hardness.htm