my cast bullet line up
 

left to right
.490 rb, .530 rb, .451 255 .459 405 (sizing to 451 and 454), Lee improved minie 45cal, Lee REAL 50cal 320gr

waiting for soft lead to come in to work the conicals they are made out of wheel weight lead just for the picture.

I like it. I'll be shooting factory bullets this coming year, but am thinking about casting my own after next season.

If I do, I'm thinking about about some .45/70 molds dropped into sabots.

Any suggestions/recommendations for someone getting started?

the orange mmp sabot, size them to 451 and use the black mmp or harvester sabot, size first to 454 then to 451 or 452

Very nice

Lyman has a nice .459-330gr hp mold too, Item #2650122. I may get a 2 cavity if they have them that way and have one cut to smooth sided.

saving up for an custom smooth side mold for sabots some one pointed me to.

those look real nice corey......karl

Nice looking bullets Corey. I have been casting my ML bullets for a few years now. It is and art and patience is a required necessity. That R.E.A.L bullet is one that I use in my Hawkens Carbine in .54 cal. It shoots very well and I use it for my practise rounds in this gun. I normally shoot a Barnes Expander sabot during hunting season.

Where are you getting your lead? I am constantly looking for wheel weights or scrap lead whenever I can. A friend of mine just did a job at a hospital and gave me a bunch of sheet lead from the Xray dept walls. It is very useful and pliable to work with.

Do you shoot at a range of some sort? You may be able to dig up and recycle lead bullets from berms. This lead would be fine, but you wouldn't be able to know the actual hardness though unless you have a tester.

Walk me thru how you did it.... Wheel weights from your local tire depot? Looks great.

I got an local tire shop I get all my tire, break, inspections, well pretty much every thing done out side of engine work done at. they sale me ww for .12/lb last time I bought.

I got to an state ran range. when I go i go very early and pull bullets out of the pistol range, an recycle from that. sorting the cast bullets out of it best I can.

as for an walk though on casting, really does not take much to start. I started with an two burner camping stove a small cast iron pot and stainless pans, lee ladle and cup cake tins for making ingots.

now, I have lee production IV melting pot without the bottom pour feature and an spout ladle.

an casting hand book is very handy

Looks like you are getting it done very well. Congratulations.

Just be careful. Casting is very very very addictive. But the best part is it is an addiction that allows you to feed another addiction for a super low cost.

Now quit fooling around with those sabots and size your bullet to your MZ and just shoot a straight conical. No need wasting money, and time with those sabots. Tom.

just waiting for some soft lead to come in and gotta make an call to guy locally that offered me some.

tested some 252 255gr down my 45cal, it may work out as conical. won't know until I get a test batch made in soft lead

Watch out for the Zinc weights now. My observation is that about 50% of the weights in my local tire store's scrap are now zinc. It takes only a very small amount of Zinc to wreck the castability of a LOT of Lead.

Some useful threads over on CastBoolits:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ad.php?t=85705

You will also find steel weights.

I know, i think I read every thread over on zinc cast boolits,

zinc is in one bucket, still and iron are in another waiting to go to the scrap yard when I have enough

Zinc and other metals are no big deal. All you need to do when you clean your WW is put everything in a big pot. And keep your temperature down. The Zinc as well as the clips and other metals will float to the top. Just skim it off, then pour your leftover lead into ingots. People make way too much out of Zinc. Don't waster yout time and take a chance of getting cut and handling all that filthy dirty WW. Just put it in the pot and skim off the stuff that floats to the top. Pretty simple. Keep it simple.

And you can shoot straight WW in your MZ in a conical. It doesn't hurt anything. Alot of people do not like it. But most of those guys do not size their bullets to the bore(or properly). As long as your bullet is properly sized the WW will work just fine. I challenge anyone to show evidence of WW not working properly. As long as it is sized properly. Tom.

I gotta get an 452 sizer from two latest slugs