My dad and I like to target shoot.... a lot. We generally shoot a Ruger GP100 with .38 wad-cutters in it, but we also sight in other guns. And since we already reload most of what we shoot, we decided to go ahead and cast our own wad-cutters.
We started out by getting a bucket of old wheel weights from a friend who owns a tire shop close by. Then we melted them down and cleaned out the dirt from them. That was kind of cool, because the lead looks like water. It's so thin you can move the ladle through it like water, literally. Also, the little aluminum clips will float in the lead once it melts. Then we poured the clean lead into an old muffin pan, making perfect muffin sized ingots. These muffins probably don't taste so good though....
Once they cool, we stack them up and use them as we need them. When we start getting low, we grab a few ingots and melt them down. Then we get a lead ladle, and clean out any more impurities we find. Then we pour the hot lead into a wad-cutter mold. It takes a few tries to get the mold warm, bu
t then we get perfect bullets almost every time. The first couple have gaps or don't even fill up all the way. But after that it runs very smoothly. In a short time, we made enough bullets for a year or two. I really like making our own bullets, because at that point it's less than a few cents a shot. It's actually cheaper than shooting a .22!Casting bullets can be very complex, we just keep it simple and cheap since we're only using them for shooting practice.
Just be careful. The lead is hot and will burn you. Wear glasses to protect your eyes and long
gloves to protect your hands and make sure you do this with your dad or another adult.
www.danahersoutdoors.com
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