As we muzzle-loaders are notoriously tight-fisted, we
all eventually end up bullet casting. The economics are
simple - one hundred 577 minie bullets costs around
thirty pounds to buy, but the cost of pure virgin lead
to cast them comes in at around four pounds. The
economics are rather less simple if you're into
revolvers or single shot target pistols, but even so at
around eight pounds a hundred retail, casting provides a
worthwhile saving. Of course on a cold winter's evening
when you're all out of balls and the shoot's tomorrow it
somehow seems a little less worthwhile.
Materials
All bullets for muzzle loading pistol shooting are cast
from pure lead - the same being true for Minie bullets,
so where and how do you get the lead. The simplest
answer is to buy it from the
MLAGB. They sell it from Wedgenock at around one
pound a kilo. It used to come in ingot shaped sausages,
each ingot being a kilo, but last time I bought any it
came in much bigger chunks which required considerable
ingenuity to cut up!
So what are the economics? Well the table below shows
the best-case scenario including nothing for the costs
of the heat source, flux, equipment, labour or anything
else. Still, even with those taken into account it
indicates a considerable saving. Plus if your piece
requires a ball of non-commercial size then you're
trapped anyway!
