How many bullets can you crank out?

[lightman]

I never gave this much thought. Let me think for a minute;

1. I may spend a couple of hours sorting a 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights.
2. Maybe 2 or 3 hours to smelt. I smelt in batches of 300-400#. The time depends on how dirty the lead is.
3. With a 2 cavity mold, I may cast 8 bullets a minute.
4. I probably can size 10 or 12 bullets a minute on my Lyman sizer.
5. I probably can load 200-300 shells an hour on my Dillon at a sustained rate, and more than that on short runs.

I've never really timed any of this, except for smelting. Not really timing that, I just know about how much time I spend in the shop on those days. The sorting, smelting and casting time depends on the type of lead, (how dirty it is) type of bullet and the mold. The sizing and loading probably vary less. Like others have said, its a labor of love. If you count your time, don't do it! Like many others, I get a lot of satisfaction of seeing a nice bullet come from a pile of dirty lead and the journey from one to the other.

[robg]

I do it because I hate to rely on someone else & I like being one of very few who cast their own over this side of the pond

[osteodoc08]

It doesn't matter how long it takes me. I use it to relax and get away from the world for a bit. That is priceless and one of many reasons I enjoy this hobby.

If you're contemplating time vs money, you'll be better off buying in bulk and reloading on a progressive, of course if only shooting 100 a month, just get store bought. YMMV

[country gent]

The bullets I cast are ones I cant buy easily for by BPCR rifles. I cast for accurate and consistant bullets not speed normally. I ladle cast all of these too.

[runfiverun]

I run a small casting business for quite some time, speed and quality is a prime concern when doing this.
try filling an order of 5-k boolits [and get your other stuff ready to ship out too] you figure out speed pretty quickly.

a 4-6 cavity mold hand poured from a 40# pot is infinitely quicker than a hand operated master caster.
and punching boolits through a star will produce a pile of 500-1,000 in under an hour if you have your act together [use the tubes and boolit feeder]
20 tubes and 1-2 people filling them for you will really speed things up if your shoulder is up to the challenge.

speed in casting is just like speed in everything else, how fast you wanna go depends only on your wallet for the most part.

[mdi]

I never bought the tools to enjoy it, lol. There are very few productive things that I enjoy doing; not woodwork, fixing cars or body, building speakers, building computers, etc.. I do them for the product.

I think you may be missing out on a lot of fun (it's the journey that's important, not so much the destination). But, without the proper tools, any task can become a drudge/job and wears one down. If you are looking at cast bullet making, perhaps you make it more fun if you broke the task down into easily handled steps. Sometimes I smelt (just melt a bunch of lead together and skim off the junk. Other times I'll take m "remelted" chunks of lead and flux/clean real good and mebbe "fix" the alloy (add tin. linotype, etc.) and make ingots. Another time I'll cast up some bullets, but not so many it tires me out or becomes work. Then at another time I may attach gas checks and/or lube. Just enough at one time to keep it fun...

BTW; I have no idea what my BPH (bullets per hour) is, nor do I care. Im in it for fun and I have no quota.

[rancher1913]

for me as a newbe to casting my own, its not boolits per hour, rather more like hours per boolit.

[pjames32]

I guess my answer is "enough". Most of my casting is 2 or 4 cavity molds. If I have a pretty good pile after 2-3 hours I'm happy. I cast to relax and my casting and reloading is not so much "production" as it is enjoyment. I really got into casting and reloading in the 70's when shooting bullseye matches. I could not afford ammo and teamed up with 2 other guys to produce ammo. It worked, but it was work. Now my casting and reloading is for relaxation.
I do not save any money. I like buying equipment too much. It is a hobby that I really enjoy.
YMMV
PJ

[1911KY]

I don't ever do it all on the same day, I don't have that kind of time. A 50 lb melt will take me about 2-3 hours in total. I usually only cast for 2-3 hours and get on average 500 bullets or 14 lbs. Do you consider the time tracking down lead? That is the biggest pain.

I also powder coat so you have 10 minutes to coat and prep for baking per batch, 12 minutes to bake 70 or so bullets and then sizing them all.

All told to make 500 bullets ready to load I have about 8 or 9 hours invested. That is only about an hour or hour and a half of casting time.

[dragon813gt]

None, I lost everything in a tragic boating accident

[wistlepig1]

I agree, it's a hobby not a part time job. I do it for relaxation, not profit.

one +

[jsizemore]

I sort while I smelt but we'll figure it as a separate operation.

This is time per 200gr. boolit:

1/2 second to sort WW's
1 second to smelt
10 seconds to cast
3 seconds to size and lube

Out of pocket cost is 1.2cents/boolit. It does cost time/money to provide gas to smelt and Glen's fine lube. I stop at the scrapyard on the way to or from a job so no cost in it.

[C.F.Plinker]

It takes me about 3 hours of active work to cast, size, and lube 500 boolits. The going price around here is $50-$65 per 500. So my labor doing this is "worth" $15-$20 an hour. I've never worked anyplace where the boss would let me work extra whenever I wanted. This meant that I couldn't work a Saturday when I needed to get some boolits. So I fired up the pot and made whatever I needed and in the quantity I needed. Since I have the pot and molds I don't have to worry if the LGS will have the boolits I need in stock. Weather in the spring is nice enough that I could come home, put the sprues from the last session in the pot and turn it on. By the time dinner is done they have pretty much melted and I can top the pot off with ingots. When they are melted it takes just over an hour to cast up either 500 158 gr .38s or 400 185 gr .45s. The rest of the evening is free for other activities. I could build up a reasonable inventory doing this for a week or two. Store them in coffee cans and lube and size them as needed. That would last me a year, sometimes two.

The clubs I shot at or belonged to needed help cleaning out the traps. They said you could use the lead for your own use so long as you didn't sell either the lead or the boolits you cast. So for over 4 decades my only cost for boolits was the energy to melt the lead and the lube for them. My pot and molds paid for themselves many years ago.

Casting and loading are not work, they are just part of this hobby we all enjoy. By doing it yourself you help insure that you will be able to do it when you want because you are not dependent on the purveyors of ammo.

[shoot-n-lead]

As suggested, if you are looking at this from a production standpoint...you might have missed the point. Although, it is certainly more productive than watching tv or surfing the web.

[icor1031]

It takes me about 3 hours of active work to cast, size, and lube 500 boolits. The going price around here is $50-$65 per 500. So my labor doing this is "worth" $15-$20 an hour. I've never worked anyplace where the boss would let me work extra whenever I wanted.

I'd be able to do 80 hours a week, if I wanted to. (programming)

Thanks for the numbers, mate - and all other gents.

[fredj338]

Many that want to figure time into their cost, look at it a bit skewed. You always need to figure net hourly cost. If you make say $30/hr, your net hourly is closer to $21 after all the taxes. The other issues; casting is a hobby, you don't pay yourself to shoot. Alloy cost is a bigger component than time value IMO. If I have to pay more than $1/#, I am not casting my plinking bullets.
WIth a 6cav mold, I can do an honest 800/hr, my Magma caster, about 500/hr. Then it takes me another 40min to lube & size those 800, so if the alloy is free, that is 1000K bullets done in a little over 2hrs, 3hrs on the Magma. If the alloy is free, lets say they are 45acp, about $90/K worth or $45/hr net, $30/hr net on the Magma. That means to buy the same bullets I would need to make about $65/hr gross & I don't. If you are going to coat them, more time & a little more $$$. So it just depends. If you enjoy casting as I do, then it's worth your time, just like shooting. I don't really enjoy reloading anymore. I do it to make ammo to shoot & use a progressive to do it as fast as possible.
Smelting can be about 2hrs actual time for 60# of alloy. I don't count the time the pot is ehating up, I can do something else, nor the time to add more metal, again, I can do something else.

[Blammer]

I get about 10 boolits per hour for an hours work for the day.

I shoot about 2 rounds a day.

so far I'm ahead!

[GhostHawk]

For me it is not about how fast.

I don't have a progressive press, don't want one.

I don't cast in a hurry, warm up the pot, the mold, the dipper and in a couple of pours it is making good bullets.
I cast for as long as I feel like casting. Most days less than half an hour. Day or 4 later I will do it again with a different mold. Not every bullet I cast gets sized, but I have been leaning more and more that way.

It is a hobby, it is something to do with my hands. If I get 50 rounds of a given caliber loaded on a given day it was a good day. That is 50 rounds I don't have to buy, plus it keeps me at least somewhat independent.

Sitting on 20 some pounds of powder and some 7k of primers. Once I get my funds built up a bit I would like to put another 4-5k of primers into storage. I'm shortest now on small rifle but only shoot 1 (.223) I only have one that takes large pistol, .45acp, but I shoot it more than the .223.

I'm sitting on enough now that I don't feel like I need to cast or load on any given day to keep up.
I can be a little lazy and just replace what I shoot up. Although I maybe should do some .300 Blackout next, I'm shortest there with some 100 rounds loaded. Cutting brass, sizing it, trimming, repriming, casting, sizing, yeah, maybe next week.

[David2011]

About 8-9 years ago I looked at the time involved. As with reloading, I divide casting into 2 areas. One is necessity and the other is pleasure. I cast and load for USPSA because boolits have gotten expensive. At one time I quit casting for USPSA because I could buy 180 grain .40 cal boolits for $36.00/thousand. When they went up to $80/K I re-evaluated and started casting again. Some of the suppliers I used produced pretty nice boolits. Others were dark, ugly and strange and increased my velocity by about 100 fps.

None of the commercially made boolits look as good as my own. Most, however, shoot as well. Most USPSA shots are at 25 yards or closer and all shots are offhand in rapid succession so it's not benchrest shooting.

For other calibers I cast for fun. My favorites are .38, .44, .45 Colt and .45ACP.

From wheelweight to loading bench I figured about 6 hours for 1000 boolits in .40. THAT is a job.

Never gave it a second thought for other calibers. They're for fun and relaxation. I'm still using a small batch of straight linotype .44 Mag boolits that I cast and loaded about 6 years ago. They're only used in a Contender for hunting and a little practice so I may only shoot 20/year.

David

[wv109323]

I cast about 400 boolits today, mostly with a two cavity mold. A few with a 4 cavity. I cast for about an hour and 45 minutes. That does not include the time for the pot to melt the lead. I plugged it in and was busy with other chores til ready to cast. That time does include time to refill the pot with lead and wait til it came up to temp.
I can lube those in a Star in 30 minutes or so. With a 4 or greater cavity casting time can be reduced quite a lot.
I can average 200 cast and lubed boolits an hour with a 2 cavity and 3-400 with a 4 or 6 cavity mold.
I do have more time than money so I cast.