bigpete wrote:I've got moulds for my black powder rifle but I only cast pure lead which I've been told is no good for loading into my 44. Plus the price of a mold is usually too expensive just to experiment with. I've also been told I need to buy a lube sizer as well to get the bullet diameters correct, so at the end of the day I'd rather just buy them when I need them
Did they give you any reason?
Lee moulds are $39 from Western Firearms.
I shoot pure lead in my 8x57mm Mauser with zero problems.
I don't size my bullets generally but I do have sizing dies for them, just never found any advantage. Pure lead swages down _very_ easily.
If you want to try casting without great expense, get a lead pouring ladle, a mold and a gas torch or camp stove.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Lyman-Lead-D ... Sw~OdVdtx9I poured many hundreds this way before getting an electric melting pot.
You can get 10kg of #8.5 Magnum shot for about $60 which is slightly harder than pure lead. Otherwise, Bunnings sells pure lead roof flashing, but it's more expensive than shot. I saw a deal on duck ammo quite recently that was even cheaper than buying just the shot.
If you get right into it Northern Smelters sells bullet casting lead
http://www.northernsmelters.com.au/prod ... l#leadshot