Greetings fellow casters. In general, us casters are a efficient, resourceful, imaginative, and thrifty lot, with a smidge of obsessive compulsiveness thrown in, in that we don't want to throw certain things away. Namely containers of any shape or size. We are also scroungers by nature, always on the prowl for free wheelweights, leadpipe, or other articles of lead that can be melted down, formed into the shape of our desire, and then forced down the barrel of our firearm of choice. Sound familiar ?

I'm always going thru the recycle bin in our house looking for containers.Large coffee cans are great for storing large quantities of cast bullets, as are small almond cans(these are particularly handy for gift sized cast bullets for friends. Yes, I give cast bullets to my non-casting, re-loading buddies. They love 'em.) Pill bottles are good for storing sizing dies, musket caps, or any other small items. Margarine tubs are usefull for holding powder, as we scoop it onto the balance beam pan, for weighing, and for holding our projectiles, just prior to seating. Plastic peanutbutter jars have the job of holding my sized and lubed bullets.


Discarded muffin tins can be used for making ingots from alloy. Old pots (cast iron, if you're lucky), can be used for melting your alloy. Old serving spoons can stir your molten alloy.

Discarded candle butts can be used for flux. Soda cans turned into muzleloader caps(see cap-o-tap, in Tech. notes).

The list can go on and on. As you can see, there are many alternatives to store bought equiptment and accessories. Sometimes, it's just plain fun to be cheap ! I believe it's the nature of reloaders, and casters in particular. I'd love to hear of some other ingenious items used for our beloved labor of love. Jeff

I'm having to use the old fashion galvanized garbage cans to store my lead in them. I've got over 2000# in three of them. I made sure they were exactly where I wanted them before I filled them up because they for sure aren't going anywhere for a while!

Geez Ranch dog, do you think you will ever shoot that much lead? Guess you dont worry about running out any time soon.
I have aquired a 5 gal. bucket full and havent put much of a dent in it yet, casting and shooting every weekend. It should last me a year or so im guessing.

I got a 55 gal drum of prime bullet metal from a vendor at work 4 yrs ago. Had to move it but made sure it was where I needed it when it got refilled. There is about 1/3 left. there are 11 different styles of bullets cast under the bench in trays that hold approx. 100 lbs, not including the ingots of which there are about 1000 lbs worth.

Yes we can shoot it all.

Flinch...

Just like Bigfoot said... Yeap! I shot a heap of jacketed bullets last year, around 8,000 to be close to exact and reloaded another 2,000 for my wife and dad. My two grandsons aren't old enough to be shooting yet but I got to think about them too!

Like Bigfoot, all that in the cans will be in ingots and stacked by mid-year. I really like doing it that way as next to no effort is used in removing trash and it's easy to mix my 50/50 WW/LT. I've even started casting ingots of the 50/50.

I bought a 250 lb capacity pot from the Abtimony man with an 11 lb capacity ladle. Made 8 ingot moulds out of 2" by 1" heavy angle about 6" long. It is quick to melt and cast over 200 lbs of whatever alloy I need. Bought one of those propane weed burners from Harbor Freight and it considerably speeds up the melting process, melts the WW's in about 2 minutes. Use a turkey fryer for the main heat source. Those ingots fit into the electric pot when I cast,