Pete you can get into it on the cheap or go hog wild just like reloading.
Lee 2 cavity 405 grain mould. $20
Salvaged stainless or cast iron pot ($5 if you have to buy one at a junk store)
@pastera has a nice mod for the $10 was mart hot plates so they will heat up enough to melt lead.
$10 for a lee ladle
$16 or so for a lee sizer
$5 for a lee liquid alox
You're good to go!
If you want to coat the bullets you will need to buy some coating
$11 for 3.5 ounce which is enough to make 500ML of coating.
You use 1 ML per pound of bullets. 2 Coats.
So 250 pounds of bullets or 4500 of your 405 grain bullets.
Then you need a $40 or so convection toaster oven (or a $5 oven from savers) and some wire mesh trays which can be made from a $10 sheet of expanded wire from home depot. These sheet are something like 3'X8'
Do not cook this stuff in your home oven. If your wife doesn't kill you the smell will. Bring the toaster oven outside or in a garage and cook bullets out there.
So say $60 to $100 for a basic set up.
When I teach friends one on one and they don't care to get into smelting. They want to buy ready to go ingots I spend 5 minutes going over safety and another 5 minutes casting to show them the ropes. They i let them have at it.
I feel like a good part of casting is actual experience and getting a feel for temps and cadence. The technical stuff is pretty easy to read up on but the hands on experience is what separates the men from the boys.
With 45/70 don't worry about alloy. With smokeless it will shoot any alloy you can get your hands on, especially with the coating. The coating lets your use softer alloys without getting leading. 45/70 is a low pressure cartridge with a slow twist and is so forgiving.
Christ, you guys are really tough on the wallet. A couple of years ago I swore I would only reload for a couple of rounds. I am up to five so far. Now I am looking at pouring. This is just getting out of hand.
