Getting your mold hot enough is something you will learn first wrinkled bullets your mold is cold , frosted bullets and your lead is running hot . after casting a while you can look at the bullet color and texture and tell if you are at the right temp for both mold and lead ( shiny and smooth is what you want ) . I use a big towel laid out next to my casting pot for dropping the bullet from the mold for a soft landing . For safety never allow water near your casting pot ,one drop of water in the hot lead is dangerous . If you see a small hole in the base of the bullet after cutting the sprue and dropping a bullet , you should tilt the mold over at an angle when pouring and fill the sprue cutter full , give the bullet a little time to harden, before cutting .casting is an art in itself and is not hard to learn , just be careful and the more you do it the better your bullets get . ,,,DT
King,
Dusty's comments reminded me of other things that I needed to add to my process. I also, use a towel to drop the hot bullets on. I use standard leather work gloves on both hands and open the sprue plate with the gloves after a count of 10. I also have a 1"X12" wood dowel that is used to hit the handle joint pin if bullets stick in mold. Have an extra because they will splinter over time.
His comment about Water is Very, Very important to remember. Never wash wheel weights or lead sources then attempt to melt it, let it dry completely. Do not work near a water source that could splash into your pot.
His comment about temperature and appearance of the cast bullet is what I also go by. I run my hotplate on High. I once worried about the 'exact' temperature, via a thermometer, but quickly learned to just watch the looks of the dropped bullets to determine how the casting is going. Remember for general shooting, plinking, CAS distances or 150 yard distance shooting, the cast bullet does not have to be to the 'n'th' degree of perfection. They do not have to all weight the same, either.
One last comment, I did start out with Lee bullet molds and still use them for some cartridges but I prefer to use Lyman designs. I used the Lee 515-450 bullet mold to 'create' a 350 gr bullet for my Spencer 56/50 BP rounds back in 2005-2006 timeframe(still use it). The grease grooves were large enough in that mold unlike some of their pistol molds. But they do not offer a 300 to 350 grain mold.
Read - Read - Read until you are comfortable about what you are about to do, then put your hands to work.
Then ask more specific questions about each step you may be questioning. As you can see there are a lot of different approaches to get to a finished bullet. Bottom pour pots is maybe something you would prefer???