Um, well, actually. . . as a pre-teen, I started casting with some of the big H&G moulds. We used an angled mould guide (angle iron on each side, rising about 15* as you slid the mould back toward yourself). Done this way, you held the ladle in the same basic spot, close to the lead pot. Less time for the lead to cool, less need for fine motor skills to manipulate mould and ladle.Mould guides are only useful on bottom pour pots.
After the pour, you set the ladle back on the molten lead, then pulled the mould back a little further, cut the sprue, opened the mould, and dropped ten of those nice 38s on a piece of canvas where they'd roll to the collection box.
Other than the ladle, there was very little lifting. The whole setup was designed/built by a WWI vet who'd started having arthritis problems about 15 years earlier.