My first casting of bullets today.

[L1A1Rocker]

Well, I've been gathering the stuff to cast bullets sense the begening of the year. Today was my first attempt.


Here's my little set up on the bench

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/HPIM0590.jpg?t=1306720177

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/HPIM0595.jpg

Here are some pics of the first casting session today. I'm casting .44 300gr hollow points and .38/357 158gr hollow points.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/HPIM0591.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/HPIM0592.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/HPIM0593.jpg


That was just a bit of morning fun to see what I could do. I went back out later in the afternoon and cast up some more .44s with lower heat. The casting went much smoother with the heat turned down a bit.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/HPIM0596.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/HPIM0598.jpg

That was it for today. Tomarrow I'll knock out some more, maybe do an oven heat treat with water quench and finish up with a run through the lubrasizer.

This is turning out to be a rather fun and productive new hobby.

[Schuetzenman]

You weighing them? What brand of 4 cavity molds you got there? Looks like an RCBS furnace. I've had 2 bottom pour lead pots and ended up plugging the spouts on both of them. I got better results using a large lyman dipper looks like an egg sort of.

I've been casting lead projectiles since I was 15, coming up on 40 years now. Damn that makes me feel old just thinking about that. LOL. What's your alloy composition? Linotype or just plain Jane wheel weights?

[L1A1Rocker]

You weighing them? What brand of 4 cavity molds you got there? Looks like an RCBS furnace. I've had 2 bottom pour lead pots and ended up plugging the spouts on both of them. I got better results using a large lyman dipper looks like an egg sort of.

I've been casting lead projectiles since I was 15, coming up on 40 years now. Damn that makes me feel old just thinking about that. LOL. What's your alloy composition? Linotype or just plain Jane wheel weights?


The .44s were avg of 300 gr on the nose. The 38/357 is avg of 162gr. Both of the molds are two cavity custome from Slovania made by Miha Privec. Yep the furnace is an RCBS I got off ebay for 100 bucks. (the stickers were gone so I don't think the seller knew what he had) My alloy is 50/50 WW to roofing lead. I'm thinking about heat treating them in the oven then water quenching them but I've been told that air hardening for a week will be sufficient for the .44s.

[davepool]

That's something i'm going to start soon, i have access to 100s of lbs of lead roof flashing bits and pieces and wheel weights.

What's the initial cost of doing this?

[old Grump]

Looks better than my first attempt back in the late 60's. I ended up putting most of them back to be remelted Because I was usina a little one burner camp stove and a small pot and had no idea about temperatures or alloys. Finally broke down and got an electric pot with a temp control and life got better.

[abpt1]

The .44s were avg of 300 gr on the nose. The 38/357 is avg of 162gr. Both of the molds are two cavity custome from Slovania made by Miha Privec. Yep the furnace is an RCBS I got off ebay for 100 bucks. (the stickers were gone so I don't think the seller knew what he had) My alloy is 50/50 WW to roofing lead. I'm thinking about heat treating them in the oven then water quenching them but I've been told that air hardening for a week will be sufficient for the .44s.
:thumbsup:
looksd great !

Hey I dont think a heat treat with water is going to be necessary for 50/50 and roof lead I think it will actually make it brittle..

add tin and a bit of Lineotype to it and they will get hard as hell !
http://www.qtl.co.il/img/trans.png

[Schuetzenman]

:thumbsup:
looksd great !

Hey I dont think a heat treat with water is going to be necessary for 50/50 and roof lead I think it will actually make it brittle..

add tin and a bit of Lineotype to it and they will get hard as hell !
http://www.qtl.co.il/img/trans.png

Heat treating them won't make a 50/50 brittle. It's what you want to do if you want to go magnum speeds with a cast bullet. IMO they won't get that hard from sitting for a week. The quench thing is really pretty simple and fast. I'd say for such a light alloy he frankly better do it if he wants to shoot 1000 fps or better with them. Then again proper size is also very important to prevent leading. If a cast bullet is too small to fill up the groove diameter of the barrel the hot gasses will shoot past the bullet and flash melt some of it then deposit it like a sputter coating on the inside of the barrel. Eventually this really screws up accuracy and you can get from flakes to long strings of alloy come out of the barrel when you clean the weapon.

[O.S.O.K.]

First off - well done! Those boolets look great! I am focusing on the bases - very sharp and complete - don't see any rounded edges.

If you have wheel weight alloy, just use that straight with a little added tin and you won't need to do any hardening at all if you don't go past 1500 fps or so - using a good lube of course.

I use Lee's liquid alox and shoot cast rifle boolets to 2000 fps with no leading at all. They are gas checked though...

[L1A1Rocker]

Thanks folks. I went ahead and sized and lubed a hundred to set aside and see how they harden up over time. The rest I'm going to heat treat this afternoon. I'm lubing with "Speed Green", a custom formula from the Bullshop and sizing to .430.

I'm mixing 50/50 because I can get roofing lead just about for free, the WW lead I have to pay for. So, being the cheepass that I am, I'm trying to make my WW lead stretch out a bit.

I'm still looking for a cheep source of tin or pewter to add to my alloy. I went garage sailing Saturday looking for some junk pewter trinkets but had no luck. I see pewter tea sets on ebay for a reasonable price though, I may get some of those to add to the mix.

[Helen Keller]

I got about 100lbs in ignots I gotta make some 58 cal Minie balls with.
1 at a time.



Who makes a good small furnace ?




I have that same frying pan. Gets HEAVY and hot fast. :dizzy:






I tried making 37mm Lead projectiles that came out to over 4lbs a piece, way too much to push for what I'm building, Maybe I'll just change size and fill a red bull can with concrete.

[O.S.O.K.]

HK - I have a Lee production pot - handles 20 pounds and is reasonably priced - plus, if it goes out, you can get replacement parts cheap. I did have to replace the thermostat on mine - $12

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/default.aspx?productNumber=637732

If you don't need 20 pounds at a time and 10lbs would be fine go with their Lee Melter for less $$:

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/default.aspx?productNumber=476462

[Mark Ducati]

I had a fella one time ask me for all the lead liners I kept from my dental x-rays... VERY soft stuff. He was casting round balls for his muzzle loader, he thought the softer lead would expand better... I never got a shot report from him.

How does "soft" lead perform?

[Helen Keller]

meh..... I still have about 80lbs of ignots and my minie ball mold sitting here, have a lee 10lb metler pot.

THese are ridicolously annoying to make.

[Schuetzenman]

I had a fella one time ask me for all the lead liners I kept from my dental x-rays... VERY soft stuff. He was casting round balls for his muzzle loader, he thought the softer lead would expand better... I never got a shot report from him.

How does "soft" lead perform?

Pure lead is soft, alloyed lead is harder. Pure lead in a cast bullet weapon is very limited in the speeds you can put on the bullet. Old Schuetzen single shot rifles would use 1 part tin to 20 parts lead as a typical alloy. Modern alloys have Antimony in them along with some tin and mostly lead. For a muzzle loader you want to use as pure a lead as possible for the round balls or even Mini balls that a rifled musket uses. This for loading and shooting purposes. If the lead is too hard due to being alloyed it will cut the cloth patch on a round ball gun when you load it into the muzzle. If you cast a Mini Ball with too hard a lead (alloy) then it won't expand and grab the rifling as it should.

[Helen Keller]

If you cast a Mini Ball with too hard a lead (alloy) then it won't expand and grab the rifling as it should.

And IF it does expand you'll have the very base of the skirt stuck in your barrel.

[O.S.O.K.]

HK - that shouldn't happen at all. And minis are pure lead or 30-1 at the most (lead/tin). And I am guessing that you have a single cavity mold? That does make it rather tedious. Hell, the two-cavity molds are tedious.

One trick that I use is to cast two different types of boolits at the same time - alternating between the molds - this makes it easy to "regulate" the cooling time and doubles your production. Of course, you can get two of the same mold if you want as well....

Maybe getcha a round ball mold to go with your mini ball mold?

[abpt1]

HK - that shouldn't happen at all. And minis are pure lead or 30-1 at the most (lead/tin). And I am guessing that you have a single cavity mold? That does make it rather tedious. Hell, the two-cavity molds are tedious.

One trick that I use is to cast two different types of boolits at the same time - alternating between the molds - this makes it easy to "regulate" the cooling time and doubles your production. Of course, you can get two of the same mold if you want as well....

Maybe getcha a round ball mold to go with your mini ball mold?

Yeah the best investment for casting was dropping $400 on a custom made Reproduction of H&G 68B 6 cavity mold.....with two 6 cavity molds things move along nicely !

[Silicon Wolverine]

Welcome to the cult of the silver stream. Ive been casting for 10 or 11 years now, everything from handgun bullets, to buckshot to 12 ga slugs to 45-70 505 gr. its an addiction that ony gets worse. my own preferred alloy is 9 lbs of WW lead, 1 lb of pure lead and 1/4 lb of pure tin, with a water quench right out of the mold. that yeilds a BHN of 20-21 and is good for just about anything i do with lead bullets.

you bullets look very good! youre well on your way.

SW

[Helen Keller]

I just did 400ish 200 gr SWC 45's last week, pretty fast even with a 2 cavity mould.

have a 45 230gr RN mould coming this week :hyper:

guy at work dropped off around 150lbs of ignots the other day so I'm gonna be busy.



totally gave up on making minie balls. It's just for a recoiling gun anyways I'll just buy 58 cal roundball.

[L1A1Rocker]

I just did 400ish 200 gr SWC 45's last week, pretty fast even with a 2 cavity mould.

have a 45 230gr RN mould coming this week :hyper:

guy at work dropped off around 150lbs of ignots the other day so I'm gonna be busy.



totally gave up on making minie balls. It's just for a recoiling gun anyways I'll just buy 58 cal roundball.

Very cool. Thanks for the update.