For making soft nose bullets: Has anyone ever made an extra small ladle?

[Ole]

Thinking out loud here, but what if I were to:

Run one pot with WW type alloy, run second pot with either pure lead or 30/1.

Put together a home made ladle (maybe out of a trimmed .380 case), and use it to fill the nose section of a 200-300 grain bullet with 80-100 grains of soft, then top it off with WW alloy for the base.

I've played around with running round balls for the nose, but this seems like this way would be easier/would make better boolits, since both alloys start off hot.

Stupid idea?

Anyone tried anything similar?

What temp does brass melt and what kind of brazing material would I need?

[MT Gianni]

Yea, cut down 9mm, float a 2" pipe nipple with the bottom peened and welded shut and full of pure in a 20 lb pot of ww alloy. Ross Seyfried had an article on it in the late 80's early 90''s. My problem was if the mold was not hot and level the alloy would set up in an angled pattern before you put the WW on top of it. Bullets were out of balance. If I were to do it again I would pre heat the mold better and try a sc first, or maybe a dc with the other side full of alloy. Let us know what happens.

[Moonie]

Ole, I've thought about the exact same thing, there is even a sticky about softnose boolits:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=11749

[longbow]

I did it quite successfully with 500 gr. .457" bullets about 30 years ago. With a big bullet, hot lead and hot mould it is pretty easy but I tried more recently with a Lyman 314299 and had trouble with the two metals not fusing.

The long skinny mould has to be very hot and lead too to make it work in that case.

BruceB (I think) has post on his method of casting soft nose boolits. You should do a search.

Longbow

PS: Doh! I should have looked above! Moonie posted the link and it is BruceB.

[runfiverun]

yeah you put the mold in heat and re-melt the alloys then let cool they might be frosty but work well enough for their intended purpose.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
I have made 375 & 41 boolits using the 380 cases (small heavy copper wire handle brazed on) and running 2 pots. Never thought of the 2 inch cap floater idea. But yes everything must be real hot or the two leads do not bond well. test the batch after cooling by smacking one against a brick wall or cement floor. I throw the same one as hard as I can several times. Then put it in a vise and see it you can tear the nose off with pliars. I figure if they with stand that treatment a trip through the ribs is rather easy. I have not punched any deer shoulders with one.
But they are real mean on soft skin targets like ground hog, coyotees and deer. At close mag velocities 40-1 noses flatten and the edges will tear off. Exit wounds are about double caliber. I hunt river bottoms so ranges are close for me usually under 35 yards.

[StrawHat]

Depending on the caliber of the boolit, I have used 32, 380 and 9mm casings. Eveything must be HOT and level for optimum results.

Another way to do this is to use a roundball of pure lead, drop it in the nose of the mold and pour your alloy over it. When I did this, I originally got the mold hot enough to melt the RB but found that was unecessary. Let the RB come up to hot and pour over it. The alloy will "fuse" to the base and it works well enough. You have to try quite a few to find the correct heat but it is another option.

Neither is very quick but you only need a few to go hunting, load work up and practice can be done with full alloy booolits. So can hunting but where is the fun in that?

At one point, someone made a pot that would meter out a small portion of lead, just for this purpose. Not many were sold.

[Nrut]

Ole,
I just float a regular ladle with a small piece of pure Pb in my 20lb LEE pot..
Like any thing else, if you do it enough you can make a seamless joint..

[blaster]

I use a 9mm case with a wire handle and th primer pocket drilled and threaded for a machine screw. The screw can be advanced into the case or retracted so that you can adjust the amount of soft lead for different bullets or optimum performance.

[OLPDon]

I use a 9mm case with a wire handle and th primer pocket drilled and threaded for a machine screw. The screw can be advanced into the case or retracted so that you can adjust the amount of soft lead for different bullets or optimum performance.

Never thought of that. That is a outstanding idea! So simple I could even do it.
Thanks
Don

[MT Gianni]

Good morning
I have made 375 & 41 boolits using the 380 cases (small heavy copper wire handle brazed on) and running 2 pots. Never thought of the 2 inch cap floater idea. .

After reviewing my set up the 2" pipe has angle iron welded to it to hang over the edge of the pot in the melt. The real advantage to that is you have a pre-made ingot filled with your soft alloy. When you are done let it cool in the nipple. You can add a Lee 1/2 lb ingot when you need to.

[Smoke-um if you got-um]

Some yrs ago I got a Forster 1/8" Hollow Pointer in a box of Misc. reloading items at an auction.
After that I hollow pointed the bullets like the directions state, 1/8" deep. Actually did a decent job, on flat nose bullets anyway. I had trouble keeping the bit concentric on round nose bullets.A few yrs later I read an article about LEO's in Dallas(I think) hollow pointing their 158 SWC lead bullets and then using paraffin in the cavity to promote expansion. Their tests worked well. I took some of my hollow point 30 cal flat nose bullets and increased the depth to 3/16" and then took paraffin and filled the nose. Used my wife's hairdryer to heat the nose and melt the wax. If it looked like it need more I just pushed a little more into tip and remelted. It didn't take me long to get the right amount on the first try after making a few. With Lyman #2 these guys played the devil on groundhogs and foxes. I never got to recover any but the exit hole told the story. I quit using them on foxes because they destroyed the value of the hides and never used them on deer because I suspected they would destroy too much meat. I pretty much stopped using them 5-6 yrs ago for no special reason, just got sidetracked on another experiment (probably). Like paper patching, now that will drive a sane man crazy. I see so many guys looking for an expanding bullet on the forums I thought I would toss this in as an alternative to alloy blending. I suspect expansion might be controlled by the depth of the cavity and perhaps even the amount of paraffin???? Well, have fun and I may revisit this myself when the weather gets better.
Good luck,
Mike