Water dropped.

[trying2learn]

I took some straight sticky weight ignots melted them down and casted some 230 gr 45 acp rounds. Did ten as water dropped and ten air cooled. Then compared them to the clip on ww I did this weekend. To me they seem to be about the same hardness. I can't dig my finger nail into any of them. I did notice the stick ons seemed fill the mold just a tad easier.

From what I have read this should mean they are acceptable to test out and see what my gun will like. Is this correct? I only tend to load mid range rounds so I shouldn't be pressing the velocities to hard. Man I am telling you guys this is one very addictive thing.

Now not only is my powder selection and amounts vary I can change the bullet. I even let the wife cast a few this weekend and came home today and she said she started reading my Lyman book. It got in her head too. She wants to make her own pet loads.

Sorry I meant to say I know they need to sit and harden for a few days for proper testing to be had. So I will be testing again in a few days. Initially it looks good though. Only the gun will say for sure though.

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[MtGun44]

The sticky type are nearly pure lead with a touch of tin, will not harden. Use clip ons
to harden.

No reason in the world to harden ANY handgun boolits, in my experience. I can and have
shot 8 BHN (very soft) at full power loads in .44 mag and .357 with Keith designs and
NRA 50-50 lube (no GCs, of course) and no leading, great accy.

The .45 ACP is the last cartridge to need harder boolits with the exception of some
rare barrels with exceptionally shallow rifling - there might be a need for harder to
avoid stripping. For the great majority of bbls, .45 ACP is happy with any soft alloy.

Bill

[trying2learn]

Sweet this is good to know. I will try these and see what happens. Thanks

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[44man]

I toss stick on weights now. I found too many were zinc, hiding under paint.
The last batch I melted made a pot of oatmeal.
What they are made from might depend on the part of the country you are in and the age of the weights. Too much difference today.
Keep the melt at 600* or a little less and scoop off all that floats. I did that and had about 1# left.
Many high end wheels today need almost no weight to balance so you can even find aluminum.

[trying2learn]

Yea I sorted and sorted then sorted some more. Then did the smelting. Kept it at or around 650 and after everything was out that was not lead I bumped up to 700 to make the pouring easier.

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[Bluehawk]

I do not , as a rule harden handgun bullets either. BUT just recently I had a problem with a Browning HI-Power 9mm that was NOT handling soft bullets well . I was getting sideways hits at 15 yards about 60% of the time . Decided to try water quenching the same bullets Took care of the problem . Appears the alloy was too soft for the pressure and STRIPPING the bullets in stead of allowing them to grab the rifling . I had lead streaks in the bore also .
I'M also trying it on some bullets from an Old Ideal mold that throws a 200 grain HP for the 45 ACP . New mold for me and i'm trying both to see what works best .

[mdi]

I cast and reload 80% of the time for .44 Magnum. I don't recall any time needing a harder bullet than plain old wheel weight alloy (BHN 9-12). Of course I got leading occationally, but that was usually from undersize bullets...

[bobthenailer]

Im on the opposite end! i water drop from the mould for all my cast bullets in any firearm they were used in at velocties from 700 to 2000 fps and i also use only hard bullet lube! acording to some people either is a NO NO ! but ive never had any problems with leading or getting excellent accuracy for the past 30 sum years and untold amount of firearms used in and hundreds of thousands of cast bullets used.
The main reason i do it is to greatly increase my number of bullets being cast in a certian amount of time !
and i can sometimes use softer alloy like 50/50 WW & lead. they will WD to about 15 bhn but most of the time i use straight WW or a 75/25 mix as most moulds i have will cast slightly undersize with that 50/50 mix as most moulds are spec to throw the stated size or slightly over with lyman#2 or lawrance mag alloy.



REMEMBER TO PUT THE TRASH OUT ON ELECTION DAY !

[MtGun44]

WIth the hi Power - have you tried .357 or .358 diam? Most of the time ordinary wwt
alloy air cooled will work fine. Most problems are actually undersized boolits, not too
soft. That said - some 9mms also have very shallow rifling, so it can happen.

Most prob reports with 9mm are solved by larger diam, much more than harder.

Good to know about the zinc stick-ons - I didn't know they were polluting that type.

Bill

[brotherdarrell]

I waterdrop depending on application. I use mostly 50/50 coww/soww . air cooled my bhn usually ends up around 9. If I water drop after a week it is around 12 - 13.

About the only instance I use straight coww is if I need a little larger diameter, ie. a few Lyman molds, mostly for the 45/70.

I also water drop for a friends 1911's just to make sure there is no galling as the round is fed. It is also a good idea to at least size water dropped within a couple of days. About three days after casting the boolits start to really harden and sizing becomes more of a chore. If I am going to be pushing a plain base very hard I will water drop. If I am pushing close to 2k fps I will water drop. Again, this is with 50/50 alloy.

As an aside, the only zinc soww I have found locally have all been painted. Some iron soww are painted and some are not. If they are not painted they go into the melter, but I do watch close and stir frequently. Any floaters get tossed asap.

I would say that I shoot my 50/50 alloy, water dropped or not, for almost 90% of my shooting. DON'T THROW OUT STICK ON WHEEL WEIGHTS!!!!!

brotherdarrell