Casting Soft Points

[rexherring]

I know there has been threads on this but I can't find them. I have been casting some 340 gr. Lee .45's using two lead pots. One with pure lead, the other with harder alloy. Got the molds hot and poured the soft lead then to the other pot and the harder mix was poured. The boolits come out looking a little strange with a shiny front and frosty rear. ( I get frosty rear in winter too) Now I'm getting a few together to try at the range to see if I get a separation and decent expansion.

The hard part is to get the same amount of soft lead each time so the weight will be different. For a bear hunt at 30 yards it wouldn't be a big thing.

Anyone else try this?

[H.Callahan]

One trick you can try to get the same amount is to make a little dipper out of a case, like a 9mm, and a piece of hanger wire. You can trim down the case until you get the exact amount that you want for each tip.

[Jailer]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=17546

[Finarfin]

What about dropping a pellet of buckshot in there? 00 or 000 depending on bullet size.

[I'll Make Mine]

Buckshot is likely to be as hard as your casting alloy, if not a little harder (a lot of shot is hardened to keep it round).

[44man]

I have been thinking of locking the mold handles with something fast. Set the mold on a block of wood perfectly level.
Pour the soft lead from a little dipper and have the other ladle in the other hand to pour as fast as can be done.
I haven't tried yet.

[rexherring]

What about dropping a pellet of buckshot in there? 00 or 000 depending on bullet size.

I've tried it with soft lead balls for muzzle loaders but the coating keeps the lead from adhering to the pour.

[Bluehawk]

Get a small cast Round ball mold . cast your own RBs from pure lead NO coating & you know what your getting. SO many sizes of Rb molds out there you can pick and choose the size and weight . I have a RB( LYMAN ) mold for 375 RB. Its "about" 80 grains of PURE LEAD that's about 20% of the total weight of the 350 RD mold I use for 45/70 . which is NOt a bad percentage . IF you want more % on the tip , get a slightly bigger RB . The 375 ball slips easily into the mold opening to reach the bottom then I heat the mold a bit then pour in the normal mix I use then reheat the mold again till it appears that it has alloyed .

[Dale53]

Another method is to just float a Lyman casting dipper on top of the melt. Drop a round ball of the appropriate size into the dipper. When it is melted, just pour from the dipper into the bullet mould and immediately fill from your bottom pour pot. This will give you a pre-measured amount of soft lead about as easy as can be. I haven't had any problem with them bonding. I keep the mould hot on a hotplate. That helps a BUNCH!

FWIW
Dale53

[Bullshop]

To add to what Dale53 said Instead of a RB I simply pre cast pure lead boolits from a mold that drops the weight I want.

[44man]

Get a small cast Round ball mold . cast your own RBs from pure lead NO coating & you know what your getting. SO many sizes of Rb molds out there you can pick and choose the size and weight . I have a RB( LYMAN ) mold for 375 RB. Its "about" 80 grains of PURE LEAD that's about 20% of the total weight of the 350 RD mold I use for 45/70 . which is NOt a bad percentage . IF you want more % on the tip , get a slightly bigger RB . The 375 ball slips easily into the mold opening to reach the bottom then I heat the mold a bit then pour in the normal mix I use then reheat the mold again till it appears that it has alloyed .
I tried that and it takes forever to make one boolit. Then the mold will be too hot for the next. I gave up making the blocks so hot it remelts the lead.
I have the LBT soft nose pot and by the time I use the harder base lead, the soft is set up so there is a seam. No way to hold level so the seam can be tipped.
I am not going to heat the mold more after the pour.

[Moonie]

I have a dipper made from a brass case that holds the amount of soft lead I want for the nose of the boolits I want to soft nose.

[lwknight]

What about casting a double ended wadcutter from hard alloy and a short RN and from lead then soldering the 2 together?
Now that would be a trick!

[44man]

What about casting a double ended wadcutter from hard alloy and a short RN and from lead then soldering the 2 together?
Now that would be a trick!
How do you solder a boolit?

[I'll Make Mine]

How do you solder a boolit?

Very, very carefully. I've tried to solder pure lead with 70/30 lead-tin solder; melted the lead before I could get the solder to tin. You could probably do the job with a special low-melting alloy (poor relations to Wood's metal -- easy to get alloys that will melt below 300º F), but who knows if it'd make a strong enough join to stand up to being fired.

Best way I can think of to make soft-tip boolits would be have two identical molds; mill off all the driving bands on one mold (just like modifying a mold to throw a lighter boolit, only take more off), so you're casting just the nose. Cast a bunch of noses in pure lead, coat the base end with plumber's tinning soldering flux and heat with a torch just until the flux burns off and the tin melts (this will take a very careful touch, but if your mold is steel could potentially be done in the nose mold), when put each nose in the full size mold and cast as usual. The alloy you pour should melt the solder on the nose piece, and effectively weld the two pieces together -- and by precasting the noses in a mold, you'll get consistent weight and a consistent bond line (precasting in the same mold, from a known weight like a round ball, can still produce a bond that's not perpendicular to the spin axis, making a subtly off balance boolit).

[tonyjones]

Why not just cast a bullet with 50/50 - COWW/Pb, water drop and anneal the nose. BaBore posted his method of doing this here not long ago.

Regards,

Tony

[sixshot]

I've been making these for several years now & have taken deer, elk & moose with them, there are several ways to make them, here's mine.
I use 2 pots, one small one on my left & a bigger one on my right. The left one has pure lead in it & my dipper is a 380 case with a wire handle attached. I take alloy out of both pots at the same time.
Pour the pure lead into your "hot" mould & quickly top it off with WW alloy from the pot on the right. The mould is sitting between the 2 pots on a piece of steel plate. As soon as the WW is added I water quench, the rear portion hardens in a few days, the pure lead nose stays the same, it doesn't harden.
Practice with your regular slugs & save the softnose cast for big game. You can adjust the amount of expansion you want by adding or subtracting lead. There is no finer hunting bullet for the sixgun shooter.

Dick

[44man]

Why not just cast a bullet with 50/50 - COWW/Pb, water drop and anneal the nose. BaBore posted his method of doing this here not long ago.

Regards,

Tony
No need to anneal the nose with 50-50. Even if you oven harden it does not seem to affect expansion, ask the deer I blew to mush with my revolver! :mrgreen:
I get 50-50 to shoot pretty good but get too many fliers. I get fliers with air cooled WW's too, neither really bad enough when hunting.
The harder base helps my accuracy with PB boolits.

[Loudenboomer]

Instead of a round ball put a pure lead boolit up side down in a wide meplat mold. Cast as normal with a HOT Hard alloy. PRESTOE... Home made Bonded Core Boolit.