Some questions on pipe boot boolits

[el roboto]

is this almost pure lead? I wanted some soft boolits so decided to try and cast from pipe boot only. I found its nearly impossible to get a good fillout and non wrinkled boolits. Also, the few I deemed shootable look so shiny they look like chrome and they are incredibly smooth to the touch.

[swheeler]

The roof jacks I've melted are pure lead or close. You need to cast with your mold and lead hotter to get them to fill out, preheat the mold before starting.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[AlaskanGuy]

You could also add some tin..

[Kraschenbirn]

'Pipe boots' are the same material as roof flashing...essentially pure lead. I've accumulated a couple hundred pounds of the stuff that my buddy, the roofing contractor, has saved for me from old buildings. To get good boolits, you'll need to add a bit tin from either solder or, if you can find it, scrap pewter. I cast a 30 to 1 mix...lead to tin...for my BP loads and get really nice, shiny boolits with sharp edges.

Bill

[oldfart1956]

El Roboto, on Saturday night I was casting up some balls for the .62 smoothbore using lead pipe I'd smelted a few weeks ago. Lead pipe is considered to be puddy soft and would be close to pipe boots in comparison. No solder joints in this...just pipe. After casting a hundred or so I saw the mold there for the .45 acp and thought...what the heck? (lyman 452374) I'm working with a new Remington 1911 and having some minor leading issues so I figgered I'd try dead soft lead. I cast up a hundred or so, ran them right thru the lubesizer with Felix lube and the 452 die and loaded them over 5.7gr. of Unique. When the sun got up took 4 magazines full to the range and let them fly. Then I fieldstripped the pistol right there on the bench. Now 30 rounds doesn't constitute a fact but...no leading. Not even a sign of leading. Even the Lewis lead remover couldn't find any lead in that barrel. First load I've come up with yet (gun is only a month old) that has shown 0 leading. I'm just sayin' is all. Audie....the happy Oldfart..

[el roboto]

El Roboto, on Saturday night I was casting up some balls for the .62 smoothbore using lead pipe I'd smelted a few weeks ago. Lead pipe is considered to be puddy soft and would be close to pipe boots in comparison. No solder joints in this...just pipe. After casting a hundred or so I saw the mold there for the .45 acp and thought...what the heck? (lyman 452374) I'm working with a new Remington 1911 and having some minor leading issues so I figgered I'd try dead soft lead. I cast up a hundred or so, ran them right thru the lubesizer with Felix lube and the 452 die and loaded them over 5.7gr. of Unique. When the sun got up took 4 magazines full to the range and let them fly. Then I fieldstripped the pistol right there on the bench. Now 30 rounds doesn't constitute a fact but...no leading. Not even a sign of leading. Even the Lewis lead remover couldn't find any lead in that barrel. First load I've come up with yet (gun is only a month old) that has shown 0 leading. I'm just sayin' is all. Audie....the happy Oldfart..

Thats exactly why I was casting them. I thought my wheel weight alloy was to hard and causing leading so I was gonna run pure through and see if that fixed the issue. After further evaluation I believe I was getting antimony wash rather then leading. Was thinking of the exact same load as you, 5.7 grains of unique.

[oldfart1956]

Just keep in mind hardness is only one part of the equation for success. Probably most important is size. I'll fess up and admit I gammahooched up a lot of loads by not noticing I had the .451 sizing die in the Lyman 450 when I first started. GAAHH! They need to make them numbers larger....much larger. Run the largest dia. boolit that will chamber. Mind ye I wasn't getting horrible leading at .451 but some. I used Lyman #2/straight wheelweights/50-50 wheelweights and soft lead and finally the soft lead alone. Now I've got to go back and redo all the previous tests with the correct size die in the luber. Sighhh...such is life. I'm hoping the Lyman #2 alloy works as I have a bunch of it and less of the soft lead. The 5.7gr. drop of Unique just happened to be what my Lee Auto-Disk drops with the .71 disk. Recoil has been modest and accuracy within my limitations. Carry on Sir. Audie...the Oldfart..