first cast boolits

[dwntwnbrwn]

Loaded my first cast boolits tonight. 125gr from a Lee mold. Loaded over 3.9 gr W231 with OAL of 1.125". Lead is range scrap and too soft for cast boolits. I'll probably load the 50 I made and shoot them. But, need to find a source of wheel weights. I'll save the range lead for swaging.

Smelted the scrap in a cast iron skillet over a charcoal fire and poured ingots. Put clean ingots in the Lee pot for casting.

First 10 loaded, next to some reloads with Zero brand 125 gr JHP's. The Lee lube makes them looks rough, but they came out of the mold nice and shiny.

Edit: Don't know why the pic is rotated. Isn't rotated on my phone.

88156
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[runfiverun]

they look good.
I would be too worried about the alloy's composition until after I shot them.

[ultramag]

What r5r said.

I shoot range scrap in all my 9mm's sized at .358 and lubed with BAC. Fit is much more a factor than hardness. Good luck with your test batch.

[williamwaco]

Range scrap is my favorite metal.

[myg30]

I thought most lead horders shot the range scrap first..... so they can save the good stuff for last range scrap shooting ?

Its all good ! Shoot it !

Mike

[dwntwnbrwn]

Thanks, guys. Sounds like there's concensus. I had dropped a couple on the basement floor when I was sizing them and the roughness of the floor teansferred to the bullets. I thought that was too soft. I'm new to this. I'll see how they shoot. I have not slugged any of my barrels and HOPE .356 works ok, as that is the size of the mold I bought. More to learn.

[Beerd]

is .356 the number on the box or did you measure some cast bullets with a micrometer?
..

[dwntwnbrwn]

Didn't even think to measure them. Duh. But, I did run them through a .356 sizer. The "smoothing" is visible, so some sizing is taking place. But, they push through the sizer with almost zero resistance. Didn't measure after sizing either. Just figured .356 was fine, til reading responses here. Need to slug my barrels.

[dverna]

You may find .356 is a bit small but check the bullets because sizer dies (especially Lee's - which is what I surmise you may be using) can be different than the size advertised.

If you find you need a larger sized diameter, you can open up your die with a dowel and emery cloth.

Don Verna

[marada]

looks great.

[dwntwnbrwn]

Went out and shot 20 of these today through my CZ P-01. Cold out - 19 degrees. I was happy with the accuracy shooting from 10 yards. As good as my jacketed reloads. But, I think I have serious leading. Having never shot lead bullets, I don't know what leading looks like, but I see what looks like A LOT of smeared lead after only 20 rounds. I'm going to have to check the pre-sized diameter. Maybe I shouldn't size them to .356. I must be doing something wrong. I'm sure thousands of people are using this same mold with no problems. I need to figure this out so the joy of casting doesn't die for me.

In the meantime, how do I get this lead out of the barrel? I pulled a brush through several times, soaked with Hoppes. Lead didn't budge.

Thanks,
Mike

Edit: I'm sure putting factory crimp on them doesn't help matters either.

[Wag]

I hope it's not leading in your barrel. I don't know what that look like.

I just cast my first 500 boolits today and yesterday. Can't wait to take that step to the range with 'em. Probably on T-day next week, I'll get 'em into a pistol!

--Wag--

[Cherokee]

Are you talking gray looking bore or chunks of lead hanging from the lands/grooves ?

Get yourself come COPPER chore boy (not copper coated steel, use a magnet) or bronze wool, wrap some around a brush and go to it.

[runfiverun]

Cherokee has the answer.

I'd bet that the diameter is too small, I size to 358 for my 9m's.
you'll also want to wait a week or so for the boolits to fully harden.

[dwntwnbrwn]

Looks like molten lead smeared on the lands, following the twist nicely. Looks pretty bad.

I picked up some range scrap today and dumped the 100 or so I had cast into when I smelted it. Starting over fresh. Going to slug my barrel.

[Down South]

Your Boolits look great. I size my 9mm to .358. 356 is a likely cause of the leading.

[dwntwnbrwn]

I might need a different mold, if I want .358 boolits. These boolits are coming out too small to size at .358. I measured several at the base and .358 is the largest diameter I'm seeing, but on the same boolit, the base will measure as small as .3535 as I work may way around the base. Just above the lube groove, I'm seeing pretty consistent .355 to .356. I don't see any Lee molds in .358 125gr RN.

[MtGun44]

I'll give you 80-20 probability that they will lead badly and hit the target
sideways. Hope you fall into the 20% of 9mms that will work well with .356.

The majority need .357 or .358. Also, if you are measuring with a caliper, your
numbers are suspect. Calipers are +/-.001 accy, not good enough for this
task. You need a .0001" reading micrometer.

I use the Lee 356-120 TC sized to .357 or .358 (they drop at about .3585 with
wwt alloy) and they work great.

Check out the sticky in "setting up a new 9mm for boolits".

Bill

[dwntwnbrwn]

Thanks for the tip, Bill. Good info in that sticky. Wish I had seen that before ordering molds. Now I'm concerned that the 102 gr .356 and 158 gr .358 molds I bought might not work for me.

Going to try the Beagle trick on this mold. I have a roll of .002 copper tape. My only concern with that is flashing at the seam. I'll try it and see what happens.

Lots to learn.

[runfiverun]

while you're reading around might as well look up leementing.
it gives some tips on lapping a mold so you could make that 356 into a 358 mold with some patience.
I have done several lyman molds, then I just gave up on buying them.

[Down South]

while you're reading around might as well look up leementing.
it gives some tips on lapping a mold so you could make that 356 into a 358 mold with some patience.
I have done several lyman molds, then I just gave up on buying them.
Did this on a few moulds myself. That was before MiHec and a few other mould makers came on the scene. Now we can get custom moulds that drop boolits the size we need them.
I've got MiHec moulds for about everything I cast for now and a couple of his moulds for some calibers.
I still use an old H&G mould for my 38/357 wadcutters.

[dwntwnbrwn]

Nice! I'll try that. Thanks for the tip.

[MBuechle]

I went through this with my PT92. Used Lee 125 TL 6 cav. and got lots of lead. Slugged bore and found it to be .3572, the bullets were dropping .356. Lapped the mold cavities out to drop @ .358 - .360 and sized to .358. This helped some. Next step was a Mihec 125HP mold, that helped a lot. Last step was to make a larger powder funnel for the 550b to open the cases up so I didn't swage my bullets down. I think the factory one was .353, I made one to .358 figuring on about .001 of spring back. This has worked well. I use 50/50 pure lead / WW, water dropped for the flat nose and +1% tin and air cooled for the HP version. If you use conventional dies, a .357 Mag mouth expander spud in your 9mm die should do the trick.

[dikman]

Unless you're collecting range scrap from a black powder only range then it should have a reasonable hardness. It's probably not going to be much softer than WW.

[blikseme300]

I went through this with my PT92. Used Lee 125 TL 6 cav. and got lots of lead. Slugged bore and found it to be .3572, the bullets were dropping .356. Lapped the mold cavities out to drop @ .358 - .360 and sized to .358. This helped some. Next step was a Mihec 125HP mold, that helped a lot. Last step was to make a larger powder funnel for the 550b to open the cases up so I didn't swage my bullets down. I think the factory one was .353, I made one to .358 figuring on about .001 of spring back. This has worked well. I use 50/50 pure lead / WW, water dropped for the flat nose and +1% tin and air cooled for the HP version. If you use conventional dies, a .357 Mag mouth expander spud in your 9mm die should do the trick.

You found the path to success. Correct size boolit and opening up the case to prevent swaging down. 9mm is easy to if these are done.

My favorite 9mm load is made with the Lee 120TC sized to .358 and case opened up to .3565 using a custom PTX on a Hornady LnL AP. Taper crimp die after seating. None of my 9mm pistols get any leading with this combo. I have tested different alloy mixes and even with soft range mystery metal function and accuracy with no leading was achieved.

[dwntwnbrwn]

Good info from everyone. Thanks for that. I don't have have a micrometer small enough for the task of measuring in the .355 range, so I'm using calipers. I "beagled" my mold and cast 100 boolits to test. I have some Carnauba Red on the way to pan lube. In the meantime, I finally slugged my P-01 barrel. Using calipers, it slugs at .355. First, I sized one of the new boolits to .358. It was a tight fit. After measuring .355 on the slug, I sized one to .356 and slugged it. Was easier to ram down the barrel, but still a nice snug fit.

As someone noted, boolits need to cure. Could my leading problem from the first batch be soley because I didn't give them time to cure? I was anxious to try the first batch and shot them two days after casting.

Anyway, I'm going to try this again. I'll size to .356 again, use the Carnauba Red, and let the boolits cure this time. Also going to load a dummy round and see how crimping affects the diameter. I ran the first batch through the Lee factory crimp die. Maybe I significantly reduced the boolit diameter.

Thanks for all the tips so far. Harvested more lead from the range today, yielding 18.4 lbs of ingots.

Mike

[blikseme300]

Don't use the FCD as it is probably the cause of your troubles.