A Nice Surprise Today

[GunGuy2756]

Since it was not raining here today as it has been the last few weeks I decided to try out my cast 255 FP's that I made this winter for my 45 Colt lever action and SAA's. I am not big into making my own bullets but since I got the equipment and materials for nothing I decided to make some up.
These were cast using an Ideal single cavity mold from the 60's, a ladle from the same era, and an alloy of lead and linotype which I melted with a small Lee 5lb pot. I have done some casting in the past so I am not a total noob.

My alloy was 2/3 lead with 1/3 linotype and nothing else. I fluxed with candle wax since that's what I have on hand. My goal was to this as cheap as possible with RCBS stick lube being the only thing I had to buy. I pan lubed them and sized to .452 then wiped off the excess lube and boxed them up until I was ready to load them. They dropped from the mold at 252-253 grs and with the lube added they came out to 255 grs.

I loaded them with 8 gr of Unique which chronograph at 1100fps out of my 16" M92 Rossi carbine. Today I shot 110 rounds. After I got come I opened the action and looked down the bore with an old bore mirror that you insert into the chamber and guess what....... no leading!! None. Nada!

This is a first for me since in the past I have used various store bought bullets of the same weight and always had leading to varying degrees. Sometimes severe and sometimes moderate but there was always lead present in the beginning of the rifling.

I guess the old saying still stands, if you want something done right, do it yourself.
Or maybe I just got lucky. :grin:

[Bookworm]

I love stories with happy endings.....

Same problem I have with the store-bought projectiles. Leading in at least the first inch or so. I'm gathering up equipment to get started casting. Hope it works out for me too.

[Wayne Smith]

Yeah, you got lucky. Everything fit the first time. May never happen again, so learn from it. Measure your boolits, learn to do a pound cast or chamber cast so you know the size of your throat, and you see how it all came together. When you move to a different caliber or different gun things may not line up so nicely. (Yes, you will. It is addictive, you know!)

[Walter Laich]

I've found that in cowboy shooting at our low pressures I don't get leading. Did up the load to the max for some reason (it made sense at the time) and spent a couple of days and some Kroil getting the 2 inches of leading out.

revisited my loads, went back to my starting data (I do keep records) and all is right with the world.

It IS nice to see a clean bore at the end--no doubt about it

[GunGuy2756]

Yeah, you got lucky. Everything fit the first time. May never happen again, so learn from it. Measure your boolits, learn to do a pound cast or chamber cast so you know the size of your throat, and you see how it all came together. When you move to a different caliber or different gun things may not line up so nicely. (Yes, you will. It is addictive, you know!)

I haven't tried these through my SAA's yet, I'm looking forward to see how they perform. I have a Cimarron and 2nd gen Colt. It's my understanding that older Colts have .454 cylinder throats so that may cause problems since I sized to .452.

[Wayne Smith]

Couple of things - keeping it simple still. Lube- mix your candle wax 50% with olive oil and, if you have it, add a little oil soap if you have any. Not a great lube but made of what you probably have available and it will soften it some. If you have beeswax use that rather than the candle wax, but you probably don't.

If you have or can borrow a .454 sizer you can size a boolit with that and see if it pushes through your Colt chamber throats. A quick and easy way to estimate diameter. As it is see how easily your current boolits push through - how much clearance is there? Those boolits will obdurate and fill the throats, what size is the barrel to which they will transition? Doesn't matter what most of them are, what matters is what size yours is.

[GunGuy2756]

Couple of things - keeping it simple still. Lube- mix your candle wax 50% with olive oil and, if you have it, add a little oil soap if you have any. Not a great lube but made of what you probably have available and it will soften it some. If you have beeswax use that rather than the candle wax, but you probably don't.

If you have or can borrow a .454 sizer you can size a boolit with that and see if it pushes through your Colt chamber throats. A quick and easy way to estimate diameter. As it is see how easily your current boolits push through - how much clearance is there? Those boolits will obdurate and fill the throats, what size is the barrel to which they will transition? Doesn't matter what most of them are, what matters is what size yours is.

I will probably stay with the RCBS green stick lube that I used since it is working good for my handloads. I only used wax to flux the pot occasionally.
I don't have a 454 sizer or know anyone who does. The mold I use is .454, do you think it would be a good idea to try them without being sized or is sizing always a must?

Thanks for the idea of pushing a bullet through the cylinder, I'll have to try that. Both my SAA barrels are 5.5" long but I have no idea what the actual diameter is.

[runfiverun]

if things are working there ain't no reason to go looking for a way to make them stop.

[GunGuy2756]

if things are working there ain't no reason to go looking for a way to make them stop.

I have no plans to change anything when I run these through my lever action.
What I don't know is how they will perform in my SAA's since they will have to make the jump from cylinder to barrel. I haven't got a chance to find out yet.
They may be okay in my Cimarron since both cylinder and barrel are supposed to be .452
My older Colt on the other hand has a .454 cylinder throat so I have some concerns on how my bullets will handle this.

[runfiverun]

best way to find out is to try.
you might need to go to a bigger boolit for the colt but not trying it won't tell you anything.
you might be able to get away with the 454 in both guns or 453 might work better.
or you may have to just get to 454-455 for the older colts.
but if you don't try some of what you have now you won't know what they do.

the very worst thing that happens is you have to wrap some copper choreboy around a brush and stroke some lead out of the barrel.

[GunGuy2756]

Thanks for the info Runfive. I agree and will try the ones that my lever action loves first.
I am still astounded that these bullets left zero lead in the carbine barrel.
As you said, the worst that can happen is that I will get some lead and need to spend a bit more time when cleaning.

I have a lead remover that works well (brass screen wrapped around a rubber plug with screw that attaches to a cleaning rod) so it's really no big deal but if I can prevent lead build up in the 1st inch of rifling then better yet.

Thanks for the input fellas.

[Wayne Smith]

If you have a micrometer to measure and know how to use it then, no, a sizing die is not necessary. If they are accurately measured at .454 then that is what you have. Try pushing them through the chamber of the Colt and see if they go easily or not.