making soft points question

[bmortell]

I tried the soft point method of dropping a few pellet gun pellets in the cavity, setting the mold in the melt till pellets melt, let briefly solidify on flat surface, pour in harder alloy, let briefly solidify on flat surface, set mold in melt to remelt and fuse the two columns. I get a nice seamless and square transition this way but the pellets leave a somewhat thick oxidized layer as a barrier between the two layers bonding and some failed and that point in hydraulic press test and the front pops off.
any tips?

[Burnt Fingers]

The pellets are likely coated in oil, graphite or some other lube.

I would just get some pure lead and use that.

[mdi]

Many methods have been tried to get "soft" cast bullet noses, but not many have worked or been worth the trouble. Your method may work, but that seems to be a lot of work, to me. Shoot some in different media and take pics. You may have hit on a good process.

(My "hunting/SD" bullets don't rely on expansion but rather on bullet shape for effectiveness).

[bmortell]

it derpily occurred to me that I could probably melt pure and drip little drops in water, and use that as my clean pure lead after weighing them to even amounts. I was expecting it to be slow, it only takes one to kill a deer and a few to test so im only concerned with quality. my method was working the only 2 problems was what I mentioned which should be fixable, and they were showing signs of getting too hot. think I need to get my pot temp just as high as needed and not re melt more than needed on last step, im assuming that's when the high heat effects happened. and im talking about rifle boolits a 220gr 30 cal in particular so it don't really have the surface area for an effective shape like I would with say 44. ill try and make a nice post with media testing when I sort the two problems

[popper]

Pellets probably already oxidized and you get scum on the melt just like the pot. Wonder how just pouring over unmelted pellets would work? If I dropped a HB pellet in base first I'd get a cup point?

[country gent]

I have done it this way though its a little more equipment needed
I made a simple ladle that helps the desired volume of lead this is easy enough to do. A simple pouring lip. cut off the amount of nose you want soft and melt into ladle, drill a 3/16 hole so the edge is at this point.
With a small pot melt some pure lead or 40-1 lead tin, this seems to give a better transition and joint. This method allows the lead to be fluxed and cleaned when casting.
With a second pot have the base alloy molten and fluxed.
Pour the nose portion with te ladle and then the base portion from the second pot the 2 should bond completely and be a very solid joint.
Pre heating the mould up to or a little past casting temp is a help. You may need to run the pots a little warmer than normal.

I made my ladle from a piece of 3/8" black iron pipe turned and pressed a 1/8" slug in one end and cut the other at 45* for the pouring lip. Drilled and tapped a 10-32 hole in side for the handle then located the fill level hole and drilled it on location.
Since the nose is less volume a smaller pot is useable here.
You want to complete the 2 pours as quick as possible so having everything set up so its close and handy is important. Leave the ladle in the pot to keep it as hot as possible.
The addition of a small amount of tin in the nose 30-1 or less tin helps in the bonding process and makes the nose more malleable. It aids in the solder joint.

I have done this with bullets for my 45-70 with good results. On some you can see a slight difference in the color of the nose and base. The harder base is more silver while the nose is more grey

[Conditor22]

Try 2 pots and make a dipper out of brass and wire. Keep it submerged in the lead when not using.

Use well fluxed pure and hard alloy in their perspective pots.

If you don't have 2 pots use a burner and small pan for the pure

[Beerd]

The original poster is using the "Bruce B Method" for making softpoint bullets, which actually works quite well.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?17546-Casting-Softnose-Bullets-From-ANY-Conventional-Moulds

He might try casting a dozen bullets with clean pure lead and cutting each into three equal (by eyeball) pieces to use as the nose section.
..