Beginner about to dip my toes in lead

[MediocreMan]

Hello gents,

I’ve been lurking for a bit while reading my Lyman casting book & I have a few questions on types of lead.

I mostly plan on casting hard to find/expensive bullets for older rifles like 6.5 Carcano, Martini Henry, ect. Should I focus on buying harder lead like Lineotype for rifle shooting?

Thanks!

[Bookworm]

I'm using straight air cooled wheel weights, shooting a few Mosins at about 1700-1800 fps.
I've never tried a harder alloy, but I probably should, if only to see if it can help. I'm shooting about 3 MOA with iron sights, and that may be as good as it gets, but it wouldn't hurt to try something harder.

[Wayne Smith]

Gas checked boolits and water dropped/hardened wheel weights will do what you need.

[Rich/WIS]

For high velocity loads Lino is hard to beat, but for low or mid range loads is overkill. Lino cut 1/1 with range scrap will produce alloy that will met or exceed requirements. Most important factor is sizing diameter and to a lesser extent lube. Most of my shooting is in the 1500-1600 fps range and have found a mix of 5/6% antimony and 2% tin to be more than adequate.

[William Yanda]

My first thought was; please, please don't, you will find it painful. lol
You would do well to check out the article on lead alloys available at the bottom of the page. Or google Glen Fryxel, LASC

[GhostHawk]

50/50 mix of range scrap, COWW with 1 or 2 % tin added for good flow, nice shiny boolits.

Keep the speed reasonable and those will work. But if you want to work on the fast side, then yes water drop, and maybe some lino to blend.

[15meter]

Start here:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?13425-Cast-Bullet-Loads-for-Military-Rifles-Article

If you are a new caster, start with the lowest slowest stuff you can, leaded bores from mis-matched bore/bullet diameters,
wrong alloy, wrong lube, wrong speed SUCK!a

Go low and slow and work your way up, looking back, the only benefit I see to the hard/high alloy bullet metal is that it fills out molds better, unless you really need the hard alloy for speed.

Old guns don't need speed.

I now use range scrap with Goodwill pewter for better mold fill out for most of my just for fun shooting. The WW/lino/high alloy stuff gets reserved for the M1 and the M1 Carbine.

But I'm a big fan of slow plinker kinda loads, one of my favorite loads when I was loading 45-70 regularly was 4.4 grains of Clays under a Lyman cast 457122 at
about 340 grains. That one may have made 600 FPS. But it rang the dingers nicely.

[Froogal]

Don't plan on using wheel weights. Most of those are not made of lead anymore.

[RED BEAR]

Wheel weights is all i use for rifles. Water dropped wheel weights are as hard as you could want i get 25 to 26 bnh. Also gas check pretty much all my rifle bullets. i don't push anything aver about 2400 fps. I would definitely slug the carcano most need a slightly larger bullet than a standard 6.5.
I will also warn you once you pour the lead into a mold for the first time your hooked. Things will never be the same.

[JBinMN]

Hello gents,

I’ve been lurking for a bit while reading my Lyman casting book & I have a few questions on types of lead.

I mostly plan on casting hard to find/expensive bullets for older rifles like 6.5 Carcano, Martini Henry, ect. Should I focus on buying harder lead like Lineotype for rifle shooting?

Thanks!

Welcome to CB.GL Forum!
:)

Have a look around & use the search engine to find info on how to create lead alloys, how to make them harder (adding antimony or heat treat/water dropping) and such.

You may also want to go read some articles like these:

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletAlloy.htm

http://www.lasc.us/FryxellCBAlloyObturation.htm

Search &/or read thru these:
http://www.lasc.us/ArticleIndex.htm

And these:
http://www.lasc.us/ArticlesFryxell.htm

G'Luck!


P.S. - try to be as specific as possible when asking questions & and give as much info as possible in detail for others to work with & you will get better answers.

General questions usually get general answers.
Detailed questions with necessary info usually gets detailed answers
;)

Once again, Welcome to CB.GL forum!
:)

[ShooterAZ]

For a high velocity rifle load I like to use a blend of 75% WW to 25% Lino. It works pretty well for me, BHN is around 15 air cooled. For mid velocity loads from 1200 to 1800 FPS +/- straight WW plus a little tin usually works fine too. For 900-1200 fps rifle plinking loads I will just use range scrap or the 1/3/96 alloy I get from Isotope Cores.

[country gent]

Welcome to the forum. This is an addiction. One tip I will give is when you start casting be sure to use the proper protective gear. Hat glasses gloves heavy clothing and heavy boots or shoes. A little opps can result in a scare and no injury or a painful burn depending on this. Another way to ease starting into this is instead of blending alloy from the start, buy the appropriate bhn ready to go at first. This way you know what you have in the alloy and can concentrate on learning to cast good bullets.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

MediocreMan,
Welcome to the forum.
I'd strongly suggest you start with a low pressure pistol cartridge, like 38 spl or 45 acp. Casting and loading castboolits for Rifle is kind of an Advanced part of our hobby, and you can learn many simple issues from loading/casting for pistol, that will help you through the learning curve for casting/loading for Rifle.
That's my 2¢

BUT, if you are sure you want to start with Rifle, 15meter has given you a link to a excellent article.

Start here:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?13425-Cast-Bullet-Loads-for-Military-Rifles-Article


>>>SNIP

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Oh, as to your question about buying Lead...Buy whatever you can find at a reasonable price locally, sooner or later you will find a use for it, whether it is hard or soft.

I use 94-3-3 for Rifle. It can be used air-cooled for low to moderate loads, and can be heat-treated to 24Bhn for High velocity loads.

[pjames32]

Don't plan on using wheel weights. Most of those are not made of lead anymore.

You need to "sort" the wheelweights. Depending on your location, you can expect 40-70% to be lead!

[Cherokee]

You've gotten lots of advice, so I'll just say - Welcome ! and be careful.

[luvtn]

If you are new and don’t have equipment yet let me suggest a lee 20ib furnace. I have a 10 lb. then I bought lead that came in 14 lb ingots. Good luck!
Luvtn

[popper]

about to dip my toes in lead Ouch! Tinsel fairy will do it for you. Roto sell antimony alloy pretty cheap but I find (use Bumpo's alloy calculator) most effective to get pure and add Roto super hard nuggets. Another is get #2 and cut 50/50 with pure. You probably won't be pushing those milsurps hard so softer alloy is OK but you should start with a GC mould. The Lee bottom dripper works fine. Get a SS small ladle, drill small hole if you want to ladle (pressure) pour. Don't bother with the Lee small ladle! Get a used hot plate to heat the mould. Lee moulds are OK to begin, plan on a custom or two. Start with LLA (alox) for lube, then IMHO, PC is the way to go. Lots of expensive 'stuff' you can buy for casting that you don't really need.

[44Blam]

Don't plan on using wheel weights. Most of those are not made of lead anymore.

I found one in a parking lot the other day...

[Froogal]

You need to "sort" the wheelweights. Depending on your location, you can expect 40-70% to be lead!

Or in the case of the 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights I was able to scrounge one year ago, about 30% were lead. Everything else was steel or some grade of plastic.

[WRideout]

My rifle boolits are typically air cooled wheel weight, with some added tin for good fillout. The old-time rifles you are shooting probably won't take real high pressure, so I wouldn't worry about casting your boolits real hard. If you check the swapping and selling posts, many members here are selling lead alloy of various compositions at reasonable prices. For pistol boolits I have been using range scrap plus tin (range scrap = bullets recovered from backstop and melted down.) If you are having trouble getting lead, send me a PM, and I might be able to help you out.

Where are you in PA? I'm next to Pittsburgh.

Wayne

[MediocreMan]

Thanks for all the replies going to start digesting the new info.

The only equipment I have is some nice welding gloves & the new Lyman casting book. I knew I’d ultimately head down this road after trying to reload bizarre cartridges & dealing with worn bores

[RED BEAR]

The welding gloves are good make sure you have large safety glasses or better yet a face shield. Long sleeves and long pants shoes i also use a shop apron. I am a bit on the clumsy side so i need all the help i can get. The obscure and old are my favorite guns. Anyway glad to have you and please if not sure about something ask. The only dumb question is one not asked. Members on this site are great and more than willing to help.