First Casting

[Fugowii]

I made a few bullets today (250+) from a Lyman 2-Cavity Bullet Mold #358429, 170
Grain Semi-Wadcutter. The alloy is just wheel weights, no tin. I just did the
hardness and it comes out around 9.5 BHN. I thought it would be more as it was
straight wheel weights. I guess next time I will add the tin. I wonder if, because
they are freshly made, they will get harder over time? The WW lead was only
smelted a week ago as well.

This was my first bullet casting that I've done on my own equipment. The only
other casting I did was with a long time caster showing me the ropes. I hadn't
culled the not so good casts in the bunch when I took this picture.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i227/BP_2006/11_02_2009023a.jpg

[stubshaft]

No offense Fugowii but it looks like you were casting with alloy that was not hot enough. I see alot of wrinkled noses and rounded bands.

[j20owner]

No offense Fugowii but it looks like you were casting with alloy that was not hot enough. I see alot of wrinkled noses and rounded bands.

And bases. Tin might help, too.

[dromia]

Some good looking boolits in there mate, not bad at all. :grin:

As you said the duffers in there seem to be the ones you threw whilst getting the mould up to temperature.

The real test will be how they print on the target.

They will harden a bit more with age.

Much over 1-2% tin is wasted really as it doesn't harden or improve castability that much, diminishing returns.

If you need them harder the water dropping would be the way to go.

However hardness is not everything, boolit fit is king.

[Bret4207]

You did pretty good. Your mold needs to be hotter for fillout though. Get a good tempo going and don;t spend time looking at the boolits you drop. Every second that mould is empty it's cooling down. That will help a lot with the rounded bands and bases.

Yes, the boolits will harden over the next few days, but don't worry about hardness. Put it out of your mind for now. Your main concern should be casting as close to perfect boolits as you can and getting them to fit your gun. No worry about more tin for now either, just concentrate on quality.

[243winxb]

it comes out around 9.5 BHN. To Soft IMO. Were bullets air cooled or water dropped? What gun, what load, powder. .357mag.?

[44man]

WW's cast fine the way they are, I never needed tin and when I added some I seen no difference. Tin has almost no hardening effect, it takes much more then needed to see any change. Tin aids flow and binds the antimony in the alloy.
Get the lead to about 750*, keep the mold hot by controlling casting speed and water drop the boolits to harden.
There are some good boolits in that batch, just sort out the culls. Soon you will make all 250 without a reject.

[bedwards]

Looks good, need to sort out the bad ones and run hotter, but real good for your first try. I have good luck with straight W/W without any added tin. The proof will be when you try them at the range.


be

[docone31]

I have loaded lots of castings just like that!
Not too shabby.
Turn up the heat, and heat the mold a little more.
The sprue should freeze in the count of six from the pour.
That is my winning technique.

[montana_charlie]

If your bullets really are 9.5 BHN, that's pretty soft (as bullets go).
You have already been advised that there are a lot of wrinkles and rounded corners...but you can get rounded corners on perfect 'soft' bullets by jumbling them together in a pile like that...and handling them like a can full of marbles.
CM

[1Shirt]

Not bad at all. Have done worse in the past, and what you have is more than good enough for plinkin! Would suggest that if they are under 10 bh you might want to keep them under 1000 fps. Good luck!
1Shirt!:coffeecom

[Fugowii]

Some good looking boolits in there mate, not bad at all. :grin:

As you said the duffers in there seem to be the ones you threw whilst getting the mould up to temperature.

They were. I would say the first 20-25 were both getting the alloy up to temp,
the mold up to temp, and me on board with the routine. Actually I probably had
the longer ramp up curve than either the alloy or mold.


The real test will be how they print on the target.

They will harden a bit more with age.

Much over 1-2% tin is wasted really as it doesn't harden or improve castability that much, diminishing returns.

I would be shooting for 1.5% tin.


If you need them harder the water dropping would be the way to go.

However hardness is not everything, boolit fit is king.

I thought of that after the fact. I was going to search for the 'heating up your
lead in the oven to make them harder" thread.

[Fugowii]

If your bullets really are 9.5 BHN, that's pretty soft (as bullets go).
You have already been advised that there are a lot of wrinkles and rounded corners...but you can get rounded corners on perfect 'soft' bullets by jumbling them together in a pile like that...and handling them like a can full of marbles.
CM

I hadn't culled the not so good casts in the bunch when I took the picture. I culled
about 20-25 bullets out of the mix after I posted the picture. I probably kept a
couple of slightly wrinkled ones I shouldn't have.

[Bret4207]

Guys, he JUST cast the boolits. Todays 9.5 boolit may well be next weeks 11 Bhn which is plenty hard enough for most run of the mill 44 mag loads. Don't worry about Bhn, they'll harden over the next 2 weeks.

[fredj338]

Guys, he JUST cast the boolits. Todays 9.5 boolit may well be next weeks 11 Bhn which is plenty hard enough for most run of the mill 44 mag loads. Don't worry about Bhn, they'll harden over the next 2 weeks.
That's correct, they'll get closer to 12BHN in a week or so. Preety good for first run. Adding tin will help w/ mold fill-out or turn the pot up. You may also try putting the spout in contact w/ the spru palte, it works for me w/ just about any mold, any size.

[wallenba]

Cull out the real bad ones, size and lube the rest if you are not shooting them too fast. You'd be surprised at what still works sometimes. Some might end up as fliers but from what I see most will shoot. But you need to bring the temp up.

[AZ-Stew]

With the exception of the ones you've identified as culls, the only problems I see are some with slightly rounded base corners. These make good plinkers. If you want fine accuracy, the boolit bases must have square corners.

If you're in a hurry to shoot some of them, and who in your position as a new caster wouldn't be, keep the velocities down in the 8-900 fps range. You'll enjoy shooting them.


I wonder if, because they are freshly made, they will get harder over time? The WW lead was only smelted a week ago as well.

They'll get a little harder. As has been said, don't worry too much about this now. Perfect your casting technique first, then it may be time to fool with hardness. The fact that smelting was done close to the time the bullets were cast has absolutely no bearing on boolit hardness. The clock starts again at zero each time you melt the alloy. The only "time zero" that counts toward hardness is the last one - the time you cast the boolits, or the time you quench them after heat treating.

Please see my thread: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=42870 for info on inexpensive oven heat treating.

Regards,

Stew

[ghh3rd]

I think that you must be a bit like me -- so anxious to share a pic of your batch of boolits that you didn't want to take time to cull out the rejects. I've done the same thing. You have lots of good boolits there. Enjoy loading and shooting them.

Randy

[Fugowii]

Please see my thread: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=42870 for info on inexpensive oven heat treating.

Regards,

Stew

Thanks Stew,

That's the thread I was going to search for. What a great thread! I hope that
it got made into a sticky.

F

[AZ-Stew]

Not so far.

Regards,

Stew