alloy for casting

[songdog33]

Howdy all: I was wondering if I could draw upon the vast knowledge here? I have 2 moulds that I want to cast bullets for hunting. one is an RCBS 165 Sil that i will be using in my .308 and 7.5 Swiss on deer and Elk. I also have a lyman .22 cal. 57GR hollowpoint mould that will be used on coyote and other varmints in my .223 and .22-250. Both are CG bullets. I am just starting out casting for rifles. what kind of alloy should I start with? any suggestions on a powder and starting loads. I have about 8lbs. of Accurate 5744 and use winchester primers. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everybody. Tom

[wiljen]

cheapest thing to try is water dropped Wheel weights. Next in line especially with a 22 mold that may be difficult to get good fillout is linotype.

[Buckshot]

............To 'start' with I'd suggest 1 lead and 2 WW. You might also add 1% tin. That'd give an alloy of about 9+ bhn and from there you can begin working your velocity up. After that, since you plan on shooting live animals with both, I'd sure suggest you did some expansion testing. If you'd said you were going to be using a 40, 44, or 45 cal in a straight case on the large game, then straight WW would have been my answer. You also didn't mention any velocities you were looking for. What range limitations are you placing on yourself?

...............Buckshot

[DLCTEX]

Get the mould and alloy hot to cast the 22 cal. and keep a fast pace to keep it hot.

[runfiverun]

your best accuracy will right around 1899 fps.
i use that boolit in both my 7.5 and 308.
cut the ww's 50-50 and waterdrop, i like to anneal the nose for hunting.

[steg]

runfiverun, how do you anneal the nose of the boolit ? ..............steg

[Char-Gar]

Songdog... A couple of thought on you post;

1. Rethink the use of RCBS 165 SIL for hunting. It is a great accuracy bullet, but that itty bitty meplat is way to small for it to be an effective hunting bullet. A bullet with a larger meplat and more weight would serve you better. There are a number of better bullets out there.

2. Air cooled wheel weight is just fine for a hunting bullet that leave the muzzle in the 1.6 to 1.9K fps velocity range.

[sundog]

Songdog, I've had good accuracy results with the RCBS 30-180-SP (small meplat on this one, too) over an appropriate charge of 5744 (different for different guns and boolits). That was in a heavy barrel 12 twist Rem 700. A day at the range loading different charges might reveal one your rifle favors. Who cares what the velocity is, as long as it hits consistently where you aim.

Might I suggest the Ranch Dog 30-170-FN for a hunting boolit? Inexpensive mould, but might be what you are looking for. Or 311041?

[runfiverun]

just like brass.
stand in a pan of water wave the torch over the nose you will see it take a color change.
if you see it sweat and not slump you should be okay still, but the color shift is what you are looking for.
this changes the alloy back to the origional mix's bhn.
do not tip them over in the water.
you will know when you get it through the thumbnail test.

[steg]

Thanks runfiverun, been casting since the early 70s, Back then you were the strange guy that makes his own boolits, and that's what's so good about this site, back then it was done by the seat of your pants and hope you got it right. Here you can ask a question and if someone has the answer that works for them they will pass it on.......................steg