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Hi, my name is John and I just joined today. I want to cast some hard 00 and have some 30:1 bullet alloy that I am thinking about using. I have been using pure lead. Would this alloy be too hard? Any replies would greatly be welcomed and thanks in advance.
No, it's too soft. Clip on wheel weights and dropped into water right out of the mold is about as good as it gets. 30:1 will not quench harden.
I agree, the alloy has no antimony in it, it is too soft for this purpose. Check out Rotometals advertisement at the top of the page, you'll find what you need there!
I will echo the above comments. Water drop some wheel weight lead. I use .311 round ball mold. For hoots you can even PC the buck shot.
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this casting for shotgun business will suck you into a vortex. Before long you'll be buying slug barrel after slug barrel and reading here several hours a day. It becomes an afliction. Paper.patching slugs, round ball slugs, Russian molds, powders by the bottle lined up like the bar in that coyote ugly movie. Pretty soon you'll be going "fun, ain't it?" To everyone trying out your toys. Good. luck!��
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Thanks for the info. I guess my next question would be What is the definition of hard cast Buck? Does it have to be water quenched?
30:1 is still harder than pure lead. I picked this up in a garage sale and just trying to figure out what to do with it.
Thanks in advance, John
There is no real definition, just what it means to you. Factory buckshot I'm sure varies, but the alloy they use is going to be close to our clip on wheel weights, about 12 BHN. You can certainly use softer alloy, but results are not going to be as good as factory shot.Quote:
Originally Posted by tcshooter52
What you can do with your soft lead is to mix it with some harder stuff, like clip on wheel weights, linotype, etc, and then water quench. Even relatively soft alloy when air cooled, will water quench very hard. To do this it is generally understood you need some arsenic, which comes from clip on wheel weights (not stick on). Some people have claimed that antimony alone will harden.
I do know that pure lead, or lead/tin alloys like 30:1 will not water quench at all. 30:1 is harder than pure lead, but still very much in the soft category by nearly anyones standard. 30:1 does make some fantastic bullets for certain applications though, so I would save it for that. Things like hollow points, black powder bullets, and so on.
Thank you for the info. Next question: If loading soft cast 00 would buffer be required to lesion deformation ? Loading Buck shot is new for me.
Buffer is always good with even the hardest of buckshot if you want to tighten patterns. Finding data for buffered loads can be tricky. You can not add buffer to a load tested without it.