Question on alloys

I posted this in the alloys section, but didn't get any response, so please forgive the double post.

Just finished my first casting session. The 2 molds I have are a Lee 18 Cavity 00 buckshot mold, and a Lee 6 cavity .401 175 gr flat point mold. My plan was to put 10 pounds of clip on wheel weight ingots in the pot and add 2% tin. That was a lot less tin than I was thinking it would be. The smallest ingot I had was closer to 4%, so that's what I put in. I also water quenched them.

The bullets/pellets seem pretty hard, and I am shooting for a harder pellet than the Hornady pellets I've been loading, but they wound up coming out at .323-325 and weighing an average of 50.5 grains (as opposed to .33 cal 54ish grains of the Hornady pellets). The bullets also came out a little small @.4005.

I'm not sure either is really a problem I can't work around, but would a different alloy come out a little bigger? I only have clip on wheel weights, stick on wheel weights and tin that came from pewter I melted into ingots.

I read on here that heat also can play a part on size. So I tried casting them as cool as I could, with the same results.

Any ideas? Or do I just have molds that throw a little small.

Different alloys will drop out ar different sizes. Most molds are designed to drop a certain alloy at predetermined size and weight. Cast with the wrong alloy and you could wind up dropping a bullet too small.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/arch.../t-192192.html

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Casting temperature and alloy does affect size but in a very small amount , I think that is the size your molds produce , but there are ways to make your mold produces a larger Boolit if that is what you need .

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Originally Posted by toallmy

Casting temperature and alloy does affect size but in a very small amount , I think that is the size your molds produce , but there are ways to make your mold produces a larger Boolit if that is what you need .

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I'm waiting on more hulls then I will try them like they are. I have a good load worked up with a 33 cal 54 gr pellet. As for the buck, they will probably work. Might even be able to add 2 more pellets to the load.

Not sure how a .4005 bullet will do in a 40/10mm. How much dia would powder coating add?

I would be happy to send you a little to try powder coating , or you can lap out the cavities a touch also .

PC’ing is your solution if you are worried about EXACT dead-on sizes. Personally I do not give it a 2nd thought if my boolits are 0.0005 under (or over). PC will add about 2 thou to your diameter. One coat will do it. 2 or more is a waste of time and increases inaccuracies due to lop-sided boolits. Final diameters will be determined by your sizing dies, not your molds.

But temp and alloy will definitely change the diameter. That is why I don’t even bother checking the diameters any more. I enjoy my hobbies, not loose sleep worrying over teeny little details.

Banger

Also: Try PC. You will throw your old grease lubes away after experiencing the pleasures of no smoke, no greasy or sticky boolits and NO LEADING. And being able to add a few thou to your boolits if needed is nice and easy.

Where the heck ‘ya been since 2009!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Join in the fun and post regularly.

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Originally Posted by toallmy

I would be happy to send you a little to try powder coating , or you can lap out the cavities a touch also .

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Thank you for the offer. I have some red powder from HF and plan to order some better stuff when I get around to it.

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Originally Posted by bangerjim

PC’ing is your solution if you are worried about EXACT dead-on sizes. Personally I do not give it a 2nd thought if my boolits are 0.0005 under (or over). PC will add about 2 thou to your diameter. One coat will do it. 2 or more is a waste of time and increases inaccuracies due to lop-sided boolits. Final diameters will be determined by your sizing dies, not your molds.

But temp and alloy will definitely change the diameter. That is why I don’t even bother checking the diameters any more. I enjoy my hobbies, not loose sleep worrying over teeny little details.

Banger

Also: Try PC. You will throw your old grease lubes away after experiencing the pleasures of no smoke, no greasy or sticky boolits and NO LEADING. And being able to add a few thou to your boolits if needed is nice and easy.

Where the heck ‘ya been since 2009!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Join in the fun and post regularly.

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Thanks, I will try powder coating. I'm not really worried about exact sizes as long as they shoot ok. I just thought that because they were both undersized by about .005, that it might be something I was doing wrong.

I originally got on here to read about loading buckshot and wanted to start casting also. It took me since 2009 to put my foot down and make myself do it! Thanks for the help fellas.

I'm going to explain this badly but tin being lighter than lead will make lighter bullets but in addition I believe the Sn on a structural level occupies what would be space in the lead or possibly the antimony crystals or molecules so that 4% takes up less space than same amount of lead in the alloy. Something along the lines of you can add spoonful after spoonful of sugar to an already full cup of hot coffee without making the cup over flow. The sugar takes up space that is a void in the water molecule. Or it might be visa versa. I forget detail but the principal idea stuck.

I don't know how hard you need but water dropped imparts a lot of hardness increase to COWW's so you might be able to add in some of that stick on WW lead to increase the weight if not the size. Might even get you a bit of size increase. I tend to use softer alloy with powder coating. Doesn't need to be as hard if it has a slippery shell of PC.

I'll try adding 50% stick on WW lead. Thanks for the suggestion.

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Originally Posted by doghunter

I'll try adding 50% stick on WW lead. Thanks for the suggestion.

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Most if not all stick-on’s (SOWW) I have ever found are pretty much softer lead. Clip-on’s (COWW) generally run ~12 and have ~0.5% Sn. There are threads on here about COWW’s and various shapes and hardnesses.


Banger

The 40/10 doesn't need any tin but do need to be sized properly, PC will solve that problem. Don't do shot pellets, it may need the tin, suspect As will be better.