Thanks to a friendly local caster inviting me for a hands on session i got to experience the process from start to finish. I can tell there's going to be a lot of trial and error and more of a feel you get from experience in getting consistent sized/shaped bullets. Came home with a dozen bullets from that session and they measured .454" but the Lee mold is a 457. I was told the mold might not have been hot enough or the temp of the lead was too hot as possible reasons they came up so short.
today i also made some connections at my local tire shops and most offered free wheel weights even most were not likely to be lead. Some places said they'd put a bucket aside for me and to come back in a week and one very mean old lady wanted cash for a tiny pail of mixed metals which i was fine paying for but only if it were all lead. Her words "no one gave me this for free so why should i?", idk but she came off really unfriendly from the start i would not buy from them. the only real lead i came home with was 25lbs of magnum shot lead.
By the way im planning on casting for an 1895 marlin, 405grs using 10-14gr of unique so very low pressure. So my concern is having the right components of lead for my purpose. From my understanding i need a hardness of 18+ for low pressure rifle bullets, will the shot lead or wheel weights get me their or do i have to experiment with a mixture?
update: Going with magnum lead shot as i've read has a bhn of 13. water quenching will get me where i need to be at. Thanks guys