Mixed ingots?

[Dapaki]

***I have changed my mind on lead hardness***

I screwed up and cast a batch of 200gr RFP booilts for my 350LGD with dead soft lead on Friday night to shoot at a friends Saturday evening. The mold didn't fill out and I had to run it way too hot to get a good cast but I was in too much of a hurry to care so I finished the batch of 200 anyway.

Gas checks, PC, size (Hey! These size EASY!) and load just in time to load it all up and head off for the night. Purdy FORD blue PC, showed them off to the rest of the shooters (had some loos ones in hand) and shot about 125 or so until it got dark.

Upon dispensing Hurricanes, I told them all about the PC and how well it works on high velocity rifle rounds, how it doesn't come off when firing and the clean bore they leave. Being skeptical, we took a boolit and smashed it with a hammer and that is when it all came together, dead soft lead, trace tin only, flattened out like play-dough! The PC held on though, making my point for me.

Hurricanes in hand, we trudged down to look at the targets and while I am no sharp shooter by any stretch, the grouping was solid at 12" off hand with no flyers or key-holing.

The bore was clean, just a speckling of powder, how could this be? I will cast up a batch of "appropriately hard" boolits tonight and fire them side by side with the soft cast ones from last weekend and see if indeed there is any difference from a bench rest. I am guessing that there will be no difference at all.

Thoughts!

[Dusty Bannister]

You may not have any idea what you want to cast for in a couple of years. I would suggest that you work with your range scrap plus a little tin, and explore the Heat Treat and Quench process in the event you find a cast bullet rifle in your future. I would hate to see someone just use up a resource to get rid of it and then deal with that loss of resource in the future. But you do what you think is best for your situation because no one else knows what your future holds.

[kmw1954]

Dusty at 66 with limited mobility I don't think I'll be headed out to the woods anytime soon. I have been a pistol shooter my entire life and I don't expect that is going to change at this late date. But thank you for the concern.

Dapaki, I haven't progressed that far yet to try coatings. I am still trying to find molds and loads that work with my guns.

[Dapaki]

Dusty at 66 with limited mobility I don't think I'll be headed out to the woods anytime soon. I have been a pistol shooter my entire life and I don't expect that is going to change at this late date. But thank you for the concern.

Dapaki, I haven't progressed that far yet to try coatings. I am still trying to find molds and loads that work with my guns.

KMW, I cannot tell you how much better PCing is than grease and beeswax! Once you get the mold/s and load/s, try the Piglet method of wet application of PC. Way to easy!

[kmw1954]

Certainly down the road I will be giving coating a try and am leaning towards the Hi-Tek but for now there are other things to get settled. Like, molds, loads, alloys, alloy resources. Coating wont matter if I cannot get the material.

[triggerhappy243]

kmw1954, I sent you a PM

[kmw1954]

kmw1954, I sent you a PM

Received it and responded.

[fredj338]

Not sure what vel/pressure the 350 runs but for me, PC is a better bet for rifle rounds running over 1600fps or so. I tried HT in my 6.8 & couldn't even get on paper at 50y. With PC, 3" groups @ 100y. The bullet has no gc so I do need to experiment with a harder alloy.

[Green Frog]

I just putzed about with casting pistol bullets for about 20 years until I took up the schuetzen game. At that point, precision in my alloy took on a whole new level of importance and I began mixing semi-large batches of pure lead and pure tin at a rate of 25 to 1. I cast ONLY this mix for my schuetzen bullets for a period of about 20 years, and when I shoot this game these days, I still use the same, known mix.

Pistol bullets have neither the same level of shooting performance with me shooting them nor the need for the same level of precision in alloy mixing. I've got several hundred pounds of COWW ingots cast well over 20 years ago and nearly as much alloy that my Dad mixed up back then to approximate #2 Lyman alloy... so I just make up pot sized mixtures of these available alloys for most pistol shooting. I have a diminished supply of pure lead for BP shooting and a sufficient supply of pure tin to fine tune the alloys above or make up more schuetzen alloy if needed.

At age 70 I'm actually getting to cast a little more than I did for the past 10-15 years so I am reading with interest as people write about what they have as a lifetime supply. I haven't turned down any offer of lead or lead alloy yet!

Froggie

PS I forgot to mention the 75-100 pounds of monotype letters given to my Dad by a church friend when his print shop changed systems. I can harden up alloy for rifle bullets or high performance pistol bullets with that.

[samari46]

I normally don't shoot anything that doesn't require my wheel weights plus 2%. However should I do I have a stash of ingots which are basically hard ball alloy. When I used to mine the berms time was on my side. Our berms were hard Louisiana clay which the hotter it gets so does the clay. Very easy to go out there with a shovel,rake and a screen made up with 1/4" cloth and some 2x4's. tank an empty bucket,place screen over the top and start shoveling. Would take 6 minutes to fill a bucket. I usually brought a handcart to hump the buckets to the truck.And just dump the bucket in the truck. The rake was used to rake the sides of the berm so more castbullets would be available for pickup. Would just shovel the bullets onto the screen on the bucket. In two hours could have easily 10 5 gallon buckets worth of bullets. See a lot of us would buy our 45 hardcast bullets in bulk.and were talking maybe 25 to 30 thousand bullets. When doing the berm I'd toss all of them in the truck. They got melted down separately. And the ingots in a specialy marked bucket.Frank

[lightman]

KMW1954, just a thought for you. Run a want to buy lead ad on Craigslist or on many of the local swap shops.

A couple of years ago me and a buddy bought over 5600# of wheel weights from another caster that was down sizing. He told us that thats how he got the lead. He stated that he started keeping a little cash on hand and had an old bathroom scale in the garage. People brought lead to him. Might still work ok!

[kmw1954]

There is one person already hitting most of the state of Wisconsin advertising for lead. Recently missed out on a score. A guy had 300# he was selling for like $200.00 only he was 4 hours away, I had no way to go get it. It sold quickly!

[lightman]

We all have stories about the score that got away! But you hit one every once in a while. Getting started and getting ahead can be tough. Just keep plugging away and be patient, something will come your way.

If you were closer I would share my next score with you. I'm the one that found that 5600# score and I let a buddy get most of it.

[kmw1954]

Back on topic, I now have 60+ lbs. of that indoor range scrap ingoted and it is pretty soft. Even after mixing in 1% of that print type I just received into the sample I made up, it didn't harden it much. Might have to try another 1% to see what happens. The 200gr 45 RNFP bullets I poured were dropping at 210gr with this range scrap.