New Member, New To Casting

[Djp7x0s]

Hey, thanks for having me, my names Dan. IÂ’ve been reloading for a while
now, but IÂ’m brand new to casting my own bullets. IÂ’d like to think that IÂ’m smarter than most and I am pretty good at figuring things out. IÂ’ve done a ton of reading and research on this subject. Enough to make it seem much more complicated than I assume it should be. I think my research may have delved into depths, much more advanced than I need to be. For the time being, IÂ’m only looking to produce cheap plinking ammo. IÂ’m starting with pistols and magnum pistols, Ill move onto mid sized rifles and straight walled rifles, once I have a better grasp of things.

Anyways..... so far IÂ’ve ordered liquid allox and some powder coating to try, and I have beeswax and options to try pan lubes. I have a few molds with small rings and and a couple with large rings. I have around 70 pounds of soft lead which was sourced from chimney flashing and lead drain pipes. I have about 80 pounds of wheel weight lead, I made sure that no zinc made it into the mix. And I have 50 pounds of foundry type lead. My thermometer and my Lee hardness test kit should be here in a few days. So far, I mixed a small test batch of wheel weight lead and soft lead at a 1:1 ratio as well as a test batch of Foundry type and soft lead at a 1:3 ratio. I cast a few good handfuls of bullets with each batch. I let half air cool and half were dropped from the mold into a water quench. Good looking bullets, fully formed, weights are almost dead on to what the molds say they should be, diameter too. My plan was, wait a few days, test hardness and then try to figure out which direction to head. Instead of all of that... IÂ’d love to hear expert advice. What mix of lead should I be trying??? Air dry, water quench or heat treat??? What lube method should I do??? IÂ’m
Loading for 9mm, 38 special, 357mag, 44mag and 45acp. Should my lead be different hardness for the 44mag pistol versus my rifle??? And should I treat my 30-30, 35rem and 45-70 as if I better wait till I get a much better grasp of it all?

Thanks,
Dan

[Conditor22]

Djp7x0s welcome to cast boolits.

first question is what boolit are you casting for what firearm and how fast do you plan on pushing it?

[Djp7x0s]

Djp7x0s welcome to cast boolits.

first question is what boolit are you casting for what firearm and how fast do you plan on pushing it?

I’m focusing on pistols to start. I’m casting and loading for 9mm, 38 special, 357mag, 44 mag and 45ACP for now. My plan has been, mix lead, see what I get and figure out what it’s good for. I’m thinking that my 1:1 wheel weights to soft lead and my 1:3 foundry type to soft lead.... something there I’m hoping will work for 9mm, 38 and 45acp, if I let the bullets air cool. And I’m thinking that if I quench in water, something there might be good for the magnums. Either way, how I’m approaching this now is strictly going to be trial and error. I’m hoping to hear some suggestions as to how I should try mixing the types of lead that I have and how should I treat it out of the mold??? I do have a hardness tester on the way, and I have seen the equation of how hardness should correlate to pressure. I’ve also read a ton saying that the equation is irrelevant at lower velocities. I’m open to any suggestions. I’m new to this, I have zero experience.

[Dusty Bannister]

You have several options without using the foundry metal. Blend the soft lead and the wheel weights for good plinking loads for the pressures of the 38 Special and 45 ACP. Then quench that alloy from the mold when casting for the other handgun calibers. Do not delay in drying the castings and lube sizing before they quench harden and make it more difficult.

Keep in mind that fresh cast bullets are not as hard as they will be in 14-21 days if air cooled. Quenched, they harden much quicker. At lower pressures the quenched bullets may be too hard to correctly seal the bore and could result in gas cutting and leading the length of the barrel. So while hardness in low pressure loads is less critical, it can not be ignored.

While it is fine to blend the soft lead and the foundry metal just to see what it will do, it might not be a very cost effective method of getting the bullet hardness that you can produce with quenching from the mold, or even oven heat treating and quenching. Enjoy the experience and follow safe practices. Dusty

[jakemo]

Thanks for all the info guys; newbie here too.

[Djp7x0s]

You have several options without using the foundry metal. Blend the soft lead and the wheel weights for good plinking loads for the pressures of the 38 Special and 45 ACP. Then quench that alloy from the mold when casting for the other handgun calibers. Do not delay in drying the castings and lube sizing before they quench harden and make it more difficult.

Keep in mind that fresh cast bullets are not as hard as they will be in 14-21 days if air cooled. Quenched, they harden much quicker. At lower pressures the quenched bullets may be too hard to correctly seal the bore and could result in gas cutting and leading the length of the barrel. So while hardness in low pressure loads is less critical, it can not be ignored.

While it is fine to blend the soft lead and the foundry metal just to see what it will do, it might not be a very cost effective method of getting the bullet hardness that you can produce with quenching from the mold, or even oven heat treating and quenching. Enjoy the experience and follow safe practices. Dusty

Thanks for the reply. Very much appreciated

[pjames32]

Sounds like you have a good start and have done some research. Soft lead and clip on wheel weights was all I had when I started (50 years ago). Your 1:1 soft/ww will work for most of the slower pistol rounds. Straight clip on WW works for the faster stuff. Save your foundry metal for really fast stuff. I water drop just about everything because I find it easier for me. Not needed for softer stuff and won't help if all you have is lead and tin in the mix. If you search there is an Excel calculator on here somewhere that you can download to your computer and get a good mix. The one I have does not account for water dropped bullets. When all is said and done bullet fit is king to prevent leading. Good luck!

[Bird]

Clip on WW's are just about all I ever use for everything., and nearly all water dropped. The only time I have added a couple of % tin, is when I go for cooler cast bullets and better fillout, especially for the 45-70 where it helps to seat the gas checks better.
Ben's red lube on everything I cast. If the bullet fits the firearm correctly, it does not seem to matter if they are water or air dropped.

[KYCaster]

WOW!!!
That's a lot information to digest. What alloy for plinking, magnums, rifle... air cool, water drop, heat treat... tumble lube, powder coat, wax lube, HiTeck..
WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SO COMPLICATED???

Well, it can be intimidating and a bit overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be complicated.

All the cartridges you mentioned will work very well with one simple 14 - 16 BHN alloy you can easily blend with the material you have on hand. Start with 10 lbs. of WW, add 5 oz. of foundry type and 3.5 oz. of Sn from lead free solder or pewter. That will give you something very close to 94-3-3. It can't get much easier than that and you can quench, heat treat or whatever if that's what you decide you want to do.

Start with the .38 and .45ACP, these should be easy. Just about any lube or coating method will work with them. Play with bullet size and lube options till you get it right. If you can't get these to work, you'll have problems with the others.

Moving on up to the .357 and 44... start slow and work up. If you run into problems, try larger size, better lube or slower powder.
One important thing to remember here... the 94-3-3 alloy is not the problem! Unless you're pushing the absolute limit of your BFR or Freedom Arms, the alloy will do the job.

Rifles? Same, same. You may need GC's where appropriate, but the alloy will easily get you to 2000+ FPS in the cartridges you mention. Compared to handguns, bullet fit in rifles is a whole different animal.

DON'T PANIC!! Only change one variable at a time and keep notes.

Have fun and good luck.
Jerry

Edit to add:
The 94-3-3 alloy will do just fine air cooled. No need to add water quench or heat treat unless you later find you need it. (you won't!)

[Oily]

Try all other calibers and get your confidence up before you try 9mm. 9mm can be a pain until you learn your gun.

[Lloyd Smale]

yup just to get rolling id recommend you use just clip on ww. Its good enough for 90 percent of what your going to cast and ANYTHING in a handgun. Save your pure and your mono for down the road when your more experienced and want to do some experimenting. Type metal is getting hard to find and I sure wish I had back the tons of it I sent into dirt banks. Stick with your ww and if you want harder maybe try water dropping them. KEEP IT SIMPLE.

[Cast_outlaw]

I’m going to put this up it may help

[Djp7x0s]

Wow thank you for all the replies. Awesome group you have here, tons of info and a lot of very helpful people. As much research as I have done, paired with everyone having different methods and opinions... yes it does seem very overwhelming and a bit daunting. You guys have definitely helped calm my worries. Thank you for that, and thank you tons for the replies. Tracking info shows that my Hardness tester will be here tomorrow. So that’s something to help confirm what I’m using and help me hone in on consistency. My powder coating came today, and I had a little bit of time to experiment. It added .0025 to my diameter and slid through my sizing die beautifully. I have more experimenting to do, but right off the bat, I started getting pretty decent results. I still plan on trying the allox and pan lube methods. But I kind of have it in my head now that I’d like a few ammo cans full of Red, White and Blue bullets!!! I also managed to track down a bullet sizing die in .459 for my 45-70. Lee doesn’t make a .459. I found a site that sells a Lee .457 that they team out to .459. I do have a 458 Lott as well. It would be nice to be able to cast for that but that pushes a very big bullet, really fast lol.

[Djp7x0s]

[Conditor22]

Here is a link to "bumpo's alloy calculator" it will get you close.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...=1#post2883499

for the first time that PC looks good. coverage isn't complete or even bu it will get the job done.

What PC and method did you use
what temperature and how long did you bake them.

I've got 6 45/70 molds; when you load your own ammo you can push the boolits as fast or slow as you want to.

It is really easy to enlarge a push-through sizer die. -- a round something wrapped with 400 grit sandpaper slid in the hole. roll the die on your leg for 30 seconds then test to see how big a boolit it produces. when you get close to the size you want then switch to fine sandpaper and polish it to the desired diameter then I like to polish the entrance to the die.

NOE makes a .459 sizer bushing for their sizing system. they also gave a large selection of different sizes

https://noebulletmolds.com/site/prod...y/sizing-tools

https://noebulletmolds.com/site/prod...tools/bushings

[Djp7x0s]

Here is a link to "bumpo's alloy calculator" it will get you close.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...=1#post2883499

for the first time that PC looks good. coverage isn't complete or even bu it will get the job done.

What PC and method did you use
what temperature and how long did you bake them.

I've got 6 45/70 molds; when you load your own ammo you can push the boolits as fast or slow as you want to.

It is really easy to enlarge a push-through sizer die. -- a round something wrapped with 400 grit sandpaper slid in the hole. roll the die on your leg for 30 seconds then test to see how big a boolit it produces. when you get close to the size you want then switch to fine sandpaper and polish it to the desired diameter then I like to polish the entrance to the die.

NOE makes a .459 sizer bushing for their sizing system. they also gave a large selection of different sizes

https://noebulletmolds.com/site/prod...y/sizing-tools

https://noebulletmolds.com/site/prod...tools/bushings

Interesting, I have not heard that you can change the size of the sizing die as easily as that. I like that, great tip thank you.

The powder came from a seller on eBay, selling cheap old stock. I was assuming that it was cheap because of the possibility of clumping and that it wouldn’t work though a gun. I figured, clumps wouldn’t matter if I’m shaking bullets around. After I ordered it for $10 a pound, shipping included, I read a lot about different types of powders some work some don’t..... Anyways, when the power coating came today, I tried to coat a handful, just to see if they coated. It was warm and sunny out and they quickly took a thin and pretty even coat with just a touch of lead showing through the coating. I walked away and didn’t try baking those. I was waiting for my buddy to bring a junk toaster. By the time he came, sun was setting and it was about 55 degrees out. I couldn’t get that coating to stick. Tried cleaning the bullets with acetone, same thing, wouldn’t stick. Tried warming the bullets, put them in the toaster at 150 for 4 mins. As soon as the warm bullets hit the powder coat, it wanted to melt and left a thick uneven coating. We baked that at 400 for 15 mins and that’s the picture I posted. Came out much better than I was anticipating. I’m expecting better results tomorrow. I’m thinking the powder will coat nicely as long as it’s warm, maybe 75-90???

I found the sizing does here https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categ...1/LEE-SIZE-459