45 ACP alloy

[odfairfaxsub]

i use 50 50 of pure lead and ww. works just freakin awesome

[jfischer]

Is their a reason not to water drop? Just seems cleaner to doso and no chance of sticking body parts on hot Bootlits.

[Sonnypie]

jfisher, Welcome to Cast Boolits.

No reason I can think of. Once I tried it myself, I found I really like it and I am doing mine that way routinely now.

Conversely I would ask if there is any advantage to air cooling. (Other than your boolits don't get wet.)

I have my own test going on comparing the two methods.

[Dale53]

Is their a reason not to water drop? Just seems cleaner to doso and no chance of sticking body parts on hot Bootlits.

That's an interesting question. I air dry exclusively. However, that is not to say that water dropping your cast bullets is inferior.

I prefer air cooled WW's+2% tin for most of my general use bullets (most of what I need to shoot). I shoot 5000-7500 rounds per year of .45 ACP, alone (my most shot caliber). The hardness obtained with A/C is about correct for my purposes.

However, water drop has the advantage with magnum pistol bullets of hardening them without additional cost, if you are limited as to what bullet metal you have available.

Air cooled requires less work for me (I have a small fan cooling mine as they are cast) and I don't have to retrieve them from water, dry them, etc.

If you are water dropping and like that procedure then continue.

This is a case where there IS more than one way.

Dale53

[astroskg]

i guess i am also one of the poor souls who has problems finding wheel weights in my area. i was luck enough to stop by one of the local Machine Shops and asked the owner if he had any scrap lead . a 12 pack of soda later and over 800lbs of scrap lead i was in lead heaven. i have since melted down all the scrap into muffin tin ingots. but have yet to find out that perfect mix for my guns always have leading in my 40 and 9mm . am in the market for a 1911 45acp and hope to translate that 800lbs into usable ammo because of the slower speed. have read hundreds posts but nothing real clear like in this blog. its always "add wheel weights" or "lino" i have neither only pure lead. Roto metals has been mentioned but my math is rusty and i can never figure out how much ROTO metal ingots i need to buy to make up good boolets . i have a 10# and 20# pot usually use the 20# how much lead and how much Roto Metal (i think they call it super hard) would i mix to get a good mix for 45ACP

thanks for any help

[bumpo628]

how much lead and how much Roto Metal (i think they call it super hard) would i mix to get a good mix for 45ACP

thanks for any help

A lot of people have good results with a 50/50 mix of pure and WW. They usually add a little tin for fillout, but it may not be necessary. That mix would give you approximately 0.25% tin, 1.5% antimony without any added tin. Using that as a guide for the antimony content, here are a couple recipes:

1 lb superhard + 29 lbs pure lead = alloy with 1% antimony
1 lb superhard + 23 lbs pure lead = alloy with 1.25% antimony
1 lb superhard + 19 lbs pure lead = alloy with 1.5% antimony
1 lb superhard + 16 lbs pure lead = alloy with 1.75% antimony
1 lb superhard + 14 lbs pure lead = alloy with 2% antimony
1 lb superhard + 11 lbs pure lead = alloy with 2.5% antimony
1 lb superhard + 9 lbs pure lead = alloy with 3% antimony

[Roundnoser]

i use 50 50 of pure lead and ww. works just freakin awesome

Same here! I use 50/50 WWs and lead pipe....air cooled. No leading, and accurate.

[Ronbo256]

I'm always fooling around with new alloys, but I really like 98/2 PB/SN air dropped on a wet towel for my .45 with the lee TL230 RN, with around 5.2 grains of herco pushing it. I cast about 100 today out of 10lbs of COWW with about 4 ounces of pewter added for a little better fill out, I'm sure that will do a good job also.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

????????????? Droping on a wet towel???

I understand cold water quenching, and I float a towel in the bucket to keep the boolits from getting dinged as they contact each other in the bottom.

But wet towel ---- Wouldn't that tend to make the boolits uneven in temper, meaning harder on one side then the other - which ever side hit the wet towel.

More info please.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[fredj338]

Is their a reason not to water drop? Just seems cleaner to doso and no chance of sticking body parts on hot Bootlits.

I don't see the point unless you want a harder bullet. There is no other real benefit IMO. I use a folded shop towel & drop on that. When the towel get full I trasnfer to a cardboard box & repeat. I don;t have to dry bullets or anything else. Even 50/50 lead/clip ww can be too hard for good results in a low pressure 45acp.

[Ronbo256]

Well, when I say wet towel, I mean one just barely damp, it doesn't even steam when hit with a hot boolit. You have a point though from now on I'll just use a dry folded towel. I started doing that with 98/2 which won't heat treat anyway, but maybe it would cool unevenly. I do use a wet towel to catch the sprues when I water quench my .40 boolits.