Mold weight

[oscarflytyer]

I cast my very first bullets the other night. Mold was the Lee 2 cavity 429-200-RF. Supposed to throw a 200 grn 44 slug.

All mine are weighing out at 215-216. I am assuming this means that my mix is lead heavy. I mixed 13lbs of WW with 1/2 lb of 50/50 bar solder to get some tin. The resulting boolits also are somewhat soft (can scratch with fingernail). The WWs were a mix, but mostly larger, and some behemoth (12 oz/+) truck WW.

Is the weight overage normal? Is it because the truck WWs are nearly pure lead, more so than say smaller car WWs? I am just trying to figure out why I am dropping such heavy bullets.

[cajun shooter]

First welcome to the world of casting. Your alloy may make a big difference with both weight and size. Please go to the sticky section of the LASC and read all of the material by Glenn Fryxell. You should also buy a copy of Lyman's CAST BULLET HANDBOOK. You will always use it for help no matter how long you cast. Take Care

[oscarflytyer]

First welcome to the world of casting. Your alloy may make a big difference with both weight and size. Please go to the sticky section of the LASC and read all of the material by Glenn Fryxell. You should also buy a copy of Lyman's CAST BULLET HANDBOOK. You will always use it for help no matter how long you cast. Take Care

Did/have all that. My understanding was lighter alloy would drop larger size bullets. More lead alloy would be heavier, but size smaller.

Other feedback I am getting is that it is not at all uncommon for the Lees (and others) to drop heavy. I am not complaining - I am going to love the 215+ wt much more than 200 for my 44 Spc!

[fredj338]

Most clip wts are not pure lead, I don't know about truck wts, but car wts are pretty hard unless they are tape or stick-ons. Most molds are setup for Lyman #2 alloy, pretty hard, quite a bit of tin & antimony compared to ww. Most every mold I have, regardless of brand, will throw heavier bullets using straight ww alloy or ww alloy + 1% tin.

[oscarflytyer]

Most clip wts are not pure lead, I don't know about truck wts, but car wts are pretty hard unless they are tape or stick-ons. Most molds are setup for Lyman #2 alloy, pretty hard, quite a bit of tin & antimony compared to ww. Most every mold I have, regardless of brand, will throw heavier bullets using straight ww alloy or ww alloy + 1% tin.

Since last post, have also cast same alloy in the MiHec 200 grn 45. It cast almost exactly at 200! About 199-201 grns.

[stubshaft]

Since last post, have also cast same alloy in the MiHec 200 grn 45. It cast almost exactly at 200! About 199-201 grns.

You get what you pay for.:kidding:

Most mould manufacturers use a specific alloy to determine weight of the boolits that they cast as well as diameter.

[RobS]

Since last post, have also cast same alloy in the MiHec 200 grn 45. It cast almost exactly at 200! About 199-201 grns.

MiHec cuts his molds to weigh in at those weights with WW alloy or alloy similar. As been stated by stubshaft, most custom mold makers will ask what alloy you plan on casting with so they can cut to those specs.

[geargnasher]

All of my Accurate Mold moulds cast within one grain +/- of what he said it would with the alloy I specified, which was the rather vague "wheel weight" type alloy. Some of the other custom designers do the same thing. Lee moulds can be all over the map, even beteen different runs of the same design.

Gear

[44magLeo]

My Lee 44-200-RF, throws boolits at 208 gr with Linotype. Got no wheel weights.
When I had wheelweights my Lyman 429421 throws a 267 gr boolit.
Straight wheel weights work good at Special velocities. Works well up to 1800 - 1900 fps in the mag case in my Marlin. Accurate, no leading.