New to Casting, Bullets are Heavy

[hotrod13]

I just started casting bullets yesterday, but have a background with working with lead to make jigheads/fishing sinkers. My problem is I have 2 lee molds one is for 200 grain 45 colt bullets, and the other for 120 grain 9 mm bullets. I started casting and got the hang of it and getting full pours, and made some nice bullets, but when I weighed them the 200 grain weighed 212 and the 120 weighed 124. The diameter was right on. It was a mixture of about 75% wheel weights and 25% lead pipe/ww ingots. These are just for plinking etc. Do I need to add more antimony/tin to my mixture to lighten the weight. Any help would be appreciated. I did read not to squeeze the sprue plate handle, which I might of done, I am so used to the sinker molds and keeping them tight that might be one of my problems.

Thanks so much,

Rod

[MtGun44]

Totally normal. NO mold ever drops to the stated weight. Your alloy is a bit denser than
the one used to designate the mold. No big deal other than you may want to back off the
powder charges just a hair for a slightly heavier boolit, but it is a VERY small percentage
difference, actually. 6% in one and around 3% in the other.

Bill

[Calamity Jake]

Yap what MtGun says, just about every mold I have(40+) casts heaver than stated,
it's no big deal, just powder charges accordingly.

If your close to OKC maybe we can get together sometime.

[fredj338]

The guys are right, it is lead heavy. Adding tin will lighten them up but it's not a big deal. I use 50/50 ww/lead & my 45/200grFP come out about 208gr.

[hotrod13]

Thanks guys I really appreciate it, just had me confused and wanted to see if I needed to re-melt or could load them. Calamity Jake I live in Edmond so I live pretty close.

Thanks again,

Rod

[res45]

I might also add that the heavier the bullet the mold cast the bigger the weight difference will be as the PB content increases. A light bullet say in the 50 gr. ranges may only gain a few grains in weight but a heavier bullet in the 200 to 300 gr. range can gain 10 to 20 grains in weight.

I believe Lee molds are suppose to throw the desired weight with WW alloy,I gotten pretty close with some of my Lee 158 gr. molds but they have all run just a few grs. heavier. As mentioned it's not a big deal just load accordingly.

[Iron Mike Golf]

Lee weight for rifle and pistol boolits is based on a 10 to 1 lead to tin alloy. Round ball molds are based on pure lead. This is stated in the "Bullet Metal" section of the mold manual.

[oscarflytyer]

Totally normal. NO mold ever drops to the stated weight.
Bill

Bill - not to nit, but... have to disagree a little. i now have a few molds, and yes, most drop a little big, and one drops WAY big with my WW/2% tin alloy (Lee).

But - I have two Mihec molds - one alum and one brass - and BOTH drop almost exactly what they are listed at. maybe +1 grn on the 200 and +2-3 grns on a 250. He makes some superb molds. And they both drop at the advertised dia too. love 'em

[prs]

Lee weight for rifle and pistol boolits is based on a 10 to 1 lead to tin alloy. Round ball molds are based on pure lead. This is stated in the "Bullet Metal" section of the mold manual.



I had forgotten the ratio Lee admitted to. That is way rich of SN, but I bet it casts purdy.

prs

[hotrod13]

I shot the 45 colts today with a 6% reduction of powder, and I still have all my fingers so it went just fine.

Thanks again,

Rod

[MtGun44]

Miha's molds are extremely good and if any were going to drop near the state weight, I
would expect his to do well.

So, I stand corrected - but the general concept is still valid, maybe overstated a bit.

Bill

[44man]

My Lyman mold for the 452651 is supposed to be 325 gr but drops a WW boolit at 347 gr. I found it takes the same load of 296 that the 335 gr LBT uses. It makes ragged holes at 50 yards.
Just work loads like normal with any new boolit and forget what it casts at. Small differences mean nothing.

[cajun shooter]

If you ever have a custom mould made then they will drop as stated if you have a good builder. I have had moulds built by Hoch and Accurate and sent both of them my casting alloy. The moulds drop dead on what was ordered. On production moulds there is no way for the companies to be that good. The reason is not the work they do but all the different alloys that are used by the casting population. Lyman has based the moulds they make on Lyman #2 alloy for years. For most uses that we have for our bullets the 4-5 grain difference will not hurt anything at all. Factory bullets will have this much variation.

[BulletFactory]

read the title, couldn resist.

Of course bullets are heavy, we make them out of lead.:bigsmyl2:

[Char-Gar]

I have been casting bullets for 50 years with a couple of hundred molds and I have yet to find a mold that casts bullets of the exact weight published for the mold.

[michiganvet]

Chargar, you started 6 yrs ahead of me. I don't know how many molds but I'm sure not couple hundred.