Casting Questions

[6mm250]

I am new to this boolt casting business but I have some of the stuff to do it with.

I have an electric pot , wheelweights , various & sundry molds , wheelweights , soft lead like plumbers lead .

Mostly I plan to cast handgun boolits.

Some of the molds I have are for tumble lube boolits , are the tumble lube boolits any good ?
Anyone make their own homebrewed liquid alox ? recipe ?

Even out of magnum handguns I don't push boolits very fast.
Will straight WWs work OK for handgun boolits ?

I have been loading ammo for years but I am just getting into this cast boolit thing.

Looking foreward to hanging out here.


Mike

[Stick_man]

First off, welcome to the greatest site in the casting world. More information available here than anywhere else on the planet.

In response to your question, yes, straight clip-on wheel weights will work for handgun boolits. Most people, however, soften the alloy up by mixing the clip-on weights 50/50 with pure lead (or lead stick-on wheel weights). For mild loads up to around 900 fps, you could even bump the percentage of pure up to about 65% or more and still get great results. You may need to add a touch of tin to get good mold fill-out. In boolit casting, it is good to remember "fit is king". Slug your barrels to see exactly what size boolit you need. A properly sized boolit will be .001-.002 over the groove diameter. Some guns prefer even .003 over groove, but most will provide exceptional results with .001-.002 over.

Most of the tumble lube design boolits provide good accuracy. They can usually be shot "as is" after tumble lubing in LLA or better yet, the Recluse formula lube of 45/45/10. (do a search on it here). The .358 158gr TL boolit is a very popular one and is often praised for its accuracy.

Some people water quench their boolits. I have found no need to quench handgun boolits unless you are pushing for max velocities.

Goood luck, and happy casting!
:CastBoolitsisbest: :cast_boolits:

[dbarnhart]

Welcome to the dark side, 6mm250!

My first 500 or so boolits were tumble lube boolits from a Lee mold. Because the grooves were smaller, I needed to add a little extra tin (1% - 2%) to get them to fill out. If you need just small amounts of tin, buy a roll of lead-free solder from the hardware store. I've had great succes tumble lubing boolits using either Lee Alox or Recluse's 45/45/10.

I've since switched to lubing in other ways and am using a mold with normal lube grooves. As a result I don't need to add any extra tin.

I cast using either reclaimed range lead or wheel weights, either of which can usually be found in the 'swappin and sellin' forum right here. . I cast for .45acp and the range lead or wheel weight lead works just fine for that.

[geargnasher]

PLEASE check out this thread and follow the link, and read the Fryxell/Applegate book. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=110213 It's the best single source for good information about all you ask that I know of, and it's FREE. Not to mention easy to read. I know where you are, starting out, I haven't forgotten the mystery of it all 20 years ago, much of which didn't get sorted out until after I joined this site.

After you get a handle on the basics of alloys and alloy processing, boolit lube, fitting the boolit to the gun, and all that, you'll be in a much better position to start your casting and shooting career. We're here to help too, but at first a good overview written by people who know the straight dope about shooting cast lead (not necessarily true with most of the "standard" publications) is invaluable to a newbie.

Gear

[runfiverun]

knowlege is good.
doing hands on trial and error is a better teacher.
maling your own alox is doable however i seriously doubt you even want to attempt it.
xlox is available from whitelabel lubes [scroll down the page to Ls stuff.com]
a better lube that is also a tumble lube is recluse's 45/45/10 simple to make and about two notches above plain alox.

btw welcome to the sight
and good questions.

[RobS]

Additionally:

http://www.lasc.us/castbulletnotes.htm

[292]

Welcome, I'm relatively new myself. I cast TL style boolits for my 44 mag, they shoot very good. I've not had any fill out trouble with clip on wheelweights. I use LLA thinned with a splash of mineral sprits. These folks are all about helping you in this madness.

[ku4hx]

Buy Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook and read the reference section in its entirety. Even the verbiage that is load specific will have good pointers that can apply across the board.

[462]

The world's boolit casting authority's archive has a new and improved index, making navigation much easier: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/archive/index.php

If a boolit-related answer can't be found, either it's never been asked before or there is no answer. The former is highly unlikely, while the later is why we continue to experiment.

[6mm250]

Buy Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook and read the reference section in its entirety. Even the verbiage that is load specific will have good pointers that can apply across the board.

I actually have a copy of Lyman's Cast Boolit Handbook amongst my library , I have used it for years for the load data. Time for me to pay more attention to the boolit casting info contained in it.

I have a bunch of WWs that I have already cast into ingots also WWs in the raw , lead sheets , lead ballast bars , net weights , plumbers lead from cast iron pipe joints & other misc lead.

I have a bottle or 2 of Alox , need to get some JPW & mix up some of that 45/45/10 for the TL boolits.

Need to get a luber/sizer & try to find mold(s) for my 41 mag , 41 molds seem tobe kinda scarce.

I can see that the cast boolit crowd is not some kind of "secret sociaty" , info flows freely.

Thanks

Mike

[fcvan]

I have 3 different molds for the .41 Mag. Two are Saeco; a 230 Keith style plan base, and a 220 grain truncated cone gas check, and an RCBS 215 semi-wadcutter gas check. My personal favorite is the 220 TC as it feeds very well in my Marlin 1894.

The Lee 195 SWC is a very similar design to the RCBS but plain based. The Lee 210 SWC is tumble lube design. If you are already using tumble lube deigns that would be a good first mold choice. Either of the Lee molds would be fine but I prefer standard lube design. Before I got a lube sizer I pan lubed and that worked fine. There are plenty of great molds out there and several venders affiliated with this site. Frank

[MtGun44]

Straight air cooled wwt alloy or softer will work fine for even maximum pressure & velocity
magnum pistol loads, plus all slower and lower pressure, too.

Let's get past this old wive's tale of "harder is better'. Hardness is far down the list
of things that make a difference in boolits, nowhere near the top for 90+% of
the guns and cartridge out there.

Bill