Anybody ever melt down missouri bullets?

[ronbo40s&w]

That's right. I am wondering if my leftover missouri bullets are too hard for my barrel. I get quite a bit of leading, even after tumble lubing them in Johnson's paste wax. Increasing the charge reduced the lead, but I don't want to go higher. They are Brinell 18 and very hard...no scratching with thumbnail. Nodenting when dropped on the floor. If I melted these down with some pure lead....well, i am just wondering if anybody has done this?

[captaint]

ronbo - I haven't melted Missouri boolits. You didn't say what cal you are going to be shooting these in. If you're not going to drive them faster than 800-900 fps, you might try adding 50% soft lead. Should bring down the bhn, but not leave them dead soft. I routinely shoot boolits in the 50 WW and 50 lead in my 45's and 38's. Would also help if you slugged your barrel and cylinder (if we're talking about a revolver) to determine just what your dimensions are. You'll often hear here FIT FIT FIT.... That's generally the most important thing. enjoy Mike

[ronbo40s&w]

40 s&w. 180 gr at aproximately 950 fps, but not crono'd...just estimated from load data.

I'll have to slug it with a softer bullet when i start casting i think..these thigs just feel HARD. Seeing how much the leading was reduced by bumping the charge makes me think they almost fit, but not quite.

[40Super]

I can almost garantee it is because they are too small. For some stupid reason everybody(except Dardas) only sell .401 sized 10mm cast boolits. More than half the .40 cal barrels are .4015 and up. They should be going .402 at least. This is one of the big reasons I just went and started casting my own, now I can size them to my guns and not mess around trying to get some wrong sized slugs to not lead.

As for the melting them, yep I've done it. I had a couple boxes of too small( the very first one I bought) and one .45 cal style that just didn't work for anything. I just mixed them in with about 25%pure for 9mm boolits.

[ronbo40s&w]

Thanks. Since I haven't purchased a mold yet, do you have any experience with molds that cast as large as .402? I don't know a thing...need education.

[popper]

Increasing the load showed they are too small. You can melt them, add 20% pure. Lots of moulds for that cal. The Lee works, is few $$. For a few $$ more you can get a good mould (accurate is good). If you got a box of 500, you could shoot and delead until you get a mould. What powder are you using, in what pistol?

[ronbo40s&w]

using universal clays in m&p40. I have around 300 left. Maybe I'll just keep shooting them with the higher charge weight until my pot comes, then see if it's worth the trouble after that. Thanks for all the inputs. Now I have some numbers to work with if it comes down to melting them down.

[evan price]

There's only 300...I'd just shoot them as is, and then try something else. Maybe you can recover them from the berm and then melt them...

[ronbo40s&w]

Yeah...agreed. I just placed some rubber sandbags made of tractor inner tubes to catch lead in my backstop. They are 16 inches deep (front to back) and catch everything I shoot.

It is a pain cleaning my barrel, but I could just shoot more of them per session...lol...fewer cleanings. I haven't detected any accuracy loss with up to 30 rounds. I guess i'll pres that upward and shoot it until accuracy drops off...scrub it, shoot it until they are gone. I want the reduced charge weight because of the added economy. It adds up, when you are as cheap as I am.

[bumpo628]

Missouri Bullet uses Hardball (2% tin, 6% antimony, 92% lead).
So, you would be fine mixing it 50/50 with pure.

I agree with the "shoot them first and then mix it" crowd.

[ronbo40s&w]

awesome...thanks! I appreciate the kind inputs on this site.

God Bless!

Ron

[40Super]

If you want a mold to drop .402-.403 garanteed go to http://accuratemolds.com/
Just tell him what alloy your using and he'll make it to drop that size. I have several .40 cal. molds, some his some NOE and MP, it helped me finally be able to shoot lead out of my Berettas, leading free. To size them ,if needed, I made my own sizer dies for my Lyman, You can't buy any sizer bigger than .401 either.

[ronbo40s&w]

Thanks. Good info. I bookmarked it. Today I shot some of the 180 missouris without ANY crimp at all. They leaded a lot less. The FCD was squeezing them down to .400 inside the brass. I went after it with a vengeance last night and decided to go without any crimp at all after lots of loading magazines and cycling and pushing on the bullets with no setback at all. THEY SHOT GREAT, FUNCTIONED 100%, AS ALWAYS, AND WERE ACCURATE. sorry about the caps, too lazy to type it again...i am anxious to cast, but have plenty of research to do, so i will get there.

I have to shoot up some of the other ones that are squished and did today too, but leading was still less than I expected after 50 rounds. 30 of those were uncrimped.

God Bless!

Ron