Lead melter
09-27-2007, 09:19 AM
As of yet I have not tried using my own cast boolits for any hunting application, as I have been afraid the boolit would have no expansion since it is fairly hard. But, after some experimenting and reading several posts here, I am tempted to give it a try. First, some background.
1] 22 caliber rimfire boolits are almost always soft lead, expand like mad, and leave no leading in barrels to speak of.
2] I cast a few boolits in my Lee 170 grain flat nose mold. These were of a gas check design and were cast of pure lead. Accuracy was up to par with my others cast from a harder alloy. Expansion was drammatic when fired into dry poplar wood, but penetration was only about 2" when shot with a muzzle velocity of 1500fps. Leading was not apparent, and accuracy was not affected when shooting normal alloy slugs, even though the barrel was not cleaned after the pure lead boolits were fired. Lube was Lee Liquid Alox, slug sized to .308"
3] My usual alloy is 2 parts lead with 1 part linotype, by volume, plus 2% tin extra. This results in a fairly hard boolit and gives good accuracy.
4] I recently purchased an RCBS 45-405-FN mold for my 45/70 Handi-Rifle. This also is a gas check design. When loaded with my usual load {27 grains AA-5744} accuracy was increased a good bit.
The normal assuption would be that the design of the boolit has a lot to do with the accuracy increase, but I also feel the gas check seemed to make a difference, since the base of the boolit was not affected by hot gas. Since a gas check [U]seems[U] to scrape leading from the barrel as well as helping to prevent it, does it not follow that a softer boolit could be made to work with good accuracy, good expansion, and without severe leading problems? I'm thinking of trying pure lead, or with just a touch of tin to help fill out the mold.
Has anyone gone down this path before? Helpful hints are always welcome.
1] 22 caliber rimfire boolits are almost always soft lead, expand like mad, and leave no leading in barrels to speak of.
2] I cast a few boolits in my Lee 170 grain flat nose mold. These were of a gas check design and were cast of pure lead. Accuracy was up to par with my others cast from a harder alloy. Expansion was drammatic when fired into dry poplar wood, but penetration was only about 2" when shot with a muzzle velocity of 1500fps. Leading was not apparent, and accuracy was not affected when shooting normal alloy slugs, even though the barrel was not cleaned after the pure lead boolits were fired. Lube was Lee Liquid Alox, slug sized to .308"
3] My usual alloy is 2 parts lead with 1 part linotype, by volume, plus 2% tin extra. This results in a fairly hard boolit and gives good accuracy.
4] I recently purchased an RCBS 45-405-FN mold for my 45/70 Handi-Rifle. This also is a gas check design. When loaded with my usual load {27 grains AA-5744} accuracy was increased a good bit.
The normal assuption would be that the design of the boolit has a lot to do with the accuracy increase, but I also feel the gas check seemed to make a difference, since the base of the boolit was not affected by hot gas. Since a gas check [U]seems[U] to scrape leading from the barrel as well as helping to prevent it, does it not follow that a softer boolit could be made to work with good accuracy, good expansion, and without severe leading problems? I'm thinking of trying pure lead, or with just a touch of tin to help fill out the mold.
Has anyone gone down this path before? Helpful hints are always welcome.