My First Cast Boolits

[Brett]

I am new to this forum but I have been lurking for a while. I thought I would share with you all some photos. These are my first Cast Boolits. They are mostly range scrap/wheel weights so probably softer than I would prefer but I think they will work. They seem to be a B hardness by pencil test, I quenched in water. The mould was a lee 6 cavity .40. I will have to wait a while to load them as I don't have a sizer or lube.

Thanks all,
Brett

755647556575566755677556875569

[zidave]

Doesn't look bad at all.

Welcome to the addiction.
Have fun and be safe!

[williamwaco]

Welcome. I am afraid you are officially hooked.

[gray wolf]

Looks like your out of the staring gate and doing well. Nice to see a new face casting bullets. I hope you get to shoot them soon. Those are TL boolets so they MAY not need sizing.

[725]

Welcome aboard! You've come to the right place. That boolit looks just fine, and as has been mentioned above, because it's a TL, it may not require sizing. Lee markets some to their boolits as cast & shoot (after tumble lube, of course.)

[jblee10]

What is the as cast size? If they seem a little fat, load a dummy round without powder or primer. See if the dummy round will chamber in your pistol. If it does, I would get some alox lube and tumble lube those bullets. Load and shoot. I use wheel weights in the 9mm, and they work fine.

[Brett]

My caliper says they are .400. So I guess I just need to find some lube.

[462]

Helpful hint: Accurate measurements matter.

Measuring with a caliper means your boolits are anywhere from .399" to .401".

Instead, measure with a micrometer -- they are accurate to +/- .0001", rather than a caliper's +/-.001" accuracy.

[popper]

Pound one down the barrel and check it's size with the caliper. Same measurement tool, should be .001 > than groove size. They should be dropping a little larger, looks like fill out isn't quite what you want. Make sur e you alloy is clean, mould is hot. Maybe need a little tin for fallout.

[leeggen]

Just remember this is an addiction, One mold is not enough. Look good for 1st round of casting, each time gets easier and better. Sempathy card in mail to girlfriend/wife.
CD

[gunoil]

your mama hope'ed ya would'nt turn out this way. Oh well!



you know how to coat them! popper.

[MtGun44]

+1 on 462's post.

Look pretty good, best of luck!

Bill

[Three44s]

"Mama's .... don't let your babies grow up to play with boolits. They will hangout in man caves and fool with hot molds and lead pots and such .............. "!

Yes, welcome to the world of the silver stream!!

I like shooting "as cast" with TL boolits. I would procure some Lee Liquid Alox for the short term ....... there are other choices for the long run but LLA will suffice and load up a round to see if it chambers. You want a medium velocity load to limit leading if possible.

Short of measuring, I'll run it if it chambers and runs with normal to below pressures and does not lead. The dirt clods you bust with it will never squeal on you for not sizing and such.

For performance, you'll get into all that lubrisizer stuff soon enough but clod busters are not that demanding.

Enjoy!

Three 44s

[Brett]

I remelted most of the first batch and added some tin and chilled led shot I had. Much higher keeper rate this time however some still have wrinkles that I guess have to do with temp or pouring. Any advice is welcome. I am going to go to the range to test them tomorrow.

[Brett]

I lubed with Alox (LLA) and every thing seemed fine. I made three batches (10 each) with different amounts of powder. They shot low except for the near max charge. which was at point of aim and grouped well. I didn't notice any leading. I went back to the range and shot 25 of the near max load and the barrel leaded severely.

763417634276343
Are they too soft or not enough lube or too hot?

[ku4hx]

What's the diameter of your boolits and what lube (lightly thinned, heavily thinned, unthinned) are you using? With leading like that, I'd suspect severely undersized boolits and maybe a lube failure of some sort: too little, less than optimum formula and etc.

[Brett]

The boolits dropped at .4005 on my calipers i will have to load and crimp one to see if the taper crimp swagged it. The lube was straight LLA.

[Buzz64]

My vote is too small a dia boolit.

[telebasher]

Welcome fellow caster, it's going to be fun and an education. Understand that you will never learn all there is to know about your new addiction. Each gun/chamber/bore/mould is unique and no two are alike. That's the fun of finding/manufacturing the best ammunition for the job. When I enlarged your photo of the pile of boolits I saw that most had wrinkles and were not sharp on the edges. Generally that means mould and or alloy too cold. The beauty of less than perfect boolits is that they can be reloaded or remelted and recast, your choice. Either way good luck and good shootin'

[Dakotared]

What does your barrel slug out at? You need at least .001 bigger than your barrel I like .002 bigger myself.

[Brett]

telebasher,
I remelted/ recast any thing that had wrinkles. The batch that I shot looked nice and all were within a few grains of each other.

Dakotared,
I have not slugged the barrel yet I guess I need to do that soon.

[462]

See post 8. Twice, you've posted boolit dimensions , once of .400" and another of .4005". You need a micrometer to get accurate and meaningful boolit measurements.

I suspect that whatever dimension the boolits really are, they are too small.

[telebasher]

telebasher,
I remelted/ recast any thing that had wrinkles. The batch that I shot looked nice and all were within a few grains of each other.

Dakotared,
I have not slugged the barrel yet I guess I need to do that soon.

We all are still learning, every time we fire up the pot so to speak. So many questions , so many possible choices/solutions. LOL, when I started casting, there was no internet and very little imformation in the gun mags and no one I knew had any casting equipment or experience. I've made just about every mistake that can be made and survived so far but am not ashamed to admit that I've just scratched the surface of whats possible. Be safe, have fun and keep good notes so if you find a good load you can duplicate it .