Boolits are breaking

[Johnch]

OK I was casting the Lee 310 gr GC 44 bullet last a few weeks back
A Lee 6 gang mould

Out of straight Clip on WW and water droped them
I sorted the WW's , so no Zink

This morning I lubed 25

As I wanted to try a new load for deer hunting out of a harder alloy than my normal 2-1 Pure and WW

I seat and crimp as 2 stages

IMO not over crimping , but a good crimp

Right at the crimp 4 of the 25 I loaded
Either the part above the crimp broke off
Or I could see a crack


The as cast bullets were all frosted , as I was runnig the mould hot

Could I have been dropping bullets that were to hot into the water ?
I was going to check the hardness , but the tester is missing ( I probely put it away and forgot where )

Not a big loss , as I plan on just reusing the bullets and recasting

But I just wonder what I did

John

[RickinTN]

I'm thinking too much antimony without any tin to keep them malleable. Antimony alone results in a brittle bullet.
I'm curious to see what others think,
Rick

[Calamity Jake]

There's not enough antimony in WW to to make them brittle but do add some tin about 1.5%, there just plain too hard.

[btroj]

They were probably cracked as they dropped from the mould. Could be a burr in mould but most likely it was the fact the mould was too hot and they weren't fully hardened before they dropped from the mould.

This is a classic sign of a too hot mould.

[Larry Gibson]

Add the tin as suggested; I suggest 2%.

Larry Gibson

[cbrick]

Gotta agree, sounds very much like they were way too hot when dropped from the mold. What temp are you running your pot? WW doesn't need more than 700 degrees pot temp to cast very well.

The only boolits I've ever seen do that were monotype and stereotype, WW isn't even remotely close to those percentages of Sb.

Rick

[btroj]

This is actually to get to happen. Primary tool needed is a mould, preferably Al, that is big in diameter, heavy in bullet weight, and multiple cavity. I have many moulds where I can make this happen about anytime I want.

[Pb2au]

I had exactly the same situation some time ago. I cooled the whole process a bit and the condition went away.

[Garyshome]

Good advice. I haven't had that problem yet.

[captaint]

Since they're GC boolits, why the need for so hard ?? I'd try casting them up in 50/50 pure and WW's, air cool them and let them fly... Just my .02. Mike

[Johnch]

OK
Thanks , I had the feeling I was running things to hot when I saw the first crack

As for why trying a hard boolit
I am getting some leading
So I thought I would try something to see if it worked better

As all my boolits I shoot for testing will be into a trap
The only lead I will loose will be when it passes through a deer

John

[bhn22]

I've had this happen before, but only with linotype & monotype in calibers that were taper-crimped. Bullet noses would break off right at the taper-crimp line. These were water dropped, and harder than hell. The bullet noses would launch themselves out the ejection port as the rounds fed into the chamber. They shot well. If was pretty cool, really. I had developed a semi-wadcutter with a self discarding nose to aid in feeding. To correct the situation, I remelted the unloaded bullets and alloy, and cut it with about 50% range scrap, and I believe that was the last time I waterquenched anything too.

[338RemUltraMag]

OK
Thanks , I had the feeling I was running things to hot when I saw the first crack

As for why trying a hard boolit
I am getting some leading
So I thought I would try something to see if it worked better

As all my boolits I shoot for testing will be into a trap
The only lead I will loose will be when it passes through a deer

John

John,

Getting rid of leading is 99% fit until you get in the 2100 fps range, almost every pistol cartridge I have loaded for I have got the leading to disapear with a larger diameter boolit.