Casting with 100% wheel weights

[bigjake]

I see a lot of folks mixing pure lead with WW and all sorts of recipes.
I cast 44 mag. 9mm and.45 acp with pure clip on WW's. The .45's dont need to be very hard i figure, I just dont want to fool with mixing.

Does anyone else use 100% WW for their boolits?

They seem to shoot pretty well, no major leading or problems.

[jsizemore]

If their workin' for you, keep on. Lots of folks end up with other sources of alloy, so mix to suit their needs.

[ACrowe25]

I cast with 100% WW as my source is free. Seems most mix to extend their WW alloy.

100% WW works fine. Too many to count 45s, 44s, 30-30s, 38s have been fired in my guns since I started to count. Even taken two deer that just sat down.

It works.

[fryboy]

"Seems most mix to extend their WW alloy."

i seem to wear those shoes ... lolz 'tis true i find so few ww's [dratz] what i do find seems to be in spurts either soft or hard and an occasional mystery ,if one has the means to shoot no harder than needed ww's can be stretched out a bit , or if the need arises added to to make harder ,it used to be that most store bought boolits were harder than hades ,usually hardball alloy ( roughly 50/50 Pb/lino ) , it may be a waste of alloy but ... they'll work , so in essence yes straight ww's are fine
but now if you want to talk expansion from that slow heavy 45 ... try mixing 3 parts stick on's to 1 part clip on's , adding a wee bit of tin helps add malleability if desired
since i'm currently in a "confession is good for the soul" frame of mind i should add that tho i find so few precious ww's that i make a alloy comparable to ww's ( usually a wee bit more tin ) from diluting lino down ,if a person only shoots a limited number of cartridges/loads ( that are closely related in pressure ) a single alloy makes quite a bit of sense ,mixing ( and using ) alloys however provides one with a bit of experience and alot of insight and of course more shooting time ( and umm that's what it's all about to me ;) )

[zuke]

Most of my stash is pure WW, and it work's for me.

[Toymaker]

I have cast from pure WW. They were about 90% stick on. They made a very nice 500 grain Hoch Semi-Spritzer for my 45-70. They came out at BHN 10 which, I think, is about the same for 20:1. I accidently cast some 500 grain FN for my .451 Rigby (muzzleloader) from the same pot. They key-holed. As this rifle is a very accurate tack driver it drove me nuts trying to figure out what was going wrong.

[dragonrider]

Yes nothing but ww's

[canyon-ghost]

100% Wheelweight works for anything I shoot, mostly I go back to it when I need consistent alloy to clear up a batch of lead.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Early in my casting, I used straight COWW for most shooting. And it worked fine.
BUT, now that I have some other alloys at my disposal.
I mix an alloy of 94-3-3 for Rifle and 9mm and 40 and Magnum revolver calibers. Everything else gets cast with Range scrap.

I have two batches of range scrap, one measures about 8 BHN.
the other measures 10.
when I run out of the "cheap" scrap,
I will be with the others above,
"Seems most mix to extend their WW alloy."

[emrah]

John, I wouldn't know HOW to mix an alloy if I tried! Been casting a few years now and my eyes still glaze over when I read percentage this or ratio that.

100% stick on ww for me.

Emrah

[John Boy]

Does anyone else use 100% WW for their boolits?
Ideal 454190, 45 Colt, 250gr - for black powder reloads
Accurate H&G-68, 45 ACP, 230gr -for smokeless reloads

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

John, I wouldn't know HOW to mix an alloy if I tried! Been casting a few years now and my eyes still glaze over when I read percentage this or ratio that.
100% stick on ww for me.
Emrah
Emrah,
There is absolutely nothing wrong that...
BUT, It's really not too difficult. I have some alloys that are, for the most part, Known alloys, like lino type, 50-50 Solder, COWW, and others.

I just plug in the weights for certain alloys in Bumpos' alloy caluculater http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?105952-Lead-alloy-calculators
til I get the alloy I want.

I've settled on 94-3-3 after much reading. Basically I've read that a ternary alloy of PB/SN/SB is the "toughest" with equal amounts of SN and SB.

94-3-3 is the most economical alloy to achieve the hardness (if air cooled) that's recommended for the pressures that I load most of my rifle ammo at.

[emrah]

I know, it's just that I've found it works great for what I shoot. .45acp, .38 special, 30-30, 30-06, no problems. The rifle boolits are gc'd and lla lubed. I'm happy with that. Especially since I get my wheel weights for free!

Emrah

[Crash_Corrigan]

Early on in my casting Dark Ages before I discovered that Lee 6 bangers had handles (See can you top this in the stickys) I had access to a great source of casting alloy. I was from my friends radiator shop. He was paying somebody to take away his soldering spatters and such. I eventually got my paws on well over 50 five gallon buckets of that wonderful stuff before the radiator trade changed over to plastic radiators. This alloy was mostly 60/40 solder and some radiator drain valves and a piece of rubber hose or two.

It made outstanding boolits but they were kinda light and very very hard. They would pretty much disintegrate into dust when hitting a steel plate and the diameters of these boolits were not consistent at all. Then I started to get some ww's. Nastier to deal with but made excellent boolits. I have been using them since the early days with excellent results but the boolits sometimes do not fill out within the molds well. Then I started to add some of that old radiator solder to my smelting pot. Outstanding results! I still have a goodly supply of the light but hard radiator solder smelted into ingots and I have been lugging it around for years.

Now when I need some more alloy I use one or two ingots of Radiator solder to a full pot of ww's. It has worked out very well. The BPCR rifles and my sole BP pistol get stick on wheel weights without any additives at all. Those babies need to be soft.

I don't know from Jack Schitt about percentages or any higher forms of math but I know what works for me in my guns.

[GL49]

I used to cast everything for my handguns, 32acp, 9mm, 38spl/357 mag, 44 mag, 45acp, 45 colt from COWW's until I knew better, now I still cast everything from COWW's, it just worked for me. All the stick-on weights are still filling ten 5 gallon buckets in my shed. When I got to the 454 casull, well.... I made those, and some of my rifle boolits, a little tougher and prettier with a little monotype and tin added in.

[DxieLandMan]

That is all I ever cast with except for black powder. those are pure lead.

[zxcvbob]

I used to cast everything from straight COWW's back when that was my primary source of lead. Now I mainly use shooting range scrap, which is nice lead but kind of soft. I add a little WW lead sometimes to harden it, depending what cartridge I'm casting for.

[robertbank]

I water quench my 9MM and 40cal and some .357 boolits meant for the .357mag and all my rifle calibers. All I ever use is WW alloy. For .38spl and .45acp/,45Colt I just air cool.

Bob

[KYShooter73]

Straight air cooled clip on wheel weights for my handguns, water dropped clip on wheel weights with a bit of tin added for 300 blackout. I wish I could go softer on the handgun rounds and harder for rifle, but hey, I make due with what I have.

[lightman]

I cast all of my pistol bullets from straight wheel weights. A lot of casters cut it with something softer to make it last longer. Lightman

[Hardcast416taylor]

Wheel weight was my primary lead to use for my casting that didn`t require soft lead only. I cast this way for many years for both pistol as well as centerfire rifle. A friend that also cast got me interested in making up alloys of something more than just WW. I got involved in doing this process for my own enjoyment, not for conserving my WW supply. I still resort back to WW alloy only now and again for a reason. I have a large enough pile of WW to have no worries about using it up if I did indeed go back to using just WW for my casting.Robert

[RogerDat]

WW 25 - 30 cents a pound direct from tire stores, plain lead from scrap yard 75 cents a pound. Hmmm. I go to scrap yard for tin alloys and hoping for type metal. Still looking for the lucky score on plain lead at wholesale price not scrap yard retail price, have a bit of plain on hand but was a little concerned that I did not have nearly enough to cut my COWW stash.

Good to know there is nothing wrong with using straight COWW's.

[robertbank]

WW 25 - 30 cents a pound direct from tire stores, plain lead from scrap yard 75 cents a pound. Hmmm. I go to scrap yard for tin alloys and hoping for type metal. Still looking for the lucky score on plain lead at wholesale price not scrap yard retail price, have a bit of plain on hand but was a little concerned that I did not have nearly enough to cut my COWW stash.

Good to know there is nothing wrong with using straight COWW's.

Try radiator shops for 50 - 50 lead - tin scrap. The local shop gives it to me for free.

Take Care

Bob

[Patrick L]

I have cast straight WW, and at least for my purposes it works fine.

Currently, I do mix with tin (2%), but only because I am working through a moderate stash accumulated years ago. Honestly, when it is gone I will not go to great expense to replace it. I definitely don't have enough versus my WW stash. My tin hoard is probably good for maybe about another 6-8 yrs.

[BAGTIC]

Straight WW since I started casting in 1960. I save the soft stick on weights for making split shot for fishing.

[357maximum]

Only major issue I have ever seen using pure COWW was in rifles that have long barrels using velocities that are above normal for cast. The free Antimony in COWW can cause antimonial wash in the last part of the barrel. Alot of people seeing this would call it leading, but it is not....but once it strarts it can continue to build and then cause "leading".

I use COWW to extend my softer lead supply, but my main cast PURPOSE is deer hunting worthy alloys. Waterdropped 50%-60% COWW with the remainder being soft lead pipe is one wicked alloy for deer hunting purposes......softer, yet tougher and very mallable..............it has served me well and I am not changing now.

[a.squibload]

Straight COWW - good stuff, I started out that way 'cause WWs were always free.
Switched to casting 50/50 COWW/"soft" lead (from whatever source), works good too.
"Nowadays" with powdercoating (PC) the alloy isn't as critical so I've been hoarding my WWs
and casting with range scrap.
I separate clipons vs stickons, also separate cast vs jaxketed, save the soft stuff for muzzleloader
balls and to stretch the clipons for pistol boolits.
Add a little tin (pewter) maybe 1% for fillout & toughness.
It's good to experiment with alloys for specific purposes but COWWs are like the basic alloy.

[Lead Fred]

Every caliber except 30 cal gets just water dropped WW.
Even the 30WCF gets WW, only the odd six and win mag get any special treatment