Pretty Mushroom

[ChristopherO]

Had enough time to shoot a couple of the Accurate 46-405C slugs this morning at lined up milk jugs. My first batch of plumber's lead and linotype was extremely hard. So hard that in trials of that alloy using the Lee 457-405 bullets it was hardly noticeable that multiple jugs were passed through and the bullet was deflected by the log backstop. My second mix, adding 5# of soft lead to every 2.5# of the first batch was still very hard. Too hard, I was in the mind to believe for my purposes. I want something that holds together but gives some expansion on deer and such. To that end I added a 50/50 mix of batch 2 and soft lead to see how this allow will respond. Which leads us to this mornings findings:

At twenty yards pushed by 45 grains of IMR3031 in to a long row of milk jugs from the Marlin 1895 Cowboy Action.
http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt167/WoodenBows/Accurate%20Molds%2046-405C_zpsz9lfse0p.jpg (http://s608.photobucket.com/user/WoodenBows/media/Accurate%20Molds%2046-405C_zpsz9lfse0p.jpg.html)

http://i608.photobucket.com/albums/tt167/WoodenBows/46-405C%20Gas%20Check_zpsfaxbfzmu.jpg (http://s608.photobucket.com/user/WoodenBows/media/46-405C%20Gas%20Check_zpsfaxbfzmu.jpg.html)

I think it is pretty. Too soft, yes, but a very attractive mushroom. Thing is this only went to the 5th jug and stopped. Plenty enough for a deer but don't think I would want to take a raking shot at an elk with a boolit quite this soft.
Suppose the alloy continues to need tweaked.

[Tatume]

It appears to have held together well.

[Beagle333]

That's a nice 'shroom!

[EMC45]

Looks textbook.

[Mk42gunner]

It has more shank left than the Speer 400 grainer that I fired into dry sand, from a Ruger No.1 in front of 53 grains of 3031. No idea of the velocity, I didn't have a chronograph then.

I wasn't intentionally doing an expansion test, but found the bullets a short distance into the hillside I was using as a backstop.

Robert

[azrednek]

Looks textbook.

It does indeed !! Have you weighed the recovered slug to see how much it retained??

[Nueces]

For the curious, your final alloy works out to be lead to linotype in a 6 to 1 ratio. If the lead is pure and the linotype fresh, the make up is approximately 97.4% lead, 2% antimony and 0.6% tin. It appears to cast beautifully without the oft recommended 2% tin. But perhaps there was some tramp tin in your soft lead, too.

I've got lots of lino, but not so much pure lead. On the other hand, this is an easy alloy to make for hunting use, and thanks much for your tests and results.

[ChristopherO]

Thank you for the replies, gentlemen. As I will only be hunting whitetail in the foreseeable future with this rifle if I don't change anything soon I will be content to hunt with it. If the opportunity to elk hunt with my brother who lives in CO comes about, then I want a bit more rigidity. That won't be this year. Actually, I've killed quite a few deer with .50 pure lead TC Maxi Hunters that looked similar to this under the hide. I suspect this will handle the job well enough.

I wanted to weigh it but my very old beam scale only measures up to 330 grains. Good for powder but not heavy bullets.

Nueces, thanks for your comments on the ratio. I had a formula worked out, originally, for the lino type and the plumber's soft lead. 15 to 4 or something like that. Notes are at home, don't remember exactly. Upon cooking them together a sizeable chunky layer formed on the surface. I turned up the LP and tried my best to mix it in better to no avail. I skimmed it off the top and started casting, knowing I just screwed up my formula. These were still rock hard boolits (mixture #1). What you see here is that batch cut down with soft as noted above. If your calculations are correct, or close to being correct, then these should scale at 10.6 on the BHN chart. Good to know. I appreciate it that you posted that.

From past experience Lyman #2 is too hard for good expansion, in my humble opinion. I am used to pure lead in muzzleloaders and like to see some deformation upon impact. I was hoping to end up with something less than #2 that but stiffer than 1/20. This is closer to 1/20, for sure. What I have seems to be plenty soft enough while retaining enough weight to plow through. I doubt the metplate will upset quite this big on a standard broadside shot on a whitetail but it will be quite sufficient. Hope I get the opportunity to find out a time or two this fall.

[nagantguy]

Very nice mushroom, and I've also found water jugs to be a fairly decent down and dirty and cheap expansion test medium. Don't over worry about perfect expansion a large diameter boolit that goes through and through the pump house usually gets the job done with a less than perfect 'shroom

[Nueces]

Chrstopher, I had fun running the numbers, but they were good only if your first alloy was one-to-one lino to lead. You actually started with much more lino, but then altered the alloy by skimming whatever that was on the top. My calculations now vanish into the ether! You could find out what you ended up with by having it X-rayed at a scrap yard.


Nueces, thanks for your comments on the ratio. I had a formula worked out, originally, for the lino type and the plumber's soft lead. 15 to 4 or something like that. Notes are at home, don't remember exactly. Upon cooking them together a sizeable chunky layer formed on the surface. I turned up the LP and tried my best to mix it in better to no avail. I skimmed it off the top and started casting, knowing I just screwed up my formula. These were still rock hard boolits (mixture #1). What you see here is that batch cut down with soft as noted above. If your calculations are correct, or close to being correct, then these should scale at 10.6 on the BHN chart. Good to know. I appreciate it that you posted that.

[duckey]

That is indeed a nice looking boolit! I have never done cast boolits for a rifle other than my TC percussion but I'd be happy with that for bigger critters close in perhaps, at a distance I could see going a little harder. My 370 GN Maxi Balls I cast out of my Lyman mold are from new new and recovered (mostly new) lead flashing. I shot a 4 point whitetail last fall at 30 yards using one of these and 90 grains of American Pioneer powder, quartering away shot. He dropped on the spot, bullet was just under the hide of his left front shoulder and was almost a 1" mushroom. I can't remember the weight off hand but it held up nicely after smashing though a few ribs. I expected it to have a pass through but it did its job.

[gunauthor]

Looking forward to seeing a picture of you with a deer (or two).....

[Pumpkinheaver]

That expanded bullet looks like it would not be good for the health of any whitetail that it meets.

[GabbyM]

Water is much harder than whitetail. Thus I'd expect your bullet to hold together just fine. In the big bores I like to be able to cut into the bullet with a fingernail. About a BHN#10 for deer. For black bear I cast them up with 4.5% Sb 3% Sn .01% Cu. Which makes a non expanding bullet that will shoot through pine trees. Copper comes from Babbitt from Rotometals. Lead free solder as a tin source has enough Cu content to make a difference also. My bullet is from a group buy here years ago on a Lee six cavity mold. With this much bullet you get a little room for deviation in what works for an alloy.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=51661&d=1284655910

[ChristopherO]

Gabby, I am able to cut the edges with my thumb nail. Not as easily as the soft lead. I knew this batch wouldn't be terribly hard when I pressed down strongly on the lube sizer handle to force a stubborn gas check on and the boolit nose smashed.
Now more load development for accuracy and I'll be anxious for gun season.

[GabbyM]

I predict meat in the freezer. Have fun.

[DW475]

Sure looks like that bullet will work fine on Deer!

[wistlepig1]

It sure looks like a nice bullit for deer or the Hog that isn't as swift as that hunk of lead. I have taken my share of Colorado Elk and shot placement , shot placement, shot placement, is the key to Not going places that no one wants to go [black timber].

[osteodoc08]

If it's not leading up the barrel, cast em up and label them hunting boolits. They look fine to me.