maybe a dumb question but i need to learn

[chewie]

this is my first post on this site. i mainly look at the sassnet site. i am planing on casting my own balls for my cap-n-ball old army ruger.

i have a pot, ladel, lead and a temontior.

first of several questions to come i am sure.

what does Favorite "PB" projectiles mean at the top of this site?

also "antimony"?

also what temp. should i have my ure lead at to cast my balls?

thanks in advance.

chewie

[Dale53]

"PB" is the element abbreviation for "LEAD".

Antimony is a metal used for hardening and strengthening lead for bullets. However, pure lead is used for muzzle loading balls.

You will find that 750-800 degrees will work quite well for casting pure lead.

Dale53

[oneokie]

what does Favorite "PB" projectiles mean at the top of this site?

chewie

Welcome to Cast Boolits

"PB" is the chemical symbol for Lead.

Favorite Lead Projectiles.

There will be others along to answer your other questions.

[HeavyMetal]

First PB means lead, in some case's pure lead like cap and ball stuff or in others an alloy consisting mainly of wheel weight metal commonly reffered to on this site as WW.

Anitmony is one component of WW metal and is added mainly as a "hardener" although it does several things for cast boolits.

None of these things will affect you as you should be using as close to pure lead as you can find.

With pure lead casting I think a good place to start Temp. wise is around 750 degrees. Make sure your mold is extremely clean! Have no fear of boiling it in hot soapy water after you blast it with brake cleaner!

Then make sure you get it dry before you start casting. Then turn on your pot, if it's electric, and set your mold on top to pre heat.

By the time your pot of lead is melted and full to the top of 750 degree lead your mold should be hot enough.

That should be enough info to keep you out ( or in ) trouble for awhile.

Light up that pot and cast a few, you will have more questions ask as needed.

We all did and we all learned.

Welcome to the site!

[Echo]

Dumb questions not recognized here - you have found the true font of Boolit Sensability (BS). Folks here are quite willing to share their consideable knowledge with any and all enquirers. I've only been here for a few months, but I will NOT miss checking the site out daily - it is that good. What they said above is right.

[randyrat]

chewie, Welcome. Here check this link out and give us a full report when you have it all memorized:-D
http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm

This will give you a tremendous amount of info. Of course, nothing will replace experience and be sure to ask if in doubt. Do it safely, have fun.

[Wayne Smith]

Chewie, you don't mention a mold. If you don't have one get the Lee. I think for the Old Army you need the .454" mold - someone else can confirm that. I shoot replicas. Otherwise the others have covered what you need.

Lee has, hands down, the best round ball molds going today. They are sprueless. As well as cheap!

[SWIAFB]

Ruger Old Army uses .457, Just bought an Old Army and did the research. Do a search here, lot's of info about this topic.

[DLCTEX]

Chewie: Welcome to the site! .457 balls and Pyrodex P is the main staple for my ROA. I have cast and fired balls made from WW, also I have the Lee mold for a round nosed boolit, and have fired regular pistol boolits up to 255 gr. (sized .454, pure lead only). The ROA ram is very strong. I do chamfer the boolit base with a cartridge case chamfer tool to ease seating the boolits. DALE

[44man]

Glad to have you here. I too shoot the Old Army with .457 round balls.
I use 41 gr's of Swiss FFFG for 1102 fps. It downright THUMPS deer!
Try a thicker BPCR lube in front of the balls. It hangs in there better then the thin stuff like Crisco and won't blow away in adjacent chambers.
Also use STP oil treatment on the pin and ratchet to keep crud from making things stiff.
I made this to seat all balls the same depth. Drop the cylinder on the center pin, add all the powder, put a ball in place and seat each in turn. The stop is adjustable.

[spurrit]

Huh! And here, I thought PB was Patched Bullet! :groner: Guess I learned something, today! Boolit Master, my foot!

[Wayne Smith]

I use a lubed patch between powder and ball. No mess to melt out when you fire it.

[copdills]

Welcome to the forum chewie, you will find all your answers here , great people here wwith great information:castmine:

[AZ-Stew]

chewie,

PB can mean a couple of things. "Pb" (lower case "b") is the chemical symbol for lead. "PB" (upper case "B") is commonly used to refer to "Plain Base" boolit designs that do not use a copper gas check cap on the base. Plain Base boolits are commonly used in handguns and for low to medium velocity rifle loads.

Antimony, (chemical symbol Sb), is another metal used, as mentioned above, to harden lead alloys. It is commonly used in conjunction with Tin (chemical symbol Sn) and Arsenic (symbol As) to achieve maximum hardness in our lead boolit alloys. There is much more to learn about this, but you'll pick it up as you continue to participate in this forum.

You should use pure lead to cast balls for your Ruger. The temperature you should begin with is about 800 degrees F. Don't feel bad if your first efforts produce projectiles with wrinkled surfaces. As the mould comes up to temperature, the cavities will fill out better than they do at the beginning. You can vary your casting speed and pot temperature to find a temperature that produces smooth-surfaced boolits that when cast with pure lead have a very shiny appearance. Be sure to leave a puddle of lead on the top of the sprue plate when casting. This produces a reservoir of molten lead from which the ball that's cooling in the mould cavity can draw metal as it shrinks during cooling. This helps eliminate voids in the boolits.

Welcome aboard!

Regards,

Stew

[chewie]

i can say i did not except all the replies and "randyrat" i will study for that test. i have a 2 ball caviety mold 457 now and it is lyman so i will start with that for now.

i plan on trying to cast some this weekend or maybe in the evening this week.

now another question. isn't there some type of meter that mesaures the amount of lead and ww (learned that term here today) after you cast a bullet? what is is called?

do i need one eventualy?

how much do they cost?

i need to start thinkin about a christmas list. any suggestion?

also "wayne smith" mentioned the word "sprueless" what does that mean?

chewie

[randyrat]

Sprueless= The sprue plate cuts the excess off with out leaving a big dimple,,, then you don't have to worrie about that big dimple when you load your round ball.
BHN= Brinell hardness number= This number tells you how hard your lead/alloy is.... There are a number of different testers availible,,,,and no you don't need one, but they will help you some day to differenciate your alloy hardness.

[chewie]

some of the posts start on the left hand side of them with the word "sticky".

what does it mean or who is that?

[Buckshot]

some of the posts start on the left hand side of them with the word "sticky".

what does it mean or who is that?

..............Means that post, or post and following thread has a (helpfull) special value of some type so it has been "Stuck" in place, and does not float down the list and off the current page. BTW, look at the bottom right hand corner of the screen, on the bottom of a thread. There you will see page numbers. Just click on them and you'll go backwards through the pages.

Used to be a few years back that a page would generaly hang in place for a day or so. Now there are so many wierdos, nuts, oddballs, kooks, ne'r do wells, and other assorted folks who don't fit in anywhere else that are members here, the pages fade off fairly briskly.

Most everyone plays well together and if you hang around for very long, quite a number of them will become freinds you've simply not had the fun of meeting personally yet. I have to visit at least once a day, usually when I'm done outside just to see what everyone is up to. If I don't I get this odd feeling kind of like having your underwear on backwards. Don't know if you've ever had your underwear on backwards or not, but it's a singulalry unusual feeling that something just isn't quite right.

When I'm casting Minie boolits of pure lead I turn the temp control up to warp factor 8, or as high as she'll go and cast away. A present you should indulge in for yourself is the Lyman Cast Bullet Manual. Good reading. The loading data is dated as is the cartridge listings, but it's still usefull and has other good data.

...............Buckshot