Preferences between WW and Lyman #2 for hunting?

[MOC031]

Haven't done any hunting with cast bullets to this point, casting has just been for shooting enjoyment. Now I've got a bee in my bonnet that, with many of the areas I hunt here for elk and moose (with deer as a sideline), my grandfather's Winchester Model 95 in 30 US will do just as fine with cast bullets as it currently does with 180 gr. jacketed bullets. 200 yards here is about as far as the sightlines go in these areas.

So I have Accurate's #31-184C and #31-200L on my Christmas list (my brothers both being bullet casters, my confidence level is high), and I'm going to see how it goes with the product of the moulds getting powder coated. Whatever performs best will probably end up being the choice.

My coin toss choice right now is to default to WW; any run of opinions going the other way towards Lyman #2?

[HangFireW8]

If you are depending on expansion, either will do but for straight WW you'll want to up the Tin content to be equal to the Antimony content, or maybe a bit more. Tin adds toughness and plasticity (lessens brittleness), at least, it does up to a point. Without it boolits are more likely to shatter, or break up if they yaw.

[waksupi]

I've used plain wheel weights for everything from hare to bear to buffalo. It's all you need. Just quench them when dropped for a bit extra hardness.

[popper]

ACWW should work fine. I shot that boolit with just pure/Cu & Zn (very soft) through a pig carcass gut and got 30 in ~45 out. Did one to the shoulder area and didn't have an exit. Load was 16gr 2400, about all I can take anymore. I just used BLL for the quick alloy test and got no leading. Mine is a Marlin 336 30/30 with no throat - you might have to seat a tad deep to keep from jamming the lands but no crimp groove so crimp anywhere. I shoot it in BO as well as 30/30, just remove the flair - no problem with setback.
If I were to do that mould over again I'd find where the grooves start and reduce nose dia. just a few thous. Gets the nose centered in the bore without jamming the lands. Not as pronounced as the 31-165C.

[ericandelaine1975]

I use pure lead powder coated for a 325gr 45 in my 45lc rifle and pistol. No leading and will knock a deer on their ***.

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[MOC031]

I've used plain wheel weights for everything from hare to bear to buffalo. It's all you need. Just quench them when dropped for a bit extra hardness.
I'm a little north of you about 45 minutes in Happy Valley, hi neighbor...

You wouldn't be one of the guys who has the local sources of wheelweights locked up?

Now I've started doing the powder coating thing. So I guess I'll have to dust off my LBT hardness tester to figure out what baking the paint on bullets does to hardness, whether water quenched or heat treated in the oven (my original method).

Looks like I go with the default choice of wheelweight alloy.

Thanks for the comments, all.

[MOC031]

Mine is a Marlin 336 30/30 with no throat - you might have to seat a tad deep to keep from jamming the lands but no crimp groove so crimp anywhere. I shoot it in BO as well as 30/30, just remove the flair - no problem with setback.
If I were to do that mould over again I'd find where the grooves start and reduce nose dia. just a few thous. Gets the nose centered in the bore without jamming the lands. Not as pronounced as the 31-165C.

Well, after a century, this 30 US now has a throat and barrel that a cerrosafe casting says measures out as being closer to belonging on a 303 British. Could have come that way for all I know; my grandfather was hunting elk here with this rifle at the turn of the last century.

Best I can do with my Mitutoyo digital verniers, just above the edge of the neck, I'm at .316"; at .67" above the shoulder/neck junction, the casting measures at .3155". I don't get into about minimum measurement of .3045" until around .99" above the shoulder/neck junction.

So I have to do some adjustments if I don't want the bullets rattling down the barrel... Unfortunately means they probably won't work in my Long Branch #4 Mk 1, as its nice and tight, but my brother has some Ross rifles and Lee Enfields of his own they might work in.

230810

[sureYnot]

Now I've started doing the powder coating thing. So I guess I'll have to dust off my LBT hardness tester to figure out what baking the paint on bullets does to hardness, whether water quenched or heat treated in the oven (my original method).


I heat treat after curing the PC. 450° for one hour. No I'll effects. I've also heat treated during the coating process. That method gives me a few tiny dots on most boolits where the lead shows through. I don't get any leading and it doesn't affect accuracy. But, they don't look as cool.

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[MOC031]

Well that makes it sound like I won't need to change much!

[Tatume]

No preference, either will work wonderfully. You could add a pinch of tin to the WW bullets just to make them fill out and look pretty. Run your mold hot enough to cause frosting so you know you have good bullets through and through.

[waksupi]

I'm a little north of you about 45 minutes in Happy Valley, hi neighbor...

You wouldn't be one of the guys who has the local sources of wheelweights locked up?

Now I've started doing the powder coating thing. So I guess I'll have to dust off my LBT hardness tester to figure out what baking the paint on bullets does to hardness, whether water quenched or heat treated in the oven (my original method).

Looks like I go with the default choice of wheelweight alloy.

Thanks for the comments, all.

Yep, we are pretty close. I do just so happen to have a lot of WW ingots here. I could part with some if you need lead. M&C Tires in Kalispell on Meridian is where I bought buckets full, they may be a good place to check.
Winter league for sporting rifles and military rifles starts at the Columbia Falls range in January, may see you there. Lots of cast lead shooters there.

[MOC031]

Yep, we are pretty close. I do just so happen to have a lot of WW ingots here. I could part with some if you need lead. M&C Tires in Kalispell on Meridian is where I bought buckets full, they may be a good place to check.
Winter league for sporting rifles and military rifles starts at the Columbia Falls range in January, may see you there. Lots of cast lead shooters there.
I ski patrol in the winter for a few months and then I usually head out on the shutdown circuit doing camp work until about May; was gone from January 4th to May 7th last year, so didn't even get any use out of my ski pass beyond the patrol days I put in.

Anyways, the military matches would be fun, but I don't think I'll be there. Didn't even buy a pass to the range this year; between my wife's Jeep being stolen and the work never ending until October, shooting and flyfishing were lost pursuits this year.

I'm good for WW for a while yet, but Howie told me his WW's are spoken for.

[waksupi]

I ski patrol in the winter for a few months and then I usually head out on the shutdown circuit doing camp work until about May; was gone from January 4th to May 7th last year, so didn't even get any use out of my ski pass beyond the patrol days I put in.

Anyways, the military matches would be fun, but I don't think I'll be there. Didn't even buy a pass to the range this year; between my wife's Jeep being stolen and the work never ending until October, shooting and flyfishing were lost pursuits this year.

I'm good for WW for a while yet, but Howie told me his WW's are spoken for.

If you get free, no membership needed for these shoots.

[quilbilly]

I am currently in my 40th year of lead fishing lure/sinker making and I quit relying on wheel weights as a reliable alloy over 30 years ago. Most of the time it would be a pretty good alloy for making bendable fishing jigs (hard but not brittle and holds paint well). A couple times a year, however, I would run into a batch that, while looking the same and sounding the same when dropped as ingots, they would be completely unusable for anything but the simplest surf sinkers. Scuba diving weights have tended to be the worst offenders. Now that WW are not longer used in this state (not missed by me), I use roofing lead and best of all, isotope lead from the walls of Xray rooms. For boolit making I mix pure (isotope) or relatively pure (roofing) lead with hard birdshot BB's to make just the right alloy for the purpose of the boolits I am casting which is usually somewhere around 2:1. I hate putting isotope lead into jigs or sinkers bu it is sometimes necessary. I have gotten to know some of the Seattle area metal recyclers really well over the years and they don't mind when I walk in through the crowded sorting area and go directly to the lead bin.