Hypothetical pondering

[Krh1326]

Being retired, I have a lot of time to let my mind wander. Sometimes I get in trouble, sometimes I get a brainstorm. Mostly I get in trouble. Hey… it’s not my fault that my wife still goes to work, and leaves me unsupervised…. Muhwahahahahaha

This is not something that I have attempted. I am not proposing that someone try it. I’m just thinking about it, and trying to figure how it would do.

What if you took a hunting boolit, say a 200 gr FN .35 Rem , but cast in a harder alloy, say #2 Lyman, and water quench it. Match a square cut end mill to the meplat diameter, and bore it out, to maybe the first drive band. Use a fine steel tool to scratch up the inside of bore… to give it some teeth. Finally, fill that bore with soft pure lead. Would that mimick a SPCL ?

Would pouring the pure lead into the hollow , cause the #2 “jacket” to melt and deform, if you had it at the lowest possible temp, to pour? Because it’s basically all “lead” and no hollow left , would it affect the final weight or change it’s ballistic stability performance?

[Thumbcocker]

There were molds made in the 60's and 70's where one part was cast of hard alloy with a cup point. A second mold was used to cast the fore part of the boolit from soft lead. The two pieces were then epoxied together.

It is possible to run 2 pots simultaneously. One with soft lead and one with hard lead. The mold is cast with hot and a small dipper, usually a cartridge case, of soft lead is poured into the nose section of the mold followed immediately by the hard alloy. The result is a boolit with a soft nose and hard base. I played with it enough to establish proof if concept but never pushed it further. I suppose you could water drop the boolit to harden the base.

A variation on the theme was to put a pre measured amount of soft lead, like a .32 cal. Round ball, in a ladel floating on the surface of the hard alloy. Once the mold was really hot the dipper was used to cast the nose and then the hard alloy poured in on top. It works but is really slow.

[centershot]

IMO, at best, you'd de-temper the #2 back to it's original 15 BHN. At worst, you'd melt the #2.

[Krh1326]

I thank you sir, for the very thoughtful, thorough education…. And I am better for it!

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Pure lead round ball placed in nose of mold, then preferred harder alloy for pour was used since before I started casting (1965?). The two mold system has also been around a long time, but you are casting 2 bullets for one shot. 1-20, 1-25 works very well without too much fussing, maybe 1-30, depending on rifle (bore smoothness, twist, velocity, throat, powder burn speed). You may lose accuracy due to leading quicker (15 rounds plus/minus) than with harder alloys but for hunting, softer alloys work fine.

[Beerd]

this sticky should answer your questions:
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?11749-Casting-Softnose-Bullets-From-ANY-Conventional-Moulds
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[Krh1326]

this sticky should answer your questions:
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?11749-Casting-Softnose-Bullets-From-ANY-Conventional-Moulds
..

That was awesome info! And I thank you sir.

[megasupermagnum]

If you then water quenched the bullet after filling the nose with pure lead, you should retain the hardness. I'm not sure it would act like a soft nose though. Being as the pure lead would be completely encased in L#2, and there's no way you would be drilling it anywhere near as thin as a copper jacket. Who knows, it might work.

What I do know is that there is a WAY easier method to do this. I believe BruceB perfected the method of everything I've tried. The main difference in his method than others is that after the nose and base are together, he then sticks the mold in the pot and lets it all melt again. This 100% fuses the nose. I've found using the 2-pot method can often leave the nose with a line between the alloys, and that's not something I trust for hunting. I trust BruceB's method.

1. Cast the nose of soft or pure lead. I think BruceB used fishing sinkers. I like a small casing scoop. Let nose harden and set aside. Repeat for however many bullets you want to make.
2. Insert soft nose into the mold and fill the rest with a hard alloy like normally casting, leaving a generous sprue puddle.
3. Float mold on the lead of the pot until the sprue liquifies.
4. Carefully set the mold on a wet cloth or sponge with as little disturbance to the lead as possible. Make 100% sure the bullet is completely hardened.

You now have a 100% fused soft nose bullet. Normally I prefer a hollow point myself, but I've had nothing better to do with my shoulder recovering, and I've got one bullet that makes a lot of sense as a soft point. I'll be trying it on deer this fall.