Question about making bullets

[tsbonham]

accually i have a few questions for anyone that may be able to answer them 1) can a lead bullet be casted undersized then be plated with copper 2) plated with nickel either electoless or electro 3) can copper be melted down and made into a solid copper bullet 4) can nickel be melted down and made into a solid
all plating can be done with +- .01 accuracy could also be put on a centerless grinder to bring it to +- .001
Would it even be an effective bullet if it could be casted say .050 /side smaller then built up .050/side so a .277 bullet casted at .177 then built up to a .287 and ground down to a .277 (reality the initial buildup would be .276 to .278 i have constantly hit these tolorances on rods without much problem)

[NSP64]

Yes you can, but why? It seems cost prohibitive. There are some companies that make solid copper bullets by machining rod stock down. I mean if you plate things for a living and want to play around with it post pics and let us know how they come out. Raineer brand bullets are plated bullets.
Welcome to the site.

[WHITETAIL]

tsbonham, Welcome to the forum!:-D
:castmine:

[Firebricker]

I have no nothing about plating but as far as melting copper or nickel they have such high melting points you would have to have one serious back yard furnace. sure it would be impractical but fun to try I like any project that involves molten metals. barrys mfg have plated bullets also and they have ones called double struck which go through twice for uniformity. but nothin beats good old lead. have fun whatever you pick

[docone31]

Welcome to the forum!
Lots of solid folks here.
They all helped me a lot.
With plateing. Yes, you can, but is it worth it? You haven't given your reasons for wanting to try, so I will relate from mine.
I had always reloaded jacketed bullets. The one time I tried Hard Cast Bullets, they turned my barrel into a lead mine. I mean blah!
Today, I shoot exclusively lead. I have some jacketeds, but they sit with lead being my preference. Sizing is what matters.
With plateing, you can chemically plate, or electro-plate. You will need a rotating drum of stainless steel as Anode, with a copper Cathode. Not really practical unless you are doing it commercially. Electro-forming, essentially heavy plateing also has its recquirements. You will need a sulphate solution which becomed enriched with ion copper.
Casting copper,
You could. You will need 1650*, plus a Kiln to preheat the flasks to do the pour which is either centrifigal, or vaccum. The flask temp should be around 800* at the time of casting. Steam could also be used in lieu of vaccum.
Once the casting(s are ejected from the investment, you would have to final swage the final shape of the finished casting. This process recquires experience, and capital investment. You get a lot of commercial bullets for the initial investment.
If shooting pistol, why not just cast? With proper sizing, and lube I am not sure the advantage of jacketeds over lead.
If shooting high speed rifle, paper patching. I am pushing .30s, and .303 British at full house load speeds with incredible accuracy. Drift over to the paper patching section here, lots of good info there.
Another alternative is a wrapped casting, useing either a copper coil cast into the boolitt, or half jacket also cast into the boolitt. You will need a designated mold for that.
Ironically, these ideas are all pre-turn of the century ideas. Most worked.
Unless you do something, a cast boolitt will not break the Mach 5 boundry unless something is done to it. Casting although, does create some lattitude in accuracy, powder charges, and applications.
The main thing, find your size. Slug the bore. That is VERY important and simple to do. Finding size fixes most of the issues with firing cast boolitts. Another, if a jacketed can do it, so can a paper patch, and patching is simple and effective.
Makeing a designated mold for either a coil, or tube jacket is another matter. Once again, sizeing is needed. Adding complexity to casting is another issue. You would need to drill out a mold to accept the wire to size, and be able to replicate the size making the wire jacket, or sizeing a piece of tubing. This can be done. You will need to slug your bore, then find the size for casting. One you have your bore diameter, recalculate the addition diameter to bore.
It takes me infinitely less time to cast, size, cut patches, wrap, size and load than to cut tubeing, size it both inner and outer, preheat the tubeing, or wire, place in mold, cast, size.
With direct relationship to your last question, first there is a difference between electro-forming on rod stock than boolitt stock. Nickle can be molded and sized the same as copper, but you will need to have barrels on hand. Nickle and German Silver are hard on steels
Another alternative is swageing. You can control sizeing by swageing.
It all depends on why.
For pistol, standard wheel weight alloy. For rifle, I use wheel weight with a touch of zinc, then paper patch.
Don't forget, plateing over lead is not that stable a plateing. The plateing is harder than the lead. Expansion and contraction is not equal. Something has to give and it is usually the bond between the lead and plated surface. Same with Electro-Forming, which is heavy plateing much more controlled than conventional plateing.
Plateing has microscopic porosity. Each layer of plateing will plate on the first layer. A microhole will become eventually visible to the naked eye. A reverse plateing will have to be done on each step to even out the original coating. Now you are talking current flow, acids, and most important sterile handling of materials. Any finger oils will make a void in the plateing.
The copper plated bullets are so thinly plated, voids are not an issue. They are full of them.
Sizing, paper patching, alernate cast in place jackets, swageing. Simplest methods of success.
I found paper pathing the simplest of all. My rifles all have paper today.