Buckshot- soft lead?

[wonderwolf]

Are you guys using soft lead, air cooled or water quenched or wheel weights air cooled OR water quenched for your buckshot loads? I'm using a 00 mold and reclaimed range lead (almost as soft as pure lead) and allow it to air cool. I'm wondering if I want the buckshot to be harder as now I'm sure its deforming a lot going down the barrel.

[krag35]

I have been using .311 RB out of waterquenched WW. I want them as hard as possible to prevent deformation.

[klcarroll]

It really depends on what you're going to be shooting! ......If you are shooting at smaller, "thin skinned" game like coyote, the soft lead pellets will allow for some deformation (expansion) and a "cleaner" kill.

....On the other hand, if your application is "tactical", you probably want to cast them as hard as possible in the interest of maximizing penetration.

My 00Buck cast out of WW alloy will whip right through a late model car body!

Kent

[Rusty Shackleford]

I've been casting mine from 50/50 lead/WW. Trying to save my linotype and WW's and tin for tough times ahead.

[WILCO]

My 00Buck cast out of WW alloy will whip right through a late model car body!

Dang!

[diehard]

I have no idea about penetration, but I seem to get better patterns using lead pipe (soft lead) that is water quenched, than I do with other mixtures I've tried. So far I've only shot paper with them, but I like the groupings better than with the air cooled soft lead and WW/lead pipe mixtures I loaded. Of course I assume any number of variables could cause the difference, from crimp quality to wad pressure, but I've been packing away a lot of lead pipe '00' lately.

[klcarroll]

@Diehard;

Well, .....If I had a ready source of lead pipe, ....I wouldn't turn my nose up at a somewhat softer pellet!!!


Kent

[DLCTEX]

I cast mine with Lee .311RB from ACWW. If I want to minimise deformation I buffer the loads.

[USSR]

I'm casting from the .319" Lee mould using aircooled WW and just a "tich" of 50/50 solder.

Don

[diehard]

Well, .....If I had a ready source of lead pipe, ....I wouldn't turn my nose up at a somewhat softer pellet!!!

It pays to know the plumbing and heating teacher at the local vocational high school! ;)

[RP]

i cast with WWs in my sharpshooter mould if i use softer lead i have to cut the spruces off they wont break off. When I use WWs and get it good and hot when i open the mould and drop them on my sloped catch tray the shot breaks off and the shot rolls down into a pan saves me alot of time.

[shotman]

Lead pipe is not pure lead. it does make good shot .in a mold . Itdont have arsnic so it dont work in a shot maker but does cast good

[JohnClark7886]

i cast with WWs in my sharpshooter mould if i use softer lead i have to cut the spruces off they wont break off. When I use WWs and get it good and hot when i open the mould and drop them on my sloped catch tray the shot breaks off and the shot rolls down into a pan saves me alot of time.

Got a picture. I have two of the sharpshooter molds, 00 and 0000. Would love to not have to cut off the sprues

[wonderwolf]

I think I'll try some Water quenched Soft lead and see where that gets me, I'll secure some car body parts, House materials and some more phone books to test them out on. I'm mostly looking at supplementing my small stock of factory buck with these. I plan on roll crimping so I can use a wider range of loads with what I have.

[HandsOff]

I realize that I'm necroing the **** out of this thread.
I want to cast buckshot for practice, and my question is if a 50/50 mix of plumbers lead/CO WW a good alloy for buckshot, or is there a better ratio? I don't want the shot to be too soft. I have far more plumbers lead than WW (much easier to get my hands on plumbers lead here), and would like to stretch what CO WW I have. I've got some linotype, but I'm trying to stretch that as well. I have Sharpshooter USA molds for 00, 1 and 4 buck.

Thanks

[6pt-sika]

I load all sizes of buckshot 0000 to #3 but the only one I cast (at the moment) is 0000 and I've been casting that in a 2 cavity Lee .380" mold from straight WW's water quenched . Seems to pattern fairly well in my 10 gauge guns so far .

Oh , I also roll the 0000 pellets between a piece of steel and aluminum to touch up the sprue spot a bit .

[RMc]

Hard but not brittle lead alloy buckshot pellets pattern better, retain velocity better and penetrate deeper. I consider 15 BHN to be a reasonable goal in purchasing or casting buckshot.

Here is an in-depth article on quenching and even heat-treating lead alloys.

http://www.lasc.us/heattreat.htm

[HandsOff]

If the alloy calc I found here on castboolits is reasonably correct, BPI's 6% antimony super buckshot is only ~14 bhn.
I've done some digging and tried to find more info about the lead/antimony ratio for buckshot, and what I've found is that there seems to be a fairly wide variety of hardness for buckshot.
A shotgun life article claims .5 -1% antimony, and I've found claims of factory buckshot antimony levels of 3-4%.
There appears to be a range from ~9 bhn to ~15 vickers. I found a quick & dirty conversion for vickers to brinnell: HB=0.95 HV. So if accurate, 15 vickers = 14.25 bhn


I want to make buckshot that patterns reasonably well from what I have for target practice, but using as much pumbers lead in the mix as I can get away with.
I have superhard from rotometals to make "real" buckshot, but that's not for target practice.

Thanks again for helping this newcomer to reloading.

[Lloyd Smale]

ive allways used water dropped ww.

[Moonie]

I water drop COWW's out of a Lee 00 mold, then a tumble after separating the strings.