50/50 Shoots well but#

[primerless]

I have been casting 45's using (fifty wheel weight/fifty stickon) with 1 percent tin. Boolits look good and shoot just fine. I have alot of lead from a sailboat keel that it is a little softer than straight wheel weight, but is harder than pure lead. I do not have any tools to measure hardness of this lead.

If you had lead with the hardness somewhere between ww and pure lead. What would you recomend for a recipe? I have alot of pure lead and the keel lead so, I would like to save the ww's for future use. I am casting for a Kimber 45 apc.

[mpmarty]

Cast it and shoot it.

[SciFiJim]

If the hardness is between pure and clip on, that is what you would wind up with if you mixed pure and clip on. Cast it and shoot it. Add a bit of tin only if needed. A lot of times a hotter melt will work instead of adding tin.

I cast for a Kimber .45 as well. 45s are pretty forgiving. Also very easy to clean when you can field strip it in about 10 seconds and have just the barrel in your hand.

[primerless]

SciFiJim, That does makes sense. After having such good luck with the blend I was using it is a little hard to try something different. While working on a 9mm boolit, I scrubbed lead for days untill I got it right.

[runfiverun]

if you have the lead you need to figure out how to use it.
take any you can get and learn how to mix and match to make it work.
melt up a pot of it and pour some then add your 50-50 mix to it at another 50-50 and try some of that.
you can always add some straight ww's to bring it around a little if it comes out not right for your gun.
have a plan make notes and check your work.

[mroliver77]

Like has been said, cast the keel alloy and see if it works. You can take a straight WW boolit and squish it and a keel boolit together in a vise and see which gives first. Then try 50/50 WW/pure against another keel alloy boolit. Gives you an idea of hardness. Also compare weights of all. If keel alloy too soft water drop and check if it hardens. I have some range scrap from indoor range and it hardens some by water dropping saving me from having to add to it. I can test a few boolits with lee tester if'n ya want.
Jay

[HeavyMetal]

I'll join the cast it and try it group!

45 auto works at a whole lt less pressure than a 9 or a 40 and, as such, are much more forgiving of alloy type.

The odds are the keel weight was cast from ww metal in the first place which means it may have some antimony in it. I'd take up the offer to have some boolits hardeness tested and send a few air cooled and a few water dropped to see if there was much of a difference.

I'd also wait a week after casting both types before sending them. This way they hit max hardness just before they get where thier going.

[Edubya]

I have been casting 45's using (fifty wheel weight/fifty stickon) with 1 percent tin. Boolits look good and shoot just fine. I have alot of lead from a sailboat keel that it is a little softer than straight wheel weight, but is harder than pure lead. I do not have any tools to measure hardness of this lead.

If you had lead with the hardness somewhere between ww and pure lead. What would you recomend for a recipe? I have alot of pure lead and the keel lead so, I would like to save the ww's for future use. I am casting for a Kimber 45 apc.

You're down there between Houston and Louisiana, we've got maybe a hundred other members within a few miles of you. I'll bet somebody would help you test that lead and might even be willing to help recycle some of it!
EW

[clintsfolly]

just send me 50lbs to test and i will report back hardness and how it shots :razz: Clint

[timkelley]

Wish I had a sailboat keel. Cast and shoot, try to water drop some of your boolits, see if they will harden.

[A J]

My shooting buddy and I cast range scrap. He uses LLA without sizing. I use my own brew that contains everything from my wife's old Christmas candles (Smells good and adds color.) and any other slippery waxey cr*p I'm inspired to toss into the mix. I just try to get the consistency of kid's modeling clay. I just scrape some from the mixing pot as needed and mold it to the shape of medium t*rd and drop it into my Star and size to .452. My friend shoots a Les Baer and I shoot a Kimber Super Match II. We both water drop and I size mine as needed. We both shoot Masters Class in PPC and practice twice weekly shooting 250-300
rounds each at each session. We clean our guns every couple thousand rounds but keep them lubed. We've been doing this going on three years now. Neither one of us has any problem with any leading.

Moral of the story: .45 acp with it's low velocity isn't very particular about bullet hardness. Softer boolits shoot as good if not better as any. If you experience leading your velocity is too fast or your boolits might be undersize. Don't worry about hardness.

A J

[jlchucker]

If you shoot good with it, why fool around, except for maybe satisfying your own curiosity? No leading and good groups in your favorite firearms would seem to indicate that you've got a good combo as is.

[Shiloh]

I have been casting 45's using (fifty wheel weight/fifty stickon) with 1 percent tin. Boolits look good and shoot just fine. I have alot of lead from a sailboat keel that it is a little softer than straight wheel weight, but is harder than pure lead. I do not have any tools to measure hardness of this lead.

If you had lead with the hardness somewhere between ww and pure lead. What would you recomend for a recipe? I have alot of pure lead and the keel lead so, I would like to save the ww's for future use. I am casting for a Kimber 45 apc.


Cast it and shoot it.

what mpmarty said.

I shoot thousands of rounds of pistol ammo at target velocities and above with 50/50 or softer. No leading at rifle velocities to 1800+ with 50/50

Shiloh

[redgum]

I use the approx. same alloy (50/50, WW/pure) in all my .38 spls & .45 acps

Might I suggest a crude way to campare hardness
cast 1 of 50/50 and 1 of "boat keel" and place them end to end in a vice.
Put a little bit of a squeeze on 'em and then measure which one shortens the most.

[primerless]

Thanks all for your advise, Just a small up-date.. I casted about one-hundred boolits. I nomally cull bollits untill I start get a little frost on the boolits but I kelp casting and kelp getting shiny boolits. I then stop and checked to see if I was getting a good fill and to my suprise the boolits looked perfect. Now all I have to do is see how shoot.

If they shoot ok I will be a happy man because I have plenty of this keel lead to shoot!!!!!

[Shiloh]

Shoot it. 50/50 shoots great. No leading in pistols or rifles to 1800+. Thats as fast as I've taken it. My best accuracy seems to be under 1800.

Shiloh