got 35 lbs of pure lead.....

[Mntngoat]

now what? I'm real new to casting and its my intention of casting 35 caliber, 44 caliber, and 32 caliber bullets. What hardness should I be striving for?

ML

[MtGun44]

What calibers and what velocities? With just a bit of tin you can be OK for up to .44 mag.
You are more likely to have problems with too hard than too soft. Remember that Elmer
Keith developed and used the .44 mag for decades with "hard cast" 16:1 lead:tin alloy that
is about the same hardness as air cooled wheelweights, about 11 BHN. So, if you melt your
whole 35 lbs of lead and add 2 1/4 lbs of lead free solder (which is nearly pure tin) you will
be real close to Elmer's alloy.

Fitting the boolit to the barrel is critical. Most problems come from undersized boolits. Slug
your barrels and try for groove diameter plus .001 or .002 as your diameter.

[fredj338]

You can shoot soft lead to near 850fps or so if the bullet fits & a good lube. Mix it 50/50 w/ clipon ww for a good bullet to around 1200fps. Mixed 25-1 w/ tin, makes a great HP to 1200fps or so. Lots of options.

[tackstrp]

fredj338 did not know that about pure lead. thanks have always want to cast a few 380 pure lead and 102 lee mould. Shooting out of a Kel tec 380 2.7 inch barrel .

I wonder if will hold together or go splat and flatten out when hits something.

[crawfobj]

SPLAT!

(I do a bunch of my shooting at steel plates.)

[MtGun44]

Depends on what it hits! They ALL go splat on steel, less so on softer stuff.

Bill

[runfiverun]

win and rem used 40-1 alloy in their factory 45 colt,38 special type loads for years and might use something very similar still.

[Mntngoat]

What calibers and what velocities? With just a bit of tin you can be OK for up to .44 mag.
You are more likely to have problems with too hard than too soft. Remember that Elmer
Keith developed and used the .44 mag for decades with "hard cast" 16:1 lead:tin alloy that
is about the same hardness as air cooled wheelweights, about 11 BHN. So, if you melt your
whole 35 lbs of lead and add 2 1/4 lbs of lead free solder (which is nearly pure tin) you will
be real close to Elmer's alloy.



looking at about 900 FPS with a .32 Mag and about the same out of a .44 special, have 50 lbs of #2 lyman for a 35 Remington and 10mm auto.

ML

[WHITETAIL]

You will need to add some bird shot
to pure lead to be good for the 35Rem.:holysheep

[Echo]

Let's see. A pound of lead-free solder for about $10 from Grainger. Gives about 36 pounds of (nearly) 3% Sn. That would make almost 1050 240 gr .44 boolits, or 2500+ 100 gr .32 boolits. Driving to .35 Rem velocities would be problematic, but the .32 and .44 Sp would be a cinch. And you have the magnum metal for the .35 Rem.