Yes, it works!!!!

[docone31]

A great day at the range.
ALL my loads worked real well. My castings did not lead in either .45ACP, or .38spl.
I use only Lee molds, and water dropped wheel weights with zinc blended in.
No spray from the forcing cone, no leading. We have a Smith in .357, and I tried my new EAA EA/B. That is a great pistol.
Dead on.
My wife has the Smith, and she is not sure she likes it. It was the first pistol she bought before we met. She much prefers her Taurus Pt 1911! Now, there is a switch.
I had gotten some 185gn wad cutters for the ACPs. Mine did not like it at all. Hers ate it, and everything else. Usually it is not mine that is picky.
I use Blue Dot powder. They all like it. .38spl loads with Blue Dot are great. They print POA, and no smoke or leading.
All in all, a good day. My wife is back to shooting after an injury from overloading her Walker! Her index finger was swollen up for almost a year.
She went back to the range today, and got to shoot!
She is suprised her first choice is the PT 1911. She had always thought it was the Smith.
Heheheh. I told her it would be that way.
Now to clean the cases, and reload.

[44man]

Did you say ZINC? or did you mean tin?

[docone31]

I mean zinc.
The castings really performed well. With my pan lubeing, they are real good. I am cleaning them now, and the bores clean real well.
I had read an article years ago on useing zinc. It works.
They hit a little high, had to drop the front sights on all of them. The primer signs showed less pressure.

[Linstrum]

The zinc-based family of die casting alloys called Kirksite or Zamak have been used as bullets before and they work quite well. During World War Two was the last time bullet casters used Kirksite in large amounts, and that is where we are headed as lead gets phased out as a commonly available metal.

The main problems with zinc as boolit metal are that it shrinks quite a bit on cooling and its density is roughly 7/11 or 63% that of lead.

But as docone31 says, it works fine.

So don't throw out those zinc wheel weights!


rl792

[thenaaks]

how was your mold fill-out?

[docone31]

Sharp corners, good fill out, no wrinkles. I like to run the mold hot.
My technique is to count to six to cut the sprue. Too long and it is miserable, too short and it is drippy.
I water drop everything. I use Lee molds. I love them.

[Linstrum]

Hi, docone31, do you have a good idea of what the zinc to lead ratio is you used?

Back in February I tried using lead wheel weights with zinc wheel weights thrown in to see just how bad the fill-out would be and I didn't have any trouble just as you report. I think I mentioned it in one of my posts back then about my new Citadel 1911A1 .45 ACP using the Lee 230 grain truncated cone. I was using a rough guesstimate of 1/4 pound zinc die cast wheel weights to 1-3/4 pounds lead wheel weights for a total melt weight of two pounds. The resulting mixture is too hard to nick with my thumbnail but would depress with the edge of a penny run over it.

What was interesting is I had just bought the pistol and was in the process of figuring out its characteristics. I was using a 6.25" x 7.5" Carnation Instant Breakfast box for my target and I kept setting the target farther and farther away and I kept hitting it. I got out to 100 yards and I was still hitting the box! That is not at all unheard of with a pistol, my S&W model 19 .357 Magnum 6" barrel revolver does that, too. But it is a bit unusual. I'm not saying adding zinc to lead wheel weights is The Magic Wand that turns lousy guns into accurate guns, but the resulting alloy is a bit harder than most off-the-rim lead wheel weights, and sometimes a harder alloy improves accuracy.

Let us know if you have any other observations, this is interesting.


rl795