Should i dilute my ww lead with pure!

[shagg]

I have scrap ww lead that i have cleaned and poured in ingots. I have what i believe is mostly pure lead (pipe and flashing) also poured into ingots. I am planning to cast 45 acp bullets. If i'm thinking correctly, this is relatively low pressure and i may be able to dilute my ww lead with some pure. I'm new to casting and would welcome more experienced opinions.

Thanx.

[docone31]

I dilute mine 50/50, plus I water drop. I crank up the heat on the mold, and pot. I do stir well.
Works real well in my ACP. I use the Lee 200gn RF.
Works for me.
I size to .452.

[fryboy]

dead soft pure ? i'd almost wager some smoke pole stuffer would offer to trade u out of some of that .... but properly lubed and sized ( and the lube isnt too critical unless way to hard ) u could prolly easily run 25/75 % ww/pb , i've been playing with some real soft alloy and hp 45's made up of lead pipe with some joints ( solder) it dings with the lee tester @.080 or just a shade under 8 bhn ( sadly lee stops at .079 @ 8 bhn :P ) the .452 die barely kisses ,them still working on the load but it has great promise !

edit for add...

btw ? welcome to the forum ! i'm bad , i didnt note that until i pushed send :oops:

[HeavyMetal]

If you have "straight" clip on ww in ingots 25 to 75 not a bad move.

If you threw clip on and stick on in the same pot and made ingots I'm real sure you already have that mix!

In either case I think I'd post a add for the pure and see if I could trade up to clip on ww metal.

Lots of guys with "Smoke Poles" are looking for the soft stuff!

[fredj338]

I have done it for my 45acp or 45colts moving the same vel. Works fin in my guns. About like range scrap in hardness. I still have about 150# of stickons that are pure lead & don't shoot much BP right now, but, that could always change.

[462]

Shagg,
I'm still working on a .45 ACP alloy, but I use a 2:1 (clip-on: stick-on) alloy very successfully for .357 Magnum, to over 1300 fps.

[SciFiJim]

I use a 50/50 mix of clip on and stick on for my .45ACP.

A word of advice from someone who has been there. Don't blend your entire stash of lead. You might get another gun that needs just clip on WWs or just pure. I had to wait until I got more clip ons to cast for a .357 that I got after mixing all of my lead.

[shagg]

Ok, my ingots that came from ww's are 75% clip 25% stick on (roughly) so i'm thinkin i can do maybe 3 ww ingot and 1 more pure and have boollits hard enough.
Water dropping: sounds like a good idea if lead molecules act such as steel do when hot and quenched. How long do you let the boolits cool in the mold and do you need deep water?

My pro pot, mold and dropout should be here tomorro!

[357tex]

For years I have mixed 7lb.of soft sheathing with 3 lbs,
. of WW.For 357 and 44 works well.I top out at 1200fps.Thats fast enought for me.I worked for phone co.for a while and saved lots of lead sheathing.I have even water droped some for 1600fps rifle it works.

[shooting on a shoestring]

Shagg...I too use 50/50 pure to WW and water quench for .38s and .357, some .45 Colt also. I've even run it in 30/30.

How deep for water quenching? Doesn't matter much. I use a laundry soap bucket thats about a foot of water and about 6 inches of free board above to keep the splashes in check. I also keep my bucket about 4 feet from my lead pot. I know that water splashes will simply bounce off the top of the lead melt, but I use the distance to make sure any splashes in the mould cavities have a few seconds to steam and leave before I pour in molten lead. I've never had a problem, but don't give a steam explosion a chance either.

[Wireman134]

I dilute mine 50/50, plus I water drop. I crank up the heat on the mold, and pot. I do stir well.
Works real well in my ACP. I use the Lee 200gn RF.
Works for me.
I size to .452.

+1 1.5-1.7% Sb watter droped gives me 12-15Bhn

[Edubya]

Welcome to the forum Shagg.

Anytime that you plan to cast a new boolit for a particular caliber/gun, think about the velocity that you will be charging it to and compare that velocity to the very accurate/non-leading, lowly .22. We shoot them 700-1,200 fps and they do just fine withe 8 BHN pure lead.
I shoot a lot of pistol boolits with 10 BHN and have experimented with the water dropped and harder alloys. I have had most of my luck with 50/50 clip on/stick-on and about 6 oz. of tin for each 20 lbs of lead alloy.

EW

[1hole]

"If you have "straight" clip on ww in ingots 25 to 75 not a bad move."


A 3:1 lead/WW mix with a quarter pound or a bit less of 50:50 tin/lead solder is a great bullet alloy. The tin helps keep the WW antimony in solution rather than seperating out as the molten metal solidifies.