No leading!!

[Snyd]

YAY!!...finally!

I cast my first boolits one year ago this month in my greenhouse with snow on the ground here in Alaska. Over the past year I have been casting 5 different moulds for my 45 Colt wheelguns and Puma 454 levergun. A 355gr gc LBT, 340gr gc Lyman, 255 and 275 gr pb and a 200gr pb Lyman. I've used WW, AC and water dropped, 5/1 WW/Lino, WD &AC. I've tried Alox lube, pan lubing and made my own lube with beeswax I rendered, vaseline and some other stuff.

I slugged my bores, reamed my own cylinder throats and forcing cones, cast and recast, sized and cussed, bought a thermometer, added some tin, bought a lubrasizer read the forums and so on and so forth. Sent a mould back to Lyman which came back not so "fixed". Found some copper chore boys, applied elbow grease, used up lots of Hoppes, etc.

This weekend at the range I shot over 100 rounds in 3 guns with 3 loads and had ZERO leading. This was on top of over 200+ rounds already shot with no cleaning. I've always had some after 20-50 rounds it seems depending on which boolit/alloy/lube in which gun.
I feel like I have graduated or something! [smilie=w:

[legi0n]

Now you should write up something about what caused that. Opinion or science, it might help someone!

[Calamity Jake]

Yap when everthing is right shooting cast is the best, in my book.

[qajaq59]

I feel like I have graduated or something! Actually you graduated when you were smart enough to slug the bore and measure everything in sight. We would hear very little about leading if everyone started that way.

[462]

Congratulations!

Care to let us know what's working?

[cbrick]

Sounds like you made those boolits properly fit each firearm. That is a graduation of sorts.

Rick

[Markbo]

Yes please! There are those amongst us that are where you were one year ago and wondering all the things you have apparently learned in a year. Maybe you can shorten the learning curve for some of us that can't shoot every day!

What were you doing when there was leading and what was changed? What thing(s) did you notice made the most change to get you to NO leading today?

[MtGun44]

Like Bret says - fit is king. All the other stuff comes into play to some degree, some of the
time, in some guns with some boolits.

Getting to where you first get a good design and good lube and then fit it to the particular
gun is getting yourself to be a journeyman boolit loader. It IS a great feeling when you just
go and DO it (casting and shooting lead) rather than worry and fiddle to get it to work.

Congratulations, you'll have fun and save money. Much easier from here on.

Bill

[Snyd]

It was a combination of things. Thanks to all on this site. I merely applied the knowledge I gleened here and in other places to my stuff. Okay here goes...

The guns.

Ruger RH 4" 45 Colt- slugged bore, .451. Had Cylindersmith ream throats to .4525. They were .451-.4515 as near as I could measure. Could not stuff a .452 boolit through the cylinder.

Ruger SBH Bisley Hunter 45 Colt. Slugged bore, .451. Throats were .451. I reamed these to .4525 myself.

I cut the forcing cones to 11degrees myself on both guns.

Before the throat reams both guns leaded forcing cones and barrel. I also had leading on the top straps. Accuracy was greatly improved after throat ream. Not sure forcing cone did much. Can't tell. Maybe I can't shoot any better than I can so it doesn't matter :D

I also have a Puma 454 levergun, the bore slugs at .452. I have not made a chamber mould. The gun is accurate with anything I stuff in it. 45 Colt and 454. I love it.

Moulds

I had a 335gr lyman mould that was out of spec that I sent back to Lyman, they re-cut it, sent it back but one driving band is still only .451. But, the front and rear and gc are 452. My LBT mould just plane works great. I like it the best. 355gr WFN lubed with gc. I worked over the Lee 255gr rnfp 6 banger a little by doing the "spin the boolit in the mould with comet" trick. That helped. My other 200gr Lyman mould drops .454 as well as a custom Lee 6 banger 275gr lfn. So, I got my moulds to drop the correct size.

Alloy and lube.

I messed with alloy some but just ww, ac and water dropped. Tried adding some solder or lino. I've tried alox lube and my homemade lube and various combos. My homemade lube is beeswax/parafin/vasaline. I threw in some Balistol but I don't think it was enough to matter. When I first made the lube I had equal parts by liquid volume but it was too hard so I kept adding vaseline until I got it sticky and gooey/slippery. I don't know how to describe it. My beeswax I rendered myself from 5 gal of beehive stuff from a friend. It is pretty sticky and sweet smelling. My lube is sticky/tacky in that it really sticks to the boolits but yet it's slippery and gooey. Oh, and it's purple thanks to a couple crayons :D

Casting
After guessing at temp, I finally got a lead thermometer. I take my time casting to make sure I am getting good fillout paying attention to alloy and mould temp. This just took practice and getting the feel for how each mould works and how hot it likes to be.


Here's my bottom line after tweaking the guns, moulds, alloy and lube and getting some casting technique down.

I am casting with 5/1 ww/lino at about 750 degrees and waterdropping them. I am sizing/lubing with a Lyman 450 using my homemade lube.

Loads

45 Colt
355gr WFN 21.5gr H110. 1200fps in SBH, 1150 in Redhawk The business load!
275gr lfn 9gr Unique (still experimenting with this one)
255gr rfnp 8.5gr Unique- can't remember chrono data off hand- plinker
200gr swc 8 gr Unique- popgun load!

454 Casull levergun loads
340gr Lyman 29gr H110 1850 fps The buisness load!
275gr lfn 11 or 12 gr Unique (still experimenting with this one)
All 45 Colt loads shoot good in it as well

whew, that was long…. time to go put the levergun back together….