Originally Posted by
Land Owner
Late to the Party, but not absent...
Welcome to the World of Cast Boolits. You are doing GREAT!! First and foremost, have Fun at the casting bench! This is NOT Rocket Science, although that rabbit and its hole are here for you to chase – as you wish.
Your alloy is an unknown - straight up range scrap
Your cast “looks” fine from a good brass mold - MP 454640
Shoot some to be certain! You may be well pleased! Even boolits of less than perfect fill-out are known to shoot to point of aim (at across-the-room distance) and you are currently casting for Learning Curve as well as plinking. Accuracy right out of the gate in a supply-poor economy will still require practice and patience as the whole process gets better. Have FUN!
Mold-line fill out will be aided at first by keeping the spru-plate HOT across every hole and the addition of Tin (by how much?). Scrounge for Tin (pewter) at Flea Markets, Thrift Stores, consignment shops, and garage sales. Enlist wives, church members, other casual shoppers to keep you in mind as they forage the world of thrift. Tin is a commodity at $10/pound. Keeping your “average cost” below that threshold, well below, is a fun factor of casting.
When your are ready, and that is probably now by the way you have researched and are asking, purchase (at below $1/lb), or scrounge from a tire shop, some lead stick-on wheel weights (SOWW), some clip-on wheel weights (COWW), segregate the zinc and steel WW and steel clips (won’t melt at lead melt temp), and with the Tin scrounged above, decide on a lead-alloy recipe.
EX: 49-49-2 percent Pb-WW-Sn (recommended for handgun velocity by Fryxell).
To components melted in quantities of (say) 100#’s (i.e. equal amounts of COWW’s plus SOWW or lead plus COWW’s), cast into molded 50-50 ingots at 2-3#’s each, add specific weights of Tin, cast as solid boolits or “thin ingots” to achieve your alloy percentages.
Don’t sweat the small stuff, and it is all small stuff. Have FUN! Good luck scrounging.