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Thread: First try with zinc

  1. #41
    Boolit Master



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    If I insulted anybody, then I'm sorry. But I tend to tell it like it is. Or at least the way I think it is. Sometimes I should just not post a reply, or at least give it a day to think it through.

    JD, I respect your opinions greatly, I look forward to your posts, even if it's to chastise me!

    I too have been one to say to others, whaddya mean I can't reload those steel cases? Or you name it.

    I'm not giving up on lead yet. Hopefully we can get past the dummy-in-chief in the whitehouse without an out and out ban on lead projectiles. Possibly my son will have to deal with non-lead bullets, but I hope not. IF we stick to our principles, then elect a good conservative POTUS, then we can continue casting our boolits?!

    Remember, copper is also toxic. Could it be that they're leading us to an alternate metal to only say," now we have to ban copper bullets too?" Is zinc also toxic?

    Slvrbllt40, come back to us. MOST of are nice guys & gals.
    He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog.
    You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart.
    You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."

    “At the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat”--Theodore Roosevelt

  2. #42
    Boolit Buddy
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    Super Cool! Not saying I'll be running out to trade what little lead I still have for zinc but, if "those who are saving us from ourselves" keep making it harder and harder to find lead, and it leads to more and more zinc around, you can bet I'll be figuring out how to make "Zoolits", as a prior poster coined them. Good on ya, and please keep us posted! Kudos to your curiosity and to your active nature!

    Please keep us posted as to how they shoot. 8mmFan
    Last edited by 8mmFan; 02-17-2014 at 02:43 PM. Reason: Misspelling

  3. #43
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    not going to copy your entire post but well said Recluse

    looking to the future and having members that are willing to experiment IS the way to the future..

    a year ago I was a jacketed only shooter. Started looking/reading here about powder coating
    now I have approx. 30 molds 2 pots a PID and 1500 lbs of alloy/lead/lino.. plus I have turned on casting to at least 6 new people as well
    ALL that is BECAUSE people here were willing to answer my newbie questions and guide me gently along (big thanks to Mr Gibson for answering PM's) till I could fly solo..
    You never know that the one person you turn off to this site could have been the one who made the biggest discovery casting would have seen
    Last edited by Smoke4320; 02-17-2014 at 03:25 PM.
    [SIZE=4][B]Selling Hi Quality Powdercoating Powder

    I carry a Nuke50 because cleaning up the mess is Silly !!

    http://www.bing.com/search?q=nuke50&...7ADE&FORM=QBLH

    I am not crazy my mom had me tested

    Theres a fine line between genius and crazy .. I'm that line
    and depending on the day I might just step over that line !!!

  4. #44
    Boolit Mold Slvrbllt40's Avatar
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    Hello everyone. The fuel pump went out on my '73 Dodge, so I've been a little busy in my free time. Thanks for the responses. It's pretty awesome that there seem to be quite a few people on here that are open to giving the less traveled route a chance. Some of the negative comments I was getting on this post bummed me out at first, but after coming back a few days later and seeing all the positive posters, wow. That's a good feeling. Here is a pic of my .303 slugs as they sit right now
    Click image for larger version. 

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    My camera on my phone is a bit crummy. Sorry about that. Anyhow, I am awaiting some more primers that should be here any day now. I plan on making some 20% ballistics gel and test firing these in the desert in 2 or 3 weeks. I am also thinking of casting a few more of these zinc fellas to test a "zinc jacketed" type round. Drill out the inside of the bullet after casting, then fill the cavity with lead. Maybe the slight additional weight will increase accuracy at distance, help with penetrating power, or maybe the jacket will fly apart. I dunno, but I hope to find out.

  5. #45
    Boolit Master
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    Now this sounds interestin.I was introduced to casting by my Grandfather when I was 7 years old(1952)hehe.Yeah I`m an old fart.HE was doing it in the 1880`s.He was DEFINITELY an old fart.Miss the hell out of him.Had a lot of fun learning from him.Only had 3 years of his teaching before he passed at 88 years old.
    Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
    Leo

  6. #46
    Boolit Master pretzelxx's Avatar
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    Well... I'll be catching up on this in a few weeks I suppose. Guess I won't scrap ny 40lbs of Zink just yet.. no way I'll venture to shoot it myself, but if others can use it...
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  7. #47
    Boolit Mold Slvrbllt40's Avatar
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    Steel rod is deffinately a possibility. I'm willing to give just about any idea (within reason haha) a try. One thing I have learned in my years of racing cars and motorcycles is this: you can't win if you just cop 1st place. In other words, just because nobody has does it, that doesn't mean it doesn't work. Sure, sometimes it end up being a waste of time, but sometimes it doesn't. That's enough reason to give it a try. A lot of people told me fire slots don't work in cylinder heads, that stone cutting valves on a Harley doesn't work, scavenging oil from the crankshaft cavity is a waste of time, and that I couldn't balance my own flywheels.

    Lead is going to only get harder to come by. I want to know what options I have before I no longer have any options.

  8. #48

    First try with zinc

    [QUOTE=Slvrbllt40;2639104]Hello everyone. (Delete)
    Last edited by sig .357; 02-17-2014 at 11:35 PM.
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  9. #49
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Slvrbllt40 View Post
    Steel rod is deffinately a possibility.
    I know steel core ammo is nothing new. I was thinking that if the zink or steel is too hard it could be sized smaller than the barrel then built back up with a few thick layers of powder coat, so only the PC is getting squished.

    Maybe it wouldn't work, but just a thought.

  10. #50
    Boolit Master

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    Hi guys, and hi silverblt40.

    Also in CA here, and I've also done some zinc casting. I have fully loaded and shot my rounds. Here are my learnings, they may help you and others:

    1. casting is just fine, temps have to be higher.
    2. I DO respect my tooling, I do not buy disposable molds. All my experimentation was using a steel mold, and for onsey-twosey experimentation, it went just fine. Dunno about longevity, but the idea that zinc will destroy an AL mold is not a showstopper. just use a steel mold.
    3. load data isn't easy to find. The weight is SO light that you might find no load data for that bullet weight. Theoretically you treat it like a barnes bullet. can't use the same weight load data, gotta go down a little more in charge. Well, I had to interpolate to get there. Your mileage may vary.
    4. I have no accuracy data, I was more concerned about form and function at the range. I shot them at 25 yards. My memory of the accuracy was "this has potential, and is worth working with more"
    5. Alloy. I was using Zn wheelweights, but it's simple. just like a wee of Zn oatmeals up your lead, a wee of lead in your Zn will oatmeal up. pure either way is OK. Sawdust to flux. Not really fluxing, it's just "bonding" to your lead oatmeal and other contaminates and you pull it out of the melt. good to go. As you saw.
    6. you're gonna use ALOT of powder cause the bullet weight is so light. enjoy the muzzle flash. I mean that.
    7. IMO post cast work is a waste of time. HP, lead filled, steal core, ballistics gell test, waste of time. Get the gun accurate, man! no lube needed. Load and shoot. shoot paper. find something that gets you to a couple MOA accuracy. Shoot them over a chronograph. if there's no "potential" as cast, then it's a waste of time to shoot gel, to core and pour lead or press steel pins, etc.
    8. you can size just fine. Just start with push through sizers on a strong press and don't oversize. They'll go. no problem.

    Enjoy it. but getting too complicated too fast is a recipe for failure. forget lube, forget powder coating, forget HP, and forget the ballistics gel. You can make more (bullets). Get out and shoot!

  11. #51
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    Glad this got back on track and all the naysayers got a sock put in it.

    Something important about zinc wheel weights (I assume that's what's being discussed as a primary zinc source?) that isn't mentioned much is that they aren't pure zinc and don't melt at 787F. The ones I've played with are composed of something akin to Zamak #3 and melt around 700 or so , which is one reason they get melted in with lead alloy weights so easily during "smelting" operations.

    Doesn't anyone remember Jbunny? Or the electric shaver vibrating mould platform to prevent coring? This is NOT new, and quite a few members have shot zinc boolits with very good results, so I don't understand all the criticism of the zinc boolit idea here. I almost thought I was on a different forum for a minute! Lots of advantages to zinc, although they don't so far seem to be ideal for hunting game animals. Keep up the work fellas, there IS something to this.

    Gear

  12. #52
    Boolit Master

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    OP is using pennies. You can see them in his pic.

  13. #53
    Boolit Buddy
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    i cast some zinc lee 230 gn tl. i didnt know it was zinc. it poured some beautiful boolits, just like OP nice looking boolits, but they were very light and very hard. i was scared to shoot them as i didnt know what would happen. im new to casting and loading. i ended up melting a hole in my aluminum pot and spilling molten zinc on everything. i kept the few i did because they look so cool. traded all my zinc away though. looking forward to the results of this testing.

  14. #54
    Boolit Buddy
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    My attempts on casting zink were mostly H&G 68's out of a 6 cavity H&G mould, around 400 pieces. I recall the accuracy was very good. The 200 gr 68 mould dropped boolits around 150- 155gr in zink. When recovered the boolits were virtually undamaged by the dirt backstop prompting me to think about reusing them.
    When I broke the handle right off my Star sizer I discontinued casting zink. I size to .452.
    But at least I know I can do it if need be.

  15. #55
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    Quote Originally Posted by Whiterabbit View Post
    OP is using pennies. You can see them in his pic.
    Ahhh. Thanks.

    Gear

  16. #56
    Boolit Man
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    Why powder coat? Zinc does not need to be lubricated. Another case of gilding the lily.

  17. #57
    Boolit Man
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    Do you mine your own iron ore, smelt it, alloy it, cast it in your basement, roll it into bars. deep hole drill it and rifle it all in your basement. There is a big different between a superficial coating (painting?) that requires minimal capital investment and the manufacture of a consistent precision product. After all how many people make their own bullet molds from scratch? How many have the tools to do so even if they cared?

  18. #58
    Boolit Mold Slvrbllt40's Avatar
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    I am heading out to the range tomorrow to test fire a few of the zinc rounds as well as some of the lead I loaded. My lead rounds weighed in at 185 gn while the zinc was 120. I had load data for a round as light as 123, which called for 37 gn of powder, so I went with 32, to be a little safe. Hopefully all goes well. I will post some pics and my un-scientific findings afterwards.

  19. #59
    Boolit Master



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    Good luck with the zinc. It's harder than lead but softer then the mild steel jackets many militaries use with little ill effect on the gun barrels. Being harder, if it is properly sized, it should spin just fine. I know nothing about zinc, but, I think I would still put some alox on it, just for general principals. That is what I would do. I am not advising you to do so. Some have said lube is not necessary. That may well be. I do not know. But, do post results. A lot of us are interested in this. Cheers!

  20. #60
    Boolit Man
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    The lighter weight of zinc bullets call for a faster burning powder than for the same bullet cast in lead. That should cut down on muzzle flash.

    Zinc is softer than copper or soft iron. No reason for it to cause wear.

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BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
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