Noob's questions on Lead

[joelpete]

Hello all,

I've been lurking for a couple days, searching, reading, learning. This place is an awesome wealth of knowledge.

I have a bunch of (what I belive to be) pure lead ingots left over from a previous property owner and old school pumber. I also have an in on wheel weights at $5 per five-gallon bucket. I'm just getting started with reloading and casting (I went all in) and I need some advice.

Right now I want to focus on .45ACP rounds that I'll be using for a center-fire league. I'm shooting a Ruger P97DC and I was thinking of casting 200gr. SWC boolits. Velocity on this round should be just a hair under 1000fps.

So, do I mix the pure lead with the WW, and if so, at what ratio? I'm guessing I shouldn't need gas checks at that velocity. What say you?

Also, how do I get the NRA tag above the avatar?

Thanks
Joel

[joelpete]

Okay, so I got the NRA thing figured out...

[fryboy]

hola amigo and welcome to the forum !

as for the alloy ...in the 45 acp and with that speed and not quenching the boolits 50/50 ww/lead is about as soft as i'd go , the most important part will be size of said boolit , and gas checks for the acp are fairly rare , i actually load mine to a lil lower velocity and when one looks in the various manuals very few loads hit 1000 fps with 200 grainers ( lyman has two btw ) most are around 8-900 fps range , quenching the boolits mite be a good idea if you really plan to run top velocities and i havent had as much luck quenching below the 50/50 alloy ( or perhaps patience for them to age harden mite be a better word lolz )

[joelpete]

Ah, you're correct on the FPS. I was going by memory but, of course, my memorie was flawed (note to self: ALWAYS view charts while reloading). I just looked up the estimated velocity in the Alliant Reloader's Guide. Using 4.6gr of Bullseye with a 200gr LSWC, I should expect around 807fps.

So, at around 807fps, what's my lead recipe? Is there an online guide to recommended recipes for casts?

[fryboy]

again the 50/50 ww/pb is about as low as i go , i did have a few batches i made special for a hollow point ( 452-374 ) but quite often when loading from the mag they'd get dented , they'd still function but i lost a bit of accuracy because of it ( took me a bit to chase that problem down lolz ) the rounder the profile the easier it is to go softer ( or at least it seems like it to me ) with less deformation , edges tend to catch any kind of lip and softer alloys seem to aggravate this , of course that old saying " your mileage may vary " always applies , this site has some of the best stuff on the web for cast boolits ( not counting this one anyways )

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Greetings Joelpete,
welcome to the Best casting site in the world, well that's my opinion anyway.
I use 100% WW for semi autos...even the 45 ACP, but you could probably use 50/50 WW/soft.
I use 50/50 WW/Soft for Hollow point revolver loads and some other revovler rounds.

Hey, I grew up in Big Lake !
I think I know the tire shop where you're getting the $5 WW
I've only been there once, I walked in and asked to Buy WW.
I was told where they were and that it's $5 a bucket.
after I finished digging them out of their Barrel...10 minutes or so.
As I walked out, that guy was gone and another guy said he gets $35 a bucket.
I happily paid the $35 for the two half buckets I was carrying,
But Next time, I'll be sure to have better timing

[joelpete]

Good to know... I'll be sure to dig quickly and get out through the same guy that quoted me the price. They're a nice group of guys though; when I was putting up a tire swing for my kids I went there and they helped me dig around for the biggest tire I could find, and let me walk out with it for free. They've been very accomodating that way, and I continue to buy my tires there because of it. I'd like to plug their name, but I don't want to give up source...

I appreciate the advice guys.

[lylejb]

Welcome aboard Joel,

First, at $5 / bucket, GET ALL YOU CAN!!!! while you still can!!

The tire shops in my town want $50 / bucket (no thanks)

Second, as many will soon state, correct fit is more important than any exact alloy/ hardness.

fit is king!!

A boolit that fit your gun correctly, will be more forgiving, more accurate, and generally less likely to lead, in a much larger range of alloys

A poor fit / undersize boolit will be a headache, regardless of alloy.

generally, you want .001 to .002 over the slugged barrel diameter.

Also, you might have seen some commercial cast bullets sold / marketed as "hard cast" Somehow, these guys are trying to sell the idea that harder is better, Not true.

As a starting point, since you have a good, inexpensive supply of wheel weights, I would as much of them as I could.

100% clip on wheel weights should be fine, maybe adding 1% to 2% tin if needed to get good mould fill out.

Another note, clip-on wheel weights and stick-on (tape) weights are different alloys.

Clip on weights are harder, and are what most people are refering to when they say wheel weights.

Stick on weights are much softer, close to pure lead.

If you feel to need to use up some of your pure lead, I've used 2/3 WW to 1/3 pure in 357 mags, at higher velocity and pressure than a .45 acp will do, without any problems.

Hope this helps.

[skytex]

Damn. I'd go buy 40+ buckets at that price.

[joelpete]

Lylejb,

Thanks! That's what I was looking for. And it's good to know I'm getting a deal on the lead. I'll go stock up! And, I'm going to hit up all the local tire shops to see what else I can find.