First time caster with a question

[SteveElms]

Greetings! I am about to start my venture into the bullet casting world. I think I have the basics to get started. My question is the ingots that I have. I bought a bucket full of ingots and they are testing all over the hardness board. I have some almost pure lead and 1 ingot that I can't scratch with the pencil set. I have started sorting them as I test them and wondered if there is any advantage to only smelting the ingots that test in close proximity to the others or if I can throw all the 10-18 hardness ingots in the pot and start casting. The soft stuff I am saving for slugs. I plan to cast .45 caliber 230 grain bullets and if that goes well, some 125 grain 9mm, 158 grain .38 and some 230 grain 300 blackout subs. I intend to powder coat and water bath after PC. None of these will be loaded to max velocities (at least at the start).

I appreciate any and all advice.

Steve

[Winger Ed.]

I'd try to keep the soft stuff separate for slow speed handgun loads.
I'll melt a big batch of Lead that has just enough of the harder alloyed mixed into it so it will cast well and easily.
Adding ingots to the pot that are all the same is just handy for me.

Save the hard ingots and use them sparingly as you need to.
The 'goodies' that go into them are pretty expensive now days.

In the old days, a one pound of 95/5 solder to harden up and improve the flow of pure Lead was $6-7. bucks.
Now--- that same roll is over $30.

Look at the data for the soft/pure Lead swaged bullets like .38 HBWCs, .45RN, etc.
They're good to around 1,000 fps.
Your relatively soft cast ones will do well even going a little faster.

For the faster loads you're doing--- You might want them harder.
It's well plowed ground, and I'd read up on what everybody else here has had success with.

For target shooting, I'd strive for accuracy rather than max. loadings.
Those black dots are pretty easy to kill if you have good shot placement and a tight group.

Accuracy is King. The target Cong have been known to drag off their wounded.

[JWFilips]

For most my rifle casting I mix both soft and hard either 50/50 or for lighter rifle loads and Pistol..... 2 Soft with 1 hard

[Baltimoreed]

Always thought that the alloy didn’t matter if the bullets were pc’ed, as far as barrel leading goes. Never messed with casting lead for real rifle accuracy. Use my cast stuff as cheap cas pistol ammo.

[charlie b]

Yes, you can just toss it in the pot together. I'd put in equal ingot mixes, ie, one 10bhn and one 18bhn or one 11bhn and one 17bhn. You get the idea.

And for the cartridges you are using, and powder coating, there really isn't any reason to water quench. Also, water quenching unknown alloys may cause even more erratic hardness since you don't know how much antimony is in each ingot.

[SteveElms]

Well I had a very productive day. Finally got my .45 230 grain 6 cavity mould casting as smooth as the 2 cavity and I went to town. Learned a lot of things. First, a 10 lb pot is no match for 6 fatties at a time. I spent the time waiting for the pot to get back up to temp by coating and baking. Ended up with about 210 (70 at a time) and they passed the smash test. Fairly pleased with how they turned out. I think I ran through 6 pots of lead and filled another plastic coffee can with boolits that will be in line for PC'ing in the near future. Still need to find a better solution for powder coating in the toaster oven, but what I did worked. Thanks for all the advice - I saved anything 16 bh and above for future rifle use. Now I have to sort through more ingots and start smelting. As soon as I learn all I need to know about casting I'll focus my attention on how to post pictures of the end result.

[WRideout]

Congratulations and welcome. Winger is right about saving the soft stuff; it is a lot harder to find than the various harder alloys. If you ever need to try out a different boolit design or weight, be sure to check in on the Swapping and Selling posts, as well as the Boolit Exchange subforum. Just by posting a question of mine, I was given packages of boolits from four different members here. These guys are great!

Wayne

[dverna]

As soon as I learn all I need to know about casting I'll focus my attention on how to post pictures of the end result.

Hate to break this to you....but the learning never stops.

[SteveElms]

Hate to break this to you....but the learning never stops.

I put that in there so everyone would know not to expect pictures any time soon. I don't know much about casting bullets but I know a lot less about technology!

[LenH]

FIT IS King all else is secondary. Including bullet hardness.

[SteveElms]

FIT IS King all else is secondary. Including bullet hardness.

I ran the coated bullets through the sizing die last night. They all went through with very little resistance. No scratching of the coating and I was pleased. I re-did the smash test and again, no flaking or chipping of the coating. I baked them at 425ish for 27 minutes without preheating.

[reedap1]

You are doing everything right and you are on your way to a rewarding hobby...notice I didn't say economical...addiction to crack would be cheaper!

[SteveElms]

As an update, I have finished my test run of casting/powder coating/sizing. I did a batch of a little more than 1,000 .452 diameter bullets and about 400 9mm 125 grain bullets. I also made a pot of mostly pure lead .45 that I powder coated to see if they would cause any leading. So far so good. Here are my results:

The finished .45 bullets weighed about 235 -238 with powder coating. The tumble lube bullets weighed more than the standard lube groove after powder coating. The 9mm 125 grain weighed a grain or so more. I used powder by the pound gloss wet durable black with very good results. The powder by the pound gloss wet durable orange did not do as good at coverage. I tried to double coat the orange ones with varying results. I ran everything through the sizing die and did not have much resistance.

I plan to start loading these up in the next week or two and start testing them in earnest. Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions and guidance.