Casting Q

[mallard12]

Hi Everyone

Nice forum!!!!

Been reading alot and i'm new to casting and have a few questions

Planning on casting for a 44mag in a lever gun for a hunting round. I have clip on wheel weights and the sticky ones.

Which weights should I use?
Do I add anything to the mix?
What does linotype mean?

Thanks in advance

[cbrick]

Welcome to Castboolits mallard,

Seperate your clip-on and stick-on weights, they are two different alloys. The stick-on ones are very soft.

For your 44 rifle I would use the clip-on weights, you can add tin but it may not be needed, all depends on how well your mold fills out. That's mostly what the tin will do, help the alloy fill out the mold better.

Lino is type metal from the print industry, used very little now in the digital age. It is 84% lead, 12% antimony and 4% tin. It is an excellent boolit casting alloy though getting harder to find and a little too brittle (because of the 12% antimony) for some applications. Many people that can get it blend it 50-50 with pure lead and/or wheel weight alloys to make it go further.

Rick

[mallard12]

Thanks cbrick

Is there anything I can do to harden the stick on weights?

I sorted a 5 gallon pail and 3/4 of the lead was the stick on weights.

Thanks

[Wayne Smith]

Nope, and you don't want to. Find a muzzle loader shooter and trade for twice as much clip on wws. He wants the soft stuff, especially if he's shooting C&B revolvers. It's also useful for cutting ww by 50% to get an alloy that will expand.

[fryboy]

hola amigo ! and welcome to cast boolits !
if u have some lino u could blend that to the stick on ww's or even just tin ,altho in a pistol elmer kieth helped develop the load for the 44 mag( and the gun but i digress) ,his alloy ? 16 to 1 lead to tin ,it's considered a lil soft by todays standards but it'll still work - the main thing that it be properly sized, or u could just sit on it for a month and a few post ( 25 i believe) and offer to trade it for other alloy as it is considered pure lead and some folks have problems getting that but mite have a bunch of harder lead they'd be willing to trade , u could also add small lead shot to add a lil antimony and arsenic ( the smaller size shot the better ) with just enough tin to help fill out and then heat treat/water quench it , g,luck !

[fredj338]

Straight aircooled ww will be fine to 1400fps or so w/ proper sizing & a good lube. If you want some expansion, then mixing the stick-ons & clip-ons 50/50 will work well to 1300fps or so. Water drop the clip-ons & you can get a bit more vel, but not much expansion.

[WHITETAIL]

mallard12, Welcome to the forum.

[mallard12]

Thanks for the reply's..

Looks like I have alot more reading to do. Can someone explain what happens when a soft bullet is fired at high vel? does the bullet melt or break apart.

Thanks

[kbstenberg]

Welcome Mallard12. Soft lead neither melts when going downrange, or fragments.
The reason not Meany casters use soft ( pure lead ) is because it leads the barrel worse than harder ( WW) lead. An in general it tends to be less accurate. The reasons will become clear as you learn through reading the stickies.
But as previous (sp) comments have made the point. Combining WW an pure, extends the quantity an expansion qualities to attain certain properties. The use of 50%WW/ an 50%pure for better expansion, or 75%WW/ an 25%pure for a little less exp.
Good Reading
Kevin

[cajun shooter]

Don't tell a front stuffer that pure lead is not accurate there kbstenberg. In fact a very low BHN that is of the correct size will out shoot that hard bullet all day. The best thing for a new caster to do is BUY AND READ THE LYMAN CAST BULLET HANDBOOK. Then read the stickys of this site. Read all material written by Glenn Fryxell in the LASC section. Later David

[Larry Gibson]

Hi Everyone

Planning on casting for a 44mag in a lever gun for a hunting round. I have clip on wheel weights and the sticky ones.

mallard

If you want to realize the full potential of the .44 in a lever gun then go to a GC bullet. Someone has already mentioned 1400 fps for a hard plain based cast bullet and 1300 fps for a softer one that will reasonably expand. At much higher velocities you will be disappointed with the accuracy of most PB'd cast bullets. With a GC 250 - 270 gr bullet cast of 50/50 WWs clip ons and WW stick ons you can push upwards of 17-1800 fps in a 20" barrel with safe loads.

The Lyman 429244 is an excellent GC'd cast bullet for this purpose. My 429244 bullets with GC and lube weigh 270 gr cast of the 50/50 alloy. I push them over 24 gr of H110 (max load so if you try it work up as always) in WW cases with WLR primers. GCs are Hornady's and I use Javelina lube. Out of my 20" barreled M94 they ran right at 1710 fps. I HP'd them with a Forster tool if hunting deer. Even Hp'd penetration was always through and through. Expansion was excellent judging from the internal damage and the exit hole (meat not hide).

Larry Gibson