Lead cast bullets

[Brad Donovan]

I am looking at getting myself a lever gun. Who has experience with casting their own lead bullets? I am unfamilier with the process. Thx

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[catnthehat]

It's lot of fun, and can get as complicated or as simple as you want it to.
unless you are going to get serious about it however, I would buy pre-cast from others.
Cat

[nastycanasta]

Youtube is full of good videos. FortuneCookie45LC channel has lots of good info.

I cast mostly for my 45-70.

[tikka250]

Like cat said it can be as simple or as conplicated as you want. What might help is what caliber are you looking at getting and what type of shooting you plan on doing with it. Slow plinking bullets and fast hunting bullets have slight differences in the process that goes into making them.

[Fordpilot83]

Ive made some. Turned out pretty good i think. All wheel weights. Thinking about making them a little harder and adding some tin. Anybody got any tips for that?

[catnthehat]

Originally Posted by Fordpilot83

Ive made some. Turned out pretty good i think. All wheel weights. Thinking about making them a little harder and adding some tin. Anybody got any tips for that?

sawdust or parrafin wax needs to be add when fluxing or smelting.
Wheel weight s are used by a lot of guys . straight wheel weight does not make good a bullet IMO.
I mix them in with pure lead when make my shot or bullets.
Cat

[qwert]

Originally Posted by Fordpilot83

Ive made some. Turned out pretty good i think. All wheel weights. Thinking about making them a little harder and adding some tin. Anybody got any tips for that?

Tin is not very helpful to harden lead, but is needed to allow the lead boolit to fill out completely in the mold. If the edges of the lube grooves are rounded then you need more tin. I use about 6" 95/5 or 12" of 50/50 solder per 1kg WW muffin.

Antimony (and to a lesser extent arsenic) is what hardens the lead in clip on wheel weights, and is present in higher concentration in Linotype lead. AFAIK, it is poisonous and difficult to work with safely when unalloyed.

I use 95-5 lead free solder as a source of tin 95%, and the antimony 5% is helpful also. If casting mini boolits or for muzzle loaders or Lee slugs where soft pure lead is advised, this can be found in the stick-on wheel weights that you separated from the clip-ons before smelting. For adding tin to soft lead it would be best to use 50/50 or 60/40 lead tin solder or old pewter which can be very close to pure tin but is harder to identify.

Good Luck, YMMV.

[qwert]

Originally Posted by catnthehat

It's lot of fun, and can get as complicated or as simple as you want it to.
unless you are going to get serious about it however, I would buy pre-cast from others.
Cat

I strongly agree with Cat.

Making boolits requires
prospecting for lead,
separating out zinc and other unwanteds,
smelting into ingots or muffins,
remelting & alloying,
molding,
sizing & lubing or sizing & powder-coating
loading,
and shooting.

I suggest you learn to do each in reverse order as Cat suggests. as each step requires equipment that can be expensive and hard to find.

I suggest you first start by acquiring the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook,
then acquire Lee Factory or Collet crimp dies (they are different) for the cartridges you want to shoot, and a LEE Universal Case Mouth Expanding die.

Learn to load and shoot commercial cast boolits first, (and how to clean and avoid bore leading, tip, I use NO-Lead from Wipe-Out)
Then acquire some un-lubed boolits and the equipment to powder-coat, and learn how to properly size to fit your bore using a Lee push through sizing die.

By the time you get this far you will be hooked and going to all the gun shows (and thrift shops for old pots & wood handled spoons), for sizers, dies, molds and all the other good stuff. Buy a good lead thermometer before melting your first lead.

Good Luck, YMMV.

[catnthehat]

If you really want to go nuts you can buy a shot maker abd cast your own shot!!
Cat

[Huntsman]

YouTube or Castboolits.com are helpful

Just be warned. It is addicting

[reloader762]

Brad,I've been casting off and on for about 30 years and to date for all intensive purposes I haven't found a reason to buy any jacketed bullets for many years,in fact most of the ones I do have I just packed away for a rainy day.

I have around 16 different moulds at the moment,most are Lee moulds both new and old style,a couple old Lyman/Ideal pistol moulds I got dirt cheap at an estate sale and several custom moulds made by NOE. I try and buy myself a new custom mould once a year and it's usually something Lee doesn't make that suits a specific purpose I need.

As for lead I mostly use pure lead or Wheel Weight or a combination of the two. I also have Tin in 1 lb. ingots I made for the pan dripping I got at a radiator repair shop as well as as Linotype an Monotype as well as some other lead based alloys I've picked up here an there.

Most all my bullets are cast either from 50/50 pure lead/wheel weights or straight wheel weights,sometimes I add Tin sometimes I don't. Tin helps with mould fill out but some of my moulds cast just fine without adding Tin,it does also add just a bit of hardness but not much other than helping with fill out it does make the alloy more mandible which is especially good when you want bullets to expand and retain there weight without coming apart.

Some bullets I cast get air cooled,some get water quenched or heat treated to increase hardness,it just really depends on what I want to do with them. some of my moulds are designed to take gas check some are not but I shoot lots of the gas check designed bullets with the checks left off up to a certain velocity they shoot very accurate without a check.

[reloader762]

Originally Posted by Fordpilot83

Ive made some. Turned out pretty good i think. All wheel weights. Thinking about making them a little harder and adding some tin. Anybody got any tips for that?

Well you basically have three options.

If using wheel weight alloy you can #1. water quench your bullet straight from the mould or #2. You can heat treat them in a toaster over using time and temperature to dictate the basic hardness or BHN range your looking for or # 3.Use a hard alloy ie high BHN alloy to begin with.

A good article of bullet hardness http://www.lasc.us/HeatTreat.htm

[mgvande]

I usually hit the wreckers and I can get pure lead for a buck a lb. I'm shooting antiques so pure lead is what I use. For a modern lever gun the wheel weights seem to be a good idea. I'm going to start shooting cast in 303brit and I sourced some bullets from Rustywood trading. I believe Rustywood trading would be a good source for hard lead bullets for your lever gun before you lay out a bunch of cash on equipment, just to see if you want to deal with shooting lead. All of the molds I have are one off odd ball diameters so I am forced to roll my own. But it you are shooting a modern gun, bullets are available out there cheap.

[32-40win]

I really recommend reading everything you can before starting. As previously said, get the Lyman Cast bullet book, and read everything you can on the LASC site http://www.lasc.us/ArticleIndex.htm . Then you may have a chance, of being able understand enough, to sort thru the stickies on Cast Boolits. I find it takes a lot of reading, to sort thru a lot of the garbage on Cast Boolits regular forum stuff these days. A breakaway group of a bunch of the guys that were/are the oldtimers off Cast Boolits have setup the Castpics website, it is growing and has a lot of good info without some of the krap to sort thru. http://castpics.net/dpl/ .

[reloader762]

A couple other sites with some of the old guard and more knowledgeable members as well.

Good Steel Forum
https://30eca00a039f-002391.vbulletin.net/

The Art & Science of Bullet Casting
http://www.artfulbullet.com/index.php

CBA Forum,Ed Harris hangs out here.
http://www.castbulletassoc.org/forum/

[qwert]

As usual, I suggest doing an AO forum search on 'cast lead' or similar.
Using the 'advanced search' function, you can refine your search by including your favorite or most informative posters.
From http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showt...ight=cast+lead

Pure linotype can be used to cast very hard (HB~22) bullets but many consider them too hard for hunting and too expensive for targets. Linotype bullets are reported to be so hard that they can fracture or shatter if dropped. Some articles talk about casting hybrid bullets with a linotype base and a softer tip but ISTM to be a lot of work for very little benefit.

IIRC, linotype lead is available (in 11?lb bars) from Canada Metal in Calgary and costs ~ $6/lb.

IIRC, linotype it is ~12% antimony & 4% tin & 84% lead. YMMV,
and used linotype? can vary a LOT. I suggest testing hardness and only purchasing if the price is very good.

I prefer to segregate stick-on wheel weights (~99.5% lead & .5% tin, HB~6) and clip-on wheel weights (96% lead & .5% tin & 3-4% antimony, HB~15).

I use the soft lead (HB~6) for 'slugging the bore' and shotgun slugs, AFAIK, this is the best lead for muzzle loaders.

I use clip-on lead (HB~15) for casting (water quenched and aged) pistol bullets and for gas checked rifle bullets. Clip-on lead is a good base to use for making Lyman # 2 a LOT cheaper than buying and shipping it. Lead is not extremely expensive, but shipping can cost more than the lead.

High levels of antimony produce harder bullets which can handle higher pressure and velocity and reduce leading of the barrel.

AFAIK, antimony is very difficult to safely alloy with lead as it requires high temperatures which can create high level lead fumes, and can also contaminate surrounding surfaces. Pure antimony is sold by Canada Metal, but I have not tried to add to any lead alloy, I would like to know more about how to use it safely.

Most wheel weight lead requires tin to be added to improve mold fill-out. IMHE, the easiest source of tin is 95-5 (95% tin & 5% antimony) solder which also has the added benefit of raising the antimony level and hardness of the alloy. If a harder alloy is desired then linotype is the easiest and safest source of antimony as it is already alloyed with lead and tin.

Previously smelted lead alloys will have unknown concentrations of lead/antimony/tin and may be contaminated with zinc. I prefer to smelt my own lead from separated wheel weights to minimize zinc contamination. I use a Lee hardness tester to measure the HB of my alloys and record this in my loading records.

Good Luck, YMMV

Common practice for rifle and high pressure pistol use has been to cast hard boolits and use a hard lube to reduce bore leading. These boolits may not be ideal for hunting as they will not mushroom optimally.

The latest practice is to cast softer boolits (which saves on Linotype cost), then powder coat using the shake-n-bake technique, and cook in a toaster oven reserved for the purpose. This produces a boolit that is more resistant or eliminates bore leading, can be driven faster, and will mushroom better. It also saves the cost of a Lube-Sizer or the mess of pan-lubing, and the boolits are 'purrdy', and do not oxidize in storage. Inexpensive push through sizing dies can be used, if needed.

Good Luck, YMMV.