Question for those of you casting lead
- Thread starter Mike1962
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only made lead balls and dive weights but made the mould for the dive weights and they came out better as i "lamped"
the mould with soot from a flame. just old roof lead
Casting is a bit of an art. The alloy depends on what you want to use it for:
Muzzle loading - pure lead
Pistol and rifle - mix with antimony and tin
Are you going to use gas checks?
Consider a decent handbook, Lyman’s Cast Bullet handbook is the only one of its kind I know about and includes load data for lead bullets.
ps, ranges is the best source of lead bullets, roofing lead for muzzle loading.
Range lead still needs mixing since there’s a lot of jacketed bullets used and .22’s, the still needs adjustment.
Muzzle loading - pure lead
Pistol and rifle - mix with antimony and tin
Are you going to use gas checks?
Consider a decent handbook, Lyman’s Cast Bullet handbook is the only one of its kind I know about and includes load data for lead bullets.
ps, ranges is the best source of lead bullets, roofing lead for muzzle loading.
Range lead still needs mixing since there’s a lot of jacketed bullets used and .22’s, the still needs adjustment.
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I use 20:1 Pb:Sn mix (1kg lead : 50g Tin)
Lead roofing sheet and (lead free) tin plumbing solder - available in 0.5kg rolls. I use beeswax for flux.
I find it fairly simple. I then use the Lee liquid Alox tumble lube or powder coat bullets in oven. Then pass bullets through a sizer.
Smellydog
Well-Known Member
What you shooting might help.
When I was repairing older cars I used to lead load the patches which I had welded in. The lead from the body shop suppliers was expensive so a root around the boot sales with lots of plumbers lead sticks 20p v £3.00 lol
jimmer.13
Well-Known Member
I used it for 85gr subsonic bullets for my 6x45. I did try shooting them powder coated up to about 2700 fps and didn't have any apparent issues in the limited amount I shot.
Smellydog
Well-Known Member
You can use pure lead in 4570 with black powder loads.
I used to cast commercially 9mm 120 gran SWC-BB and .38 160 grain RN. For each I used two "custom matched" (this was an extra cost option) sets of Hensley & Gibbs six cavity moulds, an RCBS lead melting electric pot (the RCBS Pro-Melt) and cast, always, using linotype that I bought in half metric tonne loads from Wilson & Jubb in Leeds.
I found that this gave good hardness for the guys that bought the 9mm bullets as they used these in "practical pistol" and NRA Service Pistol using pistols that (for the most part) had barrels designed for jacketed bullets.
I used to flux using either resin blocks or household candles. Do NOT use plumbing flux as it is corrosive and everywhere will risk ending up with a thin coating of rust caused by its vapours.
For sizing and lubing I used a Star Lubrisizer with an American proprietary lube called "Mirror Lube" as this was a solid stick shape required by the Star machines. I used to import this one hundred sticks at a time.
As to alloy it actually doesn't matter if casting for leisure or pleasure for yourself...you can use scrap range lead, wheelweights of the old type not modern zinc ones, old type or whatever. And cast a full pot's worth of that bullet.
But for commercial casting where some customers were buying one thousand bullets at a time you MUST use an alloy that is the exact same weight from bullet to bullet to bullet. That's the other reason I used bought in linotype.
My bullets were never more that 1 grains plus or minus the nominal 120 grain or 160 grain weight. Despite the bullets coming from one of twelve cavities (two x six cavity moulds = twelve cavities).
Hensley & Gibbs moulds really were that good. And his "custom matched" the acme of that. When the owner retired he closed the company rather than sell the name and lower the reputation his products still even some two decades later command.
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