Bright new shiny things in .43 Spanish

[spikedueller]

So I finally did my first casting session and created my first 150 new boolits in .43 Spanish. The sawdust flux I'd asked about earlier worked a treat. I may have over egged the tin but as the lead was an old bit of flashing off the roof I wasn't too disappointed in the results.

They've dropped out at .440" so I may just lube and not size as the bore is .439" but the satisfaction in creating in creating them and everything just working first time out was immense, must have just got lucky.

I'm going to use SPG as a lube to start with but any recommendations on more locally produced lube appreciated, they will be over black powder approx 75 grains, not quite a Martini but not a lightweight in a sporterised Remington Lee

[meles meles]

OOOH, impressive. We've not heard of .43 Spanish afore...

*Scurries off to study, grabs some books...*

[spikedueller]

It's an odd one indeed, more common in Rolling Blocks but there's actually 3 variants, a carbine round, the rifle round and the Reformado version which is a bigger bullet.
Rem-UMC used to make it as did DWM at one point.

Here's one I rolled earlier using some commercial lead and reformed 348 Winchester brass

[ArcofZen]

Can you explain a bit more about tinning the lead? I made some fishing weights using lead flashing and the results (although fine for that) were not as good.

[spikedueller]

Well I had read that using pure tin compared to using antimony not only increases the hardness but leaves a much sharper crisp finish and fill out to the bullets both in the bases and the grease grooves.

So I purchased some Cornish tin (http://carnmetals.co.uk) which handily came in small chunks and duly measured out a 1-20 mix. It's not cheap (£41/Kg) compared to antimony but I think correctly measured I'm using 2kg of lead and 100g of tin to cast 100 bullets. due to a schoolboy error I put a lot more in on my first attempt so they are a bit on the hard side so I'm going to experiment with the next batch but they did drop beautifully from the mould.

I just melted the lead flashing and tin all together in the pot and fluxed twice with a pinch of sawdust, pot temperature was around 710 degrees. I suspect everyone has their own variations and recepie but maybe I just got lucky first time.

Mike

[dromia]

They look fine. Have you weighed and measured them, that will tell you a lot about your consistency and technique.

You do not want hard bullets with black powder loads all you need is no more than 1% tin to help fill out, any more than that and it is just a waste, lead free solder is a good source, just a couple of inches to a 10lb pot of lead is sufficient to "sweeten" it.

You do not want antimony anywhere near black powder bullets as it hardens the alloy undesirable and even more undesirable it makes it brittle, both these attributes along with poor fitting bullets are the main causes of leading and poor accuracy.

Back in the day bullets were made from 1-10 or 1-20 tin to lead but this does not really harden the alloy that much 1-10 will give you maybe 10-11BHN which is the upper limit for BP bullet hardness in my experience.

The addition of such copious amount of tin back in the day wasn't to help the bullets shoot any better it was to make them travel better, also it was a way of holding the weight down.

Throwing more than 1% tin into the alloy won't make them shoot better and can hinder obturation if fit is poor and is just a plain waste of money, the old saw "cheap and tinny" is an oxymoron with the price of tin nowadays.

I would push the heat up to nearer 800 as this will help reduce voids and improve fill out remember to keep the sprue plate hot.

SPG is fine but expensive and no better than a home made beeswax and tallow lube, I like to add a little lanolin to my mix it just helps keep the fouling soft also dipping the bullet tip in cheap zinc and castor oil moisturising cream from the pound shop just before chambering works wonders too and keeping the fouling soft, it is just a water carrier and works the same way as blow tubing without the faff on. It also means you don't need the extra step of lube "cookies" if that was going to be part of your load.

[dromia]

Forgot to say that if you don't want to make your own black powder lube and want to buy commercial black powder lube then I can heartily recommend Alleebee's Black Tack lube. I have been trialling it for the past six months and found it to be excellent, every bit as good as the White Label black powder lube I used to use but sadly no longer available. This lube is superior to SPG which has failed me in the past, especially in the longer barrels. Also Black Tac only costs $16US/lb plus shipping which is half the price of the over rated and over marketed SPG.

[spikedueller]

Hi Dromia
many thanks for the replies and the tips therin. I never knew about the tin mainly being for transport, everyday is indeed a school day.
I weighed a selection of boolits and they were 355 grains +/- 1 grain which for my shooting at upto 100 yards is probably ok, more lead less tin should bring these up nearer the 370 grains I want. I did also weigh a sample of the commercial ones I bought and they were +/- 2 grains so I'm reasonably pleased. I know

For the next batch I'll definately wind the tin content down and crank the pot upto "11"

I'm tempted to have a try at mixing up a lube, apparently there are bee hives on the roof of our building so I'll try to track down the keeper and obtain some wax

I like the sound of the Alleebees as yes I concurr SPG is expensive. I had to use it on the commercial boolits I bought as they'd been pre-lubed with Lee Alox but I must admidt there was very little fouling with that combination. I boiled out the bore afterwards and after 2 kettles of water it was as clean as when I started though the bore wasn't great when I bought it and it is cut down from the original military configuration 32" barrel but it goes bang with a satisfying report.

The 348 Win cases I am using do not feed from the magazine as the rims aren't quite thick enough so I'm looking at a new mortgage to buy some Bertram brass but I have mixed feelings about their quality.

Mike

[ArcofZen]

Well I had read that using pure tin compared to using antimony not only increases the hardness but leaves a much sharper crisp finish and fill out to the bullets both in the bases and the grease grooves.

So I purchased some Cornish tin (http://carnmetals.co.uk) which handily came in small chunks and duly measured out a 1-20 mix. It's not cheap (£41/Kg) compared to antimony but I think correctly measured I'm using 2kg of lead and 100g of tin to cast 100 bullets. due to a schoolboy error I put a lot more in on my first attempt so they are a bit on the hard side so I'm going to experiment with the next batch but they did drop beautifully from the mould.

I just melted the lead flashing and tin all together in the pot and fluxed twice with a pinch of sawdust, pot temperature was around 710 degrees. I suspect everyone has their own variations and recepie but maybe I just got lucky first time.

Mike

Thank you, sounds like a better way to go about it. Love the 'sawdust' flux too