Suitable lead for reloading?
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 10:27 am
Although I do not reload yet, what lead is suitable for casting " boolits" ? I have about Forty pounds of old lead gas pipe. Any advice would be great.
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Suitable lead for reloading?
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Re: Suitable lead for reloading?
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 10:43 am
Nah thats no good at all. I can take that off your hands if you want and i'm local.....
Re: Suitable lead for reloading?
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 11:40 am
Your gas pipe will be nearly pure lead, except for any soldered joints: cut these out and keep them separate. The pure lead is ideal for muzzle loaders--balls, minie bullets and so on. Cartridge revolver bullets need to be hard, to minimise distortion of the bullet as it jumps into the forcing cone. Low velocity target loads---800'/sec or less, will still be OK with the soft lead. Cartridge rifle bullets should not be too hard---between 20 and 25 to one, lead to tin ratio seems to work best for most calibres.
Wheel weights contain antimony and used to be good for producing harder bullets, but they also contain a lot of zinc these days and so should be avoided.
Most experienced casters have their own pet ratios for different rounds. One thing to remember is that undersized bullets should be avoided, especially hard undersized bullets. A soft undersized bullet will set up on firing to fill the rifling grooves, but a hard one will not. Hard, undersized bullets cause leading.
Fred
Wheel weights contain antimony and used to be good for producing harder bullets, but they also contain a lot of zinc these days and so should be avoided.
Most experienced casters have their own pet ratios for different rounds. One thing to remember is that undersized bullets should be avoided, especially hard undersized bullets. A soft undersized bullet will set up on firing to fill the rifling grooves, but a hard one will not. Hard, undersized bullets cause leading.
Fred
Re: Suitable lead for reloading?
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 12:10 pm
When using pure lead tin should be added in the right proportion plumbers bar solder can be used for this purpose.
The Lyman cast boolit hand book has recipes for different mixes I recommend you buy a copy if you are thinking of going down the cast boolit route. Different alloys are used for different types of boolits depending on calibre distances shot over. if you want to bump up the size of boolit dropped from a mould you can use a harder alloy + higher melt temps for instance. I suggest you read a good book on the subject or just ask questions in the forum. There are some Knowledgeable cast boolit casters and shooters here.
The Lyman cast boolit hand book has recipes for different mixes I recommend you buy a copy if you are thinking of going down the cast boolit route. Different alloys are used for different types of boolits depending on calibre distances shot over. if you want to bump up the size of boolit dropped from a mould you can use a harder alloy + higher melt temps for instance. I suggest you read a good book on the subject or just ask questions in the forum. There are some Knowledgeable cast boolit casters and shooters here.
Re: Suitable lead for reloading?
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 12:18 pm
On no account use wheel weights as none of them are lead alloy nowadays.
You can alloy your pure lead using lead free solder (generally tin) to about 5%
Another (better) way is to use range lead waste from indoor ranges where .22 and pistol calibre carbines are used - I'd mix 50/50 with pure lead for most uses.
Flux the molten lead well and stir in the scum which rises to the surface of the molten metal.
The above barely scratches the surface of this subject which requires a lot of reading. Scour the shooting forums for old topics related to casting boolits.
You can alloy your pure lead using lead free solder (generally tin) to about 5%
Another (better) way is to use range lead waste from indoor ranges where .22 and pistol calibre carbines are used - I'd mix 50/50 with pure lead for most uses.
Flux the molten lead well and stir in the scum which rises to the surface of the molten metal.
The above barely scratches the surface of this subject which requires a lot of reading. Scour the shooting forums for old topics related to casting boolits.