Any advice for loading cast bullets??

[jtoews80]

I just picked up a RCBS dual cavity 225grn SWC .44 mould with handles. Made about 95 bullets with it, about 75 were decent to look at, but I was just using wheel weights that I melted down and took the clips out of the pot.

I am concerned that just using lead weights and whatever tin came off the clips made an alloy that will lead up my Henry rifle bore severely. I could buy some 44 spl cases and load it light to keep most of the bullet going out the barrel as opposed to hitting it hard with H110 and mag loads. I have been using Nosler 240 grn JHP's until now, but supply is short and prices are high in Canada, so I thought I'd try casting for target loads in my 44 and straight wall cases. I still have alot of good jacketed bullets to hunt with, but want to keep up a reasonable supply. That and my wife and I are getting out handgun permits, so I need to know how to feed a 40 or a 9......(no glocks, poly rifling won't handle cast)

JT.

 

[Greg Nolan]

Cast bullets have always been based on the lead antimony mixture.
Wheel weights have a pretty good natural combination to make bullets up to about 800 or 900 FPS. If you want to go beyond that then you need to buy the Lyman or Lee reloading manuals on cast bullets.
There are undoutably more resources especially on the SASS websight.
Good SHooting
Greg

 

[1Shot]

Keep your loads under 900 fps and use a good bullet lube and you should have no problem. I have shot plain wheel weight bullets for years. I forget the exact mix but I think it is 25 lb of wheel weights and one 1 lb stick of 50/50 lead-tin solder that makes Lyman #2 mix and it will be Brinell hardness number (BHN) 15 which is perfect for cast bullets. Wheel Weights themselves run about 9 on the (BHN). Keep your melt well fluxed and stirred and you should be OK. One thing to watch with wheel weights is some of the newer ones have a lot of zinc in them and that will ruin a pot of metal for casting. Here is how to spot a zinc wheel weight. It is is shinny smooth looking drop in on a hard surface. If it rings when it hits it is zinc. If it goes thud is it lead. Zinc will make the melt act like it has sand in it and will not let you cast good bullets. I would weigh each bullet you cast and hold a 2% weight control on them. If they weigh lighter than 2% of the average you have a void in the bullet and it will not shoot accurately.
If you have access to free or cheap bees wax you can make you some good cheap bullet lube. These are all by volume. 50% bees wax, 40% olive oil, 10% STP oil treatment. Melt in a double boiler and mix. You can pan lube bullets by standing them up in a shallow pan and poor the melted lube in the pan up to the point where the lube groove is on the bullet. You can poor the melted lube into a lube sizer or you can apply the lube by hand to each bullet by rubbing it into the groove. This lube is great for black powder bullets. It keeps the fouling soft as good as SPG lube does.
A pea size chunk of bees wax is also a very good fluxing agent for a pot of melting lead.