Hard Casting rifle projectiles ..help needed

[Billo]

With the price of availability of 50 cal projectiles not so friendly I started looking at hard casting options, my local Gunshop has the Lee 2 cavity 440gr Mould in stock, now I'm not sure hard casting is a hobby I need right now but I am keen to learn for future use.

Anyone in Sydney or within a couple of hrs willing to give me a hand, happy to pay for lead and use of ur cooking pot and knowledge. Wanting to make some 440gr hard enough so it can be driven to around 1900-2000fps.

[bladeracer]

With the price of availability of 50 cal projectiles not so friendly I started looking at hard casting options, my local Gunshop has the Lee 2 cavity 440gr Mould in stock, now I'm not sure hard casting is a hobby I need right now but I am keen to learn for future use.

Anyone in Sydney or within a couple of hrs willing to give me a hand, happy to pay for lead and use of ur cooking pot and knowledge. Wanting to make some 440gr hard enough so it can be driven to around 1900-2000fps.

Before you order any moulds slug your bore and order a mould that throws at least .002" larger than that. It's easier to size bullets down than size them up. I would also order a gas-check mould for that sort of velocity. You might decide not to run checks but at least you have the option (although it is possible to check non-check bullets).

To dip your toe in the water all you need is a mould, a steel ladle and a gas torch. CBE are expensive but he makes very nice moulds, and in larger sizes than the much cheaper Lee moulds. CBE can also supply checks. You can order bullet alloy from Northern Smelters in Brisbane or just order the cheapest-per-kilo hardcast bullets Cleaver have listed (and in stock) and melt those.

Starting off with some straight lead or recovered bullets at much lower velocities might be better than diving straight into trying to push them hard.

[bigpete]

If you want really hard lead go collecting behind the targets at a pistol club.

[Billo]

Thanks Bladeracer, the Lee 500S&W mold throws a 0.501 FNGC proj.

I might just have to see if I can find a suitable cooking ladle in the kitchen draw, so just heat up some old lead sinkers and pour into the mould, try not to breathe anything in

[Oldbloke]

Check this out.


https://www.youtube.com/@thecastbulletkid/videos

[dnedative]

I'll save you some heartache;

Buy hardball from northern smelters unless you already have some known hard lead you can use (linotype ideally)
Use a gas checked mould
Use gas checks
Run LBT blue lube
Size them 1-2 thou oversize either with a lubesizer or the lee push through thingy

Should be apples

[AS30N]

IIRC, very hard alloys (say pure Linotype) actually shrinks a bit post cooling. I believe Lee molds are sizing for are Softer Lyman #2 alloy, so the hard cast maybe undersized. Anyway start with range scraps, have a go. Casting is easy, it's the hi-tek coating or traditional beeswax type lube is that's hard. Tumble lube is easy but starts to lead 200-300pt/s before hi-tek coating.