What can i Add to my melt pot for hard cast bullets ?

[flashman]

Hi all , what do you blokes use to add to the melt pot for a hard cast bullet..........i was told i could use bars of solider..? or tin

[Oldbloke]

Solder will work but not cheap.

The old clip on wheel weights IF you can get them. I use 50/50 lead wheel weights.

Tin if u can get it

Most wheel weights these days are steel or zinc. Im told a small amount of zinc will ruin all the lead in the melt pot. But no personal experience.

[flashman]

OK thanks OB its a start just finished casting lee mold bars going to have a go , next will be molds, and resizer die...

[deye243]

Solder or tin does not really make the mixture harder what it does is crystallize the lead so it flows into every nook and cranny of the mold and have less shrinkage when it cools antimony and or printers lead only thing you can use to harden lead mixture up .
years ago is to use pure linotype projectiles and they used to virtually vaporize as soon as they hit a steel plate or powderize whichever way you want to put it.
Another thing too much ten in your alloy does is leave a very annoying buildup on your sprew cutter I used to use a sharp edge brass bar to scrape that crap off but it's a real pain in the bum

[Jackaroo]

Pewter

[flashman]

OK thanks for the information getting confused now , will be shooting 30cal so the mold will 309 dia with a 308 sizing die wright ?

[Oldbloke]

OK thanks for the information getting confused now , will be shooting 30cal so the mold will 309 dia with a 308 sizing die wright ?

Mate, try them unsized first.

[deye243]

OK thanks for the information getting confused now , will be shooting 30cal so the mold will 309 dia with a 308 sizing die wright ?

Nope general rule of thumb is 0.001" to 0.002" over bore size and if going over a thousand feet per second a gas check mold with gas check on projectiles will be your friend .
Slug bore first so you know where to start from

[bladeracer]

Hi all , what do you blokes use to add to the melt pot for a hard cast bullet..........i was told i could use bars of solder..? or tin

60/40 solder, or hard shot, or hardcast bullets.

If you have free lead then it can be worth adding these to make bullet alloy, but if you're buying lead, then hardening it, just buy commercial hardcast bullets when you see them on special and melt them down for your own bullets. You need to add quite a lot of bullet alloy or hard shot to see a significant increase in hardness, the pure lead is basically diluting the already-hard lead. Best bet is if you shoot at a pistol club just have a wander and fill your pockets, but it's dirty and will have to be melted in a pot to scrape the crud off.

Northern Smelters makes bullet alloy in 5kg ingots, but you need to order a few to eat the freight charge. It's cheaper to just buy cheap hardcast bullets from Cleaver.

If you know any pistol shooters that have been salvaging powder from shotshells buy the hard shot from them, if they're not already casting their own bullets.

[bladeracer]

OK thanks for the information getting confused now , will be shooting 30cal so the mold will 309 dia with a 308 sizing die wright ?

Don't size them below .309" and I would rather have them at .310" minimum.
Are you powdercoating or lubing them?
Are you running gas checks?

[Oldbloke]

These go ok in my 30.06 and 223

https://blackwidowprojectiles.com.au/products/

[flashman]

No to powder coating them yet , to advance for me at the moment ...........

[No1_49er]

Get yourself a copy of the 'Lyman Cast Bullet' handbook.

[flashman]

Yes ,will start looking at my LGS see what floating about or on line......

[Oldbloke]

Yes ,will start looking at my LGS see what floating about or on line......

You can down load it here:


https://marvinstuart.com/firearm/Manual ... 20Casting/

Abt 65 meg

[Maxjon]

OK thanks for the information getting confused now , will be shooting 30cal so the mold will 309 dia with a 308 sizing die wright ?

Hi flashman,
Try your bullet at .309 dia, first. I shoot .311 dia in my 308 win, and 30-06. The most accurate cast bullet is one that is unsized, straight from the mold.
The Lyman cast bullet Manual is the best book for cast bullets. You can shoot without a GC to 1400 FPS, much faster and your barrel may lead up.
I add pewter to my bullets it does harden to a point like 10 BHN , but you really need Anitmony or Linotype to get hard bullets of 15 plus BHN for high pressure loads. Good luck!

[straightshooter]

Maxjon
Good post.
If somebody wants to be serious about casting there are 2 investments that should be made.
1. Lyman Cast Bullet Manual
2. Lee Lead Hardness tester

[Maxjon]

Maxjon
Good post.
If somebody wants to be serious about casting there are 2 investments that should be made.
1. Lyman Cast Bullet Manual
2. Lee Lead Hardness tester

Spot on! I have both, although I would like a better hardness tester...

[Oldbloke]

Maxjon
Good post.
If somebody wants to be serious about casting there are 2 investments that should be made.
1. Lyman Cast Bullet Manual
2. Lee Lead Hardness tester

Spot on! I have both, although I would like a better hardness tester...

Have a look here.

https://mountainmolds.com/lyman-bhn-tester/

If you want the xls sheet to do the calcs PM me with an email address.


https://enoughgun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7746

P.S. There is a system using pencils, popular in NZ. Perhaps Google it. But I have no experience with it.

I've found the press system to be reasonable. It's close.

[flashman]

Ok thanks all for all your input lots of reading a head , and melting lead into ingots ready to go .....

[flashman]

Hi a mate has just dropped off a bucket of old wheel weights ,have read there is a formula Ex amount of wheel weights to pure lead to make the hardness im looking for ,iI still need to read Lymans cast book yet,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Im excited

[Oldbloke]

Cast bullet harness guide.png (573.64 KiB) Viewed 1001 times

You may need to sort out any zinc weights and toss them

[flashman]

Thanks OB for that Zinc weights ??? though they were all lead , ok how do i tell the difference between them all look the same......or is there a weight difference. Still learning.............

[bladeracer]

Thanks OB for that Zinc weights ??? though they were all lead , ok how do i tell the difference between them all look the same......or is there a weight difference. Still learning.............

Nowadays a lot of wheel weights are zinc or steel. Try sidecutters and you should be able to determine what they're made of.

[Larry]

Really I think the definitive answer to the OP question is simply "Tin" and measure the hardness as you go.

[bladeracer]

Really I think the definitive answer to the OP question is simply "Tin" and measure the hardness as you go.

Tin allows the alloy to fill the mould more cleanly, it doesn't add much hardness.

[Oldbloke]

I think all this type will be ok.
Anything else will be suspect.

IMG_20241215_155129.jpg (201.86 KiB) Viewed 825 times

[bladeracer]

I think all this type will be ok.
Anything else will be suspect.

IMG_20241215_155129.jpg

Those are lead but I haven't seen many around for years. They do stick-on ones as well.

[Oldbloke]

I think all this type will be ok.
Anything else will be suspect.

IMG_20241215_155129.jpg

Those are lead but I haven't seen many around for years. They do stick-on ones as well.

I know.
Just for OPs info

[stihl88]

Scrap yard buys lead about $1.80 clean, they'll sell it back to you for $3 ~ $5 p/kg on memory.

Otherwise lead flashing (speak to roofers), batteries (if your game dump em stright on the fire, burn the crap off, pick up lead puddle next morning), diveweights and even boat keels are a good bulk source of lead if you can find it.

As mentioned wheel weights will/may be zinc now, my local tyre repair used to have 1/2 a 44gallon drum full of the real mcoy weights. I think he'd cash it in for beer money at the end of the year.

About 2% max zinc is considered acceptable for your bullet castings.