Casting tips for soft/pure lead

[archeryrob]

What kind of pistol/revolver are you going to use? I use and 1858 with a conversion cylinder and pure lead bullets. They work great, but it has deeper rifling because its a cap and ball gun. Its my favorite pistol and I can hit a pie plant all day at 40 yards with the 8" barrel.

Modern revolvers like my Glocks or P365 don't throw lead bullets past ten yards accurately. The rifling is shallow and the same is with new inline muzzy rifles. I have done a lot testing with cast pistol hollow point bullets.

Lead 10 yards at most
Wheel weight alloy - good shooting but doesn't expand as it could
1/2 and 1/2 Wheel weight and pure lead - Make a 8 hardness and group fair enough at 20 yards and expands awesomely.

here is expansion for pure lead and Wheel weights https://archeryrob1.wordpress.com/20...hollow-points/
Here is expansion for the half and half alloy. https://archeryrob1.wordpress.com/20...hollow-points/

There is supposed to be replacement barrels for semi pistols like Glocks to shoot cast, but I don't know enough about them to speak on them. Mine shoots them fine IF they are harder than Pb lead

[jdgabbard]

Pure lead should only be used for muzzleloaders and shotgun slugs. Everything else need to be hardened some (or a lot). All of my alloys contain at least 2% tin but you can harden the lead a lot more using Antimony. Wheel weights work great but IMO still need a little tin / pewter if punching more than paper. Surplus letterpress like linotype, monotype and Foundry type do a much better job since they already have a good bit if tin and are surprisingly cheap compared to even range scrap.

You can use pure lead in pistol calibers if you're going to PC. I've done it a few times at normal 9mm and 38spl velocities without any issues. Haven't tried it with 357mag yet, but I'm assuming worse case you'd need a gas check. PCing really does wonders to fixing leading problems. A couple of users have reported using pure Pb for rifle loads when PC'd, but I don't know how well they performed. They seemed to like them though...

That said, adding a little tin does help fill out. I like to add about 2%, which doesn't do squat for hardening, but does help with fill out a little. But again, pure does cast smaller than alloy, and needs to be

Here are some ideas. First, you can cast some hollow points, PC them and you won't get leading issues. To keep your costs down, buy some PC from a local PC business. He might have some colors he doesn't want and will sell them to you cheap. Then look on Craigslist for a Free or $5 toaster oven, then find some #5 plastic containers (yogurt) and styro-foam from the $1 store or garbage can. Then load some light .38 loads. To shoot hotter bullets, I'd suggest casting a bullet that takes a gas check.

^^^ Good advice. Again, PCing solves so many problems common to non-PC'd bullets. You can shoot just about any alloy with it without problems so long as you get the PCing part down.

[Bazoo]

Immediately following fluxing with beeswax, for the first couple of casts, it seems that the melt flows better. Might, try that to get better fill out. even if you have to flux every 2-3 times to get the benefit.

[Barry54]

Well, I did it! Thank you all for the helpful tips!!!

I started at kindergarten level though. Lee Mold was running great! One of those sessions that you hate to stop because it’s working so well.

Observations: The spilled over the side liquid from the sprue is gummy or wire like vs the hard alloy I was casting previously for tri-ball use.

They are shiny! Wasn’t expecting that.

They are heavier, which I was expecting. About a 5% difference.

Next attempt will be a real mold instead of a simple ball. But I’m happy for tonight’s success!

[jsizemore]

You got the mold and alloy temp right. When it starts to crumble instead of wire like, you've got things too hot. But it looks like you got it right. I've got some that are a few(?) years old and still shiny. Some in the open and some in sealed bags. Both look the same.

[triggerhappy243]

Ugh

I don’t want information on making an alloy. I want information on using lead as it is. The searches are full of how to alloy lead.

Post five in the link said to run the pot hot. That was useful information. Thank you

if you are just casting round ball, then let-r rip. use it as it is. Just know, that "tin" will help fill out immensely.

[Barry54]

Increased the difficulty level. Got a lot of what I would normally cull. A few have sharp bands. I’m waiting for the brown truck to bring my Harvester/Claybuster smokeless sabots. I’m looking forward to some expansion testing!

[Dusty Bannister]

As always, testing the culls might be worth the time as that will show how important appearance might be. Perhaps also test by matching the bullet weights since the sabot contains the bullet which never touches the barrel.