Originally Posted by
oscarflytyer
I have wanted to get into casting for a long time, and have a mold (Mihec H&G 53) and a cpl of Lee sizer dies. Calibers I will cast for are 357/44 Spc/44 Mag/45 ACP handguns and a bunch of Milsurp rifles eventually. For the handguns, I expect to push heavy cast bullets to b/n 850-1150 fps. I intend to us gas checks on all rifle bullets. I am going to smelt/start with WWs and add tin. Also intend to smelt the WWs in a large cast iron dutch oven over a gas burner/coleman stove. Looking to pick up a Lee 20 lb furnace for casting.
I have some simple stupid NOOB questions. Any info would be appreciated. Thanx
1) Can I shoot the bullets unsized? With WW/tin alloy, I expect to be probably .001/002 over bore.Yes, if they fit the guns chamber when loaded.
2) IF I don't size, will the Lee Alox work? Can I simply put the bullets on a tray and put the Alox on them? Will this provide adequate lube? Yes, put them in a tub or bag and lube them that way. Much easier than what you describe.
3) IF I need to size bullets, will the Lee sizers/Alox work on all types of bullets? Or just the Lee mold bullets with all the lube grooves in them? Or will I actually need to go with a Lyman sizer and hard lube, melted in the sizer?Lee sizers work on all types of boolits
4) IF I must size the bullets with the Lyman - am I giving up anything by buying a older used 45/450 sizer, vs a newer 4500 sizer? Is a lube heater worth the extra cost?I prefer the 45 to the 450 myself. A heater isn't needed unless you use one of the crayon type lubes or size in cold weather in an unheated area.
5) In handguns, for 850-1000 fps, I am not worried about bullet hardness with WW/tin alloy - expect them to drop at/near 15 BHN. When I push beyond 1000 fps, I expect/assume I need to have harder bullets. Assuming I don't cast Linotype (due to expense) what is the recommended method to increase the hardness? Water quench out of the mold? Oven heat treat? Should I quench treat for the lower velocites, and oven treat for 1000+ fps?Todays WW run closer to 8-9 than 15. But- it's just a number. Don't worry about that Bhn, it's basically just advertising hype for the applications you're talking about. Worry about boolit fit and learn to work with the alloys available to you. You don't NEED heat treated alloys for speed/pressure up into the 13-1500fps range in a handgun, but sometimes it makes things easier. BOOLIT FIT IS PARAMOUNT. Read that 5 or 6 times and get it in your head, FIT IS KING. Hardness, or lack of hardness is a tool, nothing more. Quenching and oven HT will get you close to the same thing. Forget all about it at this point and concentrate of learning to cast perfect boolits.
6) I would like to shoot some hvy 300 grn 44 Mag bullets. Do I bite the bullet and use Linotype? or gas check/heat treat? Thoughts/recommendations? Gas checks always make things easier, for the rest of the question refer back to the paragraph above.
7) For rifle bullets in Milsurps, I intend to exclusively use gas checks. Same basic question. Can I use gas checks + heat treating - or do I need to bite the bullet and use Linotype? If Linotype, heat treat too? Best recommendations here?I've taken GC designs up over 2K regularly with straight WW alloy. Get the advertising hype out of your head. Start reading the posts here.
8) IF I use gas check molds, can I also shoot them at lower velocities (handguns) w/o the gas checks w/o any problems? Honestly, I struggle to see the diff b/n the base of a gc bullet w/o gc, and the BB bullets so common - just the engineer in me! In some guns with some loads some GC designs sans GC work okay, a few work very well. Depends on the gun and what you can make work.
9) Any recommendations for mold break in, use, warm-up, storage, diff b/n aluminum and steel molds, etc, would be greatly appreciated. What about brass molds?
10) What is the best material for fluxing? I used old candles for some of my preliminary smelting. Also see where sawdust/cedar shavings work very well.Stir/scrape with a dry stick of some sort. No meed for exotic fluxing material. It's carbon you're after.