# Casting



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

When I started I was told 100% pure lead was best for hunting bullets and round balls. I got to wondering if that percentage could be dropped a bit and have bullets that would still expand but bet a bit harder?

 Al


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## dkhern (Nov 30, 2012)

if yu are casting for muzzle loader use pure lead. if for a modern rifle its ok if using a gas check. if not keep vel below about 900 fps. modern handgun vel below about 900fps and shouldnt have leading. gas checks work here also. if hotter load add tin


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## Chuck R. (Apr 24, 2008)

All of my rifle bullet casting has been for BPCRs (Black Powder Cartridge Rifles) for competition (silhouette, Buff and 800, 900, & 1000 yard matches) so take this with a grain of salt. 

Muzzle velocities have been in the 1150 (.45-70) to 1350 (.45-100 & .40-70/82) without any leading. I started with pure Wheelweights which is too hard for your use, but then moved to 30-1 and later 20-1 in "certified" alloys. 

30-1 would probably work well for hunting bullets, I never experienced any leading and the accuracy was excellent. The only reason I went with 20-1 was to resist some deformation and in theory transfer more energy to the target (steel plate). The harder bullets seemed to take the steel targets off the stand, which can be important if you get a marginal hit on a 50lb Ram. 

IF you want to get fancy, you can still do pure lead, and go the paper patching route. This will prevent leading and still deliver your soft lead. I never went there because casting 200 bullets for a weekend match was enough of a PITA without patching them. Also the paper jackets don't hold up well to firing in a fouled bore.

Chuck


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

it really depends what your doing , I know of a muzzle loader competitor that has taken several titles with round balls cast of strait Wheel weights 

I have shot 50 cal Lee R.E.A.L's cast of mostly wheel weights with some stick on wheel weights to soften it a bit , they were harder to start but shot decent 

most of my hand gun bullets get cast at 50-50 wheel weight and soft lead but I have done them out of strait wheel weight but thats mostly because i find it easy to go from a pot of water pipe lead that I cast a bunch of round balls from till it was below half empty then add a bunch of wheel weight lead and call it 50-50, then when i have nearly emptied it again and filled it with wheel weight again I can start casting rifle bullets , the 6 cavity pistol molds empty a pot fast and the pistols don't really care what exact alloy I use and I get pistol bullets to shoot without emptying the pot and refilling and waiting around for it to melt 

in a 30 or 35 cal rifle going 1500-2200 fps strait clip on wheel weights with a gas have very good results on game from the pictures I am seeing from others who cast for rifle.

I think that what ever you can get there accurately with good shot placement will work and that it has more to do with what you need to hold the rifling for alloy than how soft or hard when it hits with good shot placement and a flat nose bullet design

I have seen people casting a soft nose or putting foil in the mold to separate the nose to make it expand better , or hollow pointing , I think that most of the time doing that to the front of a bullet only caused weight loss because that peels back or comes off then the tail of the bullet continues pass thru 


a lot of game fall to a round nose flat point , punch both lungs and your good to go 

there is a lot of science and figuring to get an alloy to open up at a set speed , and what for if you take a shot that is longer and drop a few hundred feet per second it doesn't open the way you wanted , and it passes through and the animal goes down if shot placement was good 

lead from pure soft to strait wheel weight just isn't that much harder compared to materials like copper jacketing , add some tin , it helps with fill out and helps the malleability it's ability to deform but not come apart 

the animal won't likely be able to tell the difference


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Thinking in terms of doing away with shooting pistol bullets in a sabot. Been looking to switch to maxi balls or maxi hunters. I have access to a mold and pot but now a whole lot of pure lead.

 Al


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## tarbe (Apr 7, 2007)

Nothing like a large meplat on cast boolits. 

More reliable wound channel creation than trying to get cast boolits that expand while not leading the bore. Easier too!


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