trying to make cast boolits

ihuntbear

ihuntbear

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is there a recipe to cast boolits for 40 cal pistol using wheel weights...I been searching but cant find anything..I have 60 lbs of wheel weights ingots and 60 lbs of soft lead piping ingots...somebody told me to to use 50/50 mixture of ww/lead and add some tin..But what is the right recipe??I dont want to ruin all this lead with the wrong recipe...any help would be appreciated...thanks
 
I assume it's for target use, and if so, straight wheelweight is hard to beat. You can add 2% tin to the mix to improve how well it casts.
 
Best thing you could do is check out the Cast Boolits website! Tons of info and even more helpfull advice from those that know!!! The most important thing with shooting cast is boolit fit. 1-2 thou over bore diameter and then there are the other variables , like alloy hardness, lube, powder charge / type . The fun is in the learning!!!
 
For semi-auto (.40S&W), I would use ww with 1 to 1.5% tin. WW already have 0.5% tin. I would use 50/50 mix(add tin) for low velocity/low pressure revolver loads. Tin sources are lead free solder, pewter, solder with ratio of tin/lead, babbit and linotype. be safe
 
40 cal likes 155's

Cast lead target loads for the 40S&W cartridge will work fine if they are kept at 900 FPS or lower. If you can get your powder to make velocities of 825-850 FPS then leading in the barrel is not an issue. Mix your wheel weights with the soft lead in the following receipt:
Wheel weights 65-70%, the rest soft lead.
Ideally, if you can obtain a mould that casts a lead SWC in 155 grains, then the above mixture is a winner..
 
I would keep your soft/pure lead seperate from the WW lead. I would use the WW for your pistol or rifle loads, and save the pure lead for blackpowder or muzzleloaders and alloying. You might also be able to trade it to someone for something else if you don't need it. WW and Pure will likely be too soft for most uses outside blackpowder. Pure and the rare linotype (lots of antimony) will make harder alloys. WW is mostly lead with a bit of antimony and a tiny bit of tin usually. Stick on wheel weights are usually close to pure lead. Watch out for Zinc weights, you don't want them in your mix.

I use the WW as is for 357, 9mm, 45 ,308, 45/70 etc. Some tin would be nice for most any alloy to make it fill out the mold a little better.
 
Most wheel weights don't have that much antimony and sometimes no tin in them these days, cutting it 50/50 may or may not work for your loading. I would do a few lbs and test a few dozern shots, but not just melt it all at once. Water quenching will harden antimony but won't do anything for pure by itself. Also the testing by casters has shown the hardness from water quenching fades over time. If you cast and quench today but don't load for 6 months or a year the quenching hardness goes away.
 
ihuntbear said:
thanks for the info...i just scrounged 500 lbs of wheel weights and more on the way..25.00 for a 5 gal pail
Click to expand...

Nice score! I've unfortunately been paying $40 for full 5 gal pails, mainly because there is competition in my area for them. I'm still getting over 100 pounds of clip-on alloy out of each bucket, and doing a big melt on a Saturday is kinda fun.

As others here said, I wouldn't bother mixing pure lead. I even separate the stick-ons because I can trade them later for clip-on WW alloy with the black powder guys. Pure(ish) lead is harder to find than you might think.
 
I have cast thousands of bullets in .44 mag and .45acp with wheel wieght lead with no trouble at all. As said earlier keep your speeds under 1000 fps and all will be well. Making your mix softer with pure lead will be a disaster IMHO.
 
cast 625 boolits yesterday with 2/3 ww - 1/3 lead and 12 inches 95/5 solder water quenched out of the mold..Loaded 200 and went to the range...What a rush using something that i made myself and a lot cheaper..8 cents each for todays shoot verses 19 cents before...thanks for all the good info people
 
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