45 Colt

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buzz43t

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Does anyone here cast soft lead 45 colt for use with black powder in a revolver? I wouldn't mind purchasing a small quantity to try making some black powder loads.
 
I have a schwack of very soft lead..... Usually comes out a brinell hardness between 6&8....

I have found it very difficult to get cast boolits that show no deformities etc out of my current crop of 250(ish)gr moulds....

I find if I add Lino or mono to the lead mix I can quite easily get bullets from 14-18bn. These form quite nice boolits in my lee and Lyman moulds.

I'm not sure if this helps or not....

But I guess what I'm trying to say is, real soft boolits may be hard to acquire, mid range to hard cast are quite do-able.....

I have a partial box of Hornady 250gr "cowboy" boolits. I believe they came in boxes of 500.... They were a very soft boolit Iirc. Around a 10-12bn. Site sponsor "budget shooter supply" should be able to get them with out much wait.

I recently ordered up 500 255gr Keith style boolits from "the bullet barn". They specialize in "hard cast", I was told they would be bn22, but the ones I've tested were 17-18. They may be willing to cast soft stuff for you, but you would have to call.

I won't provide contact info as I don't believe that are a site sponsor, but the info is easily obtained via a Google search.

Good luck in your search!
 
If your looking for soft lead try a trip to your dentist. Your local dentist has to pay people to take away their waste medical lead, so they are usually happy to give it away. Just tell them you make musket balls.
Every time they take an exray they get a small leaf of lead that goes into the bucket.
 
Most of what I have read about shooting black powder or equivalent loads in the "old" pistols is to use an alloy of pure lead with some tin added (Ratio 1:20 or 30) Never tried this but tin probably aids in mould fill out and makes bullet a little harder then pure lead would be.
 
When shooting black powder or low velocity cowboy loads ( under 900 fps. ) lead should be soft. Your bullet needs to expand into the rifling to prevent leading in your barrel. Back in the day cowboys simply made bullets on the trail with a campfire and pure lead. If you cast bullets from pure lead they will simply go dull after a month or two sitting in storage. They will however shoot just fine. Manufactures of bullets advertise as hard cast but I'm not convinced it's better. If your bullet is too hard it will not expand into rifling and hot gases can blow past the bullet seat into the rifling and cause leading.
 
Mascotal said:
When shooting black powder or low velocity cowboy loads ( under 900 fps. ) lead should be soft. Your bullet needs to expand into the rifling to prevent leading in your barrel. Back in the day cowboys simply made bullets on the trail with a campfire and pure lead. If you cast bullets from pure lead they will simply go dull after a month or two sitting in storage. They will however shoot just fine. Manufactures of bullets advertise as hard cast but I'm not convinced it's better. If your bullet is too hard it will not expand into rifling and hot gases can blow past the bullet seat into the rifling and cause leading.
Click to expand...

X 2 on this. I've a sewer pipe bore'd 38-55 that will perform just fine with PL, mid to hard cast...no way.
 
Mascotal said:
If your looking for soft lead try a trip to your dentist. Your local dentist has to pay people to take away their waste medical lead, so they are usually happy to give it away. Just tell them you make musket balls.
Every time they take an exray they get a small leaf of lead that goes into the bucket.
Click to expand...

Most dentists around Ottawa and other big cities have long ago switched to Computed Digital Radiographic Systems and no longer use lead or old style x-ray supplies, it is all digital now and the x-rays are transferred directly onto a computer and viewed on a monitor screen.

This dental industry article about switching to them is from 2003, 12 years ago, -

http://www.dentaleconomics.com/arti...ling-the-myths-about-digital-radiography.html
 
mkrnel said:
Most dentists around Ottawa and other big cities have long ago switched to Computed Digital Radiographic Systems and no longer use lead or old style x-ray supplies, it is all digital now and the x-rays are transferred directly onto a computer and viewed on a monitor screen.

This dental industry article about switching to them is from 2003, 12 years ago, -

http://www.dentaleconomics.com/arti...ling-the-myths-about-digital-radiography.html
Click to expand...

Yes, very true.
Many of the traditional places to find lead are getting less all time. Still, technology costs money and many dentists are slow to change. I get lead from three different offices and it's enough to keep me shooting. Take them a small box of Timbits every now and then to seal the deal.
 
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