Bullet alloy for 40-65 400 grain bullet

COREY

COREY

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I picked up a 40-65 Taylor High Wall off a member. I had originally had big plans to load BPCR rounds, but I think I will take baby steps and load smokeless first.

I have been casting 38 Special and 45 LC bullets for a while now (3000-4000 bullets). My buddies and I had a smelting party about 3 years ago and I ended up with a batch of about 300 lbs of lead alloy. Used one bar of 60/40 bar solder to 30 lbs of wheel weights (getting about 16-20 lbs out of the 30 after chucking the clips and floaters). It has a hardness of about 16 bhn.

I just smelted down some pure lead as well (hardness around 5 bhn) for an alloy mix of about 20:1 I was going to make. I thought this would be the greatest alloy ever for this rifle for BPCR, but now I am not so sure. I have been reading the How-To's for the Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Shooter and the author says for bore riding bullets (similar mold I have) that a 20:1 mix can be too soft. He was recommending a hardness closer to #2 (which my 300 lbs is just about right).

After all of that, what would people here do? This will probably be a load with 3031 instead of BP. Would you use a 20:1 mix, the wheel weight alloy I made, or a mix of something else? I only have about 27lbs of pure lead right now, but will use what is best and figure out resupply later.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
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the reason not to go 20:1 with a bore rider is because of what they call nose slump, 16:1 is a better option, if your not going to shoot black powder then you can go as hard as linotype so long as you size the bullet to 1-2 thou over bore diameter. The reason for the softer lead with black powder is merely because the pressure bumps the bullet up in diameter to seal the bore, something we do with sizing the bullet for smokeless powder in the first place.

slug your bore, size 1-2 thou bigger.......go have some fun
 
yodave said:
the reason not to go 20:1 with a bore rider is because of what they call nose slump, 16:1 is a better option, if your not going to shoot black powder then you can go as hard as linotype so long as you size the bullet to 1-2 thou over bore diameter. The reason for the softer lead with black powder is merely because the pressure bumps the bullet up in diameter to seal the bore, something we do with sizing the bullet for smokeless powder in the first place.

slug your bore, size 1-2 thou bigger.......go have some fun
Click to expand...

Good advise.
 
I have not slugged the bore, but I got a .410 size die (slim pickings). I may try a 50/50 wheel weight alloy/pure lead mix and see what happens.
 
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In my .40-65's ( using black powder ), I use 20:1 for the Saeco #740 mold ( similar to a Creedmoor nose but with a very small meplat ), and 16:1 when using a Buffalo Arms Money bullet.

Chris.
 
I ordered only what I needed - 50 pounds - cost $45 to ship. Write to them and they will give you the shipping charge. My orders vary - last time was 25 pounds of lyno $30 for shipping if I remember well.
 
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