Bullet Casting

darkman

darkman

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I am new to casting bullets. I want to cast for 45 colt, 3006, 375, and
458. I have a good supply of wheel weights. How do I make the lead
harder for rifle bullets. They say add tin from bar solder. Is that the stuff
you buy at crappy tire for soldering lead pipes. If so, is there a less
expensive source of tin.

Thanks in advance for the info.
 
^^ water quenched wheel weights are hard enough for 90% of my cast bullets needs as the majority of my cast loads are under 1400 fps. If I need harder lead I add bearing babbit to the mix.

Send "Andy" a PM he had some tin solder chips for sale a while ago in the exchange forums - he may still have some.
 
CanAm said:
It like water hardened wheel weights for rifle. Saves all the alloying trouble. A trip to your local tire shop is in order.
Click to expand...


I've been using the "water-quenching" technique of casting bullets for longer than I'm pleased to remember. Those bullets REALLY become hard after a few weeks. I've never had leading problems even at max loads for my calibers (.40, 38,357 and .32 S&W). It's important to have a good bullet design and a good lube (I use LEE Alox, works just great). I use to add some tin for better hardness but I just found it was a waste of time and extra $$'s...for my shooting, hard cast bullets fit the requirements.
 
The only thing about waterhardening that I found out that it fades after a couple years. I was a little depressed at that because I had water hardened about 2800 bullets during a marathon casting session. THese will now have to be rehardened before I load them.
 
You should add tin(+/- 2%) to the wheelweights to make them fill out the mold better - that is cast bullets of more consistent weight. If you drop your bullets from the mold into water(after the mold reaches working temp) bullets of this alloy will get hard enough to survive velocities of 2300 to 2500 feet per sec. in your 30 - 06 without leading assuming reasonable bullet design and a bullet weight up to 160gr or so.
Specially designed bullets(see LBT's websight) claim these velocities or more for heavier bullet weights. I would guess that the bigger diameter slower twist calibres you mention should be even better, although that assumes these velocities are attainable or even desirable in .375 or .458.
My experience, for what it's worth is that the 30 - 06 will give very good accuracy and be pleasant to shoot with loads that produce 1500 - 1800fps with bullets that range from 150 to 220gr. My favorite powders for these lighter loads are 16 - 17gr of either 2400 or H110,best used without case fillers. Very likely these lighter loads used for pleasant and inexpensive practice are truly the best use of cast bullets.
Everything I've said here refers to gas checked bullets.Try a trip to your local scrap yard and ask for bar solder, or look up lead in your yellow pages and buy pure tin new.
Good luck with your bullet casting.
 
Tin also helps keep the hard cast bullets from getting brittle, in extreme cases, heat treated ww bullets can break apart if they hit a big bone(frozen), adding tin keeps the bullet more maleable(sp?). In our business we use alloys down to 10-1 mix lead/tin and don't heat treat unless requested.....the 10-1 mix penetrates good with expansion and the bullet holds together good.
 
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