Did I Buy the Wrong Bullets?

N

Norinco45

Member
Rating - 100%
2   0   0
:runaway: While at the local gun emporium feeding my recently acquired addiction to relaoding, I may have purchased the wrong type of bullets.

I usually buy Excel 200g lead SWC to feed my Norinco.45 ACP but as they were out of stock I went with Speer 200g lead SWC. Both bullets are .452 in. diameter but the Speers I bought are not lubricated like the Excels I am used to. The Excels have a thick, blue almost crayon wax like lube on them and in two channels on the circumfrence of the bullet. The Speers are dry and don't have channels for lube.

Am I stuck with 500 fishing weights? Do they need to be lubricated? If so, can I do it by hand?

Would it be enough to use say case lube to press them into the brass?

Help, I need some wisdom!!
 
I believe that the Speers will have a dry lube applied to them as part of the swaging process or tumbled in after.....this lube may not be as evident as on the other bullets. Note that the ones with grooves are cast bullets and the Speer are swaged and of pure lead! Speer wouldn't sell bullets that are not ready to load! Do you find alot of voids on the Excel cast bullets??
 
+1.. Speers are dry lubed and you will be just fine. The bonus is you won't get any of that waxy lube buildup in your seating die either!:dancingbanana:
Good luck
dB:)
 
The cost and difficulty of swaging lead that is not "dead soft" would be high....This is one of the downfalls of swaged lead bullets...they are too soft for higher vel. and suitable only for target loads!! On the other hand they would not have voids that you can't see!(as in cast bullets) I don't believe companies would risk expensive equip. to try to swage hard lead, when equip. is made for pure lead, not to mention the extra cost of adding tin to harden bullets!
 
I had a telephone conversation with a tech from Speer regarding their bullet composition. He advised that although they are not a soft pure lead, the threshold for maximum velocity is 1000fps. While other hardcast leads may have a higher velocity threshold, they strongly suggest that 1000fps be considered the maximum for their product.
Cheers
dB:)
 
daBear said:
I had a telephone conversation with a tech from Speer regarding their bullet composition. He advised that although they are not a soft pure lead
Click to expand...

What is the difference between 'soft pure lead' & 'pure lead'? Which is heavier, a ton of feathers or a ton of bricks?:confused:
 
Billy The Kid said:
What is the difference between 'soft pure lead' & 'pure lead'? Which is heavier, a ton of feathers or a ton of bricks?:confused:
Click to expand...
Generaly anything that you mix with lead to make bullets will not make it softer so pure lead will be your softest bullet alloy. Incedently the softer alloy bullets are not ideal for higher velocities as they will quickly lead the barrel.
 
These bullets are swaged not cast......The softest lead is pure lead or 99.9% lead.....no one can actually say their lead is 100% pure. The only thing certain is that swaging gets alot tougher if your not using pure lead!! So companies use the softest comp. they can! Tin only adds hardness and adds alot to the cost! That is why cast bullets,made hard by adding tin are desireable and more expensive! Tin hardens bullets without making them brittle! In this case a ton of lead and tin is harder than a ton of lead!
 
Geez, some people's children.. I use the term soft pure lead for the benefit of those new folks reading this as it will undoubtedly resurface as a question in a couple of nanoseconds and again and again. As was said so eloquently above, pure lead(as pure as it can be) is the softest composition, as I am sure most of you know, or at least I had hoped so. Luckily we are not talking cast here or there would have been a question regarding cast or hard cast and the differences therein..:rolleyes: ..Bottom line= Speer max velocity 1000fps with lead.
...and now back to your program already in progress...:runaway:
Cheers
dB:)
 
Thank you all fo the enput, it looks like I am good to go to start loading.

In reply to someone's query about the Excel bullets I found the 200 g lead SWC great. I like their 230 g plated round nose less as the surface seems unevenleavibf the circumfrence bumpy.The only extra step in loading the SWC is to wipe off all the thick waxy lubricant from the finished bullets. For for $20 per 500 less than the Speer that is a small task.

Final gripe about Speer, I went to their web page looking for reloading info and found they had none. Seems like they want you to buy their manual. I find that a bit sneaky, other bullet manufacturers freely provide reload info.

Thumbs down to Speer!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom