wheel weight bullets

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matt bradley

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Hi guys I'm new to casting and was wondering if wheel weights are hard enough for cas bullets I was using the hornady cowboy bullets in my 44mag and 44-40 and half the bullets stay in the barrel its a pain to clean after and no I'm not pushing them to fast there just to soft I tried wolf and loved them but been having trouble getting more so I want to make my own and have a 5gallen of wheel weights and was woundering if there hard enough and if they are not what can i add to it to make it harder.
Thanks Matt
 
I am curious about the the whole casting business myself and am wondering, do you take off the little metal clips (the ones used for attaching to wheel rims) or do you leave them on and throw them into the mix?
 
Just skim the clips off the top of the melt, don't get temp too high or you'll melt any zinc(euro) weights which will contaminate your alloy.
 
You generally melt down the wheelweights to remove the clips and flux to clean the metal--then you cast it into ingots (1# or so) which you then use in your electric pot. I use a coleman stove and an old cast iron pot to do the cleaning.

44Bore
 
well i might as well ask my lead question here to:cool:

dumbdawg gave me a bunch of lead...its hard as hell,cant scrib it with a thumb nail..he said its from diver,s belts..
whats it good for in the casting of bullets?
 
"dumbdawg gave me a bunch of lead...its hard as hell,cant scrib it with a thumb nail..he said its from diver,s belts..
whats it good for in the casting of bullets?"

Make sure it's Lead not Zinc, Zinc will be useless to you.

Lead will melt at 600-700F, Zinc will melt at 750 and above.

Wheel weights have a brinnel hardness of close to 12 , More than hard enough for Cowboy action velocities, providing the bullets are sized right and properly lubed.
 
fogducker said:
well i might as well ask my lead question here to:cool:

dumbdawg gave me a bunch of lead...its hard as hell,cant scrib it with a thumb nail..he said its from diver,s belts..
whats it good for in the casting of bullets?
Click to expand...

could it be lynotype from the old printing presses?..that stuff is hard
 
I add 1lb of 50/50 lead-tin solder to about 9lb of WW. So far it's given me great accuracy out of at least one of my 8mm Mausers and M95 rifle. I'm not as lucky yet with my .303s, but that's probably due to undersized bullets and not the hardness of the alloy (I'll be trying unsized bullets this spring). I've been shooting the .303's and M95 at about .22lr velocities, but load the 205gr 8mm bullets with 31gr of IMR 3031, which according to the person I got the load from cronographs at 1750fps in his Turk Mauser. I get close to 1" groups at 50yards with that load.

The tin just helps to fill the mould better, but the WW are hard enough themselves. It's just a bit annoying having to sort them to try to get rid of what may or may not be zinc WWs.

Cheers,

Frank
 
Re: divers weights. If a hammer cracks the weight and shows glass-like crystals, that could be zinc. I never saw wts made from zinc, too lite. If the weights are shiny and ring like a bell, could be babbit (tin80%) or some solder, usually valuable as a tin source. If a edge dents with a hammer, but can't scratch with a nail, could be a hard WW mix. Most all alloys(except zinc) are usable, learn from castboolits website. Good luck
 
In my experience, wheel weights would be plenty hard enough for Cowboy action, I don't use 'em because you can't regulate the alloy so well or watch for impurities. Go ahead use the wheel weights and add tin if you have trouble with fill out or stringy stream of lead. No need to dump 'em in water(heat treat) at under 1000fps. For the Feller who has the hard alloy...you can cut this with wheel weights for a hard mix and not waste too much of the harder stuff, but you don't need hardened bullets for Cowboy Action.
 
wheel weights are hard because they have antimony in them.they work not bad for pistol bullets but you need to add some tin to help stop leading espescially in rifle bullets. 1 lb of 50/50 bar solder or 1/2 lb of tin in 9 lbs of wheelweights is magic formula.
 
Those Hornady 'cowboy' lead bullets are swaged, not cast, and yeah they leave a mess behind...

If you're casting from wheel weights you can expect very hard bullets, but you should probably add a little tin to improve castability and fill-out.

Watch out for the zinc ones and make sure to wear a good mask!
 
Wheelweights don't work! Look at this mess.


Using_Zinc_Wheelweight.jpg
 
another helpful hint for you new bullet casters,when you are sorting thru your fresh casted bullets, if you pick up one that feels slippery drop it quick because it is going to burn your finger.!
 
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