Cast bullet advice/teaching

[Midas]

You guys are a great help. Thanks

 

[biker_bill]

I'm going to respectfully, sort of, disagree with Biker Bill, and respond a very definite " maybe".

Wheel weights MAY provide you a very acceptable bullet for your uses. OTOH, you may find that a little tin makes them even better.

Reading about how you want to shoot them, a little tin will harden the bullets up, and it makes so nice and shiny too. What I recommend do is cast some wheel weights, then take one of your ingots and add some tin, keeping a record of how much tin, and see what you do with that. Bottom line is that there are no real hard and fast rules, especially with unknown metal such as wheel weights. If you were starting with pure lead or Lyman #2, then you know what you are dealing with.

As to powder coating, I personally think that the benefits of it are grossly overstated especially compared to a good hard lube, and especially considering the extra work for powder coating.

I've shot hard cast bullets with hard lube at 1400-1600 fps and didn't have problems with leading.

I think that unless you got into the +P+ range of 9mm, and you have a sufficiently had bullet to start with, you should have any problem with leading.

G gh1950 - No problem bud! So I'm clear, when I talked of leading I was speaking of shooting them through a Glock barrel, too fast and you'll have a problem. Glock says not to do it, but we've been doing it for years we just keep them slow if they're made from the WW. I would imagine at some speed it could be a problem in any barrel. I totally agree with you about the tin, it would make the bullet harder and make leading less likely.

 

[EMC45]

G gh1950 - No problem bud! So I'm clear, when I talked of leading I was speaking of shooting them through a Glock barrel, too fast and you'll have a problem. Glock says not to do it, but we've been doing it for years we just keep them slow if they're made from the WW. I would imagine at some speed it could be a problem in any barrel. I totally agree with you about the tin, it would make the bullet harder and make leading less likely.

I shoot clip on WW alloy bullets exclusively through my Glock and they do great. IIRC it is 4.5gr. Bullseye with LPP. Glocks will shoot cast just fine just like you said Biker Bill.
I cast everything I shoot, from .223 to 45-70, 12gauge buck and slug too and everything in between.

 

[SpeedyR]

BTW if anyone on the north side of atlanta is going to be smelting any WW or lead in the near future let me know, I'd love to come watch and lend a hand. about to start making ingots out of WW in the near future...

will get into casting in the near future but for now I need to clear out a bucket or two of wheel weights and cast them into ingots now that the weather is turning a bit better to be standing over a hot burner for a few hours. I've got a good burner, cast iron pot, strainer and muffin tin ready to do some converting!

later on I'll get into bullets, but for now just getting the basics.

 

[gh1950]

BTW if anyone on the north side of atlanta is going to be smelting any WW or lead in the near future let me know, I'd love to come watch and lend a hand. about to start making ingots out of WW in the near future...

will get into casting in the near future but for now I need to clear out a bucket or two of wheel weights and cast them into ingots now that the weather is turning a bit better to be standing over a hot burner for a few hours. I've got a good burner, cast iron pot, strainer and muffin tin ready to do some converting!

later on I'll get into bullets, but for now just getting the basics.

Add a good pair of welders gloves to your inventory.

BTW, a brass "spider" from the cooking accessories makes a killer skimmer because the lead doesn't stick to it.