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Old March 25, 2013, 04:31 AM   #4
Mike / Tx
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Join Date: April 8, 2000
Posts: 2,101
Quote:
The alloy will be used for 9mm, 45acp, and 40s&w (40s&w in a revolver). They will all be light loads for steel plates.
Of the ones you mention I have only poured up the 45's. The thing with the 9 and 40 is they are both somewhat peticular on fit and lube from what I understand. This is mainly due to being more of a high pressure caliber than most from the get go. This isn't to say they can't shoot lead but that they require a bit more testing to get the powder and alloy just right to avoid leading. These are two where your harder bullets might work, but you might simply have to play with your lube a bit.

Quote:
I have been casting for 20 years or so and have always used water dropped ww with satisfactory results. After reading the link you gave from the cast boolit site I am thinking that my boolits are a little too hard and that is the reason for the minor leading I have always gotten from the ww.

Should I have been air cooling my ww alloy boolits all this time?
If your seeing minor leading I would look hard at your lube. Is it at the chamber end or the muzzle end? If at the chamber it could be a sizing issue where just a touch bigger will bring it under control. IF at the muzzle it might simply be a mismatch of the lube. What type or process are you using to lube?

Looking over the LASC pages you will find that having a bullet too soft as well as too hard can induce a bit of leading. How much is usually determined by fit, velocity, and lube. If your using a lub-sizer you might simply give a couple dozen a quick tumble lube with some Alox in addition to what your using. If you still experience leading then possibly try a bit larger sized bullet.

Quote:
I am thinking that my course of action should be to smelt all of the range lead into ingots, cast some air cooled boolits as well as some quenched boolits, and test their hardness. Then decide if I should add anything to it.
When I pour up ingots of any alloy I usually use a Lee 452.255 RF 2 cavity or the six if it's handy to pour up a dozen or so test samples. They don't have to look pretty just be filled out on the top and bottoms. I toss them in a baggie and stick them in the box with the ingots for checking the hardness at later intervals. I use a sharpie to write the dates tested and the hardness on the baggie or the lid of the box of ingots.

When I started out I was pouring up 300gr RFN's for my Raging Bull in 454. I just couldn't afford to shoot up the commercial loads for it as much as I was shooting it at the time. I have used both water quenched and air cooled straight WW in it with velocities running up to just over 1700fps lubed with straight Alox. The top end wasn't much fun at all but did show what I could do with the alloy and the lube. I have also used what is referred to as Felix Lube, and some Carnuba Red from White Label Lubes. The Felix Lube just never came around as far as accuracy went, but the Alox and CR both did great. The downside to the CR was I have to pan lube and it isn't much fun cutting them out one at a time, then cleaning the remnants off the die after sizing. I went with a version of the Alox referred to as 45/45/10, which is simply equal amounts of Alox and Johnson's Paste Wax with a splash of mineral spirits thrown in. This is what I use for everything now for the most part.

I would pour up a couple dozen each, water quenched, and air cooled. Give them both two weeks before shooting. Size and lube the water dropped ones right after casting and the air cooled after the two weeks. Then give them both a good side by side comparrison using the same everything. Be sure to clean your barrels really well before starting and in between shooting one or the other. If you have them coming out of the mold anywhere near what your sizing to I might even try a few that were unsized to see if the added difference might help.

That is the big thing with cast as your aware, you can do some much to taylor the alloy, lube, or bullet to your particular barrel.

Hope this gives ya something to think on.
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Mike / TX
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