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Old September 16, 2011, 06:29 PM   #1
BDS-THR
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New cast bullet book pdf by Glen Fryxell

For those interested in lead bullets, here is a great new resource:

From Ingot to Target: A Cast Bullet Guide for Handgunners
A New full length cast bullet book by Glen E. Fryxell and Robert L. Applegate
Foreword by John Taffin


pdf link - http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_textonly2.pdf

Chapters:
1. Introduction: A Brief History of Bullet Casting
2. Bullet Casting 101
3. Alloy Selection and Metallurgy
4. Fluxing the Melt
5. Cast Bullet Lubrication
6. Throat and Groove Dimensions
7. Leading
8. Idle Musings of a Greybeard Caster
9. Moulds and Mould Design
10. Gas-checked vs. Plain-based Bullets
11. The Wadcutter
12. The Keith SWC
13. Casting Hollow Point Bullets
14. Making Cast HP moulds
15. Hunting with Cast Bullets
16. A Few of our favorites
Appendix A: How old is your mould?
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Old September 16, 2011, 06:30 PM   #2
BDS-THR
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I especially like Chapter 7 that covers leading from definition, cause, prevention and removal. Here's an excerpt:

Quote:
Leading is the number one fear that most non-casters have that prevents them from starting to cast their own bullets. Part of the problem is however, that many of these would-be casters aren't really even sure what "leading" really is, or what causes it; it's just something they've heard, or read, about, and they understand that it can have a negative impact on a gun's accuracy. It is basic human nature to fear the unknown. Some shooters experiment with commercial cast bullets to see how they work and find foreign looking deposits in their barrels and think it must be leading, when in fact it's just residual bullet lube. Sometimes these shooters will experience legitimate leading at intermediate velocities (say 1000 fps or so) and wrongly assume that these deposits would be more severe at higher velocities, and just give up on cast bullets in general. The purpose of this chapter is to define what leading is, what it's root causes are, how a shooter can avoid it, and if afflicted, how a shooter can remove it easily; in short, to dispel the unknown.

Definition of leading. Leading is the deposition of significant amounts of bullet metal on the bore. It can take many forms -- streaks, chunks, splotches, films, etc. (more on this in a minute). It's important to recognize that the mere presence of streaks in the bore is not an indication of leading; many types of bullet lube (especially the commercial hard lubes) leave perfectly innocuous streaks in the barrel that have no negative impact on firearm performance (if a wet patch removes the deposit, it probably wasn't lead). Nor is a gray "haze" on the bore surface necessarily a problem; it can be an indication of a leading problem, but it can also be simply a reflection of the alloy of barrel steel used, how the rifling was cut, or a reflection that the barrel isn't "broken in" yet. The inexperienced cast bullet shooter commonly (and falsely) believes that leading has but a single cause -- the bullet was too soft for the velocity, and lead was stripped off the bullet as it raced down the bore. To this novice shooter, the only solution to leading is to cast the bullet harder, which may solve the problem, but in many cases it won't (and in certain cases it will actually make the leading worse). If the harder bullets don't solve his leading problem, the novice generally walks away thinking that it's impossible to shoot cast bullets without leading a barrel, when in fact the real problem is simply one of misdiagnosis. So let's look at some of the firearm and ammunition issues involved in leading, so our forensic examination of a leaded revolver can provide an accurate diagnosis of the cause.
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Old September 16, 2011, 07:21 PM   #3
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Awesome book, indeed. Metallurgy gets a bit tedious but it helps explain some of the "casting voodoo" that can be hard to understand.
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Old September 17, 2011, 12:46 PM   #4
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Seems like quite a resource.

Why is this free?
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Old September 17, 2011, 05:00 PM   #5
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Great book. I learned a lot about lead and mold temp that explaines why I always have trouble with my bullets. Casting is not easy.
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Old September 17, 2011, 05:08 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sevens
Why is this free?
That was a generous decision made by Glen Fryxell. Instead of publishing the book, he made it available on the Los Angeles Silhouette Club website. If you read the acknowledgements at the beginning of the book by both of the authors, they shed some light as to why.


The Los Angeles Silhouette Club website hosts many other pdfs and articles for casters/reloaders/shooters/hunters:

Index to all the articles/authors and handloading pages - http://www.lasc.us/ArticleIndex.htm

Cast Bullets For Beginner And Expert (complete book by Joe Brennan with over 180 contributors) - http://www.lasc.us/IndexBrennan.htm

Glen Fryxell's articles - http://www.lasc.us/ArticlesFryxell.htm

Thompson/Center accuracy articles of Mike Bellm - http://www.lasc.us/ArticlesBellm.htm

IHMSA articles by Todd Spotti - http://www.lasc.us/IHMSANewsArticles.htm

Jim Taylor's articles - http://www.lasc.us/ArticlesTaylorLeverguns.htm

Last edited by BDS-THR; September 17, 2011 at 06:17 PM. Reason: spelling
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Old September 17, 2011, 05:50 PM   #7
Sevens
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I have been to that site as it's been linked by others. There is an extreme wealth of information there.

Great thread here.
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