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Bullet Casting & Coating MegaThread

Yeah terminals are fine. It’s the lead plates inside that take a lot of work to reclaim and they can contain all kinds of nasties you don’t want to breathe. Better off scrapping batteries and using the $ for lead.

Terminals are fine though
 
Got time to print out some caliper and micrometer adapters to measure 5 groove bullets

Don't remember exactly who it was who left their slugs for measurement but here is the info

Bullet 1 (TC) - 0.309 (.3091)
Bullet 2 - 0.310 (.3096)
Bullet 3 - 0.354 (.3537)

So sizing to 0.311 and .355/.356 is good

PM me and I'll send your slugs with a couple of adapters
 
pastera said:
Got time to print out some caliper and micrometer adapters to measure 5 groove bullets

Don't remember exactly who it was who left their slugs for measurement but here is the info

Bullet 1 (TC) - 0.309 (.3091)
Bullet 2 - 0.310 (.3096)
Bullet 3 - 0.354 (.3537)

So sizing to 0.311 and .355/.356 is good

PM me and I'll send your slugs with a couple of adapters
Click to expand...
Those would be mine and thank you so much. That enfield I incorrectly measured at .313. PM inbound.
 
BFDX7 said:
Those would be mine and thank you so much. That enfield I incorrectly measured at .313. PM inbound.
Click to expand...
Like an idiot I just publish the first number I got

Took a bunch of measurements and averaged them tossing out the outlier - ramming the bullet through the bore isn't going to be perfectly symmetrical and it is hard to get the grooves well aligned

Bullet 1 (TC)
0.3091 0.311
0.311
0.3115
0.3112

Bullet 2 -
0.3096 0.314
0.3141
0.3146
0.3141


Bullet 3 -
0.3537 0.354
0.3535
0.3535
0.3538
 
pastera said:
Like an idiot I just publish the first number I got

Took a bunch of measurements and averaged them tossing out the outlier - ramming the bullet through the bore isn't going to be perfectly symmetrical and it is hard to get the grooves well aligned

Bullet 1 (TC)
0.3091 0.311
0.311
0.3115
0.3112

Bullet 2 -
0.3096 0.314
0.3141
0.3146
0.3141


Bullet 3 -
0.3537 0.354
0.3535
0.3535
0.3538
Click to expand...
Nice work. Not that surprised other than the 354” that sure does seem tight! That’s what you get with new S&W barrels. They probably use the same for 38/357 and 9mm to save a buck.
 
Michael J. Spangler said:
Nice!
I seat deep enough so the roll crimp follows the curvature of the ball.
I prefer to coat them. Alox works but seeing as you usually have very little bearing surface they can have little neck tension and the powder burns erratic.

I get better results with single ball loads alox lubed if I start larger and size down. Like a .451” sized to .430” so it has some bearing surface to give neck tension. That shoots well as a single ball with alox.
Click to expand...
3 coats of hi-tek and sized to .452. Loaded up some test loads with Unique: 4.5, 5.0, 5.5, 6.0 and 6.5gr. 4.5 was from Speer and 6.5 was from Lyman. Will see how they do.
20211014_165419.jpg
 
BFDX7 said:
I’ll test them as we melt them. My buddy has been doing great starting to source lead. That bucket is about 30 pounds of free lead.
Click to expand...
Yes if you have good control over heat then that will help.
The strips of terminals we buy say “lead free” on them and they have for many years.
The dark ones will probably turn out to be lead . Wheel weights lead tend to turn that darker gray and zinc will keep that silver color.
Batteries are not worth the work. Nasty and alot of work IMHO
 
I would go for tracing paper or vellum.
Try to find something that will meet your thickness needs.
Size down to .001”-.002” over BORE then patch up to .001”-.002” over GROOVE
you can patch up a little larger then after the patch dries add a tiny bit of light lubricant like bore butter (which I swear is just coconut oil) and pass back through a sizer down to your needed size.

I size my .458” down to .453” and patch to about .461” then size down to .460”

So check out staples and see what they have. The Buffalo arms patching paper is very nice to work with. It doesn’t tear and it gets a little sticky and hold on the bullet well while wrapping.
 
Okay. Pastera measurements are really helpful and helps to explain the leading a bit. .312 through a .314 bore. I have a .314 sizer but I don’t think I have anything bigger. Could I get away with sizing to .314?
 
BFDX7 said:
Okay. Pastera measurements are really helpful and helps to explain the leading a bit. .312 through a .314 bore. I have a .314 sizer but I don’t think I have anything bigger. Could I get away with sizing to .314?
Click to expand...
Make a split dowel sanding rod. Wrap with 400 grit paper and spin that sucker in a drill.
That will open up the sizer in a few seconds. Lee dies are soft.
 
BFDX7 said:
Okay. Pastera measurements are really helpful and helps to explain the leading a bit. .312 through a .314 bore. I have a .314 sizer but I don’t think I have anything bigger. Could I get away with sizing to .314?
Click to expand...
BFDX7 said:
Okay. Pastera measurements are really helpful and helps to explain the leading a bit. .312 through a .314 bore. I have a .314 sizer but I don’t think I have anything bigger. Could I get away with sizing to .314?
Click to expand...
I run a 314299 lyman as dropped and its around .3145-.315 depending on alloy in my 303 .... I usually run straight clip on wheel weight alloy.
Short form: Pure lead will cast smaller bullets in the same mold as say Lyman #2 or a Antimony rich alloy. Bullets will also drop a tad larger when the mold is on the colder side.
Antimony lead will can also "grow" a bit with age 30 cal might gain .001" depending on alloy.
If your casting for a enfield sometimes its best to size to the throat, but that can lead into issues where the seated bullet is to large for the the brass neck and it jams up in the chamber.

I can get right around 2.5 to 3 moa from a supported bench position with cast with my enfield. It slugged at .314" is ----I did a chamber casting a little bit into the lands and the lead . Careful doing this as if you have pitting in the bore that slug will want to stick!
Once you have brass fire formed to your rifle only neck size, I use LEE dies and have the 54r expander in the 303 die set. I back off the die so there is minimal case body sizing.
I do have a lee collet die for 303 I just never got around to using it much. I put a tiny flare on the case neck with the lee universal flare die. then lightly crimp to remove it.

My bore was loaded with copper and even though I cleaned it really well when I got it it never shot cast that good until I did a DEEP copper removal. I used ACE hardware amonia and plugged the muzzle and flooded it. Amonia is corrosive so do this at your own risk and flush your bore well after. It also may or may not remove blueing....consider that a warning

Its a nasty way to get it clean. Now I just use foaming bore cleaners made for copper removal and I have some montana Extreme copper cleaner , its nasty but will get what ever the other cleaner misses.

303british.com has a good amount of loading info for cast and FMJ
 
BFDX7 said:
Okay. Pastera measurements are really helpful and helps to explain the leading a bit. .312 through a .314 bore. I have a .314 sizer but I don’t think I have anything bigger. Could I get away with sizing to .314?
Click to expand...
yes thats like plasma cutting the bullet really well, lol
they probably tumbled alot also?
 
BFDX7 said:
Okay. Pastera measurements are really helpful and helps to explain the leading a bit. .312 through a .314 bore. I have a .314 sizer but I don’t think I have anything bigger. Could I get away with sizing to .314?
Click to expand...
What are the bullets dropping at?
You might be able to use them right out of the mold
 
BFDX7 said:
That mold is dropping them at .312 so I’ll be forced to get another mold. Did some coating testing last night..

View attachment 532840
13-15 mins looked good. A little bit of color came off the 12 min…. The yellow was from the work glove.
Click to expand...
Nailed it!!

Ok so next step try to “beagle” the mould. Get some of the metallic duct tape. The really shiny high temp stuff.
Cut a couple small shims of that to put in the mould face between the cavities.

This will keep the mould from closing all the way and will add a couple thousandths to your as cast diameter.

Might be a touch out of round but it works!
 
Artie said:
Not a lot but it is all lead WW... now. 1/2 of 5 gal bucket and only 1/3 was lead.

View attachment 527483
Click to expand...
Smelted these down with some range lead this morning. As an FYI, don't add your old skimmings/dross from past sessions thinking that THIS TIME you can smoosh the dirt out and reclaim more lead and tin. @Michael J. Spangler makes it look easy and I thought I figured it it out this last seminar. Nope!
20211016_092501.jpg 20211016_093309.jpg 20211016_104608.jpg
 

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