TRYING TO GET STARTED

[DuncaninFrance]

I am about ready to cast some bullets for my Nº.4 Enfield. I have a mould and sizer, I have lots of pure lead and I have a fair amount of wheelweights. I also have a gas check making tool.

I have melted all the ww’s and made them into ingots. BHN testing on them shows a hardness of between 5 & 9 but I suspect that the test was flawed. ( Nipping a 1” ball bearing between a pure lead and ww ingot in a vice and applying a formula)
I have now changed the test kit to a 1mtr tube, a 1” ball bearing and a steel plunger weight (325 Grams). This will, I hope, give consistent pressure results.

I am going to melt ALL the ww ingots together in one pot and cast some more ingots which should be a more consistent hardness.

To obtain an acceptable degree of hardness for the cast bullets it would appear from my research that I need to add other metals to obtain an alloy that could be heat treated thus producing an acceptable hardness level for the finished item.

Today I went to a couple of local scrap yards to try and source some TIN or LYNOTYPE ……………….scarcer than rocking horse sh*t!

I would value some suggestions as to what to use in the alloy and where I could expect to find it!

I have looked on the ROTOMETALS site http://www.rotometals.com/Bullet-Casting-Alloys-s/5.htm which seems to have a good list of content percentages but I have no idea where to find Tin, Lynotype or Antimony over here.

I would really appreciate an “ A + B = C “ type of answer ( Adam! ) if anyone can help.

[dhtaxi]

I would try casting with wheel weights on there own to start.
If you want to alter the hardness go to a plumbers merchant and buy bar solder its a 50/50 mix of lead and tin.
Its not cheap once you have some let me know and I will tell you how to mix it to achieve a suitable alloy mix.
Go onto ebay and try and find a cheap copy of Lyman cast bullit manual this has all the info you need to teach you the basics of cast bullit making/shooting etc.

As for the hardness testing ball bearings etc throw them in the bin.

If you want to know anything about cast boolits ask Adam.

I dont know anything about cast boolits honest.

[DuncaninFrance]

Thanks Dave. I should bve able to get my hands on some solder today if I am allowed out!

[dromia]

Tin doesn't harden the mix much what tin does is makes the alloy less viscous to get better fill, any more than 2% tin in a mix is wasted in my opinion. Antimony is the hardner.

Lino type is the best source for a hardner for alloys, a little goes a long way, but is getting hard to find now. I'm glad I've got 4-5 cwt in stock as I don't know here I'd get any more and even if I did the shipping on metal now is stupid.

WW thankfully also have useful proportions of arsenic and antimony, good for heat treating.

Normally my ww alloy is around 12 BHN, Cabine Tree tester. This is more than good enough for most of my cast bollit shooting up to 1800 fps with good boolit fit and lube.

Water dropping from the mould can get the BHN up to 18 or 20 if you need harder.

What applications are you intending Duncan.

[dromia]

BTW Duncan chilled lead shot has usefull amounts of arsenic for adding to an alloy.

What velocities are you intending to shoot at for what purpose and and at what ranges/

[dromia]

Keep your pure lead for BP boolits or use for swapping with BP shooters for WWs or maybe lino type.

WW hardness is usually good for most applications Duncan, good boolit fit will enable you to shoot with a wide range of alloys.

Harder alloy will never compensate for poor boolit fit.

I'd just cast some up with your WW alloy and see what it does first before worrying over getting linotype or tin. Too much reading with too little practice leads to confusion.

Finally I'll say it here and no doubt I'll say it again but in cast boolit shooting the most important thing is, GETTING GOOD BOOLIT FIT FOR YOUR RIFLE.

Get that right and all else is easy.

Have you slugged your barrel?

What diameter is your mould dropping?

Leading is rarely due to too soft and alloy unless you are going for maximum velocity. Most leading and inaccuracy problems are due to poor boolit fit.

[dromia]

The above posts are A + B =C

[DuncaninFrance]

The above posts are A + B =C

Thanks for your patience Adam, I do appreciate it. I will try and sort out the relevant answers and post back tonight.
I did buy a book on line by Joe Brennan, "Cast Bullets for Beginner & Expert". It's on a DVD but I have found it comprehensive and confusing at the same time

[dromia]

Joe did a good job compiling that "book" however it is more a compilation of approaches than a defined process. Joe has tried hard to distill it down into what works however he has found that there are few actual hard and fast rules to cast shooting and many routes to Cast Boolit nirvana.

BTW I'm buying a Bausch and Lomb Balvar 6-24 scope off Joe just now.

The one thing that all agree is key is good boolit fit to the chamber and barrel, once you get into the hows of that then each person has their own view that is different from everyone else but works for them.

Look at dhtaxi he will never take another chamber cast again all he wants to put down a barrel now is a loaded round.

Now joeseyclosey just loves chamber casts

Me I'm more of a slug person.

[DuncaninFrance]

OK, here goes the answer session Adam.

Initial rifle to cast for is my No:4 MkI

First of all – why am I wanting to cast? Well, here in France, if you shoot hunting calibres you are catered for but you pay for the service. As a general rule, French Gun Shops don’t carry a very good range of stock and asking them to order something is like mating elephants – lots of noise then nothing for 18 months!

When I bought the Enfield the guy who sold it said he shot cast all the time and so I decided to try. It made sense to me that I could make what I needed rather than having to carry large stocks of bullets. I could also ( I hope ) have a more consistent quality because I would like to shoot out to at least 500 mtrs.

If I can be successful with the Enfield then I hope to apply the same technology to my K98k Mauser and my next purchase ( IF I ever get one, a Schmidt Ruben )

Anyway, back to the Enfield;

The previous owner gave me details of his loads and some targets that he had shot with them which were very good.

He cast with a Lee mould #90367 .309 – 169 – R. Powder was 1.30 grams Tubal 2000 plus a Kapok fill. He gave me 5 rounds of this which I have not yet shot.

Nobel Sport Tubal 2000 is similar to:

XMR 2015…………….Accurate
Reloader 12…………....Alliant
H4198………………….Hodgdon
IMR 4198………………IMR
Norma N200……………Norma
N120…………………...Vihtavuori

Now, VELOCITIES.!

All I can say is that ALL my shooting is target and the range will be 200-500 mtrs. The velocity is not something I have considered as a chosen figure, I thought it would be an end result.

Have you slugged your barrel?
No because of the results given to me by the previous owner so I have bought the same mould as above which I had to buy in the UK because it wasn’t available here.

What diameter is your mould dropping?
I don’t know because I haven’t done any casting yet, only melting raw material to ingots.

As regards raw materials. I am having problems getting lead wheel weights here but I am going to have another try at the local garages. Hell, I might even have to PAY for it and that goes against the grain for a Yorkshireman!
I have a lot of lead in stock and was hoping to use it for the Enfield if I could get something to harden it up with. I am looking for Linotype but that is difficult to find too.

SO, there you have it. I think I will cast some 100% lead bullets and slug the barrel with them if I can. At least it will be a start although I hope the mould is the right one.

I hope this answers all the questions Adam.