How soft an alloy can I cast 200gr 45LC for low power CAS?

[Steel Striker]

Greetings Pards;
My CWW cache is getting low.  I'd like to stretch my supply by adding lead [fishing downrigger balls, & stick-on wheel weights] to the alloy.   I have no other use for this lead.   

I'm casting with a LEE #90697, 6 cavity mold, Xlox tumble lube'g & 5.0gr Trailboss in annealed cases.

How "soft" have you gone without leading, etc.   Thanks again.

[Blackfoot]

Should be fine at 12 to 14 Brin.  Don't know exactly what speed you are trying to obtain but for cowboy loads there is no need for "hard cast" in the range of 18 or 20.

Blackfo

[mehavey]

You can go all the way down to pure lead as long as the cylinder throats are groove diameter or even slightly larger.
http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-40405.html

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Contrary to common belief, softer alloys leave much less lead in the bore than the hardstuff.

There is a table around somewhere giving the usual hardness of miscelaneous lead. If I recall, wheel weights are about a hardness of 10, and they work very well at pistol/carbine speeds, at least for me. stick-ons are a bit softer, but seem to act about the same for pistol loads. Most sinkers are made of the cheapest available material, which I would suspect would be mainly wheel weights.

I don't have a hardness tester, but this is a time when it would come in handy!

To answer the question melt it up, pour it into the moulds and enjoy the experience. The only downsize that I can think of is that softer alloys sometimes have trouble filling out a mould, but heating up the pot a bit can counter that issue.

The big caution is to avoid battery lead, but I think you already know that as you did not mention it.

[mehavey]

Actual calc'ns against actual test data.
NOTE that a lot of the "internet" numbers are flat wrong wrong, but nevertheless passed on "as reported in the New York Times"  



BTW:  I am shooting NOTHING harder than 30:1 out of the standard velocity 45 Colts, 44-40s, and 45 Schofields -- both revolver and rifle -- and the bores are spotless.

BTW2:  You have GOT to have cylinder throats that match/slightly exceed the groove diameter

[Steel Striker]

MEHAVEY:  Thanks much for this info.  I had not seen this graph before.  Presents a usable perspective on some alloying.

When you stated using "...nothing harder than 30:1...", I take that to mean you are alloying 30 parts of "pure" lead with 1 part Tin.  Is this correct?  Further, you are not using wheel weights, correct?

From your experience then, I'll be alloying 30:1 Lead:Tin for my 45LC pills.  That will help me conserve the CWW's cache for more powerful loads.

Thanks again for helping make this such an awesome site...hope I can add to this reputation some time.

[mehavey]

I get both the 30:1 and Lyman#2 from the RotoMetals Foundry -- deliberately so as to know the exact alloy.

I've shot wheelweights till the cows come home/forever -- but because their alloy is a bit unknown, I let them sit for a long time to "settle out/soften up"   My impatience at that point... well... that's why I get RoteMetal. 

I AM deliberately shooting plain base that can rise to "+"P with 30:1.
Somewhere therein I transition to PlainBase Lyman#2 for everything short of true 24-25,000 psi, and gas-checked # 2 when getting way up there.  Never needed anything more.

WORST thing folks can do is shoot an overly hard bullet/undersized to the bore (which can innocently happen when the cylinder throats aren't matched to groove size)

Even then, a SOFT bullet can "bump up" to fit the grooves and get you outta trouble.  
But HARD bullet that stays undersized to rattle down the barrel is a killer.  

[Hans Christian]

As Mehavey has attested to, you can go quite  soft with a proper sized bullet.  For convenience, my normal pistol alloy is 1% tin, 2% antimony and 97% lead. BHN is in the 10 range which is acceptable for light 45 Colts up to hot 38 Special which covers what I load currently.

At first blush, I was going to suggest mixing your COWW 50/50 with soft. In reality, you can go much softer than that.

You may find some of those weights have some antimony in them. Have you checked them for hardness?

[Bunk Stagnerg]

Pure lead is what I have been using  in my .45 Colts rifle and revolver with a 200 grain Big Lube Bullet for the past year. Occasionally I do get a couple of specks of lead  when cleaning the rifle barrel, but nothing in the revolvers (Uberti) , and certainly nothing to get excited about. I use this bullet with both gun powder and nitro powder loads CAS velocities which are quite mild.
Yesterday casting with 1:30 alloy I found the bullets filed out better and came out of the mold easier that straight lead. 1:30 is the way I will continue to cast my CAS bullets, that little bit of tin seems to make the cavities fill out much better.
Some of our shooters use straight wheel weights which work OK, but with heavier loads tend to ding the cold rolled steel targets.
Wheel weights are much cheaper, but some of them are steel which makes a mess and some are zinc. and a lead/zinc alloy is worthless for making bullets for some reason it just will not fill the cavity.
But lead or 1:30  is what works for me YMMV
Yr' Obt' Svt'
Bunk