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Offline .22-5-40

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This is Strange?
« on: November 22, 2011, 05:52:38 PM »
Hello, Last weekend, I was casting with a very soft tin/lead alloy for BPCR rifles and revolvers..I haven't checked on hardness scale..but a fingernail will leave a deep gouge in bullet edge using very light pressure, so I know it's soft.
    Later that day, I emptied pot & re-filled with what I call my 20% alloy..I use this for .22 Hornet & .222 Rem. cast.
It consists of 16lb. "pure lead" 8lb. Steriotype metal..this is not as hard as Lino, but is much harder than my black-powder alloy I was using earlier.
    Now heres the strange part...I had cast up a small batch of 45gr. plain-base bullets using the soft B.P. alloy for a future test.  Then the majority of the little .22's were cast using the harder 20%.
   When finished, I placed a few of each of the two different alloy bullets on my electric scale.
To my surprise, the soft B.P. alloy slugs were lighter by a few grains than the harder ones!  What is going on here?
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Offline jhalcott

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Re: This is Strange?
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2011, 06:38:02 AM »
 Did you MEASURE the dia and lenght of those bullets?
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Offline JustaShooter

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Re: This is Strange?
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2011, 04:08:57 PM »
Tin and Antimony are lighter per volume than lead (by nearly half).  Since they probably make up the largest component other than lead in those alloys it makes sense that the more pure lead alloy would be heavier for the same bullet.

Edit: So even after reading it twice, I still had it in my head backwards.  I'm with anachronism, probably voids since improper fill out should be noticeable.

Just a Shooter
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Offline anachronism

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Re: This is Strange?
« Reply #3 on: November 25, 2011, 05:23:59 AM »
I suspect you may have some voids in the softer bullets. How consistent are your bullet weights?
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Offline Bucks Owin

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Re: This is Strange?
« Reply #4 on: November 26, 2011, 05:17:43 AM »
The difference between "advertised" and actual bullet weight is confusing at times isn't it? A few years ago I was given some long linotype ingots from a fellow who once ran an old school print shop. I would have thought it would be somewhat lighter than "pure lead" or even WW alloys, yet my .44 RCBS molds in 225GC and 250K dropped (very hard) bullets weighing 232 and 262 grs respectively... ???
 
(JMO, but one needn't lose much sleep over it. I've always treated the finished bullet as being the weight "advertised" in respect to starting load data and still have all allotted digits and eyeballs...so far at least!  :o )
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Offline Veral

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Re: This is Strange?
« Reply #5 on: November 26, 2011, 04:43:44 PM »
Excellent post, Bucks.   Nobody can guess at what an alloy is by looks, or by a persons discription, and not very close even by feel, knocking on it or biteing it!   When cutting molds I try to match the customers alloy from his discription, and  it works to a degree, but not always.  That doesn't make the customer or me wrong.  It is just variation in what people purchase.       Minimal weight variations are not a critical factor in cast bullets.    Design and size are the two crucial factors.
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