I've been a doin some learnin

[handirifle]

This casting stuff is fun, if you keep your face out of the smoke.

I was casting a lot of different bullets last nite, pretty much all with the same batch of lead, gotta use what I have for now.  I was casting 350gr .460, and 420gr .460, also 265gr .380, and some .495 round ball.  Little bit of everything.

Each time I do this it seems I learn a lot more.

For instance, I found that if I knock the sprue plate off as soon as the lead cools enough not to run, and THEN right away open the mold the bullets seem to drop right out.  For me, the longer I waited, the harder they came out, especially the round ball.  All moldes are aluminum Lee molds, except the ball, it is an old Lyman steel mold I picked up used.

I also figured out that filling the mold ASAP works best for making nice smooth bullets.  Seems I'd read somewhere to fill them carefully to avoid gaps in the bullet, but when I do that I just about always get nose wrinkles in the .460 bullets.  Filling fast cured that.

Now I don't have a digital scale, just a balance beam (too slow that way), so I haven't been weighing them to see about the voids yet.

I do know this, it's getting fun.  man you can sure crank out some bullets when you do it that way too.

Oh, yes, question.

I melted down some old lead bullets (mix unknown) that were lubed already, meant for a 45 cal pistol.  Now the round balls from this lead were very nice, but the 420gr bullets were starting to come out very frosted, and eventually got brittle to the point of parts breaking off, so I put them back in the pot.  I THOUGT I maight have been going too fast for them, but what causes brittle bullets?
The lead bullets I melted weren't brittle, and I tried to get all the lube skimmed off the top of the lead.  Did the old lube do it?

Was melting the bullets a bad idea?

[Tom W.]

Not to worry. The frosting was your lead alloy and mold getting too hot. I find that it helps to have a few different molds handy when I'm casting, to help  keep them from overheating. Big bullets heat molds up pretty fast.

[Lloyd Smale]

one thing ill tell you is that if your casting pure lead out of a cheap lee mold your starting with probably the hardest combination to master and if you can get that down the rest of casting will be a piece of cake.

[handirifle]

one thing ill tell you is that if your casting pure lead out of a cheap lee mold your starting with probably the hardest combination to master and if you can get that down the rest of casting will be a piece of cake.

It's a lee mold, but I have no idea of the lead mix.  But Tom W's comments about overheating make a lot of sense.  I was pouring and dropping about as fast as I could, so faster isn't necessarily better it seems.

[Sweetwater]

Sounds like you've got your timing down in filling the molds so the noses won't wrinkle. I've had some really good Lee molds and a couple awfully poor ones. I tend to shy away from them now. Faster is fine as long as you have enough molds going in sequence so that they don't overheat. Like the man said, overheating makes them brittle and we don't want brittle with our bullets. Not all Lyma/?Ideal molds are perfect either, but probably a higher percentage are easier to use than most of the Lee molds I've had/tried. I do like the NEI/SSK molds and when I can put the bucks together, I plan to add some LBT molds to the stable and give them a go. Good luck with your education. It is fun, just keep your wits about you. One thing I learned the hard way, and don't laugh because it was a lesson learned, but I had some condensation drop into the lead pot - water makes hot lead explode. It was many years ago and I had my lead pot on the kitchen stove so I could make use of the hood fan for ventilation. Worked like a charm until, for whatever reason, probably being winter in Wyoming, moisture condensed on the inside of the hood near the exhaust, hit the lead pot and I had a big boom and spatters everywhere. My safety gear protected me from injury, but the kitchen was a mess. Probably a better insulated home wouldn't have had that particular problem, but it taught me to expect the unexpected and always play to the safe side. Happy Casting!

Regards,
Sweetwater

[Lloyd Smale]

your bullets arent reallly brittle bullets. If your casting so fast that your dropping them hot enough to look like there brittle and breaking you need to slow down as theres a good chance even the bullets that arent breaking are dropping out of the mold and deforming. they are not actually brittle, just not set up and if you let them cool youll find there not measurably harder then the ones that dropped from the mold cooler. Lee molds like i said are a little tougher to cast with. They tend to like to be casted fast and hot and it takes some consentration to keep them in the sweet spot. Problem i have with them too is when casting hot and fast its real easy to destroy them. Good thing is there cheap and when i do wear them out i just toss them and buy another.

[Lloyd Smale]

your bullets arent reallly brittle bullets. If your casting so fast that your dropping them hot enough to look like there brittle and breaking you need to slow down as theres a good chance even the bullets that arent breaking are dropping out of the mold and deforming. they are not actually brittle, just not set up and if you let them cool youll find there not measurably harder then the ones that dropped from the mold cooler. Lee molds like i said are a little tougher to cast with. They tend to like to be casted fast and hot and it takes some consentration to keep them in the sweet spot. Problem i have with them too is when casting hot and fast its real easy to destroy them. Good thing is there cheap and when i do wear them out i just toss them and buy another.

I know there more expensive but i allways recomend a new caster start with a good steel mold like an rcbs. Youll find learning with one alot less frustrating