Author Topic: Couple casting questions (Read 827 times)

Black Jaque Janaviac · « **on:** February 10, 2003, 06:55:35 AM »

I new to casting modern bullets, so forgive the neophyte questions.

Can someone fill me in (so-to-speak) on barrel leading? Dangerous? How do you know when it happens? How do you clean it out?

Next, I know that to avoid leading the bore, you want a harder bullet. One way is to water quench 'em. I'm leary of having water nearby when casting, but I don't care to go the extra step to oven heat 'em.

Can you get reasonable hardness by oil quenching lead bullets right out of the mold?

I use oil quenching for steel frizzens on my flintlocks - not to hard, not too soft.

Graycg · « **Reply #1 on:** February 10, 2003, 08:15:13 AM »

Black Jaques,
I highly recommend that you get a copy of the third edition of the Lyman Cast Bullet manual as a starting place, it will fill you in on many questions you have and will have in the future.

My Opinion only,
Graycg

hubbard · « **Reply #2 on:** February 10, 2003, 08:20:53 AM »

areyou casting for rifle of handgun ? for a handgun, wheelweights work pretty good for me with a small amount of tin added, in the form of 50-50 bar solder, to help fill out the bullets. leading occurs when the bullet is not of sufficent diameter to seal the bore. the exploding gases leak past the bullet base and melt the lead on the sides of the bullet , causing the lead to smear on the bore. size your bullets at least the dia. of the cylinder mouths. i have used water dropped bullets before and they are noticibly harder than air cooled ww's. i don't think they are necessary at handgun velocities . be sure to use a good quality alox or moly lube. the way to detect leading is just look down the barrel. if you see streaks of lead, use a bore brush and then a clean patch. if necessary, soak your barrel with ed's red or another solvent for lead fouling. after you detect the presence of fouling, stop shooting and clean your barrel. i don't have any experience shooting cast in rifles,but other folks on this forum have. so maybe one of them can help you with that subject. good luck. l

Black Jaque Janaviac · « **Reply #3 on:** February 10, 2003, 09:53:22 AM »

Am I casting for rifle or pistol?

Err...ah...both, sort of. I mean I'm shooting a .357 Magnum, but it's longer than most. The barrel is 24", has a shoulder stock, and feeds the bullets in by lever action.

So, I reload rifle bullets.
No wait they're pistol bullets. Not exactly though because. . . :lol:

Cheyenne Ranger · « **Reply #4 on:** February 10, 2003, 10:22:57 AM »

I'm shooting a Marlin .357 with an 18+" barrel. The rounds are loaded to pistol specs. Casting my own out of straight WW. No leading problems with this combination.
CR