many questions, new at casting and reloading

[tree rat]

How fast can you push soft [almost straight] lead? I want to use it for plinking loads in my .480 ruger. I want to go as fast as I can without leading badly. the reason I ask this is I am very new to casting and know very little about tin and antimony, I am using straight wheel weights, and removing all that floats to the top, then I burn a little candle wax and stir in hopes that I am fluxing, and clean top again, then start pouring bullets in a lee .476 400 mold and my bullets are measuring .477 and fill out perfect. so am I doing this right? I am also new to reloading and these will be the first reloads I will make. I sure jumped in with both feet did'nt I. I appreciate all help, THANKS!!!    I am casting at 675 degrees is that about right?

[Billy Marr]

sounds like you are doing every thing right.

[Leftoverdj]

Sounds like a good start to me.

You might want to drop some candle wax on all the crud amd stir before you skim. That'll put some of the good stuff back into the alloy rather than getting skimmed off.

Straight WW oughta work fine for what you are doing. I like to add one part of linotype to about six parts WW, but that may be just me. Lino goes in after the WW is cleaned up and I flux and stir again.

Can't help you with the temp. Never owned a lead thermometer. I go by the time it takes the wax to burst into flames. If it doesn't do it, the alloy is too cold. If it is faster than 5 or 6 seconds the alloy is too hot.

I judge fillout by the sharp edges. Any rounding of the edge of the base and back into the pot it goes. Generally this also means the bullets are lightly frosted. Careful inspection of a bullet that is not lightly frosted usually shows some rounded edges.

Getting decent pistol bullets ain't rocket science or I couldn't do it. Rifle bullets are a bit more difficult and I am still working on getting rifle bullets that meet my expectations. Only been working on it forty years, so I might get there yet.

[Ka6otm]

Conventional wisdom says that you can push wheelweights about 1400 FPS without problems.

Any plinking load you come up with will be way under this speed, so you should be fine as long as you use a good lube.

Ka6otm

[Paul H]

I've shot quite a fee of those lee bullets through my 480, and all have been cast from straight wheelweights.  Out of habbit, I water quench mine to harden them, and you simply can't push them fast enough in the 480 to cause leading.  Even air cooled, the ww bullet will be plenty hard.  The fastest you can push that bullet out of the 480 w/o running the pressures up is 1200 fps, w/ 21 gr H-110.  If you want a fun load, use 7 gr Unique for ~600 fps and very little recoil.

[Cheyenne Ranger]

I'm casting at 650-700* and also using striaght WW.  Does fine for me.