Lead

Hmm, let's see.





I give up.

rsrocket1 said:

Hmm, let's see.

View attachment 900192
View attachment 900193
View attachment 900194

I give up.

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what caliber are those purple ones? I may need a dozen to load for my daughter

Probably 95% home-cast lead. Traditional lubed, some bare bottom, some checked.

Straight Air cooled CWW for rifle to about 1800 fps. Various alloys for handgun, from Lyman #2 for the barn-burners to plain range lead for more sedate rounds.

There's a few left over plated (given to me, I'm to cheap to not shoot them) in 9mm, a few jacketed in my Ruger 44 Carbine.

The vast majority is lead.

35 Whelen said:

I cast all my own and lube/size them traditionally. Most are cast from straight WW's, but I just finished cast a BUNCH of 155 gr. SWCHP's for my .38's and used a soft alloy to promote expansion. One of my newest molds that helps feed my Bulldog.

View attachment 900187

35W

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Now that’s some serious hollow points. Could you post a snap of the mold. Multi cavity?

whughett said:

Now that’s some serious hollow points. Could you post a snap of the mold. Multi cavity?

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I will. It's going to ebay so I need to take pics anyway.
It's a 2-cavity with pins to make four different HP's as well as a solid SWC.

35W

Jacketed, plated, or coated, depending on application. I'm basically sworn off bare lead for almost all applications.

I'll shoot plated or coated unless I need to go to jacketed for some reason - usually, higher velocity use.

74shooter said:

Ok, let’s hear it, lead, lead coated, plated or jacketed? What do yo load for your range fodder?

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Yes
All of the above.
I like playin' around with various bullet types, powders etc.

For serious EDC I use jacketed - it gives the most reliable expansion.

I keep the lead for plinking.

Home cast, lubed, gc, water quenched! I splurge in buying the alloy though, Got lazy mixing my own. My sources for ww have dried up for years. One day casting, one day gas checking and lubing. Got a 20#, double spout pot and a 4 cavity mould. Moves along at a fair clip. No leading even at magnum velocities in a 44 mag.

Kleanbore said:

I used to cast round-nose bullets from linotype metal for reduced loads in 30-'06 rifle cartridges.

I put on gas checks.

The greased lubrication grooves extended below the neck. To keep the IMR propellant grains from getting stuck to the grease, I put a small piece of toilet paper above the powder.

People at the range always wandered over to ask about the confetti.

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No wonder there is a TP shortage!

AJC1 said:

what caliber are those purple ones? I may need a dozen to load for my daughter

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They are Lee 355-120-TC but I use the powder for any bullet. The powder is a batch of Sherwin-Williams powder coat powder that I got for free from a powder coat shop. He had a mountain of expired powders and other left overs and when I asked him about it and showed what I was doing, he gave it to me for nothing. Otherwise he would have charged $6 for the 3 pounds. It coats very well, but the pigment coverage isn't terribly uniform under all humidity.
These are decent

But others are sometimes splotchy if I powder coat in wet conditions. It doesn't matter because the important thing is that I get 100% coverage with the polymer which protects the lead from gas cutting and seals the bore while also lubricating it.

Here's an example of terrible coverage of a PC job I did as an experiment right after a rainstorm


But after going through the push through sizer, you can see the polymer flowed smoothly for 100% coverage of the drive bands.


If you want good powder that will look nice check with Smoke4320 at Castboolits. Your daughter might like Traffic Purple, although as of 3/5/2020 he's out of stock with that color. I've never used his powder but I've only heard great reviews of the quality of the powder he sells.

rsrocket1 said:

They are Lee 355-120-TC but I use the powder for any bullet. The powder is a batch of Sherwin-Williams powder coat powder that I got for free from a powder coat shop. He had a mountain of expired powders and other left overs and when I asked him about it and showed what I was doing, he gave it to me for nothing. Otherwise he would have charged $6 for the 3 pounds. It coats very well, but the pigment coverage isn't terribly uniform under all humidity.
These are decent
View attachment 900296
But others are sometimes splotchy if I powder coat in wet conditions. It doesn't matter because the important thing is that I get 100% coverage with the polymer which protects the lead from gas cutting and seals the bore while also lubricating it.

Here's an example of terrible coverage of a PC job I did as an experiment right after a rainstorm
View attachment 900297

But after going through the push through sizer, you can see the polymer flowed smoothly for 100% coverage of the drive bands.
View attachment 900298

If you want good powder that will look nice check with Smoke4320 at Castboolits. Your daughter might like Traffic Purple, although as of 3/5/2020 he's out of stock with that color. I've never used his powder but I've only heard great reviews of the quality of the powder he sells.

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I have a few bags of the Eastwood powders but she was looking over my shoulder like ooooh