Sep 13, 2010
Reloading note -- .45ACP cast bullets
An experiment with as-cast and unlubricated .45 ACP bullets did not work well. We fired just over 50 mild --c. 725 fps -- rounds last week. Accuracy was acceptable, given that the shooting was pretty casual, and there were no malfunctions. But the leading was very bad. A stiff brush and Hoppes 9 removed only part of it, and I'm facing the need to use the hydrogen peroxide and vinegar trick.
These were cast from mill-run wheel weights with no additves, and that may be the problem. I read that wheel weights use far less tin and antimony than they did a few years ago.
To avoid the mess of lubing, I'm going to try a new batch made from the harder alloy I mixed last month. If those lead, I'll try pan-lubing and pray that's a solution. I really hate the idea of gettiing into the dedicated luber/sizer mess.
For what it's worth, I've been counting on the Lee taper crimp die to do the final sizing, assuming it squeezes the bullet into dimension as it full-length sizes the entire finished round.
EDIT: Oh dang. I meant "boolits," of course, not bullets.
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6 comments:
That alloy is far too hard. You want something close to pure lead, low pressure, and good base obturation if you're running with minimal or outside lubing. Velocity is largely irrelevant since a .45 ACP couldn't even hope to push a pill fast enough to strip a soft lead bullet in the bore. Both .22 rimfire and .38 HB wadcutters may be found without grease grooves, yet they do not foul the bore. Rumor has it that the commercial alloy is 98 Pb / 2 Sb.
Clip-on wheel weights are about 2% antimony, usually less than 1% arsenic, a very tiny amount of tin, and the balance in lead. Excessive tin makes alloys unnecessarily expensive and mildly harder. It's cheaper to raise the pot temp than to add tin. Arsenic is also a wonderful hardener, especially when quenched, but it also tends to raise surface tension.
I tried the cleaning solution you mentioned, but it is glacially slow and also damages paint and bluing. Get your hands on a Lewis lead remover and some spare brass patches. I buy brass brushes in packs so that I have a set of new, sharp-edged bristles when I need them. Generally I rip up the surface of lead fouling then continually reapply liberal coats of #9 and let it work under the lead for a couple days. (This idea is out for plated guns, of course.)
Lubri-sizers are overpriced, overcomplicated rubbish. I use pan lube or Lee Liquid Alox, and size in a $12 Lee sizer die.
Do you have Lyman's Cast Boolit Handbook?
Also: Did you measure the hardness of those bullets?
Yep, I like the Lyman book.
Alloy hardness is subject of a lot of discussion. All I can add is that about 20 years ago I made several thousand boolits from the No. 2 alloy, or something very close to it, and never had a leading problem. I was casting mostly .45s, .38s, and a nice little 90-grain .30 for .30-30 squibs.
No Brinell tester here. And all the tin I'll ever want followed me homefrom an auction -- almost free.
I really appreciate your observations, and if the problem continues I'm going to follow your suggestion on the Lewis tool. Thanks, Jim
Sorry about the preaching. Alloy hardness is the subject of discussion, but how much of it is necessary? I've had people tell me that lead pills are no good past 1,000 feet-per right after I got back from the range where I was sending 'em downrange at more than 2,000 from the barrel of a rifle.
(shrugs)
TJP --- I don't read it as preaching. It's trading information, and it's part of what places like this are about. I always appreciate you ocmments.
73.
Jim
I shoot a fair amount of USPSA and I use cast lead 200 gr. boolits in a 1911.
Lube is important and cannot be ignored without creating a mess in your barrel. Look all the back to muzzleloaders. They used pure lead balls, wrapped in a cloth patch that had been soaked with beeswax.
If you don't want (understandably) to deal with a lubri-sizer, use Alox type liquid lube, and get a mold that has the lube rings for it, something like this one: http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=662400. I cast these, and load them after tumble lubing without any problems.
For cleaning, if you get leading, I have a suggestion. Get a ChoreBoy, one of those copper wire pot scrubbers that sells in the grocery store, cut off enough to wrap around an old bore brush and use that to push through the bore a few times. It's very effective at removing leading and, being copper, not hard enough to hurt your barrel. All the liquid and solvents I have tried were more trouble than they were worth and none of them were very effective.
I got that ChoreBoy idea from a post on castboolits.com, a great resource for handloading.
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