Cast bullets: 9mm

[Intheshop]

Nice offer Rich!

Twds the OP;Once in awhile a new caster can find the golden horseshoe.....but most often it takes dogged determination,development time,lots of reading/study,and patience.The rewards?Different definition of success for everyone,one guy might be happy not leading up a barrel and blasting buckets of "cheaper" ammo.Next guy maybe looking at competition needs.Next guy needs premium hunting fodder?Define what you call success and engineer twds that goal.

In my pea brain casting is like using my Gma's cast iron skillets from the early-mid 1900's.Get the heat just "so",along with great ingredients and,it's magic.

 

[DRNewcomb]

Thanks again, everyone. As I mentioned earlier, I ran into a buddy who knows a lot about casting and has offered to help me with my problems. Also, as I said earlier, the only other "boolets" I've ever cast is .45 cal round balls for my Old Army, which are very forgiving. So, while I've been casting for years, I don't have that much in the way of a variety of experiences.

 

[dwtroll]

This is not exactly a precision shooting question but maybe someone can give me some pointers. In the past, the only bullets I ever cast were .45 cal round balls for my Old Army. I have a simple 400 W Palmer electric pot (not bottom pour), dipper, aluminum Lee molds and about 50 lbs of old wheel weights and salvaged bullets. While the balls for the Old Army should be pure lead, it is actually very forgiving regarding the alloy used. So, I've never made much of a science of casting. I use candle wax for fluxing and couldn't tell you exactly what alloy is in the pot but it's mostly wheel weights. I do have an old Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook.

I decided I needed to do more with that ~50 lbs of lead, so I bought a mold for 125 gn 9 mm RN pistol bullets and some liquid bullet lube. So far, I've cast about 100. The results were, well, unimpressive. I set aside about 20% as irregulars. They have very obvious layering lines where the alloy solidified during the pour. I didn't intend to buy a bullet sizing die, just slosh them around in the liquid lube and let dry.

When I read the Cast Bullet Handbook, it goes into great detail about alloys and techniques that I have no intention of using (e.g. high temp casting, gas checks, paper wrapping, etc). What I'm looking for is just some basic, rule of thumb techniques that will allow me to cast bullets for practice, without a huge investment. Store-bought copper-clad practice bullets are only about 8¢ each. I decided in 9 mm only because I have many hundreds of .38 & .45 practice bullets on hand.

As cheep as you can load them , You can buy Summit City Bullets off the WEB. I load thousands of them in 9 mm, .38 and 45. Clean Dry and the gun looks like it has never been fired. NO FOWLING
Tony double coats and double bakes them; THEN sizes them. PERFECT

 

[dwtroll]

This is not exactly a precision shooting question but maybe someone can give me some pointers. In the past, the only bullets I ever cast were .45 cal round balls for my Old Army. I have a simple 400 W Palmer electric pot (not bottom pour), dipper, aluminum Lee molds and about 50 lbs of old wheel weights and salvaged bullets. While the balls for the Old Army should be pure lead, it is actually very forgiving regarding the alloy used. So, I've never made much of a science of casting. I use candle wax for fluxing and couldn't tell you exactly what alloy is in the pot but it's mostly wheel weights. I do have an old Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook.

I decided I needed to do more with that ~50 lbs of lead, so I bought a mold for 125 gn 9 mm RN pistol bullets and some liquid bullet lube. So far, I've cast about 100. The results were, well, unimpressive. I set aside about 20% as irregulars. They have very obvious layering lines where the alloy solidified during the pour. I didn't intend to buy a bullet sizing die, just slosh them around in the liquid lube and let dry.

When I read the Cast Bullet Handbook, it goes into great detail about alloys and techniques that I have no intention of using (e.g. high temp casting, gas checks, paper wrapping, etc). What I'm looking for is just some basic, rule of thumb techniques that will allow me to cast bullets for practice, without a huge investment. Store-bought copper-clad practice bullets are only about 8¢ each. I decided in 9 mm only because I have many hundreds of .38 & .45 practice bullets on hand.

If you ever want clean dry non messy bullets try Summit City Bullets and they are around $.08 and I load them by the 1000s. the gun looks CLEAN after each shot. Tony casts them coats, them bakes them,, coats them and bakes them again. THEN sizes them. Perfect He makes a bunch of different bullets. I use his .38 and his 9 mm though I have loaded him 45 toooooo.
Bless N zzz

 

[dwtroll]

I cast a lot of bullets and I shoot them in my 9mm's. I don't do anything special. I use some Lee molds and I have a Lee bottom pour production pot. You are not really saying what, if any problems you are having...maybe you are just trying to learn. If you are having trouble getting good looking bullets you will need to tell us exactly why they are bad, that is to say what's happening or what's wrong with them. Maybe I missed it??
If accuracy is the problem there are some tricks. One thing that you might have to do, if you slug the bore and find that your bullets "as cast" are actually smaller or the same size as the bore, is to lap the mold. Basically cast a bullet, attach it to a rod you can chuck in a drill and coat it with some lapping media. Then, spin it in the mold to kind of smooth out and open it up a little. The mold must produce bullets that are larger than your bore so you can size them to all be the same.
Secondly, you hear a lot about hard lead, hard cast bullets, hard alloy, yadda yadda yadda.....hard this, hard that....that's not really what you want. Just the opposite. The harder the lead you cast the more fouling you will have. You really want softer lead. You want bullets in the 11 to 13 BH range. But, that has more to do with leading up the bore than initial accuracy. You could be casting in the 14-16 range and still shoot okay. Most of the serious casters call pure dead soft lead the "holy grail" of bullet casting material. You will know if it is really soft when you let it cool off in the pot and the surface turns a pretty blue. Typically, you wont see soft lead with wheel weights, but with fired dug out bullets you very well might.
I have used liquid Alox quite a bit and found zero problems with it. Most people apply way too much. You do not want to turn the bullets "gold" in color with it, that is way more than you need. You should not smell it and get a puff of smoke when you fire the gun. If you are seeing that you are using way too much. I have never used gas checks in a 9mm. That would require a special mold. Ordinary candle wax is as good a flux as any...it will ignite and smoke up the house though. Good clean fluxed out lead is essential to barrel life but not necessary for initial accuracy. I like to render my lead into ingots for a good cleaning the first time and still flux it again when I actually cast the bullets. Post any questions you have.

Edit: almost forgot...one important thing is not only to not use polygonal rifling {it wont kill you or blow up the gun but it does lead up really bad really quick} but also to verify that you have a slower twist. At least slow enough to not lead up. I shoot lead bullets in my Browning Hi-Power but to do so I had to get a slower twist barrel from Bar-Sto. If I remember right the factory barrel is like 1-in-9 and the Bar-Sto barrel is 1-in-14 or so.

CANDLE Wax for out flusing. We just did 4,000 all TESTED wheel weights. Anyone interested $$$2.00/lb

 

[dwtroll]

CANDLE Wax for out flusing. We just did 4,000 all TESTED wheel weights. Anyone interested $$$2.00/lb

Buy a new mold or shoot Summit City Bullets and there is no slip no leading no dirty barrel.
You can buy them as cheep as you can screw around making them. I know 60 years of this shooting.

 

[243winxb]

Maximum heat till bullets drop from mold FROSTED. Then turn down the pot temperature a bit. Let the puddle on top of mold turn gray, before opening.

To Harden bullets, drop from mold into water. Wait 2 weeks to fully harden, lube & shoot. If diameter is to large to chamber, a shorter COL is needed. 9mm link

 

[wagonman]

Maximum heat till bullets drop from mold FROSTED. Then turn down the pot temperature a bit. Let the puddle on top of mold turn gray, before opening.

To Harden bullets, drop from mold into water. Wait 2 weeks to fully harden, lube & shoot. If diameter is to large to chamber, a shorter COL is needed. 9mm link
View attachment 1273664

the 429421 the original Elmer Keith 44 Lyman and 21 gr. 2400 started my love affair with a super Blackhawk 44 over 40yrs ago these commercial cast bullets sold as Keith style aren't even close to his design. most have a bevel base short nose, skinny driving band, Keith's 429421 has flat base, wide driving band, long nose, you can tell I really like the bullet