Cast Lead Thread ?

[T.FOYE]

Anyone casting for 223?

Smallest i've gone is 308 sorry

[Oldbloke]

Mainly interested to avoid barrel leading.

Couple of beginners Qns.

Can you use any brand or colour of powder coating powder?

A more difficult one, if I PC but don't GC, what sort (aprox) of speed and accuracy can I expect but still no leading?

[Marty Henry]

I've never cast anything smaller than .3 a ,22 would be a couple of drops of lead and keeping the mold at temperature could be difficult. In reality you will be making somewhere between a .22 and .22 magnum velocity wise. Conventional wisdom says you will get to about 14-1500 fps without gas checks before you encounter leading and up to 2000 with gas checks possibly a bit more with a suitably hard alloy which will resist stripping at high speed especially in a fast twist barrel . Powder coat keeps the lead from contacting the bore so acts a bit like plating enabling higher velocity. Gas checking really just protects the base of the bullet from melting and I doubt its needed with powder coat.

[akaroa1]

I've cast a heap of 22 Cal bullets intending seriously testing them in my 22 Hornets.
All are powder coated
And gas checked because that is what the moulds were and I wanted to run them at a reasonable speed
Three different bullets
All are sized for consistency

Initial test results were disappointing in several known accurate 22 Hornets.
Then I got given a box of 1000 22 Hornet hollow point jacketed bullets and lost interest in cast small caliber cast bullets.

Below 30 caliber I'm not sure casting is such a good thing unless you have a very specific high volume use that cast lead is suitable for.

[Oldbloke]

@Marty Henry @akaroa1

Thx for the help.
Think I will have a crack at PC for my 30.06 first. Have been casting for that for some time. Mainly just for plinking/practice. Then consider the 223 later.

[Oldbloke]

Can you use any brand or colour of powder coating powder?

[Oldbloke]

Can you use any brand or colour of powder coating powder?

[akaroa1]

Eastern
Light Ford blue coats best

Gray looks like lead but doesn't coat as well
So gray mixed with white looks good and coats reasonably well

But Ford light blue is the very best
Don't ask me why
But it is

[Jhon]

Mainly interested to avoid barrel leading.

Couple of beginners Qns.

Can you use any brand or colour of powder coating powder?

A more difficult one, if I PC but don't GC, what sort (aprox) of speed and accuracy can I expect but still no leading?

Commercial PC bullets from Hawke River Bullet Company, sold here by Delta Mike, are rated to 2200fps without GC..whether they are accurate at that velocity would be a different matter.

[akaroa1]

Commercial PC bullets from Hawke River Bullet Company, sold here by Delta Mike, are rated to 2200fps without GC..whether they are accurate at that velocity would be a different matter.

Most of the commercial cast bullets are as hard as hell
They won't do anything on an animal except hole in and hole out
Made hard and PC to be pushed hard and fast

Sub optimal for hunting

[Jhon]

Most of the commercial cast bullets are as hard as hell
They won't do anything on an animal except hole in and hole out
Made hard and PC to be pushed hard and fast

Sub optimal for hunting

Delta Mike site -

"HRBC uses a high performance dry lubrication on all projectiles. Only Certified “Virgin Bullet Alloy” not recycled, is used in the production process of HRBC projectles, giving pistol calibers a rated hardness of #7 Saeco scale or #16 Brinell Hardness Scale"

Have the same for e.g. 303 Cal

[Oldbloke]

@akaroa1
Thx. Just the sort of info I'm after.

[338MAN mk2]

Green is the new black
The cool blue is good too.

Eastwood

[T.FOYE]

I can barely get my gas checks on when they're raw.
I just clip em on before 1st sizing. It doesn't react with the powder so I stopped even wiping the powder off the bottom

[Micky Duck]

Green is the new blackAttachment 258707
The cool blue is good too.
Attachment 258708
Eastwood

Love that huge hollow point.