Cast Lead Thread ?

[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

[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

[Micky Duck]

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

Love that huge hollow point.

[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

[338MAN mk2]

The big hollow ensures a big hole at subsonic speeds.
The mold has 3 nose pins to make a big hollow 330gr, a shallow hollow 350gr and a 360gr flat nose.
I think the 350gr cup point shallow hollow will be good for moderately super speeds.
The 330gr hp is giving up a bit of paper figures smack at subsonic but has an advantage of needing less powder to push it and then has less noisy gas. Surprisingly quiet out of a suppressor

[Oldbloke]

I was given about 300 GC'd 224 lubed bullets. 54gr IIRC.

I tried them in my 223 with 7.0gr AS50n. 7.5gr works well with jacketed bullets for close work. But these cast ones were all over the target. I figure it's because they are fairly soft.

So, thinking try again with abt 5gr AS50n to slow them down.
I figure will be about 1600fps.

But will I need a filler?
If so, any suggestions?
Any other suggestions?

[Marty Henry]

1600fps is still approaching the upper limit for gas checks and way too fast for lead, even hard alloy, so they are probably stripping in the bore. You need to get down to 22lr velocities in my opinion. No filler is needed

[Oldbloke]

Yeh, I figure they will be stripping.

I'm just guessing the 1600fps.

No filler. Mmm,,sort of assumed with such light loads I would need it. Guessing the case will be less than half full if I went,,, say 4gr.

[Oldbloke]

Just looked.
Lyman says, Green dot. 6.2gr 1855fps.
So, 6 is way too much.

I'll try 3gr & 4gr. I've never tried loads that low before.