reloading like it's 1699

[Liberty]

Trying to get into some casting for historical style rifles, and am practicing with wheel weight alloy which may never melt at the present rate, or could be zinc contaminated. At this point the idea is to work on technique and procedures for open flame smelting to get some pistol bullets. Better equipment and pure lead will follow any success, failures will just result in the sting of defeat and ridicule here. Old timey methods, no casting pots or lubesizers is the idea here.

 

[dial1911]

Nice- I used to do that with Dad after we spent a day digging bullets out of the backstops at the gun club. Although we weren't that traditional- we used a propane burner. And our pan was really crappy compared to that one

The melting will speed up a lot once you get some liquid on the bottom of the pan- the liquid increases heat transfer because it's got much better surface area contact. Once it starts to melt, it should go pretty fast- like 30 minutes or so fast.

 

[Liberty]

Wow, finally now ready for some ingots after cleaning the alloy. Pan and muffin tin from Goodwill, $6.55 this morning.

 

[Laufen]

Wow, finally now ready for some ingots after cleaning the alloy. Pan and muffin tin from Goodwill, $6.55 this morning.

View attachment 19235

Those muffins will be about as light and fluffy as the one my mom used to make lol.

 

[Liberty]

Pretty sure this alloy is zinc contaminated. It was really grainy unless super hot. Thoughts @dial1911 ?

 

[dial1911]

I'll agree that does look terribly grainy. I might cut off a piece and see if it bends or cracks in a vise. Or just try to crush the end on one of those small rectangular pieces as cast.

I don't have any experience with zinc contamination. I did some reading yesterday on cast boolits and the thread said to add lump sulfur to the molten mixture. Then continue to repeat until it doesn't react anymore.

I don't think that's an economical fix- unless there's somewhere to buy bulk sulfur that I'm not aware of... and I can't imagine it would be fun to be around the fumes when that crap goes into the molten metal.

 

[Liberty]

I have some reclaimed lead shot that will get the same process, and we will see what the results are. Any steel shot should not get past a magnet and into my experiment, but certainly none will melt into the range lead.

 

[dial1911]

I would expect the lead shot to end up a lot less grainy. As I'm sure you know, flux the molten lead with a small piece of wax to get the junk (slag) to float to the top.

And even if a piece or two of steel end up in the melting pot, I would expect it to float to the top of the molten lead. Lead is a lot heavier than steel.

 

[SkipD]

.....and am practicing with wheel weight alloy.....

What sort of wheel weights are you using? The ones used in tire shops around here today are not suitable for bullets. Today's wheel weight alloy is FAR different from that used many years ago and up to about the year 2000. Since 2000, the old lead alloys have been replaced with non-lead alloys. In addition, I suspect that even before that the content of tin and antimony may have changed from the old alloy ratios.

If you can find old linotype stock to buy, that may be the best starting alloy for casting bullets.

Of course, if you're making balls or bullets for old style muzzle-loading long guns, pure lead can still work OK.

When making bullets for hot loads (.357 or hotly loaded .45 Long Colt), I would usually add more tin to the old style wheel weight metal to avoid leading up my barrels. This would make a harder alloy.

 

[Liberty]

Didn't give up on the wheel weights. Historically I think a frontiersman likely cast a dozen or two bullets from a pot that his carried around in his wagon/ on horseback. Downsized and used less lead cast from a ladle .

 

[Liberty]

Closer

 

[Liberty]

Shootable boolits!

 

[Liberty]

Ah ha, now we are getting somewhere.

 

[Liberty]

Smoking the mold over the open fire makes the boolits almost fall out of the mold who wants to be first to try one after I dip them in rendered fat and beeswax?

 

[dial1911]

Shootable boolits! View attachment 20772

Now those look good!

 

[Liberty]

Now those look good!

Thanks, the ones with the rounded bases came in undersized, but the others dropped at .452, which is what I was after. With no thermostat, it is hard to eyeball/ guess when the temperatures are correct. I have a temperature gun, but for the experiment swore not to use it, as out ancestors had no such device. Now I need a flintlock/ percussion rifled musket and boolit mold. Looking for something made in the USA or Italy at science experiment pricing.

 

[Liberty]

After verified reports of the extruded barrel Spanish guns became common, I am afraid to use one for my project.

 

[dial1911]

Thanks, the ones with the rounded bases came in undersized, but the others dropped at .452, which is what I was after. With no thermostat, it is hard to eyeball/ guess when the temperatures are correct. I have a temperature gun, but for the experiment swore not to use it, as out ancestors had no such device. Now I need a flintlock/ percussion rifled musket and boolit mold. Looking for something made in the USA or Italy at science experiment pricing.

I've got a Lee .50 cal ball mold you can borrow for a couple months if you want it- PM me. It generally casts close to .500". But it's an aluminum mold, so temperature will definitely affect the dimension of the cast ball.


And a side note, a round ball is the hardest damn thing I've ever tried to cast.

EDIT: PM me if you want to borrow it. I'll mail it to ya.

 

[Liberty]

I've got a Lee .50 cal ball mold you can borrow for a couple months if you want it- PM me. It generally casts close to .500". But it's an aluminum mold, so temperature will definitely affect the dimension of the cast ball.


And a side note, a round ball is the hardest damn thing I've ever tried to cast.

EDIT: PM me if you want to borrow it. I'll mail it to ya.

I sincerely appreciate the offer. As soon as I find a rifle I may take you up on it if is a .50 cal.

 

[Liberty]

@dial1911 , do you know any box stores that carry black powder? It is hard to come by in these parts.