Commercial cast question

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Has anyone here used either Penn or Cast Performance commercial cast bullets? If so any idea at what BHN they use?
 

waco

Springfield, Oregon
Cast performance says they use a heat treated alloy that is 18-21bhn
Could find anything about Penn but I saw you could email them with questions.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I shot a few boxes of Cast Performance long ago. I think they were like Walter said, in the 18-21 BHn range.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Thanks guys, 18+ is pretty much what I figured. Got a friend in CA trying to work up really wuss loads with heavy bullets for Cowboy Lever Action Rifle. He has used both of those commercial bullets and now is asking me to cast some for him.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
This guy bought 2 molds with no intention of ever casting a bullet. :eek:o_O Oh well, one of them is from Accurate, he doesn't remember who made the other one. What handles do Tom's molds use?
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Lee 6 cav are what I use for Tom’s moulds.

He bought a mould with no intention of using it? Huh?
 

waco

Springfield, Oregon
Have you ever used an Accurate mold Rick? If not you are in for a treat.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
It's a long story. This guy is one of the nicest, easy going people you could ever hope to meet. He has over the years done a great deal of work for the club including years of printing and mailing the newsletter without ever asking a thing in return. He has also done many favors for me including giving me 4 unopened cans of V-110 the last time I was in CA and wouldn't take a dime for them. He is shooting the Lever Action Rifle Silhouette matches which is cast bullet only. He wants to try these two new molds in his 357 Marlin and Winchester levers, if they work he will try to find someone local to keep him in bullets. Anyway, would be pretty tough for me to say no to him though I did tell him I have no plans of going into the casting business.
 

Bass Ackward

Active Member
Penn makes his own mixes in his foundry. The soft mix is 14 BHN. The HS mix is 20. These are hardness by composition. No HTing involved.
 
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Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Have you ever used an Accurate mold Rick? If not you are in for a treat.

Nope, never have. Friction between Tom and me has kept me from ever buying one though I did last year recommend Tom to the friend mentioned above,
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
I have shot Penn Bullets a bunch. If you ask , they will size them to your needs.....but their lead is hard @ 18bhn
and whatever you do never cancel an order after you place it! They take long with delivery and I got tied of waiting so I did and they did not like that! When I was using commercial cast bullets I found that Carl from CB Bullets was the fastest to deliver ( also BHN 18)
but a bunch of these guys now can supply "Cowboy" alloy which is about 12 bhn but you have to ask
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Cast Perf look fine, very hard, but personally, not had many really good results. Not blaming
them, I rarely have good results with hard bullets that I make, identical to soft ones, just HT'ed,
so I won't use hard bullets most of the time. Actually, thinking more abotu this, it all this relates to
one .44 Mag revolver, nothing to do with autopistols or rifle bullets from them.

And, entirely with my SBH, which has .433 throats, so I imagine that the Cast Perf iron bullets
were tipping before they got to the forcing cone and that is all she wrote for good accy.
Not a slam on the maker. I need to try them in some different guns.

Bill
 
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358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
I understand the pain, Bill. I had a 629 with .434 throats, and it was the biggest pain ever! I ended up ordering a mould from Tom at Accurate at .434, then had a Star die made at .434. Finally I could hit something with it. The hardest part was crimping a .434 bullet. I never came up with a satisfactory solution for that, none of my dies could do it without swaging the driving band down to .433ish. I think I might have been able to salvage the situation with one of the LEE collet style crimp dies, but I finally admitted that I wasn't having any fun with it anymore, and sold the 629 off, sold the mould off, but for some reason I still have the .434 Star die.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Oh Bob, that is simple to fix. I had to make a 44 mag crimp die and a new sliding sleeve for the Hornady sweater to handle .433 bullets. A crimp die is pretty easy to make.
 

Cherokee

Medina, Ohio
Penn will supply any alloy/size variation you want of a bullet, but it will not be fast. Good folks, aim to please in my experience.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
I think a sweater is a good bit harder to make than a seater. :headscratch:

Yes, 348156hp, I was just starting to learn about cyl throats and when I got my pin gauges I eventually
checked that SBH.....light bulb. Ordered a .434 Oversized Keith 429421 in a Group Buy on the other site
and the mold is excellent. Suddenly the SBH liked all sorts of different loads. Previously, only softer
Keith designs would work well, like 10 gr of Unique and 10 BHN. No leading and good accy.

Now with the bullets sized to .433, it shoots well. Next step is to replace the boogered up front
sight. A previous owner decided he wanted a red ramp like a S&W, and got out his file..... the
icky mess of reddish whatever that was in the sorta dovetail fell out not long after I bought the
gun. I re-epoxied the ugly hole, leveled it as best as I could, cut some fine striations and painted
it black. Kinda OK but really ugly up close. Need to mill it off and set it up for replaceable sights
and put in a green fiber optic for my ancient, dimming eyes.

I suspect those Cast Perf bullets will work fine in my Anaconda or one of the 629s, or the 329. But
never have tried them, about half a box of three different weights left.

Bill
 
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358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
Oh Bob, that is simple to fix. I had to make a 44 mag crimp die and a new sliding sleeve for the Hornady sweater to handle .433 bullets. A crimp die is pretty easy to make.

This was years back, before I bailed out of CB. Nowdays all I have to do is ask around and I can get pretty much anything I need made or borrowed. That 629 deserved to get kicked out of the house anyway.
 

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
Over the years, I have tried various brands of commercial cast. Most are out of business. Seems it's a tough industry to survive in, much like the restaurant business.

Beartooth Bullets is still around, last time I checked. They offer multiple diameters but be prepared for a lengthy wait.

Most recently............. twenty years or so ago, I was using Magnus Bullets for 9mm (125 RN) and 44 (240 RNFP) when I wanted plinking bullet and didn't have the time to cast. Still have a few bulk boxes of the 44's on the shelf. Accuracy in my Marlin 1894 wasn't half bad for a .430 diameter (undersized for my use) bullet with hard commercial lube. BHN is currently 15-16 measured on LBT hardness tester. I was pushing them pretty hard.................20 grains of 2400 in magnum brass. No problem with leading. Even managed to take a deer with one. Currently, using them up in my CA Bulldog..................shot fifty into the sand berm, the other day.

IIRC, MidSouth still sells them.