My try at HV cast

[Will]

I’m not sure the ones I have were sized and lubed almost a year ago. Wish I had a bunch more aged that long. They come out of my mold right at .312”


I’m gonna see how the bullets fiver is sending me shoot and then probably order a mold. If I can’t find something that shoots better than what I have I’m going to send Tom a bullet and have him cut me a 4 cavity mold. I don’t have enough free time to be casting with a 2 cavity. I’d like to cast 4-500 at a time.

I may try to talk Ian out of some of his 31-188G bullets to try too.

 

[Rick]

I casted more today but I will have to give these 25-30 days after heat treating.

I just gotta ask why? Are you using an alloy with a minimum 2% Sb? None of my testing and experience indicates such a long time curve as long as there is a minimum 2% Sb. They will gain most of their hardness within the first 2 days and then gain minimally and slowly over the next few weeks. See the chart in the below link for my results with CWW +2% Sn.

Heat Treating Pb/Sb Alloy

 

[Ian]

Yes hard to find that stuff now. Someone we know bought it up!!!! NO not Ian.

I forgot about that, yeah, it's been scarce for a while, and it wasn't me that got greedy . I grabbed a few hundred back when the guys selling barrels of auction brass were just recycling it. Sad thing is, even with .020" necks it's barely enough to fill up a .346" chamber after uniforming it.

 

[Ian]

I may try to talk Ian out of some of his 31-188G bullets to try too.

I need to cast some worth shooting, first. This weekend is going to have a casting day in it somewhere, I really need to get some bullets cast for my Savage 30-30 since nothing I currently have will chamber in it.

 

[Will]

Rick my 357 max bullets always shot better after giving them a month. I won’t lie I don’t own a hardness tester so I’ve never really checked that.

I’ll try some after a week. That would be great if they worked after a few days.

 

[Will]

I casted some of the NOE 311041 today to do some for forming with. I’d like to get 50 pieces of the lake city 308 brass fire formed.

Problem is the huge front driving band on my mold makes me have to seat them pretty deep. But they will be fine for fire forming work.

 

[Rick]

I’m not sure the ones I have were sized and lubed almost a year ago. Wish I had a bunch more aged that long.

After a few weeks and they have reached the full potential of heat treating they will begin to very slowly and slightly age soften, this will continue for years until they finally reach their as cast air cooled hardness.

I had a box of 100 RCBS 35 200 bullets heat treated to a BHN of 30 labeled with alloy, date, HT method etc, they sat under the bench for 10 years when I rediscovered them, they were 25 BHN . . . In 10 years.

 

[Will]

Im going to heat treat these tomorrow I may try some after 8-10 days. I get my 7 day break starting the end of next week so I’ll be able to do some shooting.

 

[Rick]

Will, did you examine the chart? That is actual testing of dozens of heat treat sessions not repeating internet voodoo. You might also want to read the article.

 

[fiver]

I need to cast some worth shooting, first. This weekend is going to have a casting day in it somewhere, I really need to get some bullets cast for my Savage 30-30 since nothing I currently have will chamber in it.

I sent something that may work for you.
they are a tight click the lever closed fit in my Winchesters, but they will shoot as fast as you want them to.

 

[Will]

Rick I’m going to read it right now.

 

[Will]

Got the batch of bullets I cast yesterday weight sorted. Now to decide how much variation I’m good with. And yes I threw 1/4 of them back due to visual flaws before I started weighing. Have I mentioned I need a 4 or 5 cavity mold.

 

[VZerone]

Will if you are weighing for accuracy there is too much a spread in your weights. At the most .2 grains and less for a single/double cavity mould. Try refining your casting technique. Keep a good cadence and have the sprue solify the exact same amount of time or close to it. Keep that alloy temperature and mould temperature the same.

 

[Will]

I agree that I need a lot more work getting consistent bullets. If you think those bullets have a lot of variations you should see my bottom pour pot bullets.

This mold really fought me hard yesterday. I had one cavity that did not want to fill out on the base no matter what I did and the other cavity fights me on that sharp driving band below the crimp groove.


I ordered a .337 bushing for my neck sizer today when it gets here I’ll be able to retest in the 46gr area. I think trying a little below and above 46.1 may reveal a sweeter spot in that node.

 

[fiver]

that's not too bad for a short run.
I'd put the 0-1-2 together, 3-4-5 together, and the 6-7-8.
the .9 and other 3 I'd toss back.

 

[VZerone]

that's not too bad for a short run.
I'd put the 0-1-2 together, 3-4-5 together, and the 6-7-8.
the .9 and other 3 I'd toss back.

It's a little harder too with hollow points to achieve that degree of accuracy in rate. I'm in no way degrading you, hell I still have trouble casting that close weights. You are trying, that's the important thing!!!!! BTW that is a very good bullet.

 

[Will]

Fiver that’s how I just separated them so we were thinking alike. The .9 and the other 3 are going to be foulers to warm up the barrel and but the new lube in the barrel before I start trying for groups.

VZerone I’ve pretty much found out the only way I get better at anything is just doing it. In the past I’ve read till my eye balls about fell out, but nothing beats real world experience. I figure if I cast enough bullets I may eventually get better.

 

[fiver]

yep.
I just threw back another run of bullets this morning.
sometimes you just have to try a few things and observe the results.
I thought maybe my alloy was junk after fighting with the one mold so I grabbed the first mold I seen and warmed it up, 5 throws later they went into the bucket, and I run off about 200 of them just to make sure everything went well.
before that I tried hot/cold/fast/slow/high /low/ ladle/another pot of alloy.
well that alloy is not going to work in that mold so back it goes to the left side of the bench where it belongs anyway.
I have one more thing I can try with it or I can shrug my shoulders and move along.

 

[35 shooter]

With straight ht'd ww, i've shot them on the 2nd day after ht and they shot just as good as waiting 5 days to a week. I "think" mine are 22 bhn in 2 days and for sure they are 27 bhn in 3 to 5 days.

I know right now your being careful not to change anything while working up accuracy loads.
Just saying after you get the serious stuff done try them at 2 days sometime just to see.
If it works for you just file it away under stuff to know for one day in the future when you may be on limited time to cast load and shoot lol.

 

[waco]

My XCB Bullets have been around for a month now. 18-20bhn best I can tell with my pencils.

I’ll try and tweak that 4831 load a bit and I’ll run a test with RX15 as well.