450Bushmaster.net

Hi everyone!
Wildcatter suggested that I ask you cast bullet shooters for input. I've cast a few 325 grain FN GS bullets with a BN hardness of 12. Does anyone have any load information they would be willing to share? I don't want to have a serious condition when I drop the hammer. Thanks for your help guys!

If you search down through the reloading section you'll find some info. Gas checks are needed if it's a gas gun. A good crimp is important as well. BHN 12 might be a little soft, if you water quench them and wait a couple of weeks you ought to get closer to 20 with wheel weights. I've been using water quenched WW alloy sized .453 at about BHN 20 with fair results. I heat treated a batch and aged them to near 25 which I'm hoping to try tomorrow. My best luck has been with H110, 296 and 297 in the Hornady brass using rem 7 1/2 primers.

What mold are you using, and what powders do you have available?

BD

any links to "aging of lead" .THis is a new one to me. Can a guy load stuf up, thenlet it age?

The "Cast Boolits" (sic) forum is a good place to start. As to aging, if your alloy has some percentage of arsenic and antimony, (most wheel weight does), then it will harden somewhat after a week or two if it is water quenched out of the mold, or heat treated. Lead alloys respond to heat and quench by getting harder over time, just the opposite of copper/brass alloys which anneal, or soften, from heat and quench.

Being a little harder helps keep the boolit from deforming on the trip down the barrel due to the big kick in the but it gets when the powder ignites. The powder burn rates and pressures we're dealing with here are pretty similar to top end .44 mag loads.

BD

Hi Gentlemen,
The mold I'm using is a Lyman 452651 325 grain FN GS. I also have a RCBS 405 grain FN GS. I have Lil Gun and H110 powder available. I'm anxious to load a few rounds but am not willing to damage my rifle or myself. I have four hundred pounds of wheel weights and three hundred pounds of range lead that I've melted into ingots. I assume I should size my bullets before heat treating them? I really appreciate your input.

Skeeter

I do not have either of those molds, and they don't appear to be in the Quickload database. However, if you can give me the actual length and weight of the bullts cast with your WW alloy, and the cartridge over all length that you want to seat them to, I'll let you know what Quickload says.
BD

Skeeter,
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