onondaga
posted this
30 March 2013
http://www.castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=7304>Lead weight:
Just a little more info from you would help a lot.
Is your wheel weight from clip on or stick-on wheelweights?
Stick-on WW should be treated as pure lead and is usually about 6-8 BHN, and clip-on WW is usually BHN 10-11.
Also, will you be using plain base bullets and/or gas checked bullets in which caliber and load level. Selecting an alloy is closely related to load pressure in psi and velocity is much less important and of little help selecting your alloys due to the variety of pressure levels achieved by different powders for a specific velocity. List your load pressures in psi for the loads you hope shoot cast. List pressures for both plain based bullet loads and gas checked loads.
If you will be using gas checked bullets on the higher pressure loads, it is likely that one alloy will be suitable for all your pistol loads and likely about BHN 11-12 .
You will likely have to check more than one manual to get load pressures with cast bullet loads but the Lyman Cast Bullet handbook #4 and the Lee 2nd Edition Modern Handloading have the most pressure data for cast loads.
How big of a melting pot do you have? How many pounds will it hold comfortably? I am comfortable mixing 13-15 pounds of alloy in a Lee 4-20 pot, a 20 pound pot. Pot size is important in determining your batch weight that you want a formula for.
You can go “simple” with this alloy selection or really put thought into it to come up with what is really best for your applications. The Lee book I recommended has a terrific section on selecting plain base bullet hardness based on load level in psi. I'd recommend selecting alloy based on the highest load level you expect with plain based bullets and for the higher load levels, use the same alloy on gas checked bullets. Gas checks greatly extend the load pressure range of any alloy.
Gary