Molding with other metals

J

JamesIkanov

Inactive
Hello! I'm all very new to reloading and such, although I do understand a good bit about cartridges and how they function. I have a very simple question, and I hope I'm not in the wrong place to ask it. The title pretty much says it all, but are there any bullet molds out there that can handle or are designed to work with hotter metals than lead?
 
Not that I'm aware of, unless you count Zinc. I have read of a couple of folks who cast with zinc just to experiment, but I gathered that it's pretty hard stuff and doesn't cast all that well. Some cast cannonballs with it, so they can go get them and shoot them again without recasting.
 
I think lead is really the only castable metal that wouldn't be too hard for the barrel. Silver and gold would be the only option I know of.
 
Darn. I was hoping to do some experimentation. Is all of that (copper ammo and such) done using some kind of specialized hardware?
 
yes, they are turned on a lathe. cant cast copper/brass. even steel your talking incredible temps, and will destroy your barrel unless you have a way to put something soft around it.
 
As Beagle said, there has been some work done with casting zinc.
You get a hard bullet 64% of the weight of the same style in lead and it does not have to be lubricated. It can't be sized in lead bullet sizers, either, so you need a mold made to cast to the desired diameter.

You have to specialize.
Zinc is a contaminant of lead - see all the warnings about sorting out zinc wheel weights or at least melting the lead slowly so your alloy does not get spoiled - and lead is a contaminant for zinc.
So you really need a separate melting pot and separate molds wouldn't hurt.
And they have to be iron molds, too; molten zinc will dissolve aluminum.
 
I thought zinc was also damaging to barrels. I know people play with for AP type loads, but I thought it was only for use on a barrel you don't care about. I could be wrong, but I know its not soft at all. I'll bet you could drop an undersized zinc bullet and put 3-4 coats of pc and keeps off the barrel though. That might be fun.
 
Lead is still plentiful and relatively cheap (about a buck a pound)......
It won't always be either one.... but for now I'd just stock up on it and worry about other options later when the lead is gone or banned.
 
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