Your opinion on cast bullets

B

BJung

New member
What is your opinion on casting various caliber bullets?

I'm starting with .38Special and .45acp size bullets because the lower pressure of the 1st and the savings from the second make it the most worthwhile for both. I intend to load these light

But what about the 9mm? I saw a photo of someone's groups using cast 9mm dies and the group at say 15 yards or so was like 5" across or more. Are 9mm and 40 caliber bullets harder to cast? Maybe I should just buy these two.

I also happen to have a .357 resizing die so that would work good for a 9mm cast bullet after powder coating, yes?
 
What is your opinion on casting various caliber bullets?
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I like them. Done right, they are very good to wonderful for many calibers. Done wrong, the basically suck. :rolleyes:

And the key is "done right" which includes a lot of details, specific to the gun in which they are to be used.


But what about the 9mm? I saw a photo of someone's groups using cast 9mm dies and the group at say 15 yards or so was like 5" across or more. Are 9mm and 40 caliber bullets harder to cast? Maybe I should just buy these two.
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The usual reason you get larger groups shooting cast bullets in 9mm and .40 is that often the barrels have rifling that is fine for jacketed bullets but borderline too shallow for best accuracy with cast bullets.

Most agree cast bullets should be .001" or .002 larger than groove diameter. They tend to work better with "deep" rifling. Lots of factors make a difference. Alloy composition, size in relation to the bore, velocity, the barrel itself, lots of things.

Casting good bullets is part learned skill and part "art". I've been using professionally cast slugs for decades in various calibers, mostly for convenience. I also use cast bullets in some rifle rounds, notably .45-70 but also some .30 cal too.

Properly constructed cast bullets (with gas checks) are good up to about 2200fps. Done wrong, (in any one or more of several ways) they just coat your barrel in lead.

I've run noting but cast slugs in .45 Colt for decades. I also use them in .45acp, .44 Mag. .357, and .38spl. I have used them in 9mm, but usually get better results from jacketed, due to the guns I use.

Happy to answer specific questions, if I can.
 
Gas checks for cast pistol bullets

I have Browning High Powers and the riffling is shallow. Would gas checks make a difference. I recall shooting Oregon Trail bullets through them ( without gas checks ) and the groups were fine. Are the commercial casters doing something a caster can't replicate?
 
Right now I am casting .356", 358" and .452" bullets to use in a 380auto, 38Spl and a 45acp. and really enjoying it.

Started with a 102gr .356" for my 380's and they have been very successful, as accurate as the 100gr plated I was using. Then moved up to 45acp and am now on my third mold. The SWC would not reliably function in either of my guns so I gave up on that mold. Next was a 200gr RNFP that is performing very well and now I have added a 225gr RN mold. Lastly I added a .358" 141gr. WC but haven' had a chance to try it yet.

All those are low pressure, straight walled loadings made with a softer than most alloy. The reason I have not started loading for the 9mm is because of the wide variance in barrel diameter sizes and the problems associated with that.

I also have not tried any of the powder coatings or the HY-TEK coatings and have myself just been using a tumble lube.
 
I have Browning High Powers and the riffling is shallow. Would gas checks make a difference. I recall shooting Oregon Trail bullets through them ( without gas checks ) and the groups were fine. Are the commercial casters doing something a caster can't replicate?
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Gas checks are to protect the base of the bullet from being melted, by powders that burn hot, or for a long time. They can be useful in some magnum pistol loads and are usually needed for rifle loads that go above 18-1900fps.

The idea is to preserve accuracy by preserving the base of the bullet, and in the process prevent leading from the melted base. They will not do anything about leading from shooting too soft an alloy too fast, or shooting a bullet wrongly sided for the bore.

Other than working with large lots of materiel, and commercial equipment, commercial casters aren't doing anything I know of that can't be reproduced, IF you know their (possibly proprietary) alloy formula and lube.
 
Gas checks prevent gas cutting and excess pressure deformation of the bullet base, which can cause poor grouping. The check itself will grab the rifling well, but whether or not it can turn the bullet depends on its grip thereupon. If you were bonding the checks to the lead in an oven using a lower melting point solder between the check and the bullet, then you might have adequate bonding to guarantee the lead and check move together. I've not tried it, though.

Excess pressure (enough to deform the base) is any peak load pressure more than a value in psi that exceeds 1280 times the Brinnel Hardness number of the casting alloy. In some lower pressure revolver loads, the deformation is actually helpful in getting the bullet to bump up after passing through the bore constrictions commonly present where the barrel screws into the frame. However, helpful, in this sense, is making the best out of a sub-optimal situation, and I don't think I've ever heard of such an arrangement producing superb cast bullet accuracy.
 
Let me go back to 9mm cast bullets being shot through my Browning HP with shallow rifling. If I cast 9mm bullets at .356 and take the most consistent weight bullets, powder coat them to .357 or .358 and then resize them to .357, find my petload, I should get a decent group still, yes? BTW, I'm using scrap range lead that's mostly .40 and .45acp jacketed bullets. They are soft or water dropped? If soft, they would grip the rifling better, yes? That should be good. I have Bullseye, AA2, AA5, and Blue Dot. Is fast or slower powder better for such a short barrel?
 
I spent time as a member of the varsity pistol team at LSU in the late 1980's so I have spent some time in the arena of competitive shooting for accuracy which is all well & good. I understand it - I get it - I have the mechanics & theory down.

What mystifies me is that anyone speaking about the accuracy of cast pistol rounds - VERY few of them are actually competitive shooters. MOST of them are plinkers at best.

Moving on - most pistol confrontations on record occur between zero and 18 feet. The VAST majority. At that range - it's center of mass. In the time frames involved - it's about center of mass.

So please delineate for us - what motivates your question?

Are you in fact a competitive shooter? Do you shoot so much in competition that price is a major concern due to volume? Are you into the craft of it? ( that's me btw ) Or are you seriously expecting that 200 ft pistol shot with a cast round that'l matter?

I'm seriously curious.
 
I cast bullets for many years. The best I found was straight linotype, very hard, able to
withstand full magnum loads in 357 and .44 mag loads as well as target loads in .38 Special. Bullets need to fit the bore and the cylinder. I did have a .45 Colt Blackhawk that would not shoot anything, massive leading with any bullet, it had a .451 bore and .455" chambers.
 
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