cast conical bullets

[spaethjm]

I was casting conicals with a lee mould for my 36 cal I had supposed pure lead I could not start the bullet in t the cylinder. I than cast bullets with lead from a known source. This pure lead cast asmaller diameter anyone else notices this. the unknown lead cast about .002 larger.

 

[bwhoffman]

sounds like you might of had some wheel weight alloy mixed into the first run, tin and antimony and the other unknown junk in ww will caouse a harder projectile that will not engage the rifling as easy and also tin and such can cause a projectile to cast slightly smaller diameter.
weigh some from the first run and some from your last run. I will bet the last run will be heavier, thus equating more or pure lead, as lead is heavier than the alloys and such.

 

[crockett]

I don't know that much about it, hopefully others will post an answer, but I remember reading somewhere about different "shrinkage" rates depending on if a projectile was pure lead or an alloy so that may be your problem. I think the guys with modern arms that cast a lot of bullets run them through a swage after casting to get them all the same size.

 

[spaethjm]

all of my cast bullets for cartridge reloading go through a luber sizer.

 

[spaethjm]

Brett makes sence but the difference is very minumal