Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Magnum shot for casting?

I am in the process of gearing up to cast some 30-30 bullets, and have most of the required equipment, but no alloy. Has anyone here used magnum shot? I'm thinking it should be about the hardness of Lyman #2? Other than price, is there any reason not to use it?
I have a pretty good stash of magnum #7 1/2 shot, and I'm anxious to get started.
Thanks,
Rick

I don't know what Magnum Shot is specifically but if it is lead shot then it will cast lead bullets. For me using shot would be a last resort since you should be able to come up with some lead from somewhere that isn't already something else, like shot.

Alan

#7 to 8 Magnum shot contain about 6% Antimony,about 1.5% Arsenic and the remainder pure lead. Air cooled bullet made from straight Magnum shot will run about 12 to 13 BHN or about the same as WW alloy.

Being that the 7 to 8 Mag. shot contains a high amount of Antimony it make a good alloy for hardening pure lead or heat treating to further harden the bullets.

Here is the most recent alloy calculator that show the general hardness of each alloy and you can use it to make your own custom alloys by changing the weight values in the yellow boxes beside each alloy then hit the enter key to get your final hardness. works with Excel or Open Office Calc.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=45784&d=1341560870

Magnum shot works fine, by itself, I just would refrain from heat treating it. Be sure to over-do the ventilation!

It has a tendency to over-crystallize at high temps and shrink even more.

Also be sure to flux the graphite out; I think it makes a mess and adds to voids and inclusions.

Thanks for mentioning that,I forgot to mention that as I don't use the shot to cast bullets.

According to my alloy calculator if you can find some pure lead and mix it 50/50 with the Mag. shot you still come up with a bullet at around 12 BHN and drops the Antimony content down to around 4% which will be ideal for the 30-30.