Well, the alloy is the problem. I have a large amount of lead, but none of it is known content. I acquired a lot of lead pipe fittings, elbows and straight connections for 1" or so pipe, that I thought was pure. I read the other day that the fittings sometimes contain up to 10% tin!! I had been using it to mix with unknown ingots acquired from an estate that likely are wheel weights. I also recently got a stash of what is supposed to be monotype. My first efforts were to try to develop softer alloy that would expand at about 1800 fps +/- .
After groping around in the dark for a month or so, I jumped on an older Saeco lead tester someone offered online. It is 20-25 years old but pretty much unused for the last 20 years or so according to the seller. The hardness of the bullets I've been casting lately run around 8 on the tester which equates to about 15 BHN. The molds I have are the 180 gr RCBS FP and the 170 gr Lee FP, both chosen because of their flat points. The RCBS makes great shooting bullets that end up at 186 gr GC'ed and PC'ed. The Lee bullets just aren't up to the quality of the RCBS no matter how hard I've tried to get them right. The RCBS bullets usually shoot to about 1.5-2.0" at the low velocities I've started with, and quite often will go below MOA. I am using them in 308, 30-40, and 30.06. Will heat them up when I get all the kinks worked out of my alloy.
The 45-70 mold is the Lee 405 gr FP and it makes accurate bullets that have shot some sub MOA groups out of my 1895. Not worried about alloy in it though because the 45 cal bullet doesn't really need to expand.
