Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Are Wheelweights Any Good For Bullets?

When they do a batch test they pour a puck then test it to make sure it is what it is supposed to be. But they do not put that test piece back in the batch. So he is allowed to do whatever he wants to do with it. Its some electronics manufacturing place he works at.

I use straight ww lead for the 357, 44’s, 45 Colt and 38’s.

I’ll use them in rifle cartridges also, but not to maximum velocity.

I must confess, I have never used wheel weights. I've always had access to plumbers lead pipe, X-ray room lead, Linotype and tin.

I have lots of those raw materials as well, and most of my casting is with that stuff. I don't use many wheelweights, but others do, and at some point (likely sooner rather than later) they won't be there for the getting. Wheelweights are the easy button though, good as-is for a lot of applications, and easily alloyed up or down for something else.

I'm not bad-mouthing the use of wheel weights. Just never used them.

I cast bullets with linotype, Lyman #2, or pure lead. I'm pretty boring with my bullet casting.

I know, didn't figure you were.

Personally I like a 20:1 or 40:1 pure lead/pewter mix with big bullets and slow speeds. I use the wheelweights in the 45acp's because it's just easy and cheap.

Boring you say?? The bulk of my casting for personal use is from WW metal or range lead. Pretty simple stuff, boring to many.

Wheelweights? I sure hope so. I've been using them by preference since the later 1980s. I spent a few hours today mixing other alloys to produce about 240 pounds of wheelweight approximation (plus a smidge of tin). Gonna be .. good.

boy oh boy FA! I would be real interested in some of that Pewter. Use it for pouring nose caps on my smoke poles. If i didn't spill so much into my shop carpet i wouldn't have so much loss but I'm a slob.

I poured my first 405g bullet for my trapdoor Dec 25 1958 using wheel weights I pried off my dads Packard. have used them every since, though the local tire shops have turned green and wont sell them anymore. think my stash is about used up but then some am I.
I do have about 100 lbs of linotype for hunting bullets. drove one of them from a 1895 Marlin 45-70 the length of a 3 year old bull elk. chest to ham and you could eat right up to the hole.

How much do you use for a nose cap, about 4 ounces or so?

Clip-on weights are about all I have ever used. They cover all of my handguns plus 30 Carbine and 45-70 in rifle calibers. They have to be sorted nowdays but I rather enjoy the process. Sip on a beer, listen to some of my favorite music and sort weights!

Veral Smith of LBT Bullet Mold fame once advised me to add some magnum shot ( I use 10% by weight ) and 1 - 2% tin to clip on wheel weights. The shot was to aid in heat treating if you intend to do that and the tin to improve fill-out during casting. That gives me a BHN of about 15%. This recommendation was for general purpose use in the 44 mag and 45 Colt. Out of curioisity I just checked the BHN on some well aged bullets I cast a couple years back using 88% CCWW, 10% shot and 2% tin. This was done using my Cabine Tree hardness tester and the value came out to just a bit over 15 BHN which is well suited to my .357 mag, .44 mag & 45 Colt revolvers. I don't often cast for rifles so have little experience there.

I am careful to tune my sizing to cylinder and barrel of my handguns and even driving bullets hard I have had essentially no leading issues for many years. Bullet fit and bullet lube are critical (I use LBT blue in my Star Lubrisizer).