The one that almost got away

[Kurt]

I just cant help myself when we get a heavy snow fall, more then a foot of very heavy wet snow, that I just have to plant a bunch of bullets in it.

Well this summer I got a couple new .44's and moulds so I put over 100 bullets in that snow using alloys with 1/16 to 1/40 lead/tin and 1/16 to 1/40 lead but I used a roll of no lead solder that has 5% antimony with 95% tin in the roll. The bullets are the long nosed prolate and elliptical I want to use for long range. I want my alloy as soft as I can use and still hold the integrity of the nose to keep the nose setback to a minimum. It's going to be a long wait before they will show up.
I also shot a bunch of GG money bullets and PP. I havent done much with the GG bullets in the past but my Daughter likes using them so lets see what it takes to keep the nose in good shape.

Today I shot the last six 1/40 lead tin PP money bullets and one managed to blow on through the snow pile so I got out the metal detector and chased it down.
I took some careful measurements of this bullet because in the past shooting these I found all sorts of dimensional changes but most were shot out of the .44-90 bn that has a pretty stiff load of powder and the more the powder charge behind the bullet the more it gets molded like putty but I wanted to see what the .45-70 and the .45-90 will do to the soft money bullet noses.
Below is the one I found today and it was shot out of the .45-90 with 89 grains of 2F KIK and it got pushed around pretty hard but the nose set back was straight but it did get the wasp waist like most of the soft long nose bullets I have looked at.
It will be interesting to look at the soft bullets with just a trace of antimony in them compared to the lead/tin mixes.
Despite the amount of nose setback there is no reason that the accuracy should suffer with this bullet. But the money nose does end up like a postell type nose.

Below are before and after shot.

[Don McDowell]

Kurt, thanks for posting those pics, the study you've put into these bullets is invaluable and we can sure learn alot from all your efforts.
I find it sort of neat that bullet in the first pic ends up looking like my 43-470 starts out.

[Kurt]

Well Don we will see what yours looks like when the snow melts shot out of the 100.

[Don McDowell]

That'll be good to see , cuz they don't look so hot after they've ran headlong into my steel targets. LOL

[Old Jim]

I don't know didley about PP, so ... did the fired slick shorten several 1000s upon firing and do you need to wrap it differently?

Damn, I need to read the entire post, thanks Kurt

Jim

[Kurt]

Jim.

The slicks and greasers shorten some more or less depending on how hard the alloy is. Slicks like the one above with that particular nose profile I usually cast at 1/18 L/T and at 1/20 or even 1/25 if I mix a little antimony in it , this will hold the nose profile in good shape and still upset very good for the lands to get a good grip and seal the bore.
The GG Money you will get along good with 1/20 but yes they will shorten some also.

The bullet in the photo .080" shorter with the 1/40 L/T mix.

[Kurt]

Bullets are really starting to come to the surface

I'm posting some of these so some of you don't live in a snow belt to be able to recover bullets to see how your alloy is holding up.
I did a lot of this this time using the GG bullets with the "money" ogive and the new .44 prolate and elliptical mould I want to use in the .44-100 st. and the results are very informative to me as far as what to use foe alloy to get the best results to hold the integrity of the nose and still get good expansion to get good rotation of the PP bullet. To hard I have seen in the past did not obdurate enough to insure that the bullet gets full rotation by stripping or stripping the patch.
The solder is 1 pound roll of 95/5 solder that is 95% tin 5% antimony.
The 1/30 alloy I used a 1/2 roll with 15 pounds lead and the results are quite interesting how well that nose stud up as well as the 1/40 even compared to the 1/40 lead/tin mix. Even the long nosed .44 caliber prolate held up using 1/30 with the 95/5 solder.
I think we tend to use to much tin in a mix then necessary.
One of those bullets has a mix of 50/50 WW lead and it still holds the nose in good shape. It also did not fill the grooves as well as the 1/16 L/T

[Don McDowell]

So am I wrong in , my guess that 20-1 and 16-1 seem to be about the right alloy for most of those bullets?

[Kurt]

Don.

From what I see the 1/20 will work for the money bullets but the nose really gets set back that it looks more like th postell.
You can see the GG second from the left is 1/16 lead/tin and the far right is 1/20 L/T.
Just that slight 5% antimony in a 1 pound roll of solder to 30# lead hole up better then 1/20L/T
But yes 1/20 or 1/16 in a .45-70 will work.

[Kurt]

What do you think about the top fourth from the left?
That was shot with a 8% duplex load with 98 grains of 2F KIK and it stretched .167" and almost tore apart.
Talking about a wasp waist bullet!!! bullets usually get shorter then they do longer when fired.