Hege Siber-A-Lausanne .33 pistol ball moulds & loads

[tacfoley]

Thanks for your response.

I remember when I was casting those balls, there was some waste material that I had to remove from the pot. but not as much as when casting with other lead such as range scrap from our indoors shooting range (no jacketed bullets there, mostly .22 and .32 with some .38)
I melted the range scrap on other pot to keep the casting pot cleaner.

Good plan.

My clubmate roughens the surface of his projectiles with some metal mesh. He says it makes the balls fly better and be easier to handle with greasy hands. That step surely makes the sprue get really small, almost invisible. I´ll try that too. Buying balls would feel odd as I have casting equipment.

Never heard of that one, I have to admit, but I'm always ready to try something new. Here in UK I can make ball at a price of almost fifty to one over bought Hornady ball.
Only single cavity moulds for .330 so that is a bit slow but.. Long winter is just around the corner.

I know, I've been there!

As for the hardness of lead.. I have a little experimental hardness tester in mind. Drop a sharpened object on the ball and see how big dent it leaves. Will post results when I get it done.

That is how the tester works, but it IS already graduated. You pull back a small pointed striker to a mark on the device and then let it strike the ball. You then carefully measure the indentation and get a relative hardness.

tac

[JiriK]

I made a hardness comparator.
a 62gram center punch, tip sharpened to ca. 100deg. Dropped on lead ball from 180mm high using a brass tube as guide.
Leaves same size indentation on both balls, cast and H&N.

Just for sake of curiosity did the test on my revolver balls too.
Scrap lead from airgun range is the softest of those.
Lead I bought at during one competition this summer (selected the softest ingots for casting) is in the middle
Wheelweights (or .22 range scrap, not sure which one as I got these from another clubmate) is the hardest.
Punch left clearly different size indentation on each of those balls.

[tacfoley]

I made a hardness comparator.
a 62gram center punch, tip sharpened to ca. 100deg. Dropped on lead ball from 180mm high using a brass tube as guide.
Leaves same size indentation on both balls, cast and H&N.

Just for sake of curiosity did the test on my revolver balls too.
Scrap lead from airgun range is the softest of those.
Lead I bought at during one competition this summer (selected the softest ingots for casting) is in the middle
Wheelweights (or .22 range scrap, not sure which one as I got these from another clubmate) is the hardest.
Punch left clearly different size indentation on each of those balls.

If your scrap airgun pellets are from H&N then they are about 99.9% pure lead by test, according to DIN. Wheelweights in Finland probably still have antimony in them to harden them in the harsh conditions of driving that you have there. Here in the southern parts of Europe they are banned, and a form of zinc alloy has been in use for many years instead. This stuff will only be of used if you reload for a nitro revolver or handgun, like a .357Mag or .44something or other.

tac

[JiriK]

Tac, those airgun pellets came from our club´s 10m range where beginners and visitors shoot. Big variation in mfg and type of pellets, but I´d say mostly RWS and H&N brand.. "Geco" tins are common there, but I think those are made by one of the big companies anyways.

Lead wheelweights are banned here too. I think the guy who gave those balls to me said he cast them a long time ago. Just didn´t use them as they are wrong size for his current revolver.

I´m planning to cast bullets for .38 revolver to be used in CFP competition - If I can find a load that is accurate enough for my gun.