Home made projectiles?

You can SEARCH this topic here. Been lots of relevant posts over time.

Gos said:

Greetings,
Is anyone making their own pellets or slugs? If so, did you buy the dies, or machine them yourself?
Thanks for reading.

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There are some different places where you can buy molds. Some calibers and styles are easier to find than others. Basic equipment is a mold, mold handles, a melting pot, a lead thermometer, ladle, protective gear, and a few other things to help manage the process. It can get quite a bit more involved if you are trying to do precision casting with minimal variation in weight and diameter. Lots of improvements to the basic equipment.

I use a special "pressure pour" ladle that helps fully fill out challenging molds. People have a variety of different preferences for how to streamline the process, prepare the lead alloy itself, improve temperature control etc. It's a deep rabbit hole.

There are a few of us here doing this.

Are you talking about smaller calibers or larger calibers? Pouring lead, or swaging lead?

I have been using my Corbin S-Press for about a year now and have enjoyed all of it. Great piece of kit, though can get expensive. But having the ability to strictly control the quality and weight of the slugs. It has been a game changer for me and my shooting.

Yes it can get expensive, BUT being able to make custom slugs for my shooting and my rifles....is priceless.

Gos said:

Greetings,
Is anyone making their own pellets or slugs? If so, did you buy the dies, or machine them yourself?
Thanks for reading.

Click to expand...

Try a sample pack of the slug you are interested in. Doesn't make sense to invest $500 in all the equipment, then the slug doesn't work. You have to get the weight, design, and diameter right. It's a process to find the right cast slug. Once you find it, they are good as swaged.
I can't even believe the groups some of my customers have shown me. I'm not even shooting my own cast slugs over 100 yards (yet).

I cast from tin or pewter metal, using re-melted old "lead free" pellets that I collect in a rag-box pellet trap, but old pewterware would also work. Lead swages easily, but I'm not sure tin will work in pellet swagers designed for lead; classically tin can be hammered into shape but one would need a sturdy swager with a long lever or big hammer!
For casting I've been happy with the NOE molds, they have a variety from .22 on up: diabolos, wadcutters, longer "magnum" diabolos, and a couple flavors of slugs. I also have MP Molds' .22 and .25 torpedo-shaped slug molds, and surprisingly they actually shoot OK from some guns; my Dragonfly Mk1 loves to lob their .22s, if only at ~480fps, but what a whack when it finally lands on target! Anyway, casting has become a hobby within the hobby. I use a Lee 4# melter pot and mold handles, a pressure pour ladle, bits of old candles for flux and an old spoon to skim dross, and a short stick to whack the mold sprue plate open. I still work outside from the wax smoke and fumes but at least it isn't lead fumes.

Non lead?? What are you going to use that won't erode and destroy your barrel?

woogie_man said:

Non lead?? What are you going to use that won't erode and destroy your barrel?

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That is a good question. Most commercial non-lead pellets are made of tin, Sb. I haven't heard of any credible evidence that shooting tin pellets erodes steel barrels, at least not within something comparable to lead, say 100,000 shots. Have you seen or credibly heard of this?

How heavy can you get them, and how readily avaliable are they?

woogie_man said:

How heavy can you get them, and how readily avaliable are they?

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The commercial tin based "green" pellets are readily available online (Pyramyd, Trenier, AoA, Midway). They're not available at my local Big5 Sporting Goods, even in this eco-green-no-hazmat Bay Area. In .22 they run from 10 to 13 grains, and in .25 from 16.5 to 20 grain, roughly only 2/3 the weight of similarly shaped lead pellets. Casting chunkier shapes with NOE molds will drop a 16 grain diabolo and a 20 grain short, barrel-shaped slug in .22 and 25gr and 27gr respectively in .25.
Similar weighted lead pellets will fly further and more accurately at distance because they have 50% greater sectional density. On a rest, I can group an inch at 50 yards with unleaded pellets; with a bit of work I hope to extend that further, but I don't think I'll see 1 MOA at 100 yards with such ammo anytime soon. Maybe Ted Bier could do it.

I know they are avaliable from retailers, thought you were talking about making them. So was curious if you would be able to find the raw material

woogie_man said:

I know they are avaliable from retailers, thought you were talking about making them. So was curious if you would be able to find the raw material

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Oh, right, I typically shoot into a box filled with rags and shake out the pellets once in a while. I started with commercial pellets, then began to melt those down and re-cast. So my raw material is recycled old lead-free pellets. I'm probably about 50/50 now, new/recycled, shooting new .177s (can't find a mold for .177) and a mix of new and cast .22 and .25.
One could also use pewter table ware from yard sales and thrift shops as typically that doesn't have lead and is mostly tin, with a little antimony, copper and silver. Rotometals has their bismuth and blends but I haven't tried it as I have so many old pellets to melt down. Someday I might try bismuth, but at this point it isn't the alloy that is the limiting factor, but my casting and shooting skills.

Casting was definitely another rabbit hole after getting a big bore. Improvised ventilation fan in shed window, building PID controller, Lee lead pot, Lee press and sizing dies, 3 NOE molds and handles (got 1 machined for short lighter slugs), sourcing lead, building lead trap to recycle lead. And there's the time learning how, and doing it. Still culling out about a 3rd of what I cast, there's certainly a learning curve.