Hard Cast in .357 big bore

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Don't do it! I went down this road in the beginning. Ended up wasting a lot of time and money to discover they don't work.

My story:

Bought 500 rounds of truncated cones off of Brad's classifieds to use in a Sam Yang 909s. They looked great, but grouped horribly.
Sought out similar rounds at meister and badman. Badman actually has sample packs for around $16/25 at the time. I tried them all in .457, even the polymer coated ones, without success.
I then called Will Piatt out of desperation. He told me to try the EPP-UG 155gr. round from a guy named Mark Whyte. This design works well in airguns, and will go through a deer if you don't hit bone. Found Mark's website, but waited several months since he didn't know exact diameter, and told me people shoot them as cast.
Ended up buying 1K since he was the only game in town and was going out of business.
Shot them unsized and they shot terrible. I was at a low point, and no cast round I tried worked.
Picked myself up and bought sizers and reloading press. Really did not want to get into the business, but in my mind had no choice if I wanted to shoot cheaply.
Sized to .457 and was shooting sub-moa groups. Finally, success!
Eventually I bought this mould from biglube.com. Found out it was an Accurate mould that drops .455.
This round does not consistently size well above .456. I have to powder coat for customers above .456 if they want .457.
Completed the life cycle, but it was a painful road.
Birnell hardness with these cowboy loads is probably 16 or higher. For airguns, you need a birnell hardness of 10 or lower. So you are looking at a birnell hardness of 16-20 for cowboy loads, 8-10 for airgun rounds.
 
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sonnysan said:
Don't do it! I went down this road in the beginning. Ended up wasting a lot of time and money to discover they don't work.

My story:

Bought 500 rounds of truncated cones off of Brad's classifieds to use in a Sam Yang 909s. They looked great, but grouped horribly.
Sought out similar rounds at meister and badman. Badman actually has sample packs for around $16/25 at the time. I tried them all in .457, even the polymer coated ones, without success.
I then called Will Piatt out of desperation. He told me to try the EPP-UG 155gr. round from a guy named Mark Whyte. This design works well in airguns, and will go through a deer if you don't hit bone. Found Mark's website, but waited several months since he didn't know exact diameter, and told me people shoot them as cast.
Ended up buying 1K since he was the only game in town and was going out of business.
Shot them unsized and they shot terrible. I was at a low point, and no cast round I tried worked.
Picked myself up and bought sizers and reloading press. Really did not want to get into the business, but in my mind had no choice if I wanted to shoot cheaply.
Sized to .457 and was shooting sub-moa groups. Finally, success!
Eventually I bought this mould from biglube.com. Found out it was an Accurate mould that drops .455.
This round does not consistently size well above .456. I have to powder coat for customers above .456 if they want .457.
Completed the life cycle, but it was a painful road.
Birnell hardness with these cowboy loads is probably 16 or higher. For airguns, you need a birnell hardness of 10 or lower. So you are looking at a birnell hardness of 16-20 for cowboy loads, 8-10 for airgun rounds.
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I forgot not everybody interested in this is equipped to do all the stuff I mentioned including sizing. Theres the stabilization calculations for your velocity and twist rate too. A long truncated cone would cause issues if you were not well equipped for it.

But.... Like I always encourage people to do. Ignore the forum dogma and try it for yourself. Then you know for sure it won't work. Like when I was casting and loading 38 round balls or making shots shells with gas checks... Some said it couldn't be done. It worked
 
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6gun said:
I forgot not everybody interested in this is equipped to do all the stuff I mentioned including sizing. Theres the stabilization calculations for your velocity and twist rate too. A long truncated cone would cause issues if you were not well equipped for it.

But.... Like I always encourage people to do. Ignore the forum dogma and try it for yourself. Then you know for sure it won't work. Like when I was casting and loading 38 round balls or making shots shells with gas checks... Some said it couldn't be done. It worked
Click to expand...
When it's your gear that you spent your money on, sometimes it's just worth it to try things after you've done some reading and inquiring. I've done enough things with my airguns to have come to a similar conclusion. I have several posts (some with photos) of my results of trying or doing things that other members told me that I could not do successfully. One example was that I was told my Benjamin Bulldog M357 could not shoot 180 grain slugs, but it did. Keep in mind that success is subjective. What works in my guns may not work in yours. What's acceptable to me may be unacceptable to someone else. I've shot relatively cheap cowboy reload bullets (as slugs) from my Benjamin Bulldog M357 and I like them aside from the dry lube getting all over an inside of my mags. The bottom line is try some things for yourself if you have not encountered information that leads you to believe that doing so will be detrimental to you or your equipment.
 
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Misguided said:
The thing is they are out there and they are cheap compared to air gun specific slugs. $40 for 500 rds
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Yes you can use hard lead in Airguns..That being said it has to be sized exactly to the bore..So buy the $40.00 slugs and worst case thing you have to buy a Lee sizeing kit for $25.00 and size them down a lil...I run hard cast wheel weight lead in my Texan as long as it is sized to .510 it is shoots good..If lead hard and sized too big it will lodge in barrel..Use cleaning rod or wooden dowl to remove...here 2 help
 
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sonnysan said:
Don't do it! I went down this road in the beginning. Ended up wasting a lot of time and money to discover they don't work.

My story:

Bought 500 rounds of truncated cones off of Brad's classifieds to use in a Sam Yang 909s. They looked great, but grouped horribly.
Sought out similar rounds at meister and badman. Badman actually has sample packs for around $16/25 at the time. I tried them all in .457, even the polymer coated ones, without success.
I then called Will Piatt out of desperation. He told me to try the EPP-UG 155gr. round from a guy named Mark Whyte. This design works well in airguns, and will go through a deer if you don't hit bone. Found Mark's website, but waited several months since he didn't know exact diameter, and told me people shoot them as cast.
Ended up buying 1K since he was the only game in town and was going out of business.
Shot them unsized and they shot terrible. I was at a low point, and no cast round I tried worked.
Picked myself up and bought sizers and reloading press. Really did not want to get into the business, but in my mind had no choice if I wanted to shoot cheaply.
Sized to .457 and was shooting sub-moa groups. Finally, success!
Eventually I bought this mould from biglube.com. Found out it was an Accurate mould that drops .455.
This round does not consistently size well above .456. I have to powder coat for customers above .456 if they want .457.
Completed the life cycle, but it was a painful road.
Birnell hardness with these cowboy loads is probably 16 or higher. For airguns, you need a birnell hardness of 10 or lower. So you are looking at a birnell hardness of 16-20 for cowboy loads, 8-10 for airgun rounds.
Click to expand...
Got some 38 and 9mm samples ordered from badman.......we shall see
 
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Ezana4CE said:
When it's your gear that you spent your money on, sometimes it's just worth it to try things after you've done some reading and inquiring. I've done enough things with my airguns to have come to a similar conclusion. I have several posts (some with photos) of my results of trying or doing things that other members told me that I could not do successfully. One example was that I was told my Benjamin Bulldog M357 could not shoot 180 grain slugs, but it did. Keep in mind that success is subjective. What works in my guns may not work in yours. What's acceptable to me may be unacceptable to someone else. I've shot relatively cheap cowboy reload bullets (as slugs) from my Benjamin Bulldog M357 and I like them aside from the dry lube getting all over an inside of my mags. The bottom line is try some things for yourself if you have not encountered information that leads you to believe that doing so will be detrimental to you or your equipment.
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100% and as a general rule of thumb I do not post things that would hurt your gear or the user. I just forget not everybody has the mountain of dirt (tool hoarde), that I do or all the reloading and sizing stuff that comes along with casting and 22 years of loading mistakes and successes to draw upon. Also not everybody is as willing to try out of the box stuff as I am, and I need to be better at remembering that consideration.
 
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RM.510bigbore said:
Yes you can use hard lead in Airguns..That being said it has to be sized exactly to the bore..So buy the $40.00 slugs and worst case thing you have to buy a Lee sizeing kit for $25.00 and size them down a lil...I run hard cast wheel weight lead in my Texan as long as it is sized to .510 it is shoots good..If lead hard and sized too big it will lodge in barrel..Use cleaning rod or wooden dowl to remove...here 2 help
Click to expand...
You bring me to another good point. By the time you're equipped to do everything you need, what have you spent? What is your time worth? I realized this and stopped casting 355 and just bought bulk powder coated stuff. Not for an airgun tho tbf.

It's like my whim to hot rod a notos I don't own yet, by the time I'm done I'm most of the way to a gun that came the way I wanted. I love the adventure and the process more than shooting tho. Problem solving is my joy. If that rings true for somebody else, by all means chase that project. I won't talk you out of it.
 
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Misguided said:
Good set of stainless digital calipers
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I'm not sure if that’s sufficient, but the goal is to size the projectiles to match your bore size. If your calipers can do the job then you're in shape. If your know your bore size then, as another member mentioned, a cheap Lee sizing die may be right up your alley to be on the safe side. I hope you find something that works for your gun.
 
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