Something Different

[LAH]

I have a BH Liberty Model I purchased used in 1976. I knew the owner & he didn't like the short barrel. I've used this sixgun over the years as a blaster & carry gun both in the field & for CCW. If you are a new shooter raising a family & cannot afford a nice custom S/A I would suggest one of these. Many thousand rounds I've had the pleasure of firing in this platform & you could have the same enjoyment without paying one of the custom makers to build you one. My Ruger isn't as nice or as well fitted as one of the customs but it has provided years of service without fail. But this isn't about the gun, it's about a bullet.
The Sixgun


I purchased a Lyman mould from someone on the Cast Boolit Board mainly for my own use. The mould is marked 452374FX. This should be the standard 45 caliber 225 RN lead bullet.
The Mould


After cleaning the mould & installing a set of handles the lead alloy was melted, mould preheated & the casting began. The bullets fell from the mould easily & looked pretty good.
The Bullet


The surprise came while weighing & measuring these. First the samples I thought would be .452-.453 were in fact .457. I checked my measuring device to be sure it was zeroed & sure enough it was. Then I measured several more bullets & sure enough they were .457.

Next to the scales & the weight was 212 grains. They didn't vary over +/- .2 grains with most way less than that. Still I'm shaking my head. The bullet should have been 225 to maybe 230 grains & much smaller in diameter. I decided to size these .454 & try them in my Blackhawk which has large throats. The bullets fit the little sixgun perfectly.
Sized & Lubed


Back a few years ago looking for some bulk powder to use in most my handguns & found Promo on sale at Powder Valley for 68.00/8lb. I ordered 3 jugs of the stuff along with a couple sleeves of primers which also were on sale. Promo can be used anywhere Red Dot is used. Load it weight for weight not bulk for bulk. I chose 5 grains as a starting point & primed the Winchester brass with Tula LP primers.

Loaded these on a 550 Dillon




At the range I fired these rapidly at 7 yards offhand. Not bad for a somewhat oddball bullet & beat up Ruger. The lube was LBT Blue & the load/alloy/size/lube left no lead behind. This bullet is hard to test accurately but best I could tell they were 9BHN. To my pleasant surprise they also worked well on the clay birds at 185 yards. They didn't shoot as well as the Keiths but on Zombie size targets, Match Point.

 

[Alk8944]

You have too much Antimony in the alloy. Maybe too much Tin also. Both metals are significantly lighter than Lead. Both contribute to the bullet being under-weight, and the Antimony causes the bullet to cast larger than an alloy with less would.

The mould is slightly oversize too, that's what the bullet sizer is for. While it should throw a bullet slightly oversize, this is a bit much.

 

[LAH]

I cast those back in the spring & don't remember the alloy but it was either WW or range lead. Either way I'm sure they were tin starved. If they were range lead perhaps the the antimony content was a little high but not likely not over 5-6%. They were cast hot thus the frosted look. They did size easy even though reduced .003" in one pass. I did however feed a lubed bullet though the sizing die about ever 6th bullet.

 

[Nframecollector]

I cast that bullet from pure linotype and they weigh about 217 grs. I load them in both 45 acp and ar with excellent accuracy in 5 different 1911's a Ruger convertible and a S&W 25-2.

 

[LAH]

Thanks for the report, the BH is all I have to shoot them from.

 

[358156hp]

Geez Lynn. You lucked out on that mold casting so large. Most of them won't hit .452 above the grease groove, no matter how hot you get them. That is a difficult design to get a decent hardness test on, I finally quit buying the darn things because I had so much difficulty finding a decent one. If your bhn is about 9, you are definitely not over on antimony. In fact, everything looks about perfect to me. Now, wabbit season!

 

[LAH]

I say 9 BHN as other bullets cast with the same alloy & same temperature tested thus. Easy on the wabbits.