Firearms Manuals From Ingot to Target: A Cast Bullet Guide for Handgunners ©

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From Ingot to Target: A Cast Bullet Guide for Handgunners © - Everything you need to know about bullet casting and lubrication

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Kind of of topic a bit but kind of not.... Has anyone ever cast aluminum bullets? Just curious what the ballistics would be like and the effect they would have on the barrel.

 

Aluminum is abrasive. Not a good bullet metal. Zinc on the other hand is 50% lighter than lead, casts beautifully, is extremely hard and self lubricating. I've never tried it myself, but this is what I hear from one of the old timers at the range who has time to try all sorts of odd stuff.

Just don't contaminate your good lead pot with zinc.

 

IF there was a topic more specific to bullet casting and/or reloading I would've put it there. I had a hard enough time trying to get the PDF attached. I'm way more comfortable with lead ladles and wick raisers than I am with laptops and keyboards... but I'm learning.

 

Aluminum by itself is not abrasive. As aluminum oxide, it's a pretty good sharpening stone. Not at all sure I can see any advantage in the idea of aluminum bullets.

I've never seen a zinc bullet (seems probable that there are some out there) but for sure it does strange stuff alloyed with lead.

 

Bullet casting Zinc projectiles may be more trouble than it is worth, judging from the linked forum article horror story....

 

Just a question out of curiosity

I did find this on another forum with some searching though.

Back in the 80s we did some experimentation with lathe turned aluminum bullets. Depending on the alloy, aluminum melts at around twice the temp of lead, and the metal contracts more as it cools- leaving an overheated mold, and an undersized bullet.

We played with a few different alloys to find one that would be engraved by rifling, but not foul the barrel. Our goal was to find a defense round with sharply limited range. Did not work that well. Remember energy equals speed squared times mass. They were fast (my lord, they were fast) but mass was too light to carry any significant energy. A .357 weighed about 38 grains.

Bullets were also too hard to expand. We gave it up.