I just bought a guide gun with some reloading supplies. I have a two cavity mold, sizer die, and some gas checks. I have a lot of lead left over from making sinkers and round balls years back. I have the ins and outs of pouring and what it should look like. Just have a question of hardness for these bullets, how to acheive the desired hardness and what the advantages or use of the gas checks does for a guy. Any other info would also be helpful

Thanks in advance

That's a pretty complex topic. Any idea where your lead came from, or the exact alloy? Wheelweights are a decent start, if you can get some.

A gas check will let you get away with less-than-perfect bullet fit and bore condition, to an extent. Also helps with too-soft alloy.

See the "similar threads" at the bottom of the page for lots more info on casting. Good luck.

Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook is a wealth of information about bullet casting. It has a good section on alloying bullet lead. Like MikeG said, wheel weight lead is a very good alloy to start with (90% of all my .44 mag. bullets are cast from wheel weight lead), but it is getting scarce due to the politically motivated lead poisoning scare.

Not sure of the lead make up. Some came from the old window weights and pulley system and the rest came from lead wire straps on some bridge planking.

Would the prefernce be to harden the bullets for the 45-70 or have a soft bullet, because I could cast a few and see how they turn out

And it sounds like the gas checks would be advantagous to help eliminate imperfections.

Thanks
Brent

If the barrel is ported, gas check is probably the best bet. If you can scratch that lead with a fingernail, it is probably fairly soft and isn't going to stand much velocity. Might need to alloy it with some tin, antimony (or if you have some magnum birdshot around, just an idea).

This is a complex subject. A softer bullet might actually be better for a guide gun, if it provides a good fit in the barrel. Just one of the considerations.
It would be useful to cast up about 20 of the soft and 20 of the hard and load them up. A full box of 20 will tell you if you are getting leading and how the bullets perform.

You really don't need hard cast bullets in the 45/70 rifle
Over 1800 FPS you will need gas checks on your bullets and harder alloys.
Frank

It doesn't take a ton of equipment to make good cast bullets, but some good knowledge might keep you from collecting a ton of equipment before you finally get some good bullets.

The Lyman casting book is a great start. There's also a great forum that pretty much specializes in casting bullets (or boolits). Check it out & read a few days there:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/index.php?

Your Guide gun will probably need bullets sized a couple thousandths (.001"-.003") over bore size which you'll need to find by slugging the bore. Harder lead can be pushed faster than soft, a gas check will let you push a soft alloy as fast as a much harder plain base bullet. Usually, a soft bullet is better for hunting. Wheelweight lead alloy usually is pretty good to go for a gas checked hunting bullet - lots of folks would rather mix 50-50 wheelweight/pure lead for a bit softer.

I just bought a guide gun with some reloading supplies. I have a two cavity mold, sizer die, and some gas checks. I have a lot of lead left over from making sinkers and round balls years back. I have the ins and outs of pouring and what it should look like. Just have a question of hardness for these bullets, how to acheive the desired hardness and what the advantages or use of the gas checks does for a guy. Any other info would also be helpful

Thanks in advance

I cast everything for my .450 Marlin with 50/50 WW/pure lead (+ a little tin) and water drop. I add equal amounts of WW alloy and pure lead alloy, add 2% tin and water drop everything.

It usually produces bullets that run from 16-18 on the BHN scale.

I prefer this alloy to straight water dropped WW's. The bullets seem to be less finicky about running to hot (sometimes they crack if you get pure WW's too hot and WD them).

The tin is important because it helps make purdy bullets. :)

I have shot these bullets from 1250fps all the way to 1700fps with no signs of leading. I'm using the Ranch Dog 350's and 425's. They are a gas check design. They drop around .462" from my mold and I size them to .460".

I don't bother using gas checks with my 425's loaded to 1250 fps, but I do use .5 grain of poly fill to fill the case and buffer the bullet.