Nickel plated cases, silver colored bullets

[Third_Rail]

Okay, I'm what you call a seeker of aesthetically pleasing firearms and ammuntion. I have a MN 91/30 that I shoot regularly, and I've been reloading without a hitch.... however, I'm wondering if A, there are nickel plated 7.62x54R cases available, and B, if there are 7.62 bullets available in a silver color... or perhaps black w/plastic tip as in Nosler Ballistic Silvertip...

Also, are there any bullet molds for 7.62? This next part is for display only, but I'd really like to cast a few solid silver bullets and load them into dummy cases (preferably also nickel plated) for display. Is this possible or will I have problems with casting silver in a mold designed for lead? Since they have the same approximate mass...

 

[Cortland]

I could only guess as to whether a lead mold would work for silver, but I'd imagine most lead casting furnaces wouldn't work; the melting point of silver is about three times that of lead (something like 1700 degrees, about 50% more than that of aluminum).

 

[BluesBear]

I believe it was Gun World magazine that tried to cast some silver bullets about 25 years ago. I doesn't work. The silver cools too fast to fill out the mold. To cast silver you have to get it a lot hotter than lead.

You could possibly find a custom jewelry company that could lost wax cast some for you. All you'd have to do is have them cast the wax forms from a standard bullet mold.

An easier and much cheaper way would be to load some dummy cartridges and have them silver plated. Actually Rhodium will say brighter longer. Most Sterling Silver jewelry is Rhodium plated.

If money is no object make a dummy round, have a mold made from it to create the wax masters and then lost wax cast the entire cartridge in silver or gold.

 

[c_yeager]

I have a feeling it would actually be cheaper to have silver bullets machined rather than cast. The metal doesnt seem to be real cast friendlt as it also contracts a tad when it cools.

 

[Third_Rail]

Looks like I'll be buying solid blocks of silver and machining some bullets, then... what about nickel-silver cases? I also want to use them with my live rounds, but with normal copper FMJ.

 

[BluesBear]

Lost wax casting would be a lot cheaper than machining.

 

[Third_Rail]

That may be, but if the bullets come out too small.....

Anyway, where should I look for nickel plated cases?

 

[Paul "Fitz" Jones]

Silver-Silver

Blues Bear says it. 1700 degrees that a lead pot won't reach.

Check ia the largest city around for someone that can silver plate some dummy rounds that you can provide. Check on the internet for a hobbiest that would feel it was an interesting project as there are more than one way to slin the proverbial cat-fish. There are jewelry groups, machinists groups let your fingers do the walking.

I loaded some pre WW2 cupro-Nickel 45acp bullets in to nickel cases and they looked pretty good but I had to super glue the bullets to get them to stay in place.

John Paul
Fitz