Playing with some lead and tin

[David LaPell]

I finally got around to casting some more bullets recently, some #358156 HP's which I added some tin to. These were wheel weights with about 1/4 pound of tin added as well. I fired them into some wet newsprint. They started off as 147 grains and ended up about 141 grains and expanded well without breaking up. I am going to do some more testing (these were in my .38-44 loads doing about 1,200 fps). They penetrated about a foot.

 

[LAH]

That bullet did very well indeed. Congrats.

 

[Snake45]

Very nice! :wink:

 

[contender]

What was the weight of the WW before you added 1/4 lb of tin?
That bullet expanded beautifuly!

 

[GP100man]

I love tin !!!!

Shot this into H20 saturated sand , close to DL`s mix

 

[David LaPell]

It's a smaller pot so it holds four pounds of lead. At four pounds lead, which is 64 oz and one quarter pound of tin, which is four oz. I think that averages something like a 16-1 mix of lead to tin.

 

[Rodfac]

A delightful alloy with which I've spent many a happy hour at the mold and in the field. Rod

 

[dougader]

If you load closer to 900 - 1000 fps I've found that a 20-1 ratio gets you excellent mushrooms (at least in 45 Colt).

 

[LAH]

Great picture.

 

[Ted]

Never seen a Lyman Thompson in hollow point before. You hollow point a regular slug or am I missing something for the last 40 years.

Ted

 

[GP100man]

Doug

What lube ya useing ??

That lube on your boolit looks hardly skaved thru the ordeal of being shot !

GP

 

[dougader]

Hey GP, A friend sent me that bullet, along with some others, to try out. I'll ask him and get back to you about the lube.

Let me say, too, that the more I use lead bullets the more I like them more than jacketed bullets. The above lead HP at 1,000 fps was compared to a 250 grain, 45 caliber Gold Dot HP at the same velocity. While both bullets penetrated into the 5th water jug, the violent reaction of the jugs when hit was much more pronounced with the lead bullet. The lead bullet also dented the back of the 5th jug.

The Speer bullet shredded the 1st water jug, then just penetrated through the others, coming to rest inside the 5th jug.

The hand-cast lead hp bullet shredded the 1st two water jugs and tore up the 3rd before penetrating through the 4th and 5th jugs, bounced off the back of the 5th and finally came to rest in the bottom of that 5th jug. I was very impressed.

 

[David LaPell]

Here are some more #358156's I shot last week. These are my .38-44 Outdoorsman loads, 12.5 grains of 2400 in a .38 Special +P case. These are also the 16 to 1 mix of lead and tin. They weighed about 147 grains to start with and were all shot in wet newsprint. When recovered three weighed 145 grains and one weighed 143. These when I chronographed them before were good for 1,250 fps or so from my Outdoorsman. BHN is about 13.

Yesterday I tried out some hotter .357 Magnum loads with some bullets from the same batch I cast the above bullets from. These were behind 14.5 grains of 2400 (hardly any recoil in my Model 27 and can't wait to get my Blackhawk to try them out!). Also into wet newsprint. They went it about a foot or so, made a two inch wide hole and came out like you see. It weighed about 142 grains or so. On the other hand is the bullet on the right, which was loaded in a .38 case for my Model 649 snub with 5.3 grains of Unique. That penetrated 12 inches or better, but as you can see, no expansion at all. Nothing. Speed is definitely the key here.

 

[LAH]

David thanks for taking your time & posting these things.

 

[dougader]

The bullets I shot were 20 to 1, lead to tin, but wre specifically meant to expand at a more sedate 900 - 1000 fps.

According to my bullet donor, the lube was "White Label Carnuba Red, my new fav bullet lube. Cheap direct from WL & works for everything so far."