question for experienced casters

[Olsherm]

Do I have to have tin in my mix for casting??
How do you think 50% pure lead and 50% wheelweight mix would be for target loads maybe 800 to 900 FPS or less? I have fired some pure lead slugs in 45 and 44/40 and did not have as much leading as I had with harder slugs.I have read that tin only makes your metal flow better and that it does not add any hardness to the metal. Is that correct?
I cannot find a source for tin in my neck of the woods. Midway has it but at $49.95 a stick I might as well buy 500 bullets and forget the casting. I have a huge supply of lead but only a small supply of wheelweight material. So I thought if I mixed the lead and the wheelweight metal my bullets would be a little bit harder than pure lead but not too hard for target and plinking work??What say ye? Thanks olsherm

 

[GP100man]

Your thinking in the rite way Olsherm.

As long as ya get good fillout you`ll be fine , the boolits should run in the 8 bhn range.

Ifin they fit good you`d probably be suprised just how hard ya can drive em !!

More than 2% tin in a mix of alloy is a waste for fillout purposes ,but 4% makes a tuff HP boolit !!

Check out Rotometals.com

 

[GAR]

Olesherm you need to take a trip over to the Cast Boolit site and look in the Lead and Alloy section.

You will find all the information that you want.

If you have soft lead you can very easily trade it on that site lb for lb.

Hit the yard sales and such animals. Look for solder that is acid free. Good old plumbers 50/50 or even 95/5 will sweeten the fill out of the lead to your mold.

The above site even has some downloadable PDF's that you can use to mix any type of combination. It's a great help.

I shoot a lot of your 50/50 mix and it can be driven a whole lot faster with no problems. One of the main things to remember is to have a correctly fitted bullet and a good lube. Check the throats on the cylinder and slug you barrel if possible. It helps to know what you are working with.

If you are really concerned about hardness of the bullets you have a couple of options. You can heat treat them. Which is really nothing more than putting them in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour or water quenching them. Water quenching is by far the easiest. Drop you bullets straight from your mold into a bucket of cold water. They will harden up real quick.

Shoot me a PM if you need help.

Tom

 

[tek4260]

If you are worried about the tin, just add a bit of rosin core solder to your pot.

 

[Iron Mike Golf]

Also, hit flea markets, antique malls, and auctions for pewter. Pewter is like 92% tin and 8% antimony. I can routinely find pewter for $5 a lb. Just make sure it's stamped as pewter.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

Whoever told you that tin does not make the alloy harder is full of hooey.

I cast bullets for my Black Powder cartridge loads.

Some of my bullets I cast from pure, dead soft lead.

The others I cast from an alloy of about 40/1 lead/tin.

My thumbnail tells me the bullets cast from the lead/tin alloy are harder than the bullets I cast from pure lead.

When I need more tin I call up McMaster Carr.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#tin/=co9nrv

I buy the triangular bar. I cut it into 2 ounce sections on my band saw. I get 8 two ounce pieces out of every pound of tin. Every time I add ten pounds of lead to my pot, I add 2 two ounce chunks of tin. That means that I can cast 40 pounds of bullets for every pound of tin. That makes 1120 250 grain bullets or 1400 200 grain bullets. Not a bad investment.

As to why I use pure lead in some bullets and a 40/1 alloy in others, it has nothing to do with hardness. It has to do with shrinkage. Pure lead shrinks the most on cooling. Add some tin and it shrinks less. One of my molds throws bullets a little bit larger than I would like, so I use pure lead in that one. I don't want my bullets too big before I size them. If they are too big, the crimp groove gets wiped away when they are sized. That way they shrink down to where I want them. My other molds are sized OK so that the 40/1 mix shrinks down to where I want them.

Either pure lead or 40/1 mix, they all work fine with Black Powder. The added advantage of Black Powder is that for some reason, there is never any leading at all.

 

[GP100man]

I did`nt say tin does`nt harden lead ,I said more than 2% to help fill out is a waste of alloy & 4% makes a tuff boolit .
More than 4% & the affect tin has on lead lessens as % goes up.

lead & tin is on the lower spectrum of the white metals & are relatively soft 8-11 bhn & yes with enuff exp. ya can tell even with a thumbnail the difference between pure lead & 40-1 alloys

 

[Olsherm]

Thanks for the info. I have had pretty good luck shooting pure lead slugs at lower speeds up to about 7 1/2 grains of Unique and Trailboss powder. However I did not know about the shrinkage of the lead bullets as they cool. I will keep that in mind and check sizes next time around. Also never thought about the rosin core solder. Thanks olsherm By the way I shoot mostly 38/40,44/40,45 colt,44 special.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

I have read that tin only makes your metal flow better and that it does not add any hardness to the metal.

This is the statement that I was referring to. From the original post.

 

[GP100man]

Well Driftwood Johnson I`m sorry for thinking your response was directed at me .

& as far as the statement you referwd to some people actually believe anything under bhn22 is pure lead !!
& shooting anything softer is sure to lead the barrel end to end !!

I fell into that trap when I started casting & wasted more alloy than I care to remember !!

But these days if ya ain`t careful `bout purchasing & using your alloys you`ll surpass the cost of jacketed projectiles !!!

 

[sixshot]

The old blackpowder loads in the 45 Colt were pretty much pure lead & they ran those slugs around 850-900 fps with great accuracy & results.
Tin is very expensive, look for some linotype, its usually somewhere around $2 but a little goes a long way at revolver velocities. I know a lady that has about 300 lbs of it if someone needs it.

Dick

 

[GP100man]

Sixshot

I`d glad to pay her $2 lb. for all ya can get in a small FR box .

PM me please !

 

[sixshot]

GP100man, PM sent.

Dick

 

[chris_]

Sixshot, I'd do the same! You can get 70 lbs in a large FR box.

 

[sixshot]

Chris, PM sent.

Dick