Tin and lead

[chm270]

Anyone have an approximate idea of how much tin to add to 52 pounds of pure lead to make a good casting alloy?
(Would be used in 45acp)

 

[VA Shooter]

If you can't get the answer that you need here you can go to castboolits.com for all the info that you need

 

[anachronism]

2-3% by weight to improve casting "flow" & mould fill out. Elmer Keith often recommended 20:1 (20 parts lead to 1 part tin) for most uses. However! 45 ACP guns often have shallow rifling, and many casters (including myself), recommend using an alloy that approximates Lyman #2 alloy, which is much harder than you can get with just tin & lead alone. #2 alloy is approximately 15 bhn (Brinnel Hardness Number), and contains 90% lead, 5% tin, and 5% antimony. With Lyman #2, you can harden the bullets even more by dropping them hot from the mould into a bucket of cold water, placed a respectable distance from your lead pot of course. You cannot get the hardness you need by water dropping pure lead and tin, it won't work. I'd prefer to see 45 ACP bullets even a bit harder, around 18 bhn. There are different ways to get the necessary hardness, but this should get you started. You should get some pretty interesting answers here, as I said, there are many ways to accomplish this.

 

[DeletedMember275]

You could mix some of Rotometal's alloys with your soft lead to make a suitable alloy, and you wouldn't need all that much. Two percent tin is all you need to make pure lead fill out the mold well, but you're going to need to add some antimony, also - about 5-6%. A few pounds of Linotype would do the job, I would think.

http://www.rotometals.com/Bullet-Casting-Alloys-s/5.htm

 

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

Most sources I've seen pretty much agree that 2% tin (by weight: 52 lbs of lead x 0.02 = ~1 lb tin) is as much as one needs for good fill-out. Tin doesn't do much for hardness: alimony does that job. 5-6% seems to do a pretty good job in that department for making pretty hard bullets depending on how they're treated out of the mold: air cooled, water cooled, heat treated.

See www.rotometals.com for a listing of bullet casting alloys and a description of the proportions...

"Magnum" shot is quite similar to their "hardball" alloy--and MAY be slightly cheaper, depending on your source. "Chilled" shot is a bit softer, probably more like wheelweights or possibly Ol' Elmer's favorite 16:1 lead-tin alloy. I haven't used either for bullets, but have a couple of bags sitting here to try one of these days...

Rick C

 

[anachronism]

I've tried straight magnum shot, and wound up with brittle bullets. You could try 1/2 magnum shot, and 1/2 pure lead, plus 2% tin. If that works for your needs, you can call it quits right there.

 

[Cherokee]

The vast majority of my cast bullet shooting is with bullets cast out of 2% Tin, 3% antimony, 95% lead. Antimony hardens the alloy, Tin facilitates casting, very little hardning effect.