90 /10 alloy % VS WW bullets.

[Blueknight2520]

I recently got some lead that assayed as 87.92 % lead
and 12.08% tin. I also got some other pieces that
are 100% dead soft lead. I had considered mixing the 2 so i
come out with about 2% tin, to make the best use of the tin.

I have never cast from anything but WW.

Question: Will this make good bullets? I intend to cast
pistol bullets to shoot at about 1200 fps as well as
others at about 900 fps.

From what I have read I understand these bullet will not water
harden.

Or mixing it with WW so it comes out about 2% tin. And have the
Antimony and touch of arsenic so they may well be harder and
heat treatable. Any advise is appreciated.

BK

[454PB]

Using 12% tin is a waste of a valuable and expensive alloy metal. If it were mine, I'd figure out a mixture of other alloys to dilute it down some.

[Bass Ackward]

<<Question: Will this make good bullets? I intend to cast
pistol bullets to shoot at about 1200 fps as well as
others at about 900 fps.>>

You bet your sweet Bibby it will. In fact there was a day when no one would shoot antimony and that was the hardest mix you could make within reason. Some designs, you will not be able to get to shoot with harder bullets. But even that is high tin. I use 20-1 which is @5% tin and can get it to 1300 fps with a check with excellent results.


<<From what I have read I understand these bullet will not water
harden.>>

Nope. You are ready to shoot right from the mold.

<<Any advise is appreciated.>>

Well BK,

It all depends on ones situation. The man who is given a bottle of fine wine and told to drink it on a special occasion can find a lot more special occasions when it is the only thing around to drink. If you have a whole wine cellar, you can set it aside.

I am starting to use a lot of 20-1 so I would keep it myself, but tin is my only cost. All my lead is free.

Decisions, decisions

[Lloyd Smale]

It may work if your guns tolarances are perfect and you use a gas check but at 1200fps most factory guns are going to lead up with an alloy that soft. Id try mixing your 90/10 5050 with wheelweights and trying that if you still get leading increase the ammount of ww to 75/25. Another option (one i dont care for much but would help if you have nothing harder) is once youve cut them with ww you should have some arsenic content and should be able to water drop them and that will make them plenty hard.

[Beau Cassidy]

I would use it 5 parts ww to 1 part of the new lead you have and drop them from the mold into water. But again, thats just me.

[mooman76]

I would lower the tin %. As stated it is a waste of good alloy plus according to Lee the tin does make your bullets harder but too much tin can cause leading due to the fact that tin has a lower melting point than lead!

[Blueknight2520]

Using 12% tin is a waste of a valuable and expensive alloy metal. If it were mine, I'd figure out a mixture of other alloys to dilute it down some.


thanks to everyone that replied. To those that felt i should reduce the tin content due to waste, i was thinking the same thing,
As well as they would not be hard enough, in some of my applications.
I stated in my original post about possibly mixing them with WW. I bought this 90/10 stuff and have a fair bit of WW on hand.

I will try mixing the 90/10 with the WW. A friend came up wth a formula to let me calculate the amount of ww to add to get any tin content I wish. (below 12%) It is my understanding that more than 2% tin is a waste of tin in most applications as far as enough tin to flow well and add some hardness. That from past posts of well respected casters.

I may well thin it even more down to 1% as suggested also.

WW is getting hard to get in my area but look like i will be able to buy this stuff all along so it may be I will have plenty of this and not so much WW in the future.
Again thanks for all the help guys.
BK

[garandsrus]

Blue Knight,

There are alloy calculators on this site also. If you do a search you will find several threads.

If you mix WW 6.5:1 with your 90/10, you will end up with 2.0% tin, 3.5% antimony, and 94.5% lead.

To get to 1% tin, mix WW at 20:1 with your 90/10. You will end up with 1.0% tin, 3.8% antimony, and 95.1% lead.

I used the actual values of your new lead in the above calculations.

What is the going rate for the 90:10 alloy you bought?

John