Rifle bullet alloy advice sought

[milprileb]

I finally got all my gear to cast, size rifle bullets. Got Saeco luber, dies, gas checks.

I have pure PB, range PB fluxed and clean, 50 50 bar solder and I have wheel weight (clip on) metal fluxed and clean, I have Linotype as well.

I want to cast for 3006 and for 303 British Enfield and 7.5 French. I want 200 and maybe out to 300 yd distance loads. I will be using White Label 2500 and LBT Blue lube. I will gas check all bullets.

I was thinking pure WW metal with 6% 50 50 bar solder or 50% WW to 50% Linotype and no 50 50 bar solder.

Any recommendations on alloy : good on above , bad on above or other recommended alloy for rifle bullets is very much needed. I am not hung up on any alloy.

I am not looking to shoot 100 yds and less with pistol powders or powder puff loads, I want to shoot 200 yds minimum if I can.

[ShooterAZ]

I use 2 pure lead to 1 lino for most of my rifle loads, sometimes 3/1 for plinkers. With gas checks, I think just about any ww+ tin or lino alloy will work OK.

[sqlbullet]

I use 96/3/1 lead/antimony/tin for about everything I cast, including 30-06, 300 win mag and soon 7.62X54r.

Gas check and lube with felix in my case.

In 30-06 I use 36 grains of varget with a Lee 200 gr boolit and get good accuracy at 100 yards. This should have the ballistics for 200 yards. The Lee bullet at 2,000 fps at the muzzle will go transonic around 300-325 yards, so this would not work for 300 yards. I bet 38 grains would work fine out to 300.

[Larry Gibson]

I have pure PB, range PB fluxed and clean, 50 50 bar solder and I have wheel weight (clip on) metal fluxed and clean, I have Linotype as well.

Let's make the best use of what you have.

With the range lead, assuming a mix of cast bullets and jacketed cores, is most often rich in antimony and poor in tin. I suggest adding 2% tin to the RL and then add the pure Pb at 3 parts RL to 1 part Pb. That alloy alone makes very good bullets, particularly handgun bullets, and fills out very well in the mould. I've used this with numerous different batches of RL including one just last month. The BHn of the bullets should be around 11 after 7+ days aging. If you cast them hot and WQ then the BHn will be 20 - 24 in 48 hours. I use a lot of this alloy cast as rifle bullets, WQ'd and pushed to 1900 - 2200+ fps. I use 11.5 lbs RL + 1/2 lb 50/50 + 3 lbs Pb in the Mag 20 for this alloy.

The COWWs + 2% tin in and by itself makes an excellent alloy for your needs with AC'd bullets. The BHN will be 14 - 17 with 16-17 the most prevalient after 10+ days aging. Again, an excellent alloy with casting and shooting properties very near to Lyamn #2. This alloy will also HT quite well.

With the linotype I use a 80/20 lino/Pb for my high velocity bullets. However, a mix of 50/50 or 60/40 will do very nicely. An excellent alloy that cast very good and consistent bullets. Heat treats quite well also but with the 80.20 alloy with a BHN of 18-19 I use as AC'd bullets.

BTW; the best accuracy with cast rifle bullets of 160 - 220 gr in the cartridges mentioned will be in the 1850 - 1950 fps range.

Larry Gibson

[runfiverun]

a 30 cal at 1900 fps will shoot 300 yds and hit with authority when it gets there.
here's my super secret gong/bowling pin shooting recipe for 300 yds.
i take ww's add some soft lead 75/25 add a small amount of tin, then drop them in water from the mold.
i then meausure the nose and body to make sure it fits my rifle, if i need something else i adjust the alloy.
size and check them.
i pick a load that makes them go about 1900 fps to start, and dial in my load to my sights from there.