60/40...What to do??

[VTDW]

A great new internet friend just send me 20# of 60/60 in ingot form. Can you give me ideas of how to use this? I use 50/50 WW/Lino for hunting hawgs and push boolits hard in my .444's and RH 44MAG.

I have quite a bit of 20:1 and Hardball just sitting and not being utilized. I like a high Bnh. Any ideas of how to use the 60/40 to utilize these alloys? Any better ideas?

Thanks,

Dave

[BABore]

60/40 what? Solder with 60% tin and 40% lead, alloy with 60% WW's and 40% lino or pure lead?????[smilie=1:

[MT Gianni]

I use 8"-12" of 60/40 to increase fill out in ww loads. I use nothing else for good shooting rifle and pistol loads. Gianni.

[VTDW]

60/40 what? Solder with 60% tin and 40% lead, alloy with 60% WW's and 40% lino or pure lead?????[smilie=1:

It is 60% lead and 40% solder. I have 21 ingots of the stuff.

[BABore]

About a lb of your 60/40 solder to approx. 20 lbs of WW's will give you plenty of tin for fillout. Ifin you want them hard, WD them or OHT. You should get between 26 and 30 Bhn hardness.

For your hog hunting you should try some 50% WW's and 50% Pb, with some of your solder for fillout. Water dropped bullets will come out around 22 Bhn. Plenty hard enough for HV loads and it will expand some on impact. I use this alloy for most all my bullets cause it's more accurate that straight WW's. I've shot it to over 2,500 fps with ease.

[felix]

BAB, I typically use about half of what you said of 60/40 to 20 pounds of WW. About 1/4-1/3 of a pound bar of 60/40 is sufficient. However, whenever hardening up something with antimony in it, keep in mind that the boolit will start to expand quite quickly after being water dropped. What does this mean besides the boolit getting harder immediately? It means that if your boolit has a tight fitting gascheck shank, to put the checks on (doesn't have to be crimped) as soon as the boolits are dry from the water drop. Otherwise, you'd have to expand the checks with a punch or ball bearing before application. ... felix

[BABore]

Just goes to show you how much tin I use.[smilie=1:

I figured it would give him an additional 2 1/2% or so tin. This would be in addition to the 1-2% already present in the WW's. Granted, more than a couple points is probably wasteful, but he will be coming down from a 50/50 WW/Lino tin fix. Didn't want poor VTDW to get the TT's (like DT's, but with tin) and start shaking all over.:-D

I seldom, if ever, use tin in my 50/50 WW-Pb alloy and get very good fillout. This is using a Rowell #1 ladle instead of one of them funny pots with an extra hole in it. Everytime I add some tin, I will end up with inclusions on the bullet's surface. Not a lot, but enough to go from a 1-3% reject rate, to more like 5-10%.

[felix]

Air holes on the outside indicate holes on the inside as well. Comes from the lead freezing too quickly, which means too much tin. ... felix

[Lloyd Smale]

felix has a point with to much tin. I run alot of 5050 ww/lyno in the big handguns and if you run steal molds hot it can be more difficult to cast then a tin pour alloy. You will get hot spots on the bullets where the mold gets to hot between the two cavitys. FOr the most part because of this when im casting 475s or 500s Ill usually run a two cavity mold as a single to keep the heat down. Either that or you just end up casting so slow that it doesnt gain you a thing but casting both cavitys. I find this alot less prevelent in aluminum molds. Probably because the heat up less but i think also because lead tin alloys tend to flow toward aluminum more then they do steel. It is actually easier to cast big bullets out of pure lead with no tin for me with steel molds. Just run em hot and go and you get good bullet fillout. Ive found though with ww that i know has been slightly contaminated with zinc that adding 5 percent tin instead of my usual 2 percent does help make it more castable. Im sure theres scientific reasons for all of this but im a caster not a scientist and go by what works for me. I may be all wet in these statements and if so someone will straighten me out. I just know that if you want lots of poor bullets cast with 5050 and run a big two cavity mold.

[VTDW]

You fellers are purdy much braniacs to me.:confused: Soooo from what you have written the 60/40 is to be used mostly for the tin content, correct?

Tnx,

Dave

[felix]

Absolutely. ... felix

[VTDW]

Thanks Felix et al.:-D