Last goofy alloy question

[armoredman]

I have a 9mm CZ PO1 I want to cast for, and have the Lee TL 356-124 2 cavity mold, brand new. Since the local lead supplier is a little high in price, I am considering the pure plumbers' lead/50/50 bar solder mix at 1:16, 80oz lead to 10 oz 50/50, and water quenched.
To make a long story short, has anyone used this in an auto, and do you think it will be hard enough to shoot in a high speed cartridge like 9mm? Thank you for any and all responses!

Sidearm in question...

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b13/armoredman/silverplatter.jpg

[KYCaster]

It would probably be hard to get 1:16 alloy to work well in 9X19. Most people recommend quenched WW or 92-6-2 alloy. I'm sure there others here who have successfully used soft alloys, but I think you would have better results with a harder mix.

50/50 Pb/lino will get you 92-6-2, or 80/20 WW/lino also works. If you have the pure lead then 20Pb/5lino is reasonably close to WW and will HT to ~22 BHN and should work very well for you.(may even work OK as is)

Search in the Swaping and Selling forum for "linotype" and you should find a couple of members with lino to sell. Fifty lbs. in a flat rate box should be pretty reasonably priced and mixed with your lead then HT'd would yield around 15,000 125gr boolits.

Hope this helps.
Jerry

[454PB]

I haven't tried what you propose to do, but accepted practice says you need some antimony to harden boolits by water quenching. KYCaster's advise is good.....get some linotype if possible. Other easy sources of antimony are wheelweights or hard lead shot.

I cast 9mm boolits from straight WW alloy and get good results. Size them .357 and make sure they will fit the chamber.......bigger is better as long as they feed OK.

[armoredman]

The mold I got is .356. Hope that works. Thanks, guys.:-D

[CSH]

In my experience harder alloys are better in the 9mm, but the most important issue is bore size. You might get away with a softer alloy if the bullets are larger than bore diameter, but you will be not be happy with the results regardless of the alloy hardness if the reverse is true. I have a couple of 9's with nomimal .355" bores, but I also have a couple that measure a little over .357". Shooting .356" bullets down a .357" bore will result in a most undesireable cleaning task and a rapid deterioration of accuracy. Slug the bore and see if your bullets are large enough in diameter. I echo 454PB's recommendation for the largest diameter bullet that will chamber and feed. I have a CZ75 with a .356" bore, but I shoot .358" bullets without a hitch.