do I need to add tin?

[acsteve]

melted 9 lbs of ww from 3 dif sourses. after a couple of culls, boolits came out fully filled in both lee 200gr rnfp 44 and 350RD 45-70. I didnt add any extra tin. do I need to, molds fill well without adding any. I did add 1/8 cup of magnum shot to the mix to harden it just a bit. Should I add tin? and is this in the ball park for adding magnum shot-antimony arsenic?

[IcerUSA]

acsteve I don't think you will need to add tin as you state you have good fill out and both boolits should work good for you as is , only thing I could add to that would be water drop them . Others will have to fill you in on tha amount of shot to use tho .

Keith

[NSP64]

If it fills out good , why waste the tin:-D I agree with IcerUSA, if you are going for hard water drop.

[randyrat]

The only two situations i use tin is; 1) I'm not getting good fill out 2) My alloy changes and i try to adjust my weight down a little (tin weighs less than PB) in a certain recipe for a certain bullet weight. I'm sure there may be other reasons ,but i can't think of them right now.

[38 Super Auto]

melted 9 lbs of ww from 3 dif sourses. after a couple of culls, boolits came out fully filled in both lee 200gr rnfp 44 and 350RD 45-70. I didnt add any extra tin. do I need to, molds fill well without adding any. I did add 1/8 cup of magnum shot to the mix to harden it just a bit. Should I add tin? and is this in the ball park for adding magnum shot-antimony arsenic?

ACSTEVE,

What kind of mold are you using. I agree with the other caster dudes: after your alloy has some antimony content, additional tin doesn't increase hardness much. It does tend to make the boolits shiny and purty tho.

I just reread your post. It is a Lee 6-cav or 2-cav?

[acsteve]

Oh, I am new to casting, so thought 2 cavitly lee's would be easier to use, cheap and of course, I really like the design of the Ranch Dog mold. so far my biggest problems are bullets sticking to the mold a bit and the dag-gone lee bottom pour pot sticking open and running out all of the lead after everything was working smooth. had fun though.

[38 Super Auto]

Two cavs are indeed cheap, but once you have a set of 6-cav handles, you can use them on various 6-cav molds. The Lee 6-cav (w/o handles) price is about $20more (at Midsouth Shooter's supply) than the 2-cav price with handles.

I do like the idea of cheaper molds for bullets that I don't shoot alot.

Some Lee mold tend to stick more than others. I use a little mold release in the cavities on new Lee molds. It works for me.