Boolits casting light

[xr650]

I am using a Lee 452-200-RF mould.
Alloy is 20 parts WW / 1 part - 9 WW:1 50/50
The boolits weigh 216 grs. +/- 1 gr.

I added another 9:1 ingot. Weight did not change.

What do I need to add to reduce weight?

Thanks
Larry

[jrgift]

Larry,Times bullets don't always come out as advertised.Only other suggestion would be to make them harder.

[xr650]

What would making them harder do to help?

I don't guess the wght will bother me.

[xr650]

The title is a little misleading :roll: and I can't fix it! [smilie=1:

[PMK]

You would add straight lead to get the weight up, but it would take a bit of figuring of how much.

[runfiverun]

your mold is prob. just a bit oversize
more tin/antimony makes a lighter and smaller boolit.

[xr650]

PMK,
I'm a maroon. I'm casting heavy.

Five,
How much smaller will these get? Will I need to wait a period of time to let them shrink?
I'm running .452"-.454". Just the right size as far as I'm concerned.

[garandsrus]

xf650,

Lyman molds are "calibrated" using #2 mix, which is 90-5-5 (lead, antimony, tin). Less tin and antimony, such as what's in WW will result in a heavier boolit. Most of the time it doesn't matter... Just work up your load with your boolit.

John

[Tom Myers]

I am using a Lee 452-200-RF mould.
Alloy is 20 parts WW / 1 part - 9 WW:1 50/50
The boolits weigh 216 grs. +/- 1 gr.

I added another 9:1 ingot. Weight did not change.

What do I need to add to reduce weight?

Thanks
Larry

Larry

Wheelweights are generally considered to be 95% Lead, 4.5% Antimony and 0.5% Tin.
Let us use pounds instead of parts.

Your beginning alloy consisted
of___ 19lb Lead, 0.900lb Antimony and 0.100lb Tin
Plus 8.55lb Lead, 0.405lb Antimony and 0.045lb Tin
Plus 0.5lb Lead and 0.5lb Tin
This adds up to 28.05lb Lead, 1.305lb Antimony and 0.645lb Tin.
For a total of 30lbs
Lead = 93.5%, Antimony = 4.35% and Tin = 2.15%
The Specific Gravity of this alloy #1 was 10.88697

You add an ingot that contained
90.5% Lead, 4.05% Antimony and 5.45% Tin
The Specific Gravity of this alloy #2 you added was 10.72026

You added 3.225% of the #2 Alloy to 96.775% of alloy #1
This produces an alloy with a Specific Gravity of 10.88151

10.88151 / 10.88697 * the 216 gr bullet would equal a bullet weight of 215.89 grains or just 99.95% lighter.

To get a lighter bullet, you need to add Tin as adding pure Antimony is a pain. You probably do not want moreTin in the alloy than Antimony, so you can just add enough Tin to equal the weight of Antimony that is in the alloy.

The Alloy you now have has
1.3455lb of Antimony and 0.6995lb of tin. If we add 0.645 lbs of Tin, there will be equal parts of Tin and Antimony in an Alloy that weighs 31.646 lbs and contains 91.496% Lead, 4.251% Antimony and 4.251% Tin.
This alloy will have a Specific Gravity of 10.77391 which is 98.97% less than the alloy that produced the 216 grain bullet and will produce a 213.76 grain bullet

So About all that you would gain would be to produce an alloy that is very close to the old Lyman #2 alloy and makes a bull a little over 2 grains lighter than what you started with.

Unless you want to get some Powdered Antimony from the Antimony man, I don't see a whole lot you can do. May be someone else has a good Idea.

Hope this helps,

Tom Myers
Precision Ballistics and Records (http://www.tmtpages.com)

[xr650]

Garandsrus,
Thanks for the info. I will work up a load for these.
I'm still a newb and like to learn as I go.

Tom,
Lots of great info. I will have to digest this tomorrow when I am a little more lucid.
The first alloy was 20 ea. WW + 1 ea. 9:1
I then added 1 ea. 9:1
Total weight 22 lbs. Sorry for the confusing way I wrote it the first time.
I don't know how much this affects the formula. I suspect a bit.
I used parts instead of lbs. because my ingots are not exactly 1 lb.