Questions about lead

[Hunter 24095]

Hello all. I am new to casting and trying to get some supplies together and have a friend who runs a scrap yard. He has pure lead sheet,ingots he called 50/50 that he said was 90% lead and 10% tin and WW which he gave me a couple of hunderd pounds of and pure tin.

Now my question is what should I get from him? I will be trying to cast 255 grain 44 mag loads for a 1894 marlin the same for a black hawk. 9mm boolits,45acp boolits and muzzle loading boolit's . Which is easier to work with? I have many more questions which I will try to ask later I dont want to clump them all together and thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

I also need to know who to order my molds and supplies from so i get the right thing the first time.

[Cherokee]

For muzzle loading, you want to use pure lead.

For your other uses, wheel weights with about 1% tin added should suffice for normal use. 50/50 is usually 50% lead, 50% tin, not 90/10

Nice friend to have. Welcome to the forum and the new hobby.

Molds can be ordered for Midway, Grafs, and lots of other places. Others wil chime in with their thoughts as well.

[Hunter 24095]

Thanks for the advice. I think he may have been talking about some ingots they got out of some kind of x ray that was 90/10 but I thought the same thing as you that 50/50 would mean 1/2 lead 1/2 tin. Like I said I'm new so just making sure.

[madman]

If it is cheap get it all and store it. You will be able to mix your own alloys by weight and make some very custom loads for your weapons. This is the best site to gain information from.Great guys.some are like Brothers no BS just the best guys on the planet.

[TAWILDCATT]

most of use use WW with out adding any thing.I load 45/38 and also 30 cal/8mm.
my rifle load is light at around 1600fts.my 38/45 are target loads.you dont have to add tin.if you have good fill out you good to go.:coffee:[smilie=1:

[Hunter 24095]

I was thinking of trying to push the 255 out of my marlin 44 at around 1600-1700 fps do I need to add tin to ww's for that speed or a gas check?

[218bee]

Wheel weights vary so you won't know if ya need additional tin or not. Wouldn't hurt to throw some in the pot. Try and remember ratio so you can aproximate it again....although wheel weights hardness may vary batch to batch. Read some cautions elsewhere about trying not to get zinc wheelweights in your mix. I would get all ya can as you can then make different ratios especially if ya get lead sheet which should be pretty soft and then add tin in a 20-1 , 30-1 ratio depending what your needs are. In my opinion ya get as much as ya can while ya can and then figure out how to mix it up for what ya need. Welcome and good luck

[Hunter 24095]

Wheel weights vary so you won't know if ya need additional tin or not. Wouldn't hurt to throw some in the pot. Try and remember ratio so you can aproximate it again....although wheel weights hardness may vary batch to batch. Read some cautions elsewhere about trying not to get zinc wheelweights in your mix. I would get all ya can as you can then make different ratios especially if ya get lead sheet which should be pretty soft and then add tin in a 20-1 , 30-1 ratio depending what your needs are. In my opinion ya get as much as ya can while ya can and then figure out how to mix it up for what ya need. Welcome and good luck

Thanks I think that is what I will do. Where is every one buying molds and handles every where I look they are sold out. I done got excited now and cant mold a boolit one:???:

[Ole]

The trick to making WW alloys harder is dropping them into a bucket of water from the mold.

Either that or oven treat your bullets @ 440 degrees for an hour then dump them in cold water.

You can easily double the hardness of wheel weights by heat treating them.

[Hunter 24095]

Should I use a gas check if I water cool the boolits made of WW and push them around 1700 fps?

[Ole]

Should I use a gas check if I water cool the boolits made of WW and push them around 1700 fps?

Depends on fit/smoothness of the barrel, how fast your powder is, what your chamber throat looks like, etc.

[Hunter 24095]

It's a brand new gun. I just saw a post about Ranch Dogs molds for the marlin I may see if he has one of his molds in stock I sure hope he does because no one else does. Thanks for the help.