Getting a pot of lead ready to cast up some bullet cores. Is there any good reason to add tin or antimony to the lead and how much do you use?
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Getting a pot of lead ready to cast up some bullet cores. Is there any good reason to add tin or antimony to the lead and how much do you use?
Corbin's instruction call for using pure lead. I have been using Lead Isotope carriers made of 96% lead, 3% antimony and 1% tin for the last 7 or 8 years.
Read and article years ago (NRA Magazine or one of their writers?) that the lead cores for 30-03/30-06 went through multiple changes based on Rifle and Machine gun usage, and the changing Ball requirements. Add Antimony and the bullet is harder; but the working in dies to make bullets results in more wear to the dies due to harder material (Probably why Corbin requires/recommends use of pure lead). The smaller diameter/thickness of our "Hobby" swage dies in our presses compared to Industrial applications may be why.
I use the Lead Isotope carriers made of 96% lead, 3% antimony and 1% tin for cores in .224 using 22LR brass, and .308 using 5/16 copper tubing. Probably have made ~ 17,000 to 20,000 .224 and 5,000 (+) .308 jacketed bullets - plus I have swaged lead solid .224 and .308 bullets in the thousands. I have never swaged a bullet/boolit with pure lead.
You Pays your money and you takes your chances based on your own needs and experiences.
I use almost pure lead for my cores for handgun bullets. They may not be absolutely pure lead, as they test at Bhn 6 on my Saeco Lead Hardness tester, and pure is supposed to be Bhn 5.
Hope this helps.
Fred
Its a relationship with the diameter of the core you are trying to make. If you are making 22 caliber cores, you can typically move some harder lead. Big, heavy bullets will typically need some softer lead all other things being equal. If you have a Hydro Press with H-dies - no problem. Anything less...... Hearing that sharp "Crack" sound is expensive. I made a lot of bullets with 2% antimony cores but they got hard to move in the bigger sizes with Corbin M-Dies.
Being someone who has broken a Corbin swage die I would like to say the softer the better. I was reforming .357 cal. bullets when I heard the dreaded crack. Tin is used for fill out mostly and if you are using a core forming die there is no need to worry about fill out except for weight.
pure lead please
Mustang, do you know the hardness of your mix?Quote:
Originally Posted by MUSTANG
The lead I am using is from Lead Isotope containers; they came from Hammerlane on this site who periodically has them available. They are about 10.5 Brinell Hardness(BNH) as smelted and cast. I get from ~ 18 BNH to ~ 22 BNH when I drop directly from the boolit mold to a 5 gallon bucket of water.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rfeustel
When swaging non-jacketed boolits; I do a lot of powder coat theses days; so I'll shake and bake. I then insert the swaged and PC'd boolits into the cold oven, and then set the timer for 40 minutes at 400 degrees. Taking from the oven and dropping directly into the 5 Gallon Bucket of water - in essence getting the combination of a Heat soaked and water quenched boolit with a Powder Coat lube applied.
Some day I am thinking about heat treating some .224 and .308 Jacketed Boolits and water quenching them - use to see what characteristics that Heat Treated core while in the jacket and water quenching does. My suspicions are that we would get a HARD jacket bullet that does not expand well; but will hold together through very thick material/s.
As the others have pointed out, use only pure lead. According to the guide and advices from the bullet die makers, you’re not going to benefit much by putting in tins or antimony, unless your pointing up lead tipped bullets(nicer lead tips to be form with a little bit of hardness from tin in that respect).
Don’t want to hijack and will post a new thread if necessary. Any advice on casting temperature for pure lead cores? I’ve read elsewhere on the forum pure lead may need a higher pot temperature than alloys. Complicated question given mold temp and material, but thought I’d see if there’s any general guidance.
Good question as my trial run had to have the pot skimmed several times which I had to flux back into the pot after I did a test run. Will have to dig out my PID I guess. Pure lead sure did make ugly cores. Will see how they look when I get my squirt die back from mfg.
Sierra - four lead alloys: 6% antimony-4% tin, 6% antimony, 3% antimony, 1 1/2% antimony, and pure lead.
https://www.sierrabullets.com/about-...hed%20bullets.
Pure lead by all means. Years ago a friend and I broke a Swage-O-Matic using harder alloy and that's not an easy task./beagle