Make me a alloy

[Onebad06vtx]

I have always shot pure lead powder coated,or coww mixed with lead in my handguns,9mm,40 and 45.
I just bought a 10mm and figured I needed a harder alloy.
Here is what I have to use to make a alloy.
Pure lead,coww,foundry type,and pewter/tin.
Make me a alloy!

[CastingFool]

50% pure, 50% coww, 2% tin. That is just about the universal alloy, imho.

[OptimusPanda]

What CastingFool posted above is pretty much what I use in everything from 380 Auto and 38 Special on up to full pressure .357 Magnum and 30-06 at 2000fps (though the rifle boolits are gas checked). No leading anywhere with proper sizing.

[Onebad06vtx]

What about foundry type?
Can I mix it 4 parts pure lead to 1 part foundry and have a good alloy?
Im trying to save my coww as i only have 200lbs left and there next to impossible to get anymore.

[lightman]

Yes, that would work too. Maybe even a little less type.

[Love Life]

An...

[MaryB]

Going from memory but 9 parts pure to 1 part foundry type plus a little tin from somewhere is lyman #2 basically...

[richhodg66]

I have always shot pure lead powder coated,or coww mixed with lead in my handguns,9mm,40 and 45.
I just bought a 10mm and figured I needed a harder alloy.
Here is what I have to use to make a alloy.
Pure lead,coww,foundry type,and pewter/tin.
Make me a alloy!

Seems like the 10mm wouldn't act differently from the others given similar guns. If what you're doing is working, why change?

The recommendation for 50/50 clip on to pure with 2% tin is a good one. I use that as hunting alloy, and if water quenched allows for shooting all day long with no cleaning or leading in rifles. Really doesn't get much better.

I don't powder coat, don't really see where it has a benefit for me, but one place where it seems like it would pay off is in auto pistol bullets that have to be hard and slick enough to go up feed ramps. I don't shoot a lot of auto pistols, but pure seems awfully soft for that application. Sounds like you made it work with powder coating.

[Onebad06vtx]

Yes pure coated bullets dont work for this gun.
There getting messed up feeding.
So I need harder to correct this problem.
I could use 50/50 pure with coww but I have so much pure along with some foundry and tin.
Trying not to use my coww if I dont have to.

[Dusty Bannister]

You might consider going to the S&S pages and place an add to trade some of your Xray room sheet lead for clean COWW ingots in a face to face trade. Or down load the alloy calculator program found in the stickys of this forum. If you do not want to work with a trade, then contact rotometals to buy some of their 30% antimony lead and blend that in with your soft lead scrap. With the 30% antimony, you can use your own soft lead and tin and end up with what you want.

[redhawk0]

In case you haven't seen it yet...this might help create your alloy.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...oy-calculators

redhawk

[centershot]

Foundry type is 62-23-15. Mixing 5 parts lead to 1 part Foundry type will yield an alloy of very close to 93.5-4-2.5. That would suffice for any pistol ammo, possibly excepting the 454 Casull. That alloy could be easily heat-treated to use in the Casull, if desired. See the link, everything you could possibly want to now about lead boolit alloys......

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm

[RogerDat]

I would have to use the alloy calculator to best answer your question so if you download the calculator and start plugging in different weights using what you have it won't take long for you to come up with a nice alloy. If you don't have Microsoft Excel you can get the free Open Office Calc which will also run the calculator spreadsheet of the alloy calculator. https://www.openoffice.org/download/

Just a wild thought. Maybe take some of your foundry type and add some pewter or solder to get an equal portion of antimony and tin. Or a 3 to 1 ratio of 6:2 or 12:4 The reason I thought this might be a good approach for you is it would allow you to use the balanced Sn/Sb alloy or the 3:1 ratio as an ingredient with you plain lead to yield lots of good alloys at different hardness.
Equal parts Sn & Sb at 5% is Lyman #2 alloy useful for when you want to push velocity. Mixed with plain lead to yield 2% of each would still be a very good general purpose alloy. Hardball is 2 Sn 6 Sb with BHN of 16 suitable for high velocity rifle. Cut that in half with plain and it is COWW with 1% tin. Any ratio of Sb to Sn that would allow you to consistently mix with your plain to yield a good alloy could be nice to have on the shelf.

Not sure if it is brilliant or bonkers idea but it could make creating a pot for each use easier than trying to work from foundry directly. I like foundry type but I almost always need to add tin to get a decent alloy when I use it mixed with COWW or plain lead.

[Land Owner]

50% pure, 50% coww, 2% tin. That is just about the universal alloy...

The Universe is expanding, so the experts say, faster now than at the original Big Bang. Certainly Einstein's Theory of Relativity and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal are in play. From the Schrödinger equation...

...that formula is 102%...

49% + 49% + 2% is 100%

[skeettx]

BUT 50% + 50% + 2% lets you cast more bullets
He he he
Mike

[bangerjim]

Download that alloy calc mentioned above in #11 and your question and all future "what if's" will be answered for you!

Happy casting.

banger

[fredj338]

You do not need a harder alloy if shooting sim loads as your 9 or 40, all produce about the same psi. With coated, I have good results with ranges scrap, water dropped out of the oven after baking the coating, at max vel/pressures. That is 200gr running 1200ps.

[Onebad06vtx]

You do not need a harder alloy if shooting sim loads as your 9 or 40, all produce about the same psi. With coated, I have good results with ranges scrap, water dropped out of the oven after baking the coating, at max vel/pressures. That is 200gr running 1200ps.

Reason I wanted a harder alloy is because the bullets where getting deformed when feed from the mag.
Pure powder coated lead is to soft in this case.
Harder alloy solved my problem.

[fredj338]

Reason I wanted a harder alloy is because the bullets where getting deformed when feed from the mag.
Pure powder coated lead is to soft in this case.
Harder alloy solved my problem.

Pure lead, no, not appropriate for anything but low pressure loads in the 10mm, but you don't need anything much harder than range scrap, 10BHN. Clip ww are about perfect. If you mix a bit of pure to extend them, you have range scrap bhn.