Rotometals: What mix would you buy? Anyone tried the Bismuth Alloy?

[jonp]

I was looking at the Rotometals sight and was wondering what alloy would everyone buy. Since I have some pure lead I was thinking a harder alloy like 1:40 and cutting it as needed.

Also, I saw that they now have a Bismuth alloy for boolits. Hardness is supposed to be around 19 BHN. Anyone tried it?

[Dusty Bannister]

Curious what you are loading that you would need to cut 1:40 to make it softer.
If you bought 2-6-92, you could cut it 50/50 with soft lead and have about COWW alloy and use that for about anything other than BP.

[jonp]

Curious what you are loading that you would need to cut 1:40 to make it softer.
If you bought 2-6-92, you could cut it 50/50 with soft lead and have about COWW alloy and use that for about anything other than BP.

Sorry, 1:10. Big fingers on small smartphone. I was thinking powder puff loads for my 32HR pistols

[dragon813gt]

I thought they used to have recovered bullet alloy in pallet lots. It’s not on the site anymore. W/ what they have I’d buy a pallet of pure and cut it w/ a harder alloy. Or the opposite and buy a lot of harder alloy and cut it w/ pure. Would have to sit down and do the math.

I’ve never talked to them about custom alloy pricing. Mainly because they are on the opposite coast and shipping would kill me. Still may be worth it to by a ton of 96-2-2 like I was getting from a small foundry somewhere down south, forget which state it was in. It unfortunately closed.

[farmbif]

I was looking through the site yesterday and was thinking if I needed to buy alloy to cast bullets going with the Lyman #2 would cover the widest variety of needs.
but if you have lead that just needs some tin to sweeten it and some antimony to harden it some foundry type alloy might just be the ticket.

[dtknowles]

I can find/get soft alloy or pure locally for less than Rotometals. I have a few pounds of Tin so for me I ordered Superhard. Lino or Foundry Type would be good too.

[JM7.7x58]

Superhard

I’ve got a good supply of pewter and soft lead. I need the antimony in Superhard.

JM

[405grain]

Superhard is the ticket! You can find sources for soft lead and tin, but where are you going to find a source for antimony that's already alloyed with lead? Just the other month I bought a couple of bricks of superhard. I mixed it with lead BB shot (for the arsenic), either pure tin or 50/50 bar soldier that I'd scrounged over time, and pure lead to produce 165 pounds of "clip on wheel weight" ingots. By using superhard and mixing your own alloy you can produce boolet metal for 1/4 the cost of buying COWW's. Here's a whole article on how to do it: http://www.lasc.us/SuperHard.htm

[kevin c]

I vote for SuperHard as well. Just the thing for finely tuned alloys made up from the XRF'd source metals I use. If I'm honest, that degree of precision is likely not essential for my intended use, but old habits die hard.

[trapper9260]

I get Superhard and tin that is cut up so it is easy for me to add to my mix, I already have a place near by to get my soft lead at . I get my alloys from Rotometals also

[GregLaROCHE]

I’m in the opposite situation. My lead is often harder than I would like. If you’re not shooting high power rounds, why not try powder coating your soft lead and see if it will work for you?

[winelover]

When I'm flush with pure, I purchase lino from Rotometals. Mix it as needed. Usually, 3 parts pure to one part lino covers most of my needs. Can go to 2-1 or even 1-1 for anything harder.

Winelover

[Rich/WIS]

Have a lot of range lead and need to harden it for rifles. Foundry type works well for this as it is high in both Sn and SB. Mixed 3/1 RL/FT makes a suitable alloy for my rifles and 7/1 for handguns. The FT I bought from Roto-Metals was in small pieces, think they called them nuggets, and it was easier to get the mix ratios correct than when using bigger ingots.

[dtknowles]

I’m in the opposite situation. My lead is often harder than I would like. If you’re not shooting high power rounds, why not try powder coating your soft lead and see if it will work for you?

Because it adds more work for no gain. I don't harden my lead for low power rounds but I might add tin to help it flow. Just run them thru the lubrisizer and they are ready to go. Why powder coat?

I add lino or superhard for my high power rounds. A lot of bench rest shooters use pure lino. If all I shot was low power rounds I would not need anything from Rotometals.

[jonp]

Super hard sounds like the ticket. Thanks

[Rizzo]

Also, I saw that they now have a Bismuth alloy for boolits. Hardness is supposed to be around 19 BHN. Anyone tried it?

Yes, I did some casting with the Bismuth blend from RotoMetals.
Here is a link to a write-up that I did.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...bullet-casting