Wheel weight mix

[Kyregular]

I've heard of guys using 50/50 COWW to SOWW, but has anyone tried 25% SOWW and 75% COWW? New to this and looking for a good mix for 9mm and 45 acp. Probably try to keep about 2% of it tin also.

[Land Owner]

WW's are covered in Fryxell and Applegate's "From Ingot to Target: A Cast Bullet Guide for Handgunners" linked here: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...or-Handgunners.

Once open, CTRL+F (Control Find) and search for "WW". This will return not only "www" - internet links and "WW" - World War, but also "WW" - Wheel Weight! There are a LOT of references to WW + 2% tin!! COWW contain antimony (Sb). How much is up to the specific Mfg. and the components of mfg. are not stamped on any WW of which I am aware. SOWW are generally accepted as pure lead.

In my interpretation of the reference, Fryxell & Applegate quite freely recommend an alloy of 49-49-2 percent Pb-WW-Sn where WW is COWW and Pb is SOWW or pure lead. ymmv

[David2011]

You can also check out the “Lead Alloy Calculators” sticky at the top of this section.

[Jim22]

I have been casting boolits from straight COWW for powder coating. I have seen recommendations for a softer mix:

Fryxell & Applegate quite freely recommend an alloy of 49-49-2 percent Pb-WW-Sn where WW is COWW and Pb is SOWW or pure lead. ymmv

Will this 49-49-2 alloy do well up to about 2,000 fps if powder coated or should I stick with what I've been doing? The COWW mix casts pretty boolits but I expect adding Pb will require a bit of tin for mould fill out.

[Jim22]

Also did some weighing. The COWW ingots I cast yesterday average 417 grams each for a sample of five. I also weighed the pure tin snip-offs I bought from Rotometals. They are remarkably consistent at 15 grams each. So I divided the weight of the tin by the weight of the ingots and found one tin ingot cut-off to each ingot of COWW gives 3.7% tin so adding one piece of tin to every two ingots of COWW should give me just under 2% added tin. Zat sound right?

[Land Owner]

I divided 15 grams of tin by 417 grams of COWW. Your percentage of tin to one ingot of COWW should be 3.597%.

It was correct yesterday that a percentage that is twice what is desired, when cut in half, becomes the desired percentage.

Today has just started. The world is weird. That result may be different this morning...

IDK if 49-49-2 is a 2K velocity alloy or not. I don't load them that fast.

There is ordinarily some percentage of tin in COWW's (and arsenic and antimony). How much is the result of raw metal pricing and manufacturer preferences. There is no "catalog" of constituents stamped on each WW. For what it is worth from a fishing web site with regard to COWW's:

The average composition reported in the past few years is 4% antimony, 0.5% tin, up to 0.25% arsenic, and the balance being about 95.25% lead. Stick on's are pretty much 99.5% lead.

A dizzying, but thought provokingly correct, analysis of alloys can be read here: http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletAlloy.htm

If you accept (and I think you should) that 0.50% tin is already manufactured into COWW's, then your one 15 gram tin added to one 417 COWW ingot is 4.097% tin, and HALF of that, when melted into 2 COWW ingots, is 2% tin.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I've heard of guys using 50/50 COWW to SOWW, but has anyone tried 25% SOWW and 75% COWW? New to this and looking for a good mix for 9mm and 45 acp. Probably try to keep about 2% of it tin also.

9mm is a high pressure caliber
45acp is low pressure.

I'd use straight COWW + 2%SN for 9mm
I'd use 75% SOWW - 25% COWW for 45 acp.

That's my 2¢

[Conditor22]

You didn't mention if you were lubing or coating the boolits.

I go 8-10 bhn for 45 acp

[Budzilla 19]

50/50 WW/ range scrap, With 2 % tin, powder coated, the 9’s I heat treated them by baking them @420f for one hour, then into a bucket of ice water for quench. So far, no leading at all. Just what works for me. The .45’s were just cast, powder coated, and sized to .452. All rounds shot fine. No leading at all. Good luck to you.