20/1 is fine stuff.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I have been casting and shooting a good deal of 20/1 alloy recently. And pushing it rather hard too. I have a decent stash of pewter so i smelted up about 78 pounds of it. Been using it in my 687, SBH and Henry single shot 45-70. I cleaned the revolvers yesterday and the barrels came out pristine with little effort. Same with the cylinders. Conventinal lubed boolits pushed fairly hard (275 gr. over 18.5 of H110 in the SBH). With good lube and proper sizing , you do not need harder alloy. I am assuming i'm getting the benefit of obturation along with excellent lube properties. Off hand accuracy seems fine, though shooting some off the bench would show me if the boolits are maintaining integrity and flying well.

[Froogal]

20/1 is what I have been using for some time now. .38 special and .45 Colt. Revolvers and rifles. I do not push them hard. Don't need to. Never had an issue with leading. Also, easier to harvest the range scrap. More often than not those 20/1 bullets just flatten out into a round disc when they hit the steel targets, unlike the harder stuff that turns into shrapnel and cannot be recovered.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I have been incrementally upping my velocities so as to get used to hunting loads in my mag wheel guns. Seems to have been working though i do get a little rusty over winter. It is pleasing that 20/1 seems to be performing so well.

[fredj338]

I run 20-1 with hp bullets about 1200gps. Works great.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

20/1 is what I have been using for some time now. .38 special and .45 Colt. Revolvers and rifles. I do not push them hard. Don't need to. Never had an issue with leading. Also, easier to harvest the range scrap. More often than not those 20/1 bullets just flatten out into a round disc when they hit the steel targets, unlike the harder stuff that turns into shrapnel and cannot be recovered.

Ever weigh some of those discs? Curious as to just how much is recoverable.

[megasupermagnum]

I'm also a huge fan of 20-1. Close alloys like 16-1 and 25-1 are just fine too. The main reason I use range scrap, or wheel weights, or anything like that is cost. If I could get 20-1 at the same cost, I would only shoot 20-1. The only advantage I can think of for a harder alloy is the ability to heat treat.

Here's something you wont see from a clip on wheel weight. I was testing velocity of 232 gr hollow points in 45 acp. These averaged 920 fps. They impacted the backstop at 25 yards, which is a very dense rubber. Think like those rubber curb bumpers. You can barely cut it with a knife. I happened to see this bullet sticking out, and managed to pry it free. It has expanded into a coin, over 3/4". The weight, 231 grains, which it is possible it started at that. I did not weight sort bullets. Nearly 100% weight retention, not even starting to fracture or fragment, even impacting a hard backstop. 20-1 may not be hard, but it is tough as nails. It does way beyond what I would expect it to. I don't think a better bullet alloy exists for hollow points.

[Froogal]

Ever weigh some of those discs? Curious as to just how much is recoverable.

I have not weighed any, but now my curiosity is up.

[gwpercle]

" For most revolver cartridges including all light and normal pressure loads there is no use having the boolits harder than 1 part tin to 20 parts lead .
For really heavy loads in revolvers a boolit of 1 part tin to 16 parts lead is hard enough ."

Elmer Keith ... Sixgun Cartridges & Loads (1936)

Looks like the 1/20 and 1/16 tin-lead mixes are still viable boolit alloy's even today in 2022 !
Gary

[white eagle]

I use binary alloy's for most all my hunting boolits
matter of fact I just started using ww alloy recently
20-1 has been the one I use the most

[stubshaft]

Elmer rarely saw fit to cast a bullet any harder. I shoot a lot of it and do go to 16-1 for small bore boolits.

[Froogal]

Ever weigh some of those discs? Curious as to just how much is recoverable.

I did weigh one with my balance beam powder scale. 80.3 grains. Obviously a good portion of the original 200 grain bullet simply vanished.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I did weigh one with my balance beam powder scale. 80.3 grains. Obviously a good portion of the original 200 grain bullet simply vanished.

Still better than nothing!

[Doubles Shooter]

20-1 is a great mix. Got to find these recovered boolits and weigh them. Recovered several intact after hitting steel at 10 yards. .45acp Lee molds. 200 and 230 gr. Haven't had them on the chrony. 4.5gr red dot in each.

[Froogal]

Still better than nothing!

Yes. Still worth picking up.

[Green Frog]

Twenty five years or so ago I was beginning to get serious about Schuetzen rifle competition. I had a virtually endless source of pure roofing lead (sheeting) and traded into some pure tin for a reasonable price. I then read the Waters & Roberts book on the single shot rifle, and saw the suggestion of 25-1 for fixed or breech seated loads. I started there and never changed.

For pistol bullets I inherited several hundred pounds of COWWs cleaned and cast into 1# Lyman ingots. I can add a % or two of tin and be good.

Now I’m shooting BP in the N-SSA. The round balls and Minies get just about pure lead, the Maynard and Henry cartridges seem to like the 25-1 OK.

To the OP: That 20-1 is a very good basis for just about anything you want to shoot unless it’s round balls in BP or very high velocity pistol and rifle loads. Sounds like a great score to me! At this stage in my life I can no longer find the abundant supply of different alloys I once could, so now alloys like that 20-1 are very attractive because they can be used or mixed so many ways.

Froggie