lyman #2

[doubledown]

What are your thoughts and uses of lyman # 2 . I love the way it casts in my mould. the reason I ask is it shatters when it hits steel or rock . I let it air cool ,it was not water dropped.Does anyone have any hunting experience using it. I'm sure it's fine on the small stuff , just wondered what would happen if it hits heavy bone ?

[R.M.]

Yup, sure does cast nice, but a waste of tin for me.

[runfiverun]

it does fine in revolvers for hunting purposes.
i use a similar alloy in many of my rifles 4/6 for h/v target work.
Lloyd smale done a write up a bit [year or so] ago about taking a buffallo with a revolver and using 5/5 alloy.

[fredj338]

The antimony makes it brittle. It's ok for hunting, but I prefer a softer bullet.

[Iron Mike Golf]

I thought keeping Sn and Sb at 1:1 made a tougher alloy, not a more brittle one.

[felix]

That might be correct, IMG. However, we have to consider what else is in the mix, like arsenic, calcium, and other junk too. It only takes a "little dab will do ya' bad things". ... felix

[bumpo628]

I think 2% of each is a good combo for expansion & weight retention.

[doubledown]

Thanks for the replies, I have only smelted three times, two were ww with a couple pounds of airgun pellets and a couple of inches off of a pure tin bar in a 20 pound lee pot. I don't know the percentages but that was some beautiful alloy! It expanded to a perfect mushroom and had great penetration.

I was given a few pure Lyman #2 ingots, and learned that 90-5-5 shatters on steel. What combination would hold together with NO expansion and NOT shatter. I am looking for the lead equivalent of a Barnes solid. Is it possible?

[Roundnoser]

that might be correct, img. However, we have to consider what else is in the mix, like arsenic, calcium, and other junk too. It only takes a "little dab will do ya' bad things". ... Felix

Makes me wonder if thats a secret lube ingredient!!!

31447

[David2011]

Also consider that anything going very fast is going to come apart when it hits a steel plate. Jacketed pistol bullets are essentially pure lead inside the jacket and they shatter on impact on steel plates as well, especially at the velocities of an open IPSC pistol. If they're going slow enough they will flatten out to nickel to quarter size but still lose a lot of weight. My steel plate loads consist of a 200 gr .45 cal SWC moving at less than 700 fps. They flatten but still shed mass.

The standard commercial alloy has 6% Antimony for hardness and 2% tin for good casting characteristics- 96/6/2. Two percent tin is enough. It's just for mold fillout and would be a huge waste of money to add enough to affect the hardness.

David

[cbrick]

I was given a few pure Lyman #2 ingots, and learned that 90-5-5 shatters on steel. What combination would hold together with NO expansion and NOT shatter. I am looking for the lead equivalent of a Barnes solid. Is it possible?

I don't know about a Barnes solid, solid copper would be quite a stretch for a cast bullet. The only thing that would come close that I know of is . . . Well . . . A Barnes solid.

However, all is not lost. Use a CWW or equivalent and water drop them for a BHN of about 18, the right bullet weight from the right gun at the right velocity it will punch through most North American game.

It's the antimony percentage that makes them brittle. I don't use antimony alloy over about 4% and for me 4% is really pretty high. But that's just me, most of the critters I shoot are steel.

Rick

[ColColt]

Seeing that tube of Brylcreem reminds me of the morning I brushed my teeth with it. I mistakenly thought it was Colgate(both were white cream and in a similar tube) and put that stuff on my toothbrush. Right away I cold tell it wasn't Colgate.:-( I must have washed my mouth out for ten minutes.

[doubledown]

QUOTE=cbrick I don't know about a Barnes solid, solid copper would be quite a stretch for a cast bullet. The only thing that would come close that I know of is . . . Well . . . A Barnes solid.


cbrick, thanks I just had to ask. I am playing with alot of different alloys to see what does what. I like "most" of my boolits to expand and hold together. But some of my big bores I am looking for no expansion just pass through two hole power, even when bone is encountered. I would trade a "little" expansion over a boolit that shatters or fragments when the going gets tough.

[Lloyd Smale]

if your hunting with a handgun dont sweat it. Ive shot big game with a handgun using even linotype and have never had a bullet fracture. Ive also shot them into some pretty demanding pentration testing media and never seen one break. Now kick the velocity up over 1400 fps and all bets are off. Ive probably killed more game with bullets cast out of #2 then all other alloys combined and its never once failed to put meat on the table. Guys tend to get overly technical with exact recipes that you need to use to kill animals. Dont sweat it ive seen enough killed to honestly say if its an alloy between 5050 ww/pure and linotype and the animal is no bigger then a 1000 lbs your probably going to kill it. Im sure someone will jump in here with a story about how this or that alloy failed but i can do a search on ANY big game rifle bullet made and find someone who hates them because that had what they considered a failure with them. Ill put it this way. LIke i said ive shot a few animals with handguns and if i had to go into the woods hunting today most likely my gun would be loaded with bullets cast out of #2 or 5050 ww/lino.

[selmerfan]

To add to Lloyd's info, back before I was casting my own I was trading Lloyd for cast boolits for my .454 Casull in a 12" TC Encore. The biggest whitetail I've ever killed was shot with one of his boolits at 35 yds. severely quartering towards me. The load was a 320 gr. boolit with 27 gr. of H110 under that ran out at just shy of 1700 fps. I put the boolit right where I wanted, on the point of the on side shoulder. It busted the shoulder bone, took out the vitals, and exited the opposite ham. I found ONE wound channel, the bullet didn't come apart, and I didn't find it. It was a 7x5 Iowa whitetail that weighed over 250 lbs. after I dressed it out - big deer! I don't know exactly what alloy Lloyd was using, but I'd take his advice any day of the year...

[Lloyd Smale]

selmer those would have been casted out of 5050 ww/lino. Thats what I used mostly back then. Anymore linotype is getting tough to find so i backed off to #2 for most of my bullets to conserve it.

[white eagle]

Lloyd
Is that concoction what is also called hardball
rite around 16 bhn
I have some made up and like you mentioned I conserve
because of the price and availability of linotype
I cast it in 44,45,22,7mm,30 and 358 cals
fills out beautifully