Alloy question for 9mm cast

[milprileb]

Here is where I am at and I need some help if you would share your experience.

a. I have used 2 pounds of lead to 8 pounds of clip wheel weights for alloy 9mm bullets , water quenched and had no leading.
b. I am wondering if I can go down to 5 pounds of lead to 5 # of wheel weights if I water quench the bullets and still avoid leading.
c. I shoot loads right at 1000 FPS and am not trying to hot rod, only get a good target load in 9mm.

So, in view of the above, can some one comment on 5#lead to 5# wheel weight?

Also: since I only have WW and lead on hand, do you think if 50 50 mix is not right, I can go to some other mix / alloy combination for 9mm which allows me to make use of my lead and ww metal to optimum use in 9mm.

I weight my lead and ww metal for the 10 pound pot. Thats how I am attempting to make alloy that I can replicate.

Some help / thoughts / criticism please.

[BABore]

80/20 is actually harder than needed. 50/50 is perfect for most all shooting either when air cooled at 9-10 bhn or water dropped at 20-22 bhn. Note the hardness values and adjust your WW % to get them. WW's vary alot acrossed the US. Other than pure lead applications, I use it as my standard alloy up to 2,200 - 2,400 fps. Add as little tin as possible and only if absolutely needed. More than 1/2% to 1% will cause ugly spots in/on boolits.

[HeavyMetal]

Any particular reason you want to blend lead with your WW metal?

The net result will be a slightly heavier slightly softer alloy that won't have as much Antimony in it, this is in the clip on WW metal, so the quenched boolits won't get as much out of being dunked in water as straight clip on ww metal will.

Over the years I have seperated "pure" lead, such as stick on weights, and swaped it for clip on ww from muzzle loader guys.

So if you have a large supply of "pure" lead I'd consider swapping it for clip on type WW metal and simply use that to cast 9mm boolits with.

I have found plain old Clip on ww metal, used straight, is a good all around general purpose alloy. I quench everything right out of the mold and, with a good lube, right fit and right load pressure, have never had more than very minimal leading in the hottest pistol calibers.

Having said all that I will admit to playing with alloy content for other calibers, such as 30-30 and 7.62x39 as well as 22 rifle rounds, (22 Hornet) but this is specialty casting and does not apply to your 9mm boolits.

The real cool part of just using clip on ww is it's simple! No notes, no marking ingots so you don't mix them up with other alloys or other raw materials.

If I were going to make a 1000 rounds of 9mm RNL this morning I'd pull the Clip on ww ingots out of my stash of raw materials, remember me mentioning "marking" ingots to avoid confusion?, I have 900 lbs clip on ww marked as such with a metal stamping set so I will know what it is forever!

I would then fire up my pot set up and, using just straight clip on ww to make them, cast what I needed. I would then size and lube using Carnuba Red, my latest lube and the best so far, and load them with no fear of leading in a velocity range of 900 to 1100 FPS.

I'm a big believer in "keeping it simple"! In casting this is even more important as it's supposed to be a "hobby" that we relax while doing.

Hope I made a suggestion or two that helps.

[milprileb]

HeavyMetal: supply of WW metal here is off and on. On average I end up with equal amounts of lead and wheel weights (clip on), so I want to use both metals but if I go pure WW, then the lead (range lead which is free) is worthless. The hard metal to keep in supply in WW s if I can blend WW and lead and get as much useful alloy possible for bullets, then thats the ideal solution. Linotype is not to be had here after 3 yrs of searching hard so range lead and WW metal is my menu of metal resources.

so thats why I am asking about blends/ alloy mixes. I am not sure more lead than 50% is wise if I want to avoid leading. I am looking for what is optimum lead to ww mix that will suffice for 9mm and let me make best use of metal resources. Shooting pure ww is not a viable option.

[Cherokee]

Try the 50/50, worst is you have to remelt the "to soft" bullets. And the time spent was worth the learning experience. My 9mm likes WW+tin alloy for accuracy.

[HeavyMetal]

I can understand trying to get as many boolits as possible from available supplies!

I wouldn't think range lead would be anywhere near pure. Sure your going to get a lot of 22 stuff as well as some 38 target wadcutters but I bet your not the only caster in the hood that shoots there unless you on a privately owned range.

I guess the best thing to do, if you have some type of hardness tester, is get a BHN reading frm range lead ingots and then mix accordingly.

If you don't have or know someone who has a hardness tester than I will second the idea of making a small batch of 50 50 and cast some to try out, but in the end I think you'll find 70% WW and 30% range lead will get you what you want