Salvaged lead Questions

[AR-15 Cowboy]

I recently bought some lead from a salvage yard. I got twenty pounds of Linotype lead, twenty five pounds of wheel weights, half stick-on and half with clips, and two twenty five pound bags of #8 shot. I processed all of it into ingots and cast two boolits from each batch to weigh. I used a Lee 2 cavity 228 gn. .452 mold. The Linotype boolit weighted 200.6 grs. The wheel weights were 224 grs. and the shot was 227 grs. I thought shot was pure lead. Lee says the mold was made using a 10 to 1 lead tin mixture. Is there tin in the shot mixture? or something else? I'm shooting for a 228 gr. boolit with a BHN of 12.

[bumpo628]

From what I have read, #8 shot would have 6% antimony and 1.25% arsenic.

[AR-15 Cowboy]

No tin, that is really what I need is a little tin. The arsenic will help with the water hardening. I looked at the Cast bullet reference page and they say nothing about the mix for shot.

[stubshaft]

There is usually no tin in shot. You can sweeten it with some solder if you want the tin component. The stick on WW are usually pure and if you mixed them with the clip ons then you lowered the BHN of the alloy. The clip ons alone should have been around 12BHN but there is no accounting for weight.

Now you can go back and measure the slugs you've made to see which comes closest to your target diameter.

The thing that matters most is fit!

[AR-15 Cowboy]

I have to run them through my Lee sizing die or they won't even fit in the barrel, so I wasn't really concerned about diameter as much as weight.

[southpaw]

With the ww and shot you are dropping boolits pretty close to the advertised weight. I wouldn't worry any about it. Lube, size, load and shoot.

Unless you are having trouble with fill out I wouldn't waste the tin. I use straight ww with the temp at ~700* and cast fast with no fillout issues.

Jerry Jr.

[AR-15 Cowboy]

That's what I think I'll do. Shoot some and see how they fly.

[Bob Krack]

The Lee moulds happens to be my favorite of the most cost effective moulds. I own Lee, Lyman, Rcbs, Ohaus, Accurate, and Noe moulds. I still say, dollar for dollar, Lee is the best buy.

However, I have found an extreme variation in diameter and weight as cast from the Lee moulds. Don't hurt anything I do, but will for some.

My point being, if ya wanna compare apples with apples, cast a few samples using pure lead (or stick-on wheel weights - about as close as you will find without extra cost).

The Lee tech I spoke to a few years ago told me that the mould samples were verified using 90% lead and 10% tin. Some might use that alloy, but not me for most any shooting might do.

Bob

[Bob Krack]

Another point I think I am seeing here. With the proper fit, I do not believe a BHN or 12 or necessary and in some cases not even desirable.

Nomex on??? doubt it.

Bob

[AndyC]

The Lee tech I spoke to a few years ago told me that the mould samples were verified using 90% lead and 10% tin.
Those must be expensive darned boolits! :holysheep

[Defcon-One]

No tin, that is really what I need is a little tin. The arsenic will help with the water hardening. I looked at the Cast bullet reference page and they say nothing about the mix for shot.

Tin is used in bullet metal to reduce the surface tension of the molten metal, which leads to better mold fill out.

In shot making you want surface tension in the molten lead so that you get the roundest shot possible. More surface tension means a better sphere. Thus, no Tin means rounder pellets, so there is no Tin in lead shot.