to mix or not to mix

[Catsmith]

i am just getting started in casting. i have about 80 lbs of coww in ingits, some soft fishing lead, some real soft decoy lead, some 50/50 and some pewter. i cast my first boolits the other day and am learning as i go.

my question is, is it better to keep all this seperate as i learn or mix a batch for future use. is there a staple mix i can make a batch of for 38? or is coww good enough with 2% tin?

[John in WI]

Welcome to the addiction!
I only have about a year in, and so I'm no expert by any stretch. But I was in your position. I had been collecting lead for about 5 years before I actually got around to pursuing the hobby.I had some lead pipe, WW, solder, an isotope container our safety officer at work gave me...

I didn't think much about it and threw it all in a big pot with the idea that I would have a uniform alloy. That's great--until I needed some soft lead to make expanding boolit. And something harder for good, hard buckshot. I had a lot of something in between.

So I ended up with about 50# of a "mystery alloy". It does fine for the .38. But probably any one of the alloys would have done fine by itself. If I could do it again, I would have ingotized them separately and carefully marked them, then mixed it as needed. That's the way I do it now. In fact, when I got more serious and careful about casting I alloyed the above mystery metal with about 100# of a truly mystery lead--outdoor range scrap.

[I'll Make Mine]

Keep it separate until you know what alloy you want to create, at least...

[trapper9260]

I keep it all by it self in igots, and what I have as unknow I test it for BHN and then stamp it with what the BHN and then when I needed some of that hardness or soft I take it ,or I just add to it to harden it up.

[Larry Gibson]

COWWs with 2% tin added is excellent not only for the .38 SPL but for numerous rifle and handgun cartridges upwards of 2000 fps.

Larry Gibson

[badbob454]

if it was me i would use 50/50 in the 38 special 50 coww's /50 soft lead , add some tin 2-3% and it should shoot well and expand in the slower velocity handgun ..... also mix only what you may use in the next casting session in ingots keep extra lead seperated by antimony /tin ./ hard soft etc , example .
40 pounds 50/50 100 lbs linotype / 75 lbs hi tin content/ 50lbs monotype or stereotype , 100lbs soft lead / 500lbs coww's , dont ingotize the type metals or pure tin as its hard to resale that way