Groups of "ideal" alloy mixtures

[Timber Ghost]

Hey fellas. I was just wondering what some of your favorite alloy mixes are for your different loads? I have access to a foundry that custom manufactures lead alloys to any specs you desire. The primary rounds that I would be casting for are mainly my pistols for target and I would even like to develop rounds for good home defense. I would be casting for .357, .44 Mag, 9mm and .45 ACP. The primary rifle rounds that I would be casting for are 30-30, 300 Sav., 32 special, 32-20, 45-70 Gov, .444 marlin and 30-06. I would like to develop castings suitable for target but want to emphasize more on developing hunting loads for the majority of them.

The alloys that I have been eyeballing are:
96% lead, 2% antimony, 2% tin
90% lead, 5% antimony, 5% tin
92% lead, 4% antimony, 4% tin
Linotype alloy
and pure lead
I also have been seeing people experimenting with copper in their mixes also. Would adding 1-2% of copper be too much? I was thinking something like 92% lead, 4% antimony, 2%- 3% tin, 1%-2% copper.

The quotes that the foundry has given to me are less than .20 cents more than what it would cost me to alloy them myself. In the case of the lyman#2 with the higher tin content, It is actually cheaper to have the foundry do it for me..... A LOT cheaper. Which of the above alloys would be best in my pistols and which would be best out of my rifles for hunting purposes. If you have any other suggestions for alloy ratios that you think would perform well out of the rounds that I will primarily be casting, I appreciate any info towards it, thank you all in advance.

[runfiverun]

i have 2 main alloys i use.
1% tin and 3% antimony.
and 4% tin and 6% antimony.
the 1/3 is used for the vast majority of the shooting i do.
i water drop it for rifles,and air cool for most everything else.
the 4/6 is used for mold manipulation and for higher velocity stuff.
i wouldn't add more than 0.5% copper.

[dragon813gt]

For hunting w/ my 357 I use 96/2/2. Unfortunately I can't say it's worked well on any game. Worked the load up in the fall and it performed great in my expansion tests. No game seen during the season so I will have to wait until fall if this year to attempt it again.

For plinking I use what's on hand. Usually COWW of unknown content or isotope lead at 96/3/1. Just received a mold for my 308 so it's time to work up a load/alloy for that.

[Lloyd Smale]

youll chuckle at mine. I had probably 2 tons of lead in my barn when it burned. Pure, ww, lino, tin #2. The barn burned to the ground but the whole dirt floor had sheats of melted lead. I dug them up and spent most of the summer remelting it and cleaning it. I melted it all into 3 lb ingots in 150 lb batches kept them all seperated then took ingots from each batch and combined them and remelted the whole thing and when i got done i did it one more time. I ended up with an alloy that tests about 17 bhn and casts like a dream. Id guess its a bit rich in tin as there was about 200 lbs of babbit in the barn and i know i recovered all of that. Ive still got about 15 5 gallon pails full of 3lb ingots. Ive even thought about getting it tested so someday i could repeat it as ive never had an alloy cast so nice.

[wingnut49b]

Lloyd -

That is both quite funny, and almost tragic... I don't know that I'd have done anything different with it.

[303Guy]

It seams like a balanced alloy would have the tin balancing the antimony plus copper. Not a lot of copper is needed from what I can tell. I've made a tin rich alloy which seams to me to be too hard for expansion but it is not brittle which is the idea. I'm about using materials I can get cheaply and that is lead pipe with solder joints, pewter (not very cheap) and copper which isn't cheap but only small amounts are needed. I haven't come across lino or mono in a while and COWW are like hens teeth - scarce. But the content is unknown anyway.

Why not get a sweetener made up to add to lead (should be plenty of lead pipe around - there is in my parts)? Less antimony plus a little copper reduces brittleness.

[Defcon-One]

I use two alloys:

For rifles, all of them, I use Lyman #2: (90% lead, 5% antimony, 5% tin) with gas checks!

For handguns, I use my #23 alloy: (95% lead, 3% antimony, 2% tin) gas checks on some Magnum loads, the rest plain based.

Both cast well and shoot well, but you will do what you want, as you should.

Enjoy the search, it is what this is all about. Well that and the shooting!

DC-1

[alfloyd]

Defcon-One
96% lead, 3% antimony, 2% tin

This totals 101% :)
Your math is as bad as mine:)

Lafaun

[blackbike]

Defcon-One
96% lead, 3% antimony, 2% tin

This totals 101% :)


Lafaun

That should make some fat boolits!

[Defcon-One]

Yes, I meant 95% lead, 3% antimony, 2% tin!

Fat fingers from carrying all those heavy buckets. Typo fixed!

[303Guy]

I've done an experiment with lead and pewter with some dissolve copper. I ended up with 3.6% tin and 0.4% copper (approx) and this stuff behaves like 50/50 clip-on/lead. The good part is it seems ready to load and shoot straight from the mold, no water dropping. Not suggesting that alloy, just saying that small amounts of copper does seem to have benefits.