Alloy vrs dropped size of boolit

[samwithacolt]

So I just cast my 1st boolits with my new Lyman 314299. I was in a bit of a rush and just used the range lead that was in my pot(mostly cast pistol boolits) to see what size they dropped. They are measuring .312-313. I'm a little dissapointed as I hoped to have .314's for my Enfeild.
So what alloys drop bigger or smaller? I have straight SOWW and COWW ingots. Will tin make a difference? Everything was hot, and the boolits are well formed with sharp edges.. By the time I was done the lead was hot enough that I had to wait for the sprue to solidify before dropping them.
COWW? Tin?

[spfd1903]

Recent experience only: Cast some NOE 314299 with 20:1 alloy and got .313 diameter boolits. Same with Lee C309-170-F, got a .3085 diameter boolit. Switched to a 50% Linotype, 50% Lead alloy (94-3-3) and got .3145 and .311 respectively, which is what I was looking for.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

Here is a thread on this subject.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?96770-Alloy-induced-diameter-variations

[Larry Gibson]

Keep in mind your Lyman 314299 was designed and cut to drop .314+ diameter bullets with Lyman #2 alloy. Alloys that are markedly different in the antimony to ration and % will many times give smaller diameter bullets. Range lead (RL) is most often not well balanced with a good lead to tin to antimony %.

Hard to say what is in the range lead you have but my experience over the years is there is a high % of antimony and a low % of tin in your alloy. I've 3 different batches of "range lead" form 3 different ranges; 2 indoor and 1 out door. There was a good mix of hard cast bullets and jacketed along with some .22LR bullets on the indoor stuff. The out door range was mostly hard cast as it was a handgun range. I found all 3 batches grossly deficient in tin. I did some testing of various mixes and found that adding pure lead to the RL at 3 parts RL to 1 part lead and then adding 2% tin produced bullets that gave excellent fill out and AC'd had a 12 BHN +/-. When WQ'd the BHN of the bullets was around 18 which is quite sufficient for a lot of rifle shooting. You might try that mix with your 314299.

Also I suggest straight COWWs + 2% tin which should give .314 diameter bullets from your 314299.

And yes, tin will make a difference. The addition of tin to COWWs and RL balances the tin to antimony ratio so it will mix better in solution with the lead and the antimony won't harden before the lead does. The tin also increases fill out in the mould as with a balanced ternary alloy (Lead, tin and antimony) the surface tension of the melted alloy is less.

Larry Gibson

[samwithacolt]

Thanks,
I have some straight COWW, will pick up some sodder to throw in too. I am curious to see the result.