Mystery alloy

[str8shot426]

Melted down approximately 600 Lyman 311359 boolits I acquired in a basket buy. The lead alloy Is hard, melts at 450 degrees. It's also very shiny. Cast a few Lyman 358430 150gr. They came out about 5 grains light.

Any ideas.

[Handloader109]

Tin melts at 450f. If it was 100% tin, would be lighter so probably just very high tin concentration

[bangerjim]

Someone may have cast these with high Sn to allow adding one or two at a time to sweeten their pot....NOT to shoot! I have heard of some doing that. I would never do that because it is too easy to confuse them with normal alloy Pb boolits.

Only you will REALLY know is to take an ingot of it to a scrap yard and have an x-ray analysis. Most big yards have a gun and will do it for free....takes 10 seconds....expecially if you buy something!

Otherwise, you are just guessing. If you have the "lab" stuff, you could try a density in water check, but I have found that is a PITA and still does not tell you an darn thing about the % content.

I would NOT just cast and shoot the stuff until you know.

bangerjim

[jsizemore]

Some of the linotypes are in the 460-470degF range and would give you a 5 grain lighter boolit. If your casting for 38 special, I'd try 3-4 parts pure Pb to 1 part mystery alloy. If fillout is not complete cut back on the Pb.