Casting with magnum shot

[35Whelen]

Gentlemen.
I have been researching and haven't come up with an answer, so I could use your expert opinions. A while back I got my new 20 lb Lee lead casting furnace. I got busy one night with it and decided to practice a bit. I had about 15lbs of #4 MAGNUM bird shot that I wanted to give a try with. I added about 4% tin for fill out. It made wonderful looking first time boolits. Only a handful of rejects as the Accurate molds came up to temp.

My question is this. How would these bullets perform for a hunting bullet. I am shooting them out of a 358 Win and 45-70. They filled out great, sharp lube grooves and mic'd them out right where the mold says they should be. Will they be too hard or too soft? I have no way of testing them for BHN. I did place some in a pan of water up the the crimp groove and heated the nose of the rounds up for about 8-10 seconds with butane torch.....once cooled the nose marked easily with a fingernail and were softer on the nose than ones that I did not anneal.

I took a couple to the anvil with a 3lb hammer and beat them flat....they held together very well and did not tear or crumble apart. I know I could have some idea by shooting them and see how they group and if they lead the barrel at all, but was wondering what your experiences of opinions would be?

Thought, comments, concerns or criticisms welcome.

Thanks in advance..

[Oreo]

I think they will be fine but by the numbers you could probably get by with half the tin next time. 4% tin is wasteful no matter what. Magnum shot likely has about 2% antimony. Ideally you want equal parts antimony and tin, and at about 2% each. Fortunately, tin isn't brittle when in excess. Having said that, magnum shot also contains a higher then needed trace of arsenic which you might also view as wasteful. Arsenic at .25% allows for hardening a boolit with water dropping and heat treating. People seek out alloy with arsenic content for this reason and magnum shot is basically the only way to get it these days, but magnum shot is arsenic rich at 1-2%. It shouldn't be a problem for you but maybe next time you can increase your holding of hunting alloy by trading the magnum shot.

[RogerDat]

Lyman #2 alloy is 5/5/90 percentages of tin/antimony/lead, so while you don't need all that 4% tin it does cast nice and will be especially forgiving when just getting started. For hunting with higher velocity round you need the antimony for a bullet hard enough to handle getting pushed that fast but tin to keep it from getting brittle so it stays together on impact rather than shattering.

Lot of folks use 2/3/95 alloy. Which is essentially clip on WW's with 2% tin. I will say it works and casts pretty well but the richer Lyman #2 I mix up is easier to get nice casts out of. At a cost for the additional tin.

SOWW's have some arsenic which I think is a catalyst to aid heat treating but not sure if it is required or if just having antimony will still harden if water dropped, my base metal is COWW's so some arsenic always present. I do know it does not take much arsenic to make a difference. Fraction of 1% is enough.

[Oreo]

Arsenic must be present for water dropping & heat treating to make a difference but only .1-.25%. More then that is waste.

[35Whelen]

Thanks guys.....I think I was itching to get some casting in and try my hand at it. I didn't have any WW in ingots, but I have probably 1800 lbs of unsorted I will have to get smelting. I also had about 350lbs of pure lead, but nothing to mix with it. Appreciate the replies and can hardly wait to get out and get some shooting in. Its been far too long with work being away from home and all. Hoping this coming fall will change things.
Always love reading on the site, so much information, so little time.