Lead/tin mix

[bigted]

Just had a revelation on lead mix's while trying to get Minnie boolits to group in a 1863 Remington remake rifle.

Short story long ... Discovered that the lead I have used for years in my bpcr loading did terrible in my 1863 but pure lead did the trick very nicely and allowed great groups finally.

What I am leading up to here is my continued puzzle over not getting any of several rifles ... To include Shiloh and ped sharps, rolling blocks and a couple hiwall Winchester's ( japchesters) to group with any predictability. I have changed literally everything several times to discover the why with the exception omy lead.

Is there a reason at all not to try the same pure lead that has allowed me success with my 1863 muzzleloader.

Other then a very soft boolits that can get deformed very easily ... Is there any reason to shy away from the pure lead?

[country gent]

As long as bullets have good fillout and consistancy with pure lead, You can give it a try. use a good lube and watch neck tension close as the bases could be deformed or swaged down easily. I have cast pure lead for paper patched bullets with good results, but here a grease cookie is under the bullet and lead never touches the bore. You might try working backwards from 20-1 then 30-1 then 40-1 simply by casting out theweight of bullets and adding pure lead to the pot to lower tin content. It takes some experimentation with some rifles barrels to find what they like

[Chill Wills]

The alloy you find accuracy with will be linked closer to the bullet design you choose a lot more than the rifle you shoot them in; assuming something in the way of correct size match bullet/rifle to begin with.
Blunter bullet of the correct size will tolerate softer alloy. High aerodynamic bullet noses need hard lead to cope with the forces of setback or nose slump.

If the bullets and rifle are mismatched and the bullet does not fill the chamber/throat well, a soft alloy will or can help bump up.
Generally, shoot the hardest bullet alloy you can get accuracy with and the bullet will deform least upon firing.

[montana_charlie]

Discovered that the lead I have used for years in my bpcr loading did terrible in my 1863 but pure lead did the trick very nicely and allowed great groups finally.
What was the alloy that couldn't make good Minnie balls?

[bigted]

It was some lead mix left over from a batch I got from "muddy Creek Sam" that is pretty hard ... I need to get a hardness tester.

[Red River Rick]

Bigted:

IIRC, Muddy Creek Sam was selling the large isotope cores. And they are not pure PB.

Here's a link, listing most of the isotope cores and their composition, it may help: http://www.fellingfamily.net/isolead/index.html

RRR

[montana_charlie]

It was some lead mix left over from a batch I got from "muddy Creek Sam" that is pretty hard ... I need to get a hardness tester.
I think that runs about 10.5 BHN ... pretty far from typical Minnie ball material.

[Toymaker]

No reason to shy away from it at all. For my Pedersoli Creedmoor Rolling Block (45/70) I went to pure lead and solved a number of problems. I didn't like having to heat everything up so much to get good fill-out on the Hoch 500 grain bullets so I gave 30:1 a try. It helped a lot getting good fill-out at 750°F, consistent bullet weight and my accuracy hung in there just fine. Came out to be BHN 8, so I have some lead of unknown mix that tests BHN 8 and I'm thinking of giving it a try too. Also thinking of trying Keith's favorite mix, 25:1

[bigted]

Thanks ... All great info and the pure I have came from a vender on flea bay.

I was pretty sure ithe isotopes were kinda hard. I will cast some pure lead boolits and give em a try. Can't do more then smear lead down the bore.

[bigted]

Cast some Lee 405/.459 hollow base ( one of my favorites) and as usual they came out at .460 ... However had fun at first getting good fill and a good base but after awhile the heat in lead and mould came together for some good boolits.

Took them and ran em in the Lyman luber/sizer (altho the .460 sizer barely touched the boolits) and loaded 70 grains KIK 2Fg powder , compressed enough to have the boolits engrave on the first band. CCI 200 primers and unsized WW brass with just enough flair to finger seat the boolits on the powder/.060 vegi wad.

After checking all loads for chambering in the Browning 1885 BPCR rifle ... I am ready for some good weather to go test them.