Got some pure lead for Xmas... what to alloy it with?

[djryan13]

Got a plumber in the family. He gave me 100lbs of this for Xmas:
https://www.cpesupply.com/2328224/Product/INGOTLEAD?gclid=Cj0KCQiA0ZHwBRCRARIsAK0Tr-pwgHTHsi2fhllsIKaGWjn8TmcAZedEUugsV2nukw7u_xX2kgYQ tJgaAgBZEALw_wcB

Probably pretty pure lead. I plan to use it pure for black powder loads and maybe mix with another alloy for powder coated mostly pistol loads. What would you recommend mixing it with? Anything at Rotometals you would recommend?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I like 50-50 Pure-COWW for low pressure pistols loads, like 38 spl or 45 acp.

[bmortell]

Mixing half and half with wheel weights and little bit of tin like 1% is easily the most common. Then use air cooled for soft lead or water dropped/heat treated for harder lead.

Probably my second favorite would be to mix with lyman #2 then you get a even amount of antimony and tin which works good for expanding bullets ratio mixed depends on how hard you need.

[mebudman63]

25 lbs of soft lead goes for that much? I`m not charging enough for what i have.

[kevin c]

RotoMetals is a convenient source of metals to alloy with, though what you get from them are largely certified alloys, and there's a premium you'll pay for that.

You have the pure, but if you're willing to pay retail price for a bit more lead, you could get RotoMetals' Linotype (84%Pb, 12% Sb, 4% Sn), which you can mix 1:1 with your plumbers lead to get 16 Brinell Hard Ball (92-6-2), or 1:3 with your dead soft to get a good pistol alloy at 96-3-1. With just the one alloy and pure, you're stuck with fixed ratios of Sb and Sn, though. Also, RM's Linotype metal comes at some cost, and scrap Lino is getting harder to find.

If you get some tin and a high Sb lead alloy like RotoMetals Super Hard (30% Sb, 70% Pb premixed) you could mix most any Pb/Sb/Sn trinary alloy you want. Scrap solder and thrift store pewter are fairly inexpensive alternatives to certified pure tin. Pure Sb is fairly difficult to alloy into lead with our home setups, so the Super Hard is both very useful and convenient.

Using clip on wheel weights and certain kinds of lead shot for the Sb, Sn and As content has the advantage of being a lot less expensive than certified metals and alloys. The As helps to heat treat harden the alloy, which is useful since I think COWW maxes out the Sb around 3%, and reduces the need for Super Hard.

[Phlier]

RotoMetals is a convenient source of metals to alloy with, though what you get from them are largely certified alloys, and there's a premium you'll pay for that.

You have the pure, but if you're willing to pay retail price for a bit more lead, you could get RotoMetals' Linotype (84%Pb, 12% Sb, 4% Sn), which you can mix 1:1 with your plumbers lead to get 16 Brinell Hard Ball (92-6-2), or 1:3 with your dead soft to get a good pistol alloy at 96-3-1. With just the one alloy and pure, you're stuck with fixed ratios of Sb and Sn, though. Also, RM's Linotype metal comes at some cost, and scrap Lino is getting harder to find.

If you get some tin and a high Sb lead alloy like RotoMetals Super Hard (30% Sb, 70% Pb premixed) you could mix most any Pb/Sb/Sn trinary alloy you want. Scrap solder and thrift store pewter are fairly inexpensive alternatives to certified pure tin. Pure Sb is fairly difficult to alloy into lead with our home setups, so the Super Hard is both very useful and convenient.

Using clip on wheel weights and certain kinds of lead shot for the Sb, Sn and As content has the advantage of being a lot less expensive than certified metals and alloys. The As helps to heat treat harden the alloy, which is useful since I think COWW maxes out the Sb around 3%, and reduces the need for Super Hard.

+1 to this.

Second hand store pewter for cheap tin, and RotoMetal's "Super Hard"... Great combination to turn your pure lead into literally any boolit alloy you want. Even though the Super Hard looks expensive, you won't be using much of it.

I turn most of my free pure/nearly pure lead into my own home brew of Lyman #2 alloy for use in 9mm using second hand store pewter and RotoMetal's Super Hard. Cheap and effective.

[Froogal]

For cowboy action shooting (mild loads), I have found that the Roto-Metals 1-20 lead works pretty good, so whatever alloy is used to produce 1-20 is what I would want to mix with pure lead.

[Land Owner]

25# pure
25# WW
1# tin

About 13.5 Bhn

Works for all handguns and 223 Bator

[Silvercreek Farmer]

What caliber/velocity pistol loads? For target level 38s or 44s specials, cast it up, PC it, and give it a try as is. Properly sized, in a properly demensioned revolver, they might just shoot just fine.

[Mitch]

Get on the email list for rotometals they have a sale now and then 10 to 15% off..I keep super hard around all the time.depending on how much you want the more you buy the better the price.I use anything i can find for tin.Have some bar and roll solder some pure tin i picked up from someone reasonable.