Ratios for Bullets

[slk]

Ok guys I am loading smokeless powder (not black powder) Currently loading 45 colt. I most likely will run out of wheel weights soon. I have hundreds of lbs of pure lead, and a good stash of Pewter (which is roughly 95% tin and 5% antimony) What do think would be a good ratio of lead & pewter to get close to wheel weight or Lyman#2 hardness.

Steve

[454PB]

Assuming you are going to load for normal .45 Colt velocities, a mixture of 95% pure lead and 5% pewter will work fine if the boolits are sized correctly for your firearm. Tin is wonderful for adding casting fluidity, but poor for hardening the alloy and expensive. It might be a better idea to trade some of your pewter for an antimony rich alloy like linotype.

[dtknowles]

.............What do think would be a good ratio of lead & pewter to get close to wheel weight or Lyman#2 hardness.

Steve

First start cutting your wheel weights 50 50 with pure. That is a great pistol alloy. Give it a little pewter if you need to to make it cast better.

You can't get to #2 hardness no way and for the 45 you don't need to. 16 to 1 will get you close to wheel weights but that is an expensive alloy. Would make a small run with 30 to 1 and see if you get leading. If you have throats equal to or bigger than groove diameter and size to the throats you should be good if you stay with 45 colt factory ballistics or slower.

Tim

[Winger Ed.]

Look in the books for reloading date for the pure Lead swaged bullets.

Cast yours with just enough goodies in the alloy to make them cast well, and use swaged bullet powder charges.

[Larry Gibson]

If shooting 45 Colt loads for original ballistics then a 40-1 or 30-1 lead - tin alloy will do nicely. The small amount of tin added will make the bullets cast better.

For 40-1 alloy add 4.1 ounces of the pewter to 10 lbs of lead.

For 30-1 alloy add 5.1 ounces of the pewter to 10 lbs of lead.

[fredj338]

Yep, if shooting low pressure 45colt stuff, you could actually get by with pure lead if it casts. Either 50-50 clip ww & pure or enough tin to get good mold fill out, like 2%.

[slk]

Thank you all for the info. So if I want to make my stash of wheel weights last I can mix them half & half with pure lead and little tin

Steve

[Wayne Smith]

Yup, but this is a confusing thread. You started with pure and pewter, now on to ww. Very different levels of mix, as you realize.

[Drm50]

I’ve been running 20:1 for all my handguns. I’m not shooting any hot. 45Colt traditional 250Fn at factory dupe is just fine. For 25/20, 38/55 and 45/70 I load lead/ WWs and still add 20:1 tin to mix.The 20:1 works for me even in 32/20 rifles. My main concern is accuracy and leading. Deer is biggest thing I hunt and bullets work fine on them.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Thank you all for the info. So if I want to make my stash of wheel weights last I can mix them half & half with pure lead and little tin

Steve

Steve,
50-50 (pure-COWW...with a bit of tin)...also known as 97-1.5-1.5, is exactly what I use for 45 colt and 38 spl...or any other pistol calibers that I have chosen to load light (low pressure). I believe that is a very good, and even close to ideal alloy for that purpose.

[slk]

Yup, but this is a confusing thread. You started with pure and pewter, now on to ww. Very different levels of mix, as you realize.

Well I started with running out of wheel weights soon, but if I can double the volume buy mixing with pure lead that would be a plus for a while. And yes I have ample supply of pure lead to last me my life. For the pewter I have a lot, but that can be found at most garage sales too when my supply runs down. The antimony on the other hand is the problem.

[slk]

Steve,
50-50 (pure-COWW...with a bit of tin)...also known as 97-1.5-1.5, is exactly what I use for 45 colt and 38 spl...or any other pistol calibers that I have chosen to load light (low pressure). I believe that is a very good, and even close to ideal alloy for that purpose.

Thanks.. I will get to mixing.

[WRideout]

To add antimony to the alloy for hardness, lead shot works very well, even reclaimed. A bag of that could go a long way. Also, bullets mined from the range backstop produce an alloy that IME, is reasonbly hard and could be mixed with WW or pure.

Wayne

[slk]

i knew I had some other lead here, but could not find it until today. I have 40 lbs of bars that says on them 10SB90PB. (10% Antimony 90% pure lead) I should be able to cut them with some more pure lead and add some pewter (tin) to get quite a bit of good bullet material.

Steve

[kevin c]

That's a useful find!

To get antimony concentrations of, say 3% or more, a very high, known Sb content alloy is really helpful. Scrap typemetal was a common source, but is harder and harder to find. It also varies in Sb content. 30% Sb from Rotometals is available, if you need more Sb than you have.

[Tom Myers]

Ok guys I am loading smokeless powder (not black powder) Currently loading 45 colt. I most likely will run out of wheel weights soon. I have hundreds of lbs of pure lead, and a good stash of Pewter (which is roughly 95% tin and 5% antimony) What do think would be a good ratio of lead & pewter to get close to wheel weight or Lyman#2 hardness.

Steve

Steve,
using the Precision Cast Bullet Alloy Calculator (http://www.tmtpages.com/Alloy/alloycalc.htm) and assuming that the standard wheelweight alloy has a 95-4.5-0.50 ratio of Lead-Antimony-Tin.

The only reliable source that I know of for easily alloyed antimony is Roto Metals 5% Antimony alloy.

You can use a mixture of 0.5% Pewter, 89.5% RM 5% Alloy and 9.9% of pure lead to create a wheelweight alloy.

To mix up 18 lbs in a 20 lb pot you can use 2 oz. of Pewter, 258 oz. (16.12 lb.) of RM 5% and 29 oz. of pure lead.

267274

267276

Hope This helps.

[Land Owner]

Close(r) to JonB_in_Glenco I use COWW's (WW) and Lead (Pb) to make 100-pound batches of 50-50 alloy (by weight) and pour this into ingot molds.

At the casting pot I have pre-weighed the 50-50 ingots in pound's and ounces (~3# ea. ingot). To these 50-50 ingots (three at a time and about 10-pounds in total) I weigh and add "just enough" Tin (Sn) to achieve a 49-49-2 (Pb-WW-Sn by weight) alloy in the pot, which method and alloy "works" very well for me in 45 Colt.

This method keeps my tin available for other alloys.

[dangitgriff]

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