How to use pure lead

[ghh3rd]

I'm casting for .38 and .40 cal. I have about 50 lbs of what I suspect is pure lead.

From what I understand, I can use pure lead (with perhaps 2% tin to help fill out in the mold). Will this also work for my .40?

I've heard that wheel weights work great as is because they already have tin an antimony. I've also heard of mixing wheel weights with pure lead to make the pure lead useable for higher pressure loads.

Since I think I'll be able to find more pure lead than wheel weights, what is the suggested ratio of wheel weights to pure lead to make it useable in for my .40?

Thanks - Randy

[clintsfolly]

Yes add 2% tin or 25%or more WW OR 10% lino or shoot as is. have fun Clint:castmine:

[ghh3rd]

Yes add 2% tin or 25%or more WW
That's where I'm confused. Don't the wheel weights have Antimony to make them harder. Just adding 2% tin to pure lead won't harden it.

Also, if adding 25% wheel weights to pure lead make a satisfactory 'soup', it would seem to be a good idea to conserve wheel weights by always mixing them with pure if wheel weights are scarce, correct?

Thanks -Randy

[Willbird]

Straight lead tin alloys were used for may years, 1/20 was very common for scheutzen rifles. I have mixed pure lead and WW 50/50 and water dropped from the mold and they got equally as hard as 100% WW. Myself I would try to trade the pure lead for WW, BP shooters LOVE pure lead :-). Let them scrounge the WW for you :-).

Bill

[missionary5155]

Greetings
Down here I am hard pressed to come up with materials. I am using near pure lead miwed with any old solder joints I can fine. All materials are reused here. Nothing gets thrown away.
So my everyday mix is probably less than 40-1. I reuse my own lead and any fired bullets I can get my hands on. But run it hot and it will cast just fine. I use this mix in my 357 and 44-40 and 12 guage RB. I have shot it in my 44-40 SRC and used 10 grains Unique. My old lyman says this will produce 1335 oin a 24 inch barrel. My barrel is 18" so I donot know for sure how fast my FPS is. But I would think 125´+. My lube is 50/50 beeswax and bearing grease. No leading and excellent expansion at 50 -70 yards. So I am saying all this so you know you do not need much tin and you do not need to mix any other alloys to shoot.
But id you want to get Magnum loads then I would also mix 50/50 WW and pure. If that leads add more WW or just go pure WW.
Pressure at the chanber is the issue you will need to address. Less pressure and softer mix. That is why Black power can hurl soft lead to 1500 FPS in express loads... LOW presure but for the whole barrel length. So iuf you are going to use Black... go soft. Low pressure smokeless Go soft. A good lube and you can push soft boolits a lot faster than you will think.
I shoot all sorts of 38 rifles. A 40 is not much difference. I use soft and not so soft mixes... but I certainly do use the softest I can as a like expansion when my boolits smack. Whether it is a ground hog, deer, coyote or a BIG wild dog... I want to make a wide channel for blood flow. The only exception I can think of at this minute is dangerous critters that can chew me in half quickly. Then I WANT my double 12 guage with a WW Round ball and 1500+ FPS to do some serious SMASHING and penetration. But for a deer and less... SOFT.
Mike God Bless you.

[suerto]

I have a question concerning this as well.. I have berm scrap and WW sepreated ingots and a lee hardness tester.. Made a couple of bullets from the scrap and then from the WW, hardness tested them. I'm getting an 8.0-8.7 bnh on the tester, according to my accurate load manual, max pressure for #5 powder with a 175gr Lead SWC pressure could be up to 35,000 psi.. Refer this back to the "lee hardness tester chart" and that would require me to have bullets hardness testing around 27-28 BHN for max pressure of 35,000..

Am I reading these pressure charts wrong (from the powder load manual and the hardness tester manual)? Are they referring to two different pressure ratings?

I must be if you guys are saying that WW work fine in ANY pistol load..
I am loading .40 with Accurate #5 lee mold 175gr SWC..

Please lemme know what I am thinking wrong..

thanks,
Brian

[sheepdog]

Straight lead tin alloys were used for may years, 1/20 was very common for scheutzen rifles. I have mixed pure lead and WW 50/50 and water dropped from the mold and they got equally as hard as 100% WW. Myself I would try to trade the pure lead for WW, BP shooters LOVE pure lead :-). Let them scrounge the WW for you :-).

Bill

+1. We can harden our alloy alot easier then they can soften theirs. If for no other reason give them the chance to do what they love before they have to start "watering down" clip-ons

[Tom Herman]

Hi Randy!

I have settled on the above alloy for my everyday revolver work.
Tin doesn't harden much, I let the wheel weights do that, but it helps greatly in mold fillout.
I use a home made bullet lube that's a dead ringer for SPG, and it does wonderfully for me in the .44's, .45's, and .455 Webley. I shoot at velocities up to about 850-900 FPS.
Once I tried a 2:1 lead to ww alloy, but I had horrendous leading in my Ruger .45 LC Redhawk. YMMV....

Happy Shootin'! -Tom