Buying some alloy

[dddddmorgan]

So I'm looking at possibly buying some alloy from Plum Bum Casting Company. I saw the ad on this forum and I like what I see.

My huge new Lyman furnace is hungry and boy does it have a voracious appetite!

So my question is about the "range lead" listed. Any guidance on what I can expect?

The website states a BHN of approximately 9.5 to 11.5 which is fine for my needs.

[kevin c]

The fact that the BHN varies that much means the range lead varies from lot to lot. Not just hardness, but other characteristics may vary too, including weight of the bullets from the same mold, amount of shrinkage (diameter) after cooling, terminal ballistics, etc.

For some applications, all that may not matter at all, for others, maybe a lot.

[triggerhappy243]

I have not listed any of my range lead for sale in several years. But what I have is all from factory pistol ammo from an indoor range that only allowed factory ammo. No reloads, no armor piercing and no shot gun. last batch i did tested 1.17 % antimony, .17 % tin. no zinc or copper or silver.
ingots are 20 pounds each, and each batch was 65 pounds each.

[243winxb]

Range lead to soft. BHN15- https://missouribullet.com/results.php?category=12

If i have to buy alloy, i will skip casting and buy finished bullets here. https://www.missouribullet.com/pricing.php

My alloy has been FREE for the last 50+ years. Except of some linotype as an inrichment metal.

[Bigslug]

One of my better science projects. This may help: https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?269789-Careful-Analysis-of-Segregated-Range-Scrap-Smelt&highlight=segregated+range+scrap

With their stated BHN range, I'd assume they're smelting mostly jacketed bullets with swaged, low-antimony percentage cores fired into the berms by the masses, and getting random inputs of cast containing higher quantities of antimony and tin. It's entirely possible they occasionally skim the impact area of trap and skeet ranges which will give them an antimony and arsenic bump.

At any rate, what they're selling is likely going to be a fine pistol alloy, so long as you keep tin on hand to ensure mold fillout.

[243winxb]

Ffom my old Lyman-
While antimony is used to harden the bullet, the mixture of tin is critical, for while antimony mixes with lead in its molten state, it will not remain mixed when it solidifies. If tin were not added, we would have pure antimony crystals surrounded by pure lead. A bullet of this type , while it feels hard , would certainly lead the bore and eliminate all potential for accuracy.. In a lead-tin-antimony mixture, the antimony crystals will be present just the same, but they will be imbedded in a lead-tin mixutre. As the bullet cools the tin will form around the antimony-lead keeping your bullets from leading the bore.

The tin lowers tne melt temperature, thats why bullets fill out better.

[triggerhappy243]

Range lead to soft. BHN15- https://missouribullet.com/results.php?category=12

If i have to buy alloy, i will skip casting and buy finished bullets here. https://www.missouribullet.com/pricing.php

My alloy has been FREE for the last 50+ years. Except of some linotype as an inrichment metal.

I do respect your stance on lead acquisition sources. But in my view, it is better to buy closer to pure than way to hard (more of a mystery metal.)
This way, you can build a useable alloy to your own requirements. Not everyone here in this group has access to free lead.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Roto-metals

[fredj338]

Range lead to soft. BHN15- https://missouribullet.com/results.php?category=12

If i have to buy alloy, i will skip casting and buy finished bullets here. https://www.missouribullet.com/pricing.php

My alloy has been FREE for the last 50+ years. Except of some linotype as an inrichment metal.

I'm kind of in the same boat. I have bought alloy in the past at good prices, especially since ww dried up. If I have to pay much more than $1/#, I am probably buying cast bullets. So far, that hasnt happened. I am fortunate to have sources for free alloy, range scrap & pure lead. Its the alloying elements I often trade for.

[dtknowles]

If you like the price buy that range scrap. Certainly, usable just wondering if all the ingots will be the same. You want consistency more than hardness. I buy local scrap, mostly pure, local berm mined range scrap and make alloy using type metal and solder bought online. If I could not get local scrap, I would buy range scrap online.
Tim

[Winger Ed.]

Some of the variable hardness is where or what ratio a certain batch came from.
Lead melted out of jackets is usually pretty pure Lead. There might be some cast boolits also on the rifle range
batch, but probably not much.

Lead from pistol ranges will have Lead from jackets too, some more or less pure Lead swaged ones,
but a variable amount of commercial and home cast that will be harder.

Pound for pound, there will normally be several times as many rounds fired on a pistol range than
the rifle ranges. That un-precise amount of cast boolits in the mix- especially on pistol ranges
is why the seller will leave some wiggle room as to the hardness.

[dddddmorgan]

I'm working on wheelweights but I don't hold much hope. Supposedly there's a bunch for the asking or very cheap.

I'm going to one of the recycling places for a repair job (I fix scales) and I know they get stuff from a local manufacturer so I will ask them how much "my" price is since this is a cash business and I save their bacon all the time after their forklift drivers abuse the scales ;-)

I’m in agreement that things need to be homogeneous so you have a known quantity if you will.

[fredj338]

I'm working on wheelweights but I don't hold much hope. Supposedly there's a bunch for the asking or very cheap.

I'm going to one of the recycling places for a repair job (I fix scales) and I know they get stuff from a local manufacturer so I will ask them how much "my" price is since this is a cash business and I save their bacon all the time after their forklift drivers abuse the scales ;-)

I’m in agreement that things need to be homogeneous so you have a known quantity if you will.
Just be aware that many of the ww are now NOT lead based. So your purchase may be not worth the cost or effort. I stopped scrounging ww here when the 5gal bucket was less than 50% lead based. There are some good vendors here selling ww lead & range scrap.