What is this?

[Chaplain Curley]

A friend of mine gave me what looks like a bar of solder. It weighs about a pound. It is marked National Lead Co. 50 - 50. It has the makings 111 on each end of it. It is about 3/4" wide and 13" long. Can I make boolits out of this or add it to wheel weights? Thanks

[twotrees]

It would be 50/50 solder. Weigh it as it should be more than a pound. Adding small amounts to WW's will help the fill out on boolits. I alloy some for BPCR at 20-1 pure to solder or 30-1 they shoot great in 45 Colt and 45 ACP.

Good shooting,

[Shiloh]

Way to precious for boolits alone. As stated by twotrees, it is alloy additive.
What boolits are you making/shooting??

Shiloh

[cajun shooter]

Use it for making your alloy for your best rifle or pistol bullets. I don't use it for plinking bullets.

[Chaplain Curley]

I am very new to boolit casting. I will be casting .38/357 swc. I am using wheel weights mostly.

[leadman]

If you use a #10 pot, put a small amount in, about the same size as 2 or 3 bullets. Cast a few bullets and see how the driving bands and base are filling out. Adjust until you are getting what you want for fill out.

[Echo]

Figuring WW's for .5% tin, and the goal to be 1-2%, weigh ingots to come up to, say, 8 lbs (96 oz). Adding 1 oz of tin would bring the alloy up to 1-2%. So then weigh out 2 oz of 50/50, add to the melt, stir nicely, and start turning out great boolits! You will be able to augment several pots full of WW's w/that bar...

[Chaplain Curley]

Thank you. This information is very helpful. Also, I need to order a Lee bullet sizer. Should I order a .357 or a .358? My wife and I shoot a S&W 686 with a 8-3/4" bbl, a Ruger GP100 wit a 6" bbl, and also a Marlin 357 lever action 1894.

[cajun shooter]

358 will most likley give better results

[Echo]

+1 for .358, but check the cylinders, and size to fit the mouth, up to whatever will chamber. .360 is correct for my .38 Special and .357 Mag.

[WHITETAIL]

Curly, Welcome to the forum!:holysheep

[WILCO]

Curly, Welcome to the forum!:holysheep


Yeah, what he said! :Fire:

[MtGun44]

Slugging barrels in non-revolvers and cylinder throats and barrels in revolvers is the
only sure way to know what size you want. If you want one load for all three, you
will need to see who needs the fattest boolit and see if the other two can tolerate
it that fat. Usually OK at .358, but not for all guns.

More than a few Marlins have been reported to need pretty fat boolits for good accy.

Bill

[Chaplain Curley]

What is the proper method for slugging the barrel? Never did this before. Thanks in advance