When You Cast What Alloy Formula do you use?

[Chill Wills]

7000 gr = 1 lb
432.5 = 1 oz

one OZ = 437.5 grains

[boho]

Just to keep things simple my formula 7-4-3. 7# cows, 4# soft and 3 ozs tin. Pretty close to what you want.

[jmort]

94/3/3
Use as is
Heat treat north of 20 bhn
Also like 1:20

[Oklahoma Rebel]

I use 5%sb-5%sn-89.5%pb+.4-.6%cu (copper) I love this mix, and it is great with my rifles, and I think, for full house mag. loads in 44 mag, it will be good. air cooled for the pistol, heat treated for the rifles. of course for any other pistols, like my 38, I use 2%sn, 2%sb .

[MaryB]

I use the same as OK Rebel, get a little copper from the foundry type I have. I use it for 9mm, 223 plinking rounds(lee bator), and to cast for the Mosin Nagant. Seems ot be a good general purpose mix that shoots well. I cast a bunch of 45acp boolits for my gun dealer and he loved them. Went through 1,000 in a weekend.

[JBinMN]

After reading about the copper in the last 2 posts by OK Rebel & MaryB, I am kind of curious how ya get the copper melted into the alloy when it has a melt temp so high..?? Keep in mind that I am using a little Lee pot & 2 electric casting pots( I can't recall the maker name right now). I do not think either would get even close to 1984F temp to even start to melt copper.

Are you using some special kind of furnace?

And, What is the purpose of adding the copper?

It must make for more expensive bullets when ya compare the copper price to the other elements in many casting alloys for boolits.

I can go look/research about this, but I would like to hear from you folks about what you do & the reasons if ya can find the time to share. I am guessing there may be others who are curious as I am.


Thanks if ya can & will!

[Oklahoma Rebel]

there is a stick, 26 pages of info, also if you search copper sulphate you will find a 3-4 page post, that method is a little easier, and I would recommend it for beginners, for large batches (100lbs+) I use thick single strand copper wire (weigh out how much you need), stripped of insulation, and use it in place of a welding rod in my stick welder, I only do this in a metal pot ( half a propane tank) and you have to weld it in while it is molten, stirring often so you don't get clumps from welding in the same spot. this is how I do it, I do not recommend anyone else do it. I would try the copper sulphate, it is called zepps root killer, and you can get it in the plumbing section of home depot. be sure to read those posts first!

[Oklahoma Rebel]

*sticky

[Drm50]

Lead is something that is easy for me to come by, but it is of unknown alloy. WWs are not alike
either. Being that my casting is for handguns target loads I have never been technical as you guys
but I like to shoot for uniformity from batch to batch. I cast my WCs at: 50% lead-40% WWs and
Tin 10%. Been doing this for 40yrs. After reading that 2% tin should be max, I'm going to cut
back on tin to 5% and see how that affects bullets. The 25/20-32/20-38/40-44/40-45/70 I just
use 9lb WWs and add I bar of 50:50 solder. I'm not shooting barn burners out of these old guns
anyway.

[220]

If using virgin alloy with known % Ive settled on 3 alloys
1:3:96 for most low pressure handgun boolits
2:2:96 for most of my rifle hunting boolits pushed to 2000fps
2:6:92 for anything I need a harder boolit for

[JBinMN]

there is a stick, 26 pages of info, also if you search copper sulphate you will find a 3-4 page post, that method is a little easier, and I would recommend it for beginners, for large batches (100lbs+) I use thick single strand copper wire (weigh out how much you need), stripped of insulation, and use it in place of a welding rod in my stick welder, I only do this in a metal pot ( half a propane tank) and you have to weld it in while it is molten, stirring often so you don't get clumps from welding in the same spot. this is how I do it, I do not recommend anyone else do it. I would try the copper sulphate, it is called zepps root killer, and you can get it in the plumbing section of home depot. be sure to read those posts first!

Thanks! I will go look~~!

[Oklahoma Rebel]

no problem, you will have no problem understanding how to use the copper sulphate method ( zepps root killer) it comes in 2lb cans and I think I saw larger containers too, the ingredients say 1/4 copper metal, and that's what I use to calculate how much to use. good luck- Travis

[Soundguy]

• Muzzle loader soft plain lead, closer to pure the better.
• Pistol (in my case revolver) is 50/50 COWW/Plain lead plus tin to 1.4% Others use same for autoloader pistols. Tumble lube or Powder Coated.
• Rifle gas checked (303,8mm) Powder Coated 50/50 Lyman #2 / COWW's milder target loads.
• Rifle gas checked (7.62 Russian, .223, hot loads in 303 & 8mm) Powder Coated Lyman #2 (which comes in close to hardball mentioned above for BHN)

I would suggest checking the Swapping and Selling for COWW or plain lead. As well as pewter of solder. Should save you a good deal over Rotometals for general purpose lead. Rotometals can be good source for the higher end alloys such as super hard or Lyman #2.

Hard to beat Lyman #2, I use it for magnum pistol into gas checked rifle

[MaryB]

The foundry type I have( I smelted it down into ingots myself so know it was type metal) XRF tested with a small amount of copper. I do not remember how much off the top of my head...

[Oklahoma Rebel]

huh, I didn't know it had any copper, do you remember if it was a fraction of a percent (decimal) or whole % numbers

[beltfed]

For me, 9+1 ww/lino works for most of my shooting-smokeless pistol,rifle
and BPCR rifle- gg and Paper Patched.
except for straight lino for faster rifle bullets.
beltfed/arnie

[MaryB]

Under .5% and it is a contaminate that sneaks in during re-smelting from what an old printer told me.

huh, I didn't know it had any copper, do you remember if it was a fraction of a percent (decimal) or whole % numbers

[rmb721]

The alloy I use is 8# COWW and 1# linotype

[LenH]

I like using the alloy calculator, I have a pile of hardball (92-6-2) and just for giggles mixed about 80# of 94-3-3. I have a stash of Lyman #2 90-5-5 that an old
friend sold me for a song. I use that to mix different alloys. I like getting Linotype to use for mixing up different alloys.

It is all Redneck Gold!

[fredj338]

Pure range scrap with maybe a little tin for fill out.

For 95% of my handgun needs, range scrap is all I use & rarely do I need to add tin. It casts just fine, most of the time. 800-1100fps easy, with coatings, I can get by with a bit more vel if I need it.