Casting Boolits from leadfree Alloys

[closebutnocigar]

In Germany - Where I live - and eventually all over Europe a leadban is coming for all hunting Bullets and Shot.

They also want to change the seasons and make the sun to shine at Night to generate more Solar electricity but thats another Story.

I don’t want to give up hunting with CBs and tried different things.

Zinc (Zn) is very Hard to Cast, it must ne extremely hot and will Ruin the Moulds. The bullets fly True but this is Not my Business.

So I tried different Kinds of tin (Sn).

There are alloys which Antimon (Sb) and Copper (Cu) that cast well.

It is expensive but the Hardness is Good (about 20-25 Brinell) and with GC the bullets fly Great.

But I don‘t want to re-Invent the wheel and Hope someone found a Good Solution in Past I just don‘t know about.

So, someone out there who has done it before?

[StuBach]

Sorry for your trouble on this in your country. That sounds like a very tough regulation to have to put up with. I’d be curious what the reasoning for that law being on the books is. Fear of lead contaminating the meat sounds most likely but than I ask, we’ve been hunting with lead for centuries and all of a sudden it’s an issue? All well not trying to debate that here.

I’ve read of guys casting with zinc before but I don’t know how successful they have been. There are threads on the subject on the forum if you go searching.

What kind of molds are you using that are/would be getting ruined by the heat? Might be worth trying a different manufacturer if you having those kinds of issues cause I can say I’ve ran zinc once and had it hot enough to pour and had no issues with my iron molds I was using at the time. Could see it being an issue with aluminum especially the Lee’s which seem like a lower quality alloy than the alloy used by MP/NOE/Accurate. Not sure on brass, have to assume no issue for iron.

Again, haven’t played with it much but possible alloying the zinc and tin might make the fill out better? Never tried just speculating here. I’m sure there is a sticky thread around here that goes over how to do it and make it work.

[closebutnocigar]

Well, the Heat is Not the Main Problem, the hardness of the zinc Alloy is.

It will Ruin Lee Moulds nearly instantly, but RCBS and Lyman will suffer, too.

There is an expansive zinc alloy „Wedicitin“ that is Used By people to cast Modell Trains and Modell Tanks. It is Perfect to cast Even difficult small bulletbands but still casts too hot and about 100 Brinell is much to hard.

Britannia Metal or Pewter is the better Choice. There are different alloys made from Tin (Sn), Antimon (Sb) and Copper (Cu) sometimes with 1-3% lead.

Hardness is about 20-25 Brinell depending on your alloy.

It casts Great because that is what it’s Made for.

The Bullets weight about 0,65 of the original Weight.

About politics: Is california really better?

After all the very strict guns Laws has been Made Even worser.

The Election Program of the second largest Party Says that they want to ban all civil gunownership.

In, I am not kidding, this is True.

So the lead ban is Said to protect the Environment but the truth is they just want to ban it to make shooting as expensive as possible to make People to stop it.

After that there will be Less and less gunowners and as soon the number is small enough the will take away all guns with force.

I am not kidding, you may use a Google translator and read online newspapers.

[ButchC]

According to Rotometals website for their non-lead alloy:

This ratio of~ 87.25% Bismuth, 0.75% Antimony and 12% Tin is the best ratio we have come up with as a substitute for lead. This alloy melts at about 395 F and is best cast or poured at about 500F. Testing the hardness with a Lee Hardness Testing Kit, we came up with an average of 19.3 on the Brinnell Hardness Scale, although there was a range during the testing.

The bismuth gives you the weight (as close to lead as possible) and the tin helps holds it together and makes it less brittle. This is an alloy we have been asked to make a few times so we decided to make a larger batch and have it easily available to everyone. As we are still testing this alloy, we are offering it at a lower cost and asking customers for feedback and their thoughts on how it works. Yes, we know it costs way more then a lead version, but hopefully with more volume, we can offer better prices in the future. One item of feedback we got from our customer follows:

I have some results from shooting this alloy over the weekend, very favorable in the limited testing I did. Accuracy and high velocity is not a problem if the bullet fit to the rifle's throat is right. No bore fouling, no problems at all. I even cleanly killed a small whitetail spike buck with my .223 Saturday using the alloy you sent.
I documented the entire work here on this bullet-casting forum, Load information, approximate velocity, and target ranges are in the text with the appropriate photos. Link to the forum thread https://www.artfulbullet.com/index.p...ng-alloy.5585/

[closebutnocigar]

Thank you!

[GregLaROCHE]

You should consider looking for pewter/tin items for sale at flea markets. Often they are cheap and a good source of tin if you want to go that way.

[closebutnocigar]

Yes, but this will make no good Bullets.

I Need a constant alloy.

1 Kilogramm of commercial alloy tin/antimony/copper will cost about 32 Euro.

A .458/ 400 Grains Bullet from this weights about 260 Grains or 16,8 Gramm. So 1000 Gramm makes 59,5 Bullets.

A Single one costs 0,537 Euro.

A lead free Barnes bullet in .458 will cost AT LEAST 1,75 Euro in Germany if you can buy it which is not possible since several months.

And no one knows if and when they will send stuff again.

So I can keep the Tradition of Casting bullets, use them for hunting and at the end of the day it’s still Cheaper!

And there is no more tin at the flea markets because there are lots and Lots of people chasing tin Objects.

[Brassmonkey]

I worry this will be a future step in the states, Not many junk sailboats there?

[GregLaROCHE]

So do you have a source for this alloy at 32 Euros/kilo? If so, it sounds like a good option. When have you heard about the ban on lead boolits taking effect? Is it a ban in all of Europe or only Germany? I ask because I am in France. My shooting club has taken a lot of measures to control lead recently, but for the moment, it’s just to protect the shooters. I haven’t heard anything about the ban on hunting projectiles. I don’t hunt anymore so maybe I’m out of the loop, so to say.

[bruce381]

yes read and do this roto metals has this figured out bismuth

[bruce381]

According to Rotometals website for their non-lead alloy:

This ratio of~ 87.25% Bismuth, 0.75% Antimony and 12% Tin is the best ratio we have come up with as a substitute for lead. This alloy melts at about 395 F and is best cast or poured at about 500F. Testing the hardness with a Lee Hardness Testing Kit, we came up with an average of 19.3 on the Brinnell Hardness Scale, although there was a range during the testing.

The bismuth gives you the weight (as close to lead as possible) and the tin helps holds it together and makes it less brittle. This is an alloy we have been asked to make a few times so we decided to make a larger batch and have it easily available to everyone. As we are still testing this alloy, we are offering it at a lower cost and asking customers for feedback and their thoughts on how it works. Yes, we know it costs way more then a lead version, but hopefully with more volume, we can offer better prices in the future. One item of feedback we got from our customer follows:

I have some results from shooting this alloy over the weekend, very favorable in the limited testing I did. Accuracy and high velocity is not a problem if the bullet fit to the rifle's throat is right. No bore fouling, no problems at all. I even cleanly killed a small whitetail spike buck with my .223 Saturday using the alloy you sent.
I documented the entire work here on this bullet-casting forum, Load information, approximate velocity, and target ranges are in the text with the appropriate photos. Link to the forum thread https://www.artfulbullet.com/index.p...ng-alloy.5585/

yes do this

[closebutnocigar]

So do you have a source for this alloy at 32 Euros/kilo? If so, it sounds like a good option. When have you heard about the ban on lead boolits taking effect? Is it a ban in all of Europe or only Germany? I ask because I am in France. My shooting club has taken a lot of measures to control lead recently, but for the moment, it’s just to protect the shooters. I haven’t heard anything about the ban on hunting projectiles. I don’t hunt anymore so maybe I’m out of the loop, so to say.

They plan to do a ban all over Europe. In the First line this will Hit any Kind of hunting ammo.

But all Outdoor shooting Ranges will suffer to, because they are no longer allowed to use Standard ammo. If you Hunt with bullets for 1,0-1,6 Euro per Bullet - well, Not a big Problem.

Shooting? My Friends and I used to fire > 500 shot at a day out in the Range.

At this time only indoor Ranges with Propper bullet „collectors“ will be allowed to use Standard ammo.

It‘s all in the newspapers, it must be written in french hunting Papers, too.

[bangerjim]

I have brewed up a ( approximately!) 87% Bismuth, 0.25% Antimony,12% Tin, (and 0.75% BS&T !) mix and it casts well. As said above ROTO sells this also.

Good luck with your WOKE government ideas over there. It is spreading here.................unfortunately!

[Rizzo]

In Germany - Where I live - and eventually all over Europe a leadban is coming for all hunting Bullets and Shot.

They also want to change the seasons and make the sun to shine at Night to generate more Solar electricity but thats another Story.

I don’t want to give up hunting with CBs and tried different things.

Zinc (Zn) is very Hard to Cast, it must ne extremely hot and will Ruin the Moulds. The bullets fly True but this is Not my Business.

So I tried different Kinds of tin (Sn).

There are alloys which Antimon (Sb) and Copper (Cu) that cast well.

It is expensive but the Hardness is Good (about 20-25 Brinell) and with GC the bullets fly Great.

But I don‘t want to re-Invent the wheel and Hope someone found a Good Solution in Past I just don‘t know about.

So, someone out there who has done it before?

I did some RotoMetals Bismuth casting and made a post about it here:
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...bullet-casting

My results were disappointing.
Hopefully you have better success.

[popper]

Bismuth/tin bullet BHN is about the same as annealed copper. Zn is a tad harder. Get a lathe.