Is There A Ready Source For Tin?

[jednorris]

I cannot think that I am that much different from other bullet casters, but I want to know EXACTLY the makeup of the lead I mold bullets out of. If I want all my shots to go the same way, I do not want 10% tin, 50% lead, 20% crap 10% steel and the balance of whatever might melt. Being able to reliably be duplicating my mixture consistency seems to be paramount to me. No two mixtures will go down the barrel the same way. Am I missing something?

[dondiego]

I have never worried about the composition of my alloy. If it wasn't too hard, nor too soft, and it fills the mold well. It worked. I shot thousands of pounds of stuff I had no idea what it was.

[imashooter2]

Nor have I. And I will wager that the vast majority of others are the same. And then a good portion of the rest are fooling themselves when they pretend to know the composition of various scrap alloys.

[jednorris]

Hard lead will not obturate as fast as soft lead and therefore not fill out lands and grooves uniformly. How can that possibly cause accuracy to be as consistent as a known ratio. If I am just "throwing lead' I can see the reason for not being precise, but I cannot believe the lack of concern. I am NOT trying to be critical, it just seems the most accurate bullets would be the shooters aim.

[imashooter2]

There’s accuracy and then there’s accuracy. What you say is true, and there are those here that want to shoot sub MOA at several hundred yards and win competitions. Those people are the ones that need to pull all the stops. There are others that want to make the gun go bang with the least possible cost. Whatever melts and the smallest powder charges to operate the gun are their creed.

Most aren’t at either extreme and they look for a balance of accurate enough for application and low cost. That means scrap alloys made harder or softer as application requires. Absolute precision isn’t something they need. I’m in that group.

[kevin c]

I like reproducible results, so even though my typical applications don’t require tack driving accuracy, I make casting alloys to specific recipes, using known components that BNE kindly analyzed for me.

It probably doesn’t matter all that much when my max scoring zone is a 6”x11” rectangle usually under 15 yards, but it scratches my particular itch.

[35 Rem]

Hard lead will not obturate as fast as soft lead and therefore not fill out lands and grooves uniformly. How can that possibly cause accuracy to be as consistent as a known ratio. If I am just "throwing lead' I can see the reason for not being precise, but I cannot believe the lack of concern. I am NOT trying to be critical, it just seems the most accurate bullets would be the shooters aim.

There is no way you can ever know precisely what you have when using scrap metal. What you say about hard alloy not obturating as well is true but it's not accurate to imply that you are going to get "hard" alloy just because you don't know it's precise makeup. Antimony is the main hardening element of our alloys and it's expensive so it's very unlikely to be in excess in scrap. Sure we try to sort scrap the best we can to cast consistent bullets but you can never equal a large manufacturing plant buying certified materials. Experience will show that it doesn't make that big of a difference either as you can get perfectly good hunting accuracy using scrap lead alloy.

[fredj338]

I have never worried about the composition of my alloy. If it wasn't too hard, nor too soft, and it fills the mold well. It worked. I shot thousands of pounds of stuff I had no idea what it was.

^^^This^^ i have a rough idea of my alloy because i sort my scrap by source & keep track, blend in the pot. For most handgun use, exact composition isnt a real issue. F you can shoot 2” slow fire groups at 25y, the bullets will be up to the task if cast of scrap or precise bullet alloy.

[fredj338]

I like reproducible results, so even though my typical applications don’t require tack driving accuracy, I make casting alloys to specific recipes, using known components that BNE kindly analyzed for me.

It probably doesn’t matter all that much when my max scoring zone is a 6”x11” rectangle usually under 15 yards, but it scratches my particular itch.

Yeah accuracy at 15y, your alloy isnt really going to matter much. Most of my handguns will do under 2" offhand at 15y with my not perfect alloy bullets.

[jednorris]

The website "Espy" sells a lot of odds and ends and I was surprised to find pure tin on there. It came in small uneven chunks but I bought 4# for $12 per pound.