Bullet alloy??

[catkiller45]

If you could have only
One alloy for rifle what
Would you choose, rifle only..

[Land Owner]

That depends...on the function intended for the rifle.

Competition?
Distance?
Hunting?
Plinking?

I kill game out to 125-yards in calibers of 223 and 30-30, and plink a 45 Colt (Handi-rifle), with an alloy of 49-49-2 percent Pb-WW-Sn and BHN ~12.

[pworley1]

Something close to #2 has always worked for me.

[Randy Bohannon]

16:1 does everything I need for now and forever.

[243winxb]

Linotype .

[FISH4BUGS]

5lb ww to 1 lb linotype.
Has worked for 40+ years in all uses.

[hc18flyer]

Really depends on intended use? I hunt with a much softer alloy than I punch paper at a 100 yards with. My .45-70 alloy is close to pure, my 7mm pointed bullet gets 15+ bhn hardness.
hc18flyer

[bruce381]

all my pistol do no rifle are about 1-2 tin 1-2 antimony pour hot and great fill out

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

94-3-3

[centershot]

Same here, 94-3-3.

[Larry Gibson]

Lyman #2 [95-5-5]

[405grain]

My standard alloy is 93% lead, 4.5% antimony, 2.5% tin, .02% copper, .02% arsenic. I use this either air cooled or water quenched for rifle bullets. For pistol bullets I cut the alloy 50/50 with pure lead. For cast loads in the 45-70 I use 20-1 lead/tin.

[P Flados]

For a while I played with alloys.

Then came ASBB HF red PC and my focus changed.

Eventually I went "the other way" and tried to see what kind of results I could get with PC on top of 10-12 BHN range scrap.

I have been getting good results with a lot of loads that would have been considered "too hot" for cast by most folks prior to PC. And this is with my "zero out of pocket" cost lead.

I use this for everything. Including full power loads for normal handguns, rifles and in my IHMSA stuff (including 357 Max and 7 TCU). And since this method has given me as good as 2000 fps and 2 MOA at 200 yards with ~50,000 psi for ammo that is loaded in bulk, I have confidence that it can do the job if everything else is up to snuff.

I do tend to cast up "big batches" of a given bullet that are pretty much consistent in alloy.

[35 Rem]

The popular hunting mix of 50/50 clip on WW/pure lead plus 2% tin would work for me in everything that I do.

[Lloyd Smale]

The popular hunting mix of 50/50 clip on WW/pure lead plus 2% tin would work for me in everything that I do.

i use alot of that alloy too. as is for under a 1000fps and water dropped for mags and rifles. went that way years ago because i was given about a ton of pure and good ww's were getting tough to find

[Green Frog]

Back in my Schuetzen days my research led me to use 25-1 pure lead to pure tin. This always worked great for those rifle loads pushed along to just below speed of sound velocities... yielding superb accuracy out to 200 yds or so. This has been my general purpose alloy for most other rifle rounds. This mixture has become more expensive over the years but works so well, I've never seen reason to change it for serious shooting.

I know the OP asked for one alloy for all purposes, but I figure with most of my pistol shooting I can be much less discriminating. I once saw the description of using "anything vaguely plumbous", a phrase I took to heart. If my witch's brew needs to be softer, I throw more pure lead in the pot. Harder, it gets some linotype or monotype. If it's not throwing well formed bullets, I just add a little tin. Of course if vampires are involved, some silver is added!

Froggie

[Budzilla 19]

50/50 pure lead/ wheel weights with 2% tin. Works awesome for just about everything.

Now, that being said,I’m going to start on some Lee 312-155 2r produced using “ hardball” or 92-6-2. All rifle boolits are heat treated , while baking the powder coat, for one hour at425*f then quenched in ice water.

[dale2242]

Lyman #2.

[GhostHawk]

Ruffly half clip on wheel weights, half range scrap or soft lead with 1% pewter/tin added mostly for mold fillout.

With a good lube like BLL or 45/45/10 kept below 2000 fps it will work for most things including pistol.

If I was going to try to push it faster there would be Lino/Mono added to stiffen it up, perhaps some copper.
Over 1400 fps use a gas check. Just makes life simpler.

[GregLaROCHE]

Whatever my range scrap ingots turns out to be when I put them in the casting pot.