French Recipe Alloy?

[fusil]

Bonjour mes ami

At last I’m ready to start casting!....After being sent the wrong mold…TWICE.
I was talking to some of the guys at the range last week about alloy mixes.

50/50 mix of WW & pure was mentioned.
70% pure lead, 30% WW and 3% tin was very popular.

I’m casting 38spl & 9mm boolits. Loaded to shoot below 900fps, what do you think is a suitable mix?

Any advice, as always, greatly appreciated

fusil

[Poygan]

Fusil,
I would start off with what is the easiest to use. For me, its straight wheel weights because its the most available. If I want harder, I water drop. So, if wheel weights are available to you, I'd start there. You could use some pure lead with WWs for the .38 special at those speeds. I think I'd water drop for the 9mm as a starting point. Air cooled WWs for the .38 should be fine, as long as they are sized correctly for your pistols. Same is especially true for 9mm as I have found a large variation in diameters.

[Tom Herman]

Bonjour mes ami

At last I’m ready to start casting!....After being sent the wrong mold…TWICE.
I was talking to some of the guys at the range last week about alloy mixes.

50/50 mix of WW & pure was mentioned.
70% pure lead, 30% WW and 3% tin was very popular.

I’m casting 38spl & 9mm boolits. Loaded to shoot below 900fps, what do you think is a suitable mix?

Any advice, as always, greatly appreciated

fusil

Bonjour, Fusil!

I use the 50/50 scrap lead to wheel weights plus 2% Tin for all my revolver bullets. I also make my own lube that is like the SPG used for black powder (but I load with Unique smokeless).
This works very well for me in .38 Special, .44 Special, .45 long Colt, and .455 Webley. Great accuracy and little to no leading in all my guns up to 850-900 feet per second, which is as fast as I've pushed it.
I water drop my bullets after casting.
Good Luck, I'm sure you will find an alloy that will work well for you.

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[Shiloh]

Range scrap, and other lead scrap that is scrounged and acquired is used for .38 and .45.
It is soft but my velocities are below 900. There are posts that suggest soft lead properly sized and lubed from a decent barrel, were fired at 1150 or so. I water drop everything so there will be a slight hardening. I save the WW for rifle boolits.

Shiloh

[243winxb]

WW + 2% Tin

[DLCTEX]

I get WW free and have a large stockpile, so that's what I use. I have alloyed them 50/50 (WW/pure) with good results for 9MM, 38, 45ACP. I have water dropped (straight from the mold) to harden the WW boolits, but see no advantage for below 1000, fps.

[MT Gianni]

50 50 would be a good mix. What is easiest for you to get? Plain ww are what i use for those pistol cartridges but they are easy to get in America. Are non-zinc ww easy to get in France? How prevelent is pure lead or lead-tin alloys?

[fusil]

Salut,
I have a good stash of WW & pure ingots. I've made lots of contacts for both, so no problems there.
Zinc is the new problem I'm seeing more and more.
I still get the truck ww's in exchange for a visit to the range.

Merci pour l'aide,
Thanks for the advice,
fusil

[MtGun44]

Fusil,

Your most likely issue will be for the 9mm. Have you slugged your barrel and gotten your
groove diameter? In many cases, 9mms will not stabilize .355 boolits cast hard (like water
dropped WW) but will do fine with AC WW at .357 or even .358. You may have problems
chambering a cartridge loaded with a .358 boolit, altho my 9mms take .357 boolits just
fine. I think you will want to be at the softer end for the .38 and a bit harder for the 9mm,
mostly due to feed ramp damage to too soft boolits in the 9mm.
I'd start with what was easiest and cheapest, then change if you have problems to deal
with. If your pure is really cheap and easy (sometimes it is neither), 50/50 plus some tin
(solder is good source) will cast well and be plenty hard enough for the .38 maybe for the
9mm too. I do think that you will need to add tin if you go away from straight ww and may
even need it for straight WW as there is very minimal tin.


Many 9mms have oversized bbls and very shallow rifling since they are intended for jacketed
only. So most need oversize boolits and at least medium hard alloy. If you are big enough
diam and still get sideways hits (very common with US commercial cast .355 and .356 hard)
you may need to go harder. Too small and too hard can't bump up, too small and soft may
bump up and work fine. Right size groove +.001" or more is the key.

Bill

[sheepdog]

Stick on WW (ie pure lead) with + 1 to 2% tin for 38 aircooled, same for 9mm but water cooled. Pure lead in Europe is easy to find as it was used in all sorts of things over there for years (plumbing, windows, plateware, etc).
Save the clip ons for high pressure loads as clip on WW in Europe is getting hard to find.

[leftiye]

I think that for it to be a "french" alloy you have to saute' it with butter and onions.

[Gunslinger]

Fusil:

What did the guys at your range use 70/30 pure/ww for? And did they water quench them?

[stubshaft]

I think that for it to be a "french" alloy you have to saute' it with butter and onions.

It must be fluxed with a bechamel sauce Leftiye

[fusil]

Fusil:

What did the guys at your range use 70/30 pure/ww for? And did they water quench them?

Bonjour,
mainly revolver loads. But one fella used it for all his handguns.
Water quenching was used by everyone and most used LLA.

But, again, the same guy pan lubed.
He gave me the recipe, all buy weight:
2/3 canning wax
1/3 pertoleum jelly
2 tsp LLA per 1kg of lube
He said he has used it for years now and has no leading problems.

fusil