alloy recipe for rifle and high vel handgun

[atom73]

Greetings all, I am brand new but have been moving into the cast bullet direction for quite some time and am finally here. I have about 100lbs of pure lead from dental x ray packets cast into large bricks. I intent to alloy it to cast for my 45acp, 41mag revolver, and a 308 mauser. From what I have read I feel that I would be best off using a harder alloy for all of them and was hoping to get a recipe and source for the alloying metals (use ww or get some tin solder etc). I would like to have a hardness of 18-20, how would I get there using available materials (I have pure lead and can get ww or order antimony). I know I need something with tin to get the mold to fill well. I will be using Lee molds and LLA and not loading really hot or fast rounds. I figure a hard alloy would be good for the rifle/mag/and ACP since they seem to need harder alloy for different reasons. If I can get started with a recipe and source for the alloying metals then I will be ok to tinker on my own. Thanks.
Mike

[stubshaft]

Since you have so much pure lead you could mix up "hardball alloy" just mix it 50/50 with linotype. This should get you about 15BHN if you air cool. You can get linotype from some of the members here. Just keep an eye out for it in the classified section. From there you can go up or down as needed by adding tin, bar solder or lead shot. In addition to water quenching or heat treating boolits.

[atom73]

Very good, thats what I needed to know. Thanks.
Mike

[Echo]

Actually, I think someone posted that dental x-ray shields were somewhat harder than pure lead, like ~1.5% Sn and about the same Sb. Mox nix, alloying 50/50 w/lino will turn up some dang good stuff.

[StarMetal]

You don't need the lino. A really good alloy is 50/50 ....wheelweights/pure-lead. Either aircooled, water quenched, or oven tempered.

Joe

[largom]

As StarMetal said 50/50 lead and WW water dropped should give you around 19 BHN. I assume you are not using this boolits for hunting.

Larry

[atom73]

No, I hunt with conventional reloads. I am a dentist and when we took our dental radiology class they taught us that the lead foil in the film packets was pure lead as alloying it with anything else would make it less radio-opaque (unless you used uranium). I do however understand that no educator is perfect and I have not seen a true chemical analysis of lead foil from dental film. If someone has a reference for me I would love to see it. I will look into it myself and report what I find. If I find a scientifically reputable citation I will post that too.
Mike

[KYCaster]

Ahhhhh, a dentist.....I'm having a little problem with this molar I had a root canal on and......uh......well.....um......oh, never mind.

Like the other guys said, 50/50 WW/lead will work fine for lots of applications and can be hardened to expand its useful range.

You can also mix your lead 50/50 with linotype and get the same 18 BHN as the heat treated lead/WW mix without the extra heat treat step.

There are many different ways to get to the same place depending on what you have to work with. If you have access to antimony and lead/tin solder you can make any boolit alloy you want.

Jerry

[stubshaft]

Keep an eye out in the classified section you can (if your willing to wait) find Lino cheaper than WW. Since it contains more tin and antimony than WW it also give you a wider latitude of alloy options.

[randyrat]

No, I hunt with conventional reloads. I am a dentist and when we took our dental radiology class they taught us that the lead foil in the film packets was pure lead as alloying it with anything else would make it less radio-opaque (unless you used uranium). I do however understand that no educator is perfect and I have not seen a true chemical analysis of lead foil from dental film. If someone has a reference for me I would love to see it. I will look into it myself and report what I find. If I find a scientifically reputable citation I will post that too.
Mike

Welcome to the board. I see your a semipro FOOSBALLER. Back in the day i thought i was good. I was beaten into tears many times.
The dental lead your talking about i do beleive has some Tin Sn(1.5%) and 1-2% antimony in it. I've made some real nice 45 acp bullets out of it. It cast way too good NOT to have some Tin in it at least. Seems to me it has a hardness of 9-10 BHN
Do a search and i think you will be even more confused. As different manufactures have different alloys.
Anyway, i'm from North West Wi. Need any alloys i may be able to help. I see your also from the frozen tundra. Forcast for the weekend; Balmy 50 degs and maybe sunny.

[atom73]

Randy,
Thanks for the reply, I live in Kenosha but am from MN. I actually deer hunt in the Nemadji area of MN which may be in your area. I do enjoy some foosball and played in the Maryland state tourney in 2007 and 2008. Those guys were so good that getting clobbered has a whole new meaning. I finally located a 5 gal pail of ww yesterday so I have something to alloy my lead with. I will search and see what I can come up with on the lead but I am pretty certain that it will be more confusion.