Molding Lead Bullet

alligator123

I have been pouring my own lead bullets for a couple of years and always add 95/5 solder to my lead to harden it but the cost of the solder has gone up so much that it is no longer cheap to make your own bullets. Is there anything else that is cheaper to add to the lead for hardening?
Thanks

fordsix

mix in more linotype

alligator123

Do the newspapers still use linotype?

p3skyking

I drop mine directly from the mold into a bucket of water. Seems to harden the metal better.

You can add metal toothpaste tubes or any metal ointment tubes to the melt since they contain tin. Of course, put them in at the start of the melt so you don't blow hot lead everywhere.

alligator123

Great idea. I never thought of the toothpast tubes.
Thanks

bpost

Wheel weights, the old ones will make a fine bullet. You can also got to roto metals for bullet casting metals at good prices.

perry shooter

Lino type is available on other sites However for pistol bullets You don't really need hard if you use the correct size at least .001 above bore size and correct soft lube.

alligator123

So what your saying is I can use pure lead as long as I am shooting with revolvers and just plinking at targets. Also someone told me to shoot a few rounds of copper jackets toward the end of my shoot to take most of the lead out of my rifling. Is that right?
Thanks

fordsix

pure lead is to soft ,,wheel weights are good for plink i use pure lynotype for my select special applications where i want penitration...there are lots of sellers of lyno on fleabay..up to 70lbs in a flate rate box[^]

tocamoha

The metal wrappers on wine bottles contain Tin.

perry shooter

I have shot over 250,000 rounds of Swagged PURE lead bullets in 45acp they DON"T lead I purchased UNLUBED and used 50%/50% soft lube. I have never been keen on trying to force a jacketed bullet down a leaded bore.If your bor is rough enough to lead up I had rather use a rolled up paper towel that will just fit down the bore. Wet the towel with Kroil and let sit for 24 hours then one swipe with a bore brush will more then likely remove all the lead. I don't like modern bore cleaner because it will ruin bronze bore brushes.

SP45

When I used to cast I used about 4 to 1 pure lead and wheel weights and dropped them into a 5 gallon bucket about a third filled with water and then sized them .oo1 over bore size. never had any problem up to 1200 fps.

FWAddit

quote:Originally posted by tocamoha
The metal wrappers on wine bottles contain Tin.


That's what I thought, too. When I melted some in to wheelweight metal, though, the bullets did not fill out properly. Symptoms were consistent with zinc contamination. So maybe the wrappers use a zinc-tin alloy or something; it's too soft for pure zinc.

Nowadays many bottlers use aluminum. Totally useless in alloying bullet metal.

DBMJR1

Here's my take.

I, too, water drop pure lead. I cast them in .358, and keep my pressures low. Velocities are less than 800 fps. No leading.

Keep in mind. Pure lead, combined with water dropping can cause undersized bullets. If your bullets are undersized, you will experience leading. My molds cast at about .359, and I resize to .358. Check with good calipers.

If you can't get a good fit, (.001 over bore size) then you should mix some tin to reduce the shrinking of the bullets as they cool.

Tin is plentiful, and easy to find.[:D] Go to garage sales and thrift stores. Buy up all of the pewter candle sticks, shaving mugs, statues of liberty replicas, etc. Toss them into your pot when casting ingots at a ratio of about 1# pewter to 20#'s lead.

Lube is very important to preventing leading. If you are casting pure lead, as I do, you want to use Lee Alox.

If you are after higher pressures and corresponding velocities, as I am when I load for .357, then mix your ratio at 1:10 instead of 1:20 tin to lead. I can push them to about 1300 fps with no leading. Anything faster, I'd suggest a gas check.


All of these tid bits I stolen from various places. I'm not clever enough to make things up.