Molding Lead Bullets
I have just started molding my own bullets from scrap lead. I understand the bullets have to have 10% tin to make them harder. They suggest using 95/5 solder but that is difficult to find and expensive. Is there any cheaper more readily available source. Thanks
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I finally aquired about 50# of linotype and I also have 50# of pure lead. What percent should I mix together for bullets to plink with?
They will be 44, 45, and 38 calibers.Thanks0 -
A lot of people I know, use used wheel weights. They need to be melted down, and the alloy needs to be fluxed to clean it, but they usually cast fairly hard bullets.
If you look ont he auction side, you can find ingots that are all pre-mixed, and pre-cast. There are several companies like Missouri Bullet, that sell pre made alloy ingots as well as finnished products.
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You are partially correct. You are partially in error.
Soft lead bullets are fine for muzzleloaders and some handgun applications. For most others, a medium to hard bullet is best.
Adding tin does harden bullets a little, but it's main purpose is to thin out the mix, lower melting temperature, and allow it to flow better. Pure lead is hard to work with, lots of times the mold doesn't fill out. Adding some tin makes life easier.
Really antimony is what hardens the bullet.
The classic was 50/50 solder, equal parts lead and tin. Still available for craft work but largely abandoned for plumbing as most solder today is lead free. 95/5 is a tin/antimony mix and makes a good additive to lead to achieve what I mentioned above. You just need a little. 1/2 pound to 10 pounds of lead is plenty.
However, as mentioned, wheel weights are the proper hardness for 95% of what you would be shooting anyhow. Unfortunately most garages no longer give them away, they sell to the scrap dealers. You can get them fairly cheap though.
Another option is to dig lead out of a backstop, or get it from an indoor range. Most of this will come from jacketed bullet cores which are dead soft lead, requiring hardening. Good rule of thumb for the beginner is, for handguns or rifles, you shouldn't be able to nick it with your thumbnail.
Buying lead and paying for shipping becomes cost prohibitive and negates the savings enjoyed. However, if you order 50 lb or so, a USPS flat rate box is your friend. I've bought from rotometals before, they're a good group. Also look at the cast boolit forum, they have a swapping and selling section where guys will often sell lead.
Of course, a good lube is also a requirement.0 -
quote:Originally posted by alligator123
I have just started molding my own bullets from scrap lead. I understand the bullets have to have 10% tin to make them harder. They suggest using 95/5 solder but that is difficult to find and expensive. Is there any cheaper more readily available source. Thanks
They don't "have" to be alloyed with tin/antimony, just that if you don't harden the pure lead, and drive the bullets at high velocities, they'll quickly lead up your gun barrel destroying accuracy and creating a PITA mess to clean from your gun.
If you're just loading low-velocity pistol "plinker" rounds at under say 800 fps, then all lead are perfectly fine. (Just don't fire them from polygonal rifled barrel pistols like the Glock!).
As mentioned, lead ingots intended for bullet casting are available. People do use car wheel weights for this purpose. Also, back in the day people used to use linotype printing bars, which are lead-tin-antimony alloy, and you can still sometimes find these or ingots cast from similar material.0 -
A substitute for the solder is linotype from old printing shops. You can find it on some auction sights. Linotype has a lot of tin in it. I melted the linotype I bought and cast into bullets for a handy size and toss a few pieces in for every 4 lbs of ingots of wheel weights. You could of course melt the wheel weights, toss in some linotype, flux, skim and cast bullets or ingots too.
Expect to pay about $2 to $2.50 lb for the linotype. Ten to twenty pounds can last a long time unless your going to cast more than a few thousand bullets.0 -
Wheel weights are good for nearly any pistol/reduced rifle load. if you want them harder than wheel weights,ive heard that a hand full of magmun shotgun shot in a 10 lb batch will add antmony. this ought to take you to 2000 fps without to much leading. 0 -
Wheel weights are ok for bullet casting.
They are lead with a little antimony - not as much as there used to be but still enough to make fairly hard bullets. They contain a little arsenic so if you quench them in water being careful not to splash water on your mold or in your lead pot, they will get very hard. A little tin, maybe 2% will help the casting.
That is for standard old style clip on lead wheelweights. Unfortunately there are other types. There are iron weights which are no problem, if you miss one, it just floats on the lead where you can pick it out. Stick on weights are commonly pure lead, which will not soften your alloy unless there are a good many of them. If you do see a lot, you can swap them to a muzzleloading shooter for clipons.
The problem is zinc weights. They are cheap and do not upset the environmentalists, but will seriously mess up your lead pot. They can be sorted out by appearance, by sound - they are supposed to ring when dropped on a concrete floor - or by slow heating of the lead pot so that they will be left floating on the lead before getting hot enough to melt in and contaminate the mix.
Wheelweights are dirty. It is normal to melt them down outside in a separate pot, skim off the clips and dirt, and cast ingots to use in the actual casting furnace.
Me? I only cast bullets for my black powder rifle for which I buy 20:1 lead:tin. Not cheap but this is a target rifle and needs top quality.0 -
An excellent source for tin is old metal toothpaste, eye ointment or the like empty metal tubes. Most, if not all were made of tin and are an easy to find item. Split'em, dry'em, and remove most of the residue then drop them in the pot.
I always put them in while the pot was heating so as to evaporate any moisture that might remain. The reason being, as you probably already know, moisture and hot lead is an explosive combination.0
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