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Uechi
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What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Jul 2nd, 2018 at 4:48pm
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Looking for inputs/recommendations on cast Lead alloys for Black Powder Cartridge rifles. Specifically,an orginal Remington Rolling Block NO. 1 Sporter 40-50 BN.obviously looking for best accuracy performance.
  
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Schuetzendave
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Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #1 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 4:56pm
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I use 20:1 in my .25 RKS, .32 RKS, .38-50 Remington Hepburn .40-60 Maynard, .40-65 WCF and my .45-70 WCF.

I cast six months before I use it and of course lead:tin alloys soften a bit over the first 90 days.
  
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Cbashooter
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Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #2 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 5:07pm
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I've had real good luck with rotometals 16 to 1 in my plain base 30 caliber and 310 Cadet. It does quite well in my 4570s as well.
  
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Ranch13
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Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #3 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 5:12pm
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Mostly 16-1, sometimes 20-1 if shooting a round nosed bullet.
  
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JLouis
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Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #4 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 5:17pm
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16-1 but with smokeless.

JLouis
  
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Schuetzenmiester
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Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #5 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 5:49pm
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Mine varied from 50-1 to 20-1 and 50/50 wheel weights and lead.  

EDIT; My longrange loads were the  50/50 wheel weights and lead.  No sure of the BHN.

Pope said 15-1 would shoot best in his rifles, but 20-1 is hard enough to breech seat so I have never tried 15.
« Last Edit: Jul 2nd, 2018 at 6:58pm by Schuetzenmiester »  
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Bent_Ramrod
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Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #6 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 6:03pm
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16:1 for paper patch bullets; 20:1 for grease groove.

Air-cooled lino/wheelweight range scrap (recovered cast bullets) is sufficiently close in hardness to 16:1 (anything between bhn 8 and 11 seems to work), and I have used it successfully for paper patch bullets also.  The lead from swaged jacketed bullets is almost pure lead (bhn 6 or so), and that works as well as 20:1 for the grease groove bullets I make.

Can't get that free lead any more.  They don't let me mine the berms at this new location.  (*Sob!!* Cry)
  
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oneatatime
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Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #7 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 6:10pm
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Original Remington target loads were, what, 14 to 1 (IIRC someone showed a an original box of factory bullets and that was the listed alloy.) But, now the metallurgists say that by 16 to 1 tin has done all that it can. In my 40-65 tests showed that 25 to 1 was much more accurate than 30 to 1 and 20 to 1 was more accurate than 25 to 1. Long nosed elliptical bullets required 16 to 1 for long range.
« Last Edit: Jul 3rd, 2018 at 12:34pm by oneatatime »  
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beltfed
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Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #8 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 7:48pm
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94.5% lead
4.5% antimony
1% tin

From: 
90% COWW/10% Lino

Works for me for almost everything, 
Seems like for Schuetzen, my 25-20 likes 19+1
as in 95% lead/5% tin.
  
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JS47
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Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #9 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 10:37pm
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I shoot a lot of wheel weight bullets for offhand practice because I have a lot of wheel weights. One of the problems with WW bullets is that they harden with age. I measured one with an LBT tester the day after casting and it was BHN 10. 5 days later it was BHN 12. I've read that the hardening continues for around 20 days. I think that the advantage of lead/tin alloy is that there is less of a change in hardness over time.

JS
  
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bruce moulds
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Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #10 - Jul 3rd, 2018 at 5:41am
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"trajectories of american hunting rifles" (open library) suggests that original loads would be at 20:1, and would probably have been paper patched.
almost all rounds in this class were 20:1 in their tests on the creedmoor range.
for hunting, 20:1 is hard enough, particularly with mild cartridges.
longer nosed greasers with bore riding noses might lead less at 16:1, in order to minimize nose bumpup into the rifling.
bullets used by pope were not as susceptable to this, as they have shorter noses.
check your twist in that original, and select a bullet length to suit.
keep safe,
bruce.
  
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Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #11 - Jul 3rd, 2018 at 8:58am
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When I first started casting for schuetzen about 25-30 years ago, I read everything I could find on the subject then just settled in on 25-1 pure lead to pure tin.  I found that to work with BP equivalent loads of 4759 and 4227 and it seemed to hold up pretty well in my BP loads in the 45-70 I was shooting for BPCS.  Now for front stuffers in N-SSA events I like pretty much pure lead (or maybe just a kiss of tin so it casts better.)

Froggie
  
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beltfed
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Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #12 - Jul 3rd, 2018 at 2:30pm
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JS47
Indeed antimonial alloys , such as WW need about
20 days to come up to full hardness.
But, will be Effectively hard for Years after that.
I have shot some of my bullets of 9+1WW/Lino
that were up to 25 years old and they performed just fine.

Note also that Lead /Tin alloys will age Soften....
beltfed/arnie
  
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Uechi
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Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #13 - Jul 3rd, 2018 at 4:36pm
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Uechi wrote on Jul 2nd, 2018 at 4:48pm:
Looking for inputs/recommendations on cast Lead alloys for Black Powder Cartridge rifles. Specifically,an orginal Remington Rolling Block NO. 1 Sporter 40-50 BN.obviously looking for best accuracy performance.


Thanks for all the inputs guys.
  
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