ASSRA Forum › General › Reloading the Single Shot Rifle › What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
(Moderator Group: Moderator)
‹ Previous Topic | Next Topic ›
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1 Send TopicPrint
Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use? (Read 3395 times)
Uechi
Full Member
***
Offline



Posts: 165
Location: Florida
Joined: Mar 2nd, 2012
What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Jul 2nd, 2018 at 4:48pm
Print Post  
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.
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
Schuetzendave
Frequent Elocutionist
*****
Offline


Retired Ex-Shooter

Posts: 4232
Location: St. Albert, Alberta
Joined: Jan 28th, 2005
Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #1 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 4:56pm
Print Post  
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.
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
Cbashooter
Frequent Elocutionist
*****
Offline



Posts: 1631
Location: Eastern Wa.
Joined: Mar 31st, 2018
Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #2 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 5:07pm
Print Post  
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.
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
Ranch13
Oldtimer
*****
Offline



Posts: 636
Location: East Central Wy.
Joined: Jan 20th, 2018
Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #3 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 5:12pm
Print Post  
Mostly 16-1, sometimes 20-1 if shooting a round nosed bullet.
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
JLouis
Frequent Elocutionist
*****
Offline



Posts: 10625
Joined: Apr 8th, 2009
Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #4 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 5:17pm
Print Post  
16-1 but with smokeless.

JLouis
  
" It Is Better To Now Have Been A Has Been Than A Never Was Or A Wanna Be "
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
Schuetzenmiester
Frequent Elocutionist
*****
Offline



Posts: 6707
Location: Cool Wet Side of WA
Joined: Apr 27th, 2008
Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #5 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 5:49pm
Print Post  
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 »  
"some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
Bent_Ramrod
Frequent Elocutionist
*****
Offline



Posts: 1582
Location: Southern Arizona
Joined: Feb 8th, 2006
Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #6 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 6:03pm
Print Post  
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)
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
oneatatime
Frequent Elocutionist
*****
Offline



Posts: 4465
Location: Rocky Mountains
Joined: Oct 30th, 2011
Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #7 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 6:10pm
Print Post  
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 »  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
beltfed
Frequent Elocutionist
*****
Offline



Posts: 1824
Location: Central Wi
Joined: Dec 20th, 2007
Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #8 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 7:48pm
Print Post  
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.
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
JS47
Frequent Elocutionist
*****
Offline



Posts: 1265
Location: Arizona
Joined: Oct 12th, 2012
Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #9 - Jul 2nd, 2018 at 10:37pm
Print Post  
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
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
bruce moulds
Senior Forum Member
****
Offline



Posts: 290
Location: the antipodes
Joined: Mar 14th, 2015
Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #10 - Jul 3rd, 2018 at 5:41am
Print Post  
"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.
  
ventum est amicus meus
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
Green_Frog
Frequent Elocutionist
*****
Offline


"It ain't easy being green"
ASSRA Life #281

Posts: 4164
Location: Lynchburg, VA
Joined: Apr 18th, 2004
Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #11 - Jul 3rd, 2018 at 8:58am
Print Post  
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
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
beltfed
Frequent Elocutionist
*****
Offline



Posts: 1824
Location: Central Wi
Joined: Dec 20th, 2007
Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #12 - Jul 3rd, 2018 at 2:30pm
Print Post  
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
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
Uechi
Full Member
***
Offline



Posts: 165
Location: Florida
Joined: Mar 2nd, 2012
Re: What Lead/Tin Alloy do you use?
Reply #13 - Jul 3rd, 2018 at 4:36pm
Print Post  
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.
  
Back to top
 
IP Logged
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send TopicPrint
‹ Previous Topic | Next Topic ›
 
  « Board Index ‹ Board Top  

ASSRA Forum » Powered by YaBB 2.6.12!
YaBB Forum Software © 2000-2026. All Rights Reserved.

Valid RSS Valid XHTML Valid CSS Powered by Perl Source Forge

Page completed in 1.3100 seconds.