Shiloh Rifle Forums

Any good places to get casting alloy And what’s the standard mixture to use. Thanks

Depends on what purpose you are applying your rifle and ammunition to as to the alloy mix.

John Walters is a reliable vendor as is Rotometals.

Aside from the other two places mentioned Buffalo Arms sells very nice alloy.

I have always been a scrounger . I get pure lead from recycle centers . Usually in the form of lead plumbing pipe from old houses that have been torn
Down.
I have one old lead pot that is used for nothing but melting and cleaning the lead that I pour into a cast iron , corn cob shaped mold.

I like buying tin in the form of nuggets. It's easier for me to keep track of the mix when I'm making bullets. x number of corn cob ingots to
x number of tin nuggets.

The black powder cartridge reloading primer Book by Garbe and Venturino is a great read.

This sport is a lot of work. I fondly recall getting hundreds of pounds of free wheel weights, paying 10 bucks for a brick of 1000 pistol primers and buying
a keg of Bullseye powder. For a hundred bucks I could shoot a LOT of rounds each week out of my revolvers.

$3000 gun.
$500 extra equipment
$400 reloading press and accessories.

and finally, you use no cost, unknown alloy lead for the bullets??

I would rethink that. jus' saying...Ken

Not unknown to me Ken. Pure lead is pure lead. I trust places that sell pure tin. If Lyman #2 shoots good in a gun, I'll use it. My gun was a pawn shop find at $1300.00 bucks. My scope was a third owner buy, I shop at thrift stores..etc,etc. Most big recycle centers have a device that I cannot remember what it's called. It's a metal gun. The fellow puts it against the alloy, pulls the trigger and presto... it tells me what the alloy is. kinda cool!

I was very competitive when I was young and shot pistols a Bunch. Now , especially since Jeanne shoots with me, The rifle stuff is just an excuse to travel and have fun. We do like to shoot well, but most of the time we're cutting up.

I agree, pure lead is pure lead, And I buy pure tin also in sticks or shot. Mix my own after weighing out what it takes to make 16 to 1, not hard to do, its not lab work. So many shooters are convinced that every component needs to be bought to be competitive, IE wads, wad cutter, lube, alloy, compression die, expander plugs, etc. just is not true. A home shop is capable of fabricating alot....if the desire is there and money is short. Heck many really good shooters use range lead and place well.
kw

It depends somewhat on where you live. In my case the closest town (population 5000) where there might be a chance of finding any lead is 45 miles one way.
So in order to get enough lead to even think about shooting it's order out, or take up crocheting.
Then even if lead were available in usable amounts, I figure the time it takes to melt it down clean it up, mix tin that will have to be bought from someplace, flux it all out, is time I could of spent doing something else.

We’re I live you can’t even find wheel weights Prob try to find already mixed ingots. I’ve read we’re you want to get certified ingots. I’m going for consistency for long range. Thanks

Graybeard wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 10:01 am We’re I live you can’t even find wheel weights Prob try to find already mixed ingots. I’ve read we’re you want to get certified ingots. I’m going for consistency for long range. Thanks

Exactly, and even if you can get a can of wheelwrights about half of them aren't going to be usable..

John Walters, Buffalo Arms, and Rotometals. Priced low to high. The quality of the pre mixed ingots from Walters and BACO is a bit better and a lower priced than Roto.

It's different for every one and there is more ways than one to skin the same cat. I have always used recovered lead with some antimony and about the only down side I can see is it does lead up a bore more than the certified pure lead and tin alloy I have tried. On the other hand I have never recovered a bent over snow bullet either from what is often referred to as nose slump which I believe can only be determined by uneven rifling imprint length.
Lead hardness testing is the best way I know of (short of lab analysis) to determine alloy content and old wheel weights actually make up rather accurate bullets if one ever has occasion to try it. They are a bit hard I have found and like to cut with pure lead for a BHN of 9.5 for midrange bullets.

Don McDowell wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 9:42 am It depends somewhat on where you live. In my case the closest town (population 5000) where there might be a chance of finding any lead is 45 miles one way.
So in order to get enough lead to even think about shooting it's order out, or take up crocheting.
Then even if lead were available in usable amounts, I figure the time it takes to melt it down clean it up, mix tin that will have to be bought from someplace, flux it all out, is time I could of spent doing something else.

Don I had a mental image of you sitting on the line at Big Whiskey crocheting It's going to take me a while to recover from that

Dan O wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:03 am

Don McDowell wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 9:42 am It depends somewhat on where you live. In my case the closest town (population 5000) where there might be a chance of finding any lead is 45 miles one way.
So in order to get enough lead to even think about shooting it's order out, or take up crocheting.
Then even if lead were available in usable amounts, I figure the time it takes to melt it down clean it up, mix tin that will have to be bought from someplace, flux it all out, is time I could of spent doing something else.

Don I had a mental image of you sitting on the line at Big Whiskey crocheting It's going to take me a while to recover from that

I'll make a note of that Dan, and bring Carol's crochet hooks next time. LOL
Besides all that when it comes to silhouette I'ld probably be better off with a sling shot and golf balls.

I still have several hundred pounds of pure lead I got from helping tear down a XRay room in a old hospital, smelted ,fluxed made it in to 20:1 muffin tins. Then switched to 16:1 from Roto Metals and bought quite a bit when it was free shipping over $100.00 and prices were good. Been tempted to get a one time shipment of one of their pallet deals. I too like the tin pellets and now run three furnaces for different alloys , Lyman #2 , 16:1 and 20:1 . Don is right in the 17 years I’ve lived in Wyoming I have never found anyplace to buy lead of any kind . The men here know what it’s for and keep it or give it to their friends in exchange for what they use, sinkers,jigs or bullets or whatever so it’s buy it on line for most of us here.

Now we are getting down to what you actually need? You specified for Long Range.

What caliber and bullet are you going to use? Weight of bullet, GG or PP? If GG what lube?
What are your casting implements? Do you dip or pour? Do you have a ten, twenty, twenty five or thirty pound pot?

45 Rifle barrel twist. GG 18 twist you may do OK with 1-20, 1-16 is not too hard. 16 twist depends on your rifle 1-16 to 1-12 hardness possible

How much alloy do you need? 7,000 grains to the pound, 540 grain bullet=about 12 bullets to the pound for round numbers

I don't suspect you will find yourself in a position where you have too much alloy. The way commodity prices are going it doesn't look like it will get any cheaper. It could be penny wise and dollar foolish when buying alloy. What you pay $2,50 a pound for today could be $4.50 a pound tomorrow. Hard to shoot without bullets.

People today that bought lead at $1.10 a pound and tin for $5.50 a pound a few years ago are today happy that they bought a lot of it then and you may also find it available today and not available tomorrow.

Again, hard to shoot without bullets.