Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Antimony/tin question

Altho I have been a long time bullet caster for muzzleloaders
(pure lead), I just recently have started to cast for .38 Spl.
and .45ACP. 1st, how much hardness(if any) will quenching the
bullet out of the mold give? (Pure lead) 2nd, I've read that
adding chilled shot to pure lead will give added hardness because
of the antimony content. Problem: I also read that the antimony
and/or tin will rise to the surface of the pot resembling dross.
How do I keep it mixed, or, do I just keep dipping under the
surface for new lead? (My velocities will be in the 750-1150
range, the higher being for a 9mm.) The pure lead, quenched does
well in the .45ACP as far as leading is concerned. The quenched
bullets with the tin/antimony seem pretty hard in comparison,
however I have not tried these. Thanks for any and all comments.

contender,
As far as I know quenching pure lead does nothing for hardness.The hardening requires antimony and a trace of arsenic, both of which are already in wheel-weights.The quenched bullets get harder in a couple days than they are initially, why that is I have no idea.
Chilled shot is an expensive way to harden lead.

once antimony and tin are mixed with lead there is NO EASY way to seperate the two. what you have heard is a myth.

If it WERE that simple I know of a bunch of people who would be making a mint doing it, as pure lead is more valuable than mixed.

I would recommend getting some wheel wts and melting them and using that straight to cast your bullets for 38 and 45 acp.

If you want to mix pure lead here is a recipe for Lyman #2 metal.

9 pounds of pure lead
.5 pounds of pure tin
.5 pounds of antimony

the bhn on this will be 15

Ditto's on aircooled wheelweight metal for pistol bullets. They should be fairly easy to find and reasonbly priced.

If you have a huge supply of pure lead, I'd add tin 3-5% and call it good.

Thanks for your comments. Correct me if I'm wrong, but, tin has a
lower melting point than lead (yes?) and is used to help fill
out the mold better (yes or no?). A tin/lead mixture won't be any
harder than pure lead (yes or no?). I used the hard shot because
I had no use for it (#4). I load smaller sizes for bird hunting and skeet
and buy my duck,goose and turkey loads,so I thought it would be
economical to use it up in that manner.
So I'll consider anything that floats to the top dross and get
rid of it. Incidently, my pure lead came from old city WATER PIPES!!! (Imagine that). Eventually coming out of the end of a
muzzleloader and taking more than a few deer.

don't know the melting point of tin

yes tin helps fill out mould

lead at 100 % has BHN of 5

91% lead and 9% tin will give a BHN of 11.5

Your #4 shot is a good source.

I would take 9 pounds of lead and add 1 pound of your shot that should be pretty good mix.

Thanks Blammer; I now have a basis for what I'm doing (Imagine THAT!!!).

Name: Tin Symbol: Sn, Atomic Number: 50, Atomic Mass: 118.71 amu

Melting Point:
231.9 �C, 505.05 K, 449.41998�F

Bill