Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Why 50/50 lead tin ingots?

I was going through some of my late friends stuff looking for some 25/20 cast bullets he had made. I found those and also came across ingots of what are marked 50% lead 50% tin. I had wondered if he had used up all the pure tin I had bought for him as a present. I think I found what remained of the 5 lbs of tin in the form of 7.5 lbs of 50-50 alloy.

I know that he varied his alloys with application and how the bullets were filling out. I haven't done much casting at all accept a little trying to learn from him years ago. I don't remember him talking about the advantage of making 50-50 but I do recall him saying plumber's solder is available source of tin which I have learned is 50-50 lead and tin. Why did he make his own 50-50 alloy?

I put it up for sale in the classifieds but I am second guessing myself. Is there an advantage to 50-50 lead and tin?

I can't see why somebody would do that purposely for shooting purposes. It just complicates the math a little bit in brewing bullet alloy. I have a bunch of 2# bars of store bought 50/50....I just melt it in with 18# of lead and I get something like 20 to 1 for black powder cartridge calibers.

Maybe he scored a bunch of odds and ends of 50/50 stuff and consolidated it into ingots?

Thanks for you thoughts Flintlocke and gnoahhh. I will never know. He cast a lot of bullets over a lot of years. I just mailed 25 pounds of 7mm bullets off last week. When I retire I will have to do a lot more shooting to use them all up before I go to the happy hunting grounds.

60/40 & 50/50 1# ingots used by plumbers way back when for pouring joints. Last time I saw tin it was $27 a lb. A 1lb ingot of 50/50 and 9.5 #'s of pure lead will make you 10.5 pounds 1 in 20 tin to lead alloy. I would not run richer than that as it is an expensive use of tin. Mb

A few years ago I bought a 5 gallon bucket of mixed and partial rolls of solder and melted them all down and cast them into ingots. Some of the metal spools were rusted away to nothing and the plastic spools had lost their stickers. This was a good way to blend a bunch on unknown stuff into something useable. I sent off a sample to have it analyzed and it came back 51% tin and 49% lead.

[quote=lightman]A few years ago I bought a 5 gallon bucket of mixed and partial rolls of solder and melted them all down and cast them into ingots. Some of the metal spools were rusted away to nothing and the plastic spools had lost their stickers. This was a good way to blend a bunch on unknown stuff into something useable. I sent off a sample to have it analyzed and it came back 51% tin and 49% lead.

Close enough for government work!

I have a pile of really old spools of lead solder gathering dust. Partial rolls, full rolls, flux cores and not - stuff I inherited from my Dad and Gramps that I always said "I gotta keep the stuff because someday I might need it". This thread jogged my recollection and I shall gather it up and melt it into ingots. I can hear those two guys sputtering now, but to me the value lies in little holes punched in target paper not the unlikelihood of me ever soldering copper pipes together again.

Tin adds hardness to the lead alloy, and it makes it flow easier to more completely fill out the mould cavity.

I've been casting my own pistol, rifle, and muzzleloader bullets since the early '70s, and making my own shot since the mid '80s.
My last casting session was number 53, and the last few years I cast 6-800 bullets per session. I was making 700 lbs of shot per year when I was seriously competing in Trap and Skeet.

Muzzleloader bullets need to be soft for better low velocity expansion so pure lead or close to pure lead is best for them.

Rifle and pistol bullets need to be harder to resist leading in the rifle or pistol barrel, so antimony and tin are added to the mix.

Shotgun pellets should also be harder to resist deformation of the pellets when they are crammed together going down the barrel, so antimony and tin are also added to their mix.

My best source for casting rifle and pistol bullets and for making hard shot was wheel weights, but the misguided greenies killed that source.

They still make and sell plumbers solder 50-50. The cheapest I found with a quick search was this https://www.amazon.com/50-Tin-Lead-Bar-Solder-Sticks/dp/B09Q7XXD9N/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1IUO2NXJR1L4D&keywords=50%25+tin+50%25+lead+solder+ingot&qid=1706574604&sprefix=50%25+tin+50%25+lead+solder+ingot%2Caps%2C180&sr=8-4

So I priced the ingots I have at half that. I am sure he had his alloy formulas figured out to use these ingots.

That makes THE most sense.