Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Any use for nickle babbit?

I don't think we want it anywhere near our bullets. But perhaps someone is casting toys, or figurines.

I acquired two bars, about 3.5 lb each labeled N-F metals Seattle, premier nickle babbit, which according to the website is lead free.

If anyone has a use for it, I could be traded out of it pretty easily. Perhaps a bar of tin or a bar of 30/70 antimony lead, obo.

from what I can gather, it is "Grade 2" babbitt, and there is so little extra in it that it can be treated like a copper alloy... the kind some guys have been using for "toughening" alloy for high speed plain base bullet shooting. Not as high copper as Rotometals Super Tough #3 babbit, but in the same usage.... it has nearly the same composition, save for lower copper.

if they are alloying RM's ST #3, then a #2 should not be any different, but would make for some hard/tough bullets.


I'm gonna keep doing some research into nickel in bullet casting, see what I can find.

Instead of hurrying to dispose of it, why not try a small batch of experimental bullet alloy using the stuff as a "sweetener"? I have no experience with babbit metals (although I too have some odds and ends of it gathering dust), and would welcome some reports of real-world escapades involving its use if for no other reason than to add to the common knowledge. If said experiments with this particular bearing metal fail, well, nothing lost but some soft "good" lead in the process, and perhaps some time with a bore brush- a small price to pay for practical knowledge.

i have tinkered some in the distant past with it. it will as a "sweetener" ie. about 10% added to a 5lb pot of #2 alloy drop the weight about 10g's for a 200g bullet and make the bullet harder than Kelsey's nuts.
i used it to cast a batch of 300g's for a 454 to use as attitude adjusters for bears. have a '92 puma 454 filled with them right beside me now.
my cousin was a filer in a mill and they used the babbit to hold planer blades for sharpening. i have 300# of it if any body needs some.