New Caster Needs Advise

Dan 444 · Post by **Dan 444** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:09 pm

Hello.
I have not started casting yet, but have started collecting wheel weight lead (evil-bay) and tin ingots. I am a MarlinNut and plan to cast for my leverguns in 218Bee, 219 Zipper, 30-30, 32 Win Spl, 35Rem, 356 Win, 375 Win, 444 Marlin and 45-70. I currently buy h/c bullets (21 bhn) and they shoot great in my Marlins. I plan on using an alloy consisting of 10 # wheel weights/0.5 #tin and water quenched. I push my bullets hard and I would appreciate your thoughts on my planned alloy.....

Now for the dumb question. The lead and tin ingots are all different sizes and shapes. How do I "chop 'em up" so that I get exactly 10# wheel weight and 0.5# tin to melt down to the proper alloy? I am thinking about melting the lead and pouring it into molds to get exactly 1# ingots and doing the same with the tin in 0.5# ingots...and then taking taking ten lead ingots and one tin ingot and melting them together to get alloy ingots for making bullets. Is this the correct way to do this or is there a better way?

Many thanks,
Dan
P.S. I think that the Ranch Dog molds are going to produce super bullets for my Marlins....gotta get some some ordered. He oughta' give me the molds for free, since he inflicted me with Marlinitis a number of years ago.

Jeff Quinn · Post by **Jeff Quinn** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:53 pm

That method will work just fine, or just weigh the stuff and use a calculator to get the ratio right.
The best thing that you could do is to buy and read the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook.

Post by **Chuck 100 yd** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:06 pm

That alloy will cast some nice bullets but I think your wasting your tin.
1 to 2% tin is all thats needed and an alloy of 1% tin to WW will heat treat harder than one with lots more tin.
Might try adding a few ounces of Extra Hard Magnum shot to the mix to get a little more Arsenic to help with the heat treating.
I oven HT an alloy of WW+2% tin and they come out very hard, Upper 20`s Bh at 475deg. for 1 hr and quench in cold water. It takes a few days to reach maximum hardness.
Have fun.

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:26 pm

Jeff Quinn wrote:That method will work just fine, or just weigh the stuff and use a calculator to get the ratio right.
The best thing that you could do is to buy and read the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook.

+1 (Emphasis added.) Peruse the sites ffor The Cast Bullet Association and Los Angeles Silhouette Club, both contain huge amounts of info. Also look @ Cast Boolits site.