Bullet Alloy Metals for reloaders - question about popularity.

The black powder cartridge rifle people like a 1:20 or 1:30 tin to lead alloy.

Smokeless shooting needs a harder lead with some antimony often. I think there's a standard formula for Lyman #2 that's pretty popular.

As yomomma said, wheelweight is very popular for handgun and moderate pressure rifle loads. Something similar without all the fluxing and skimming might be a good seller.
 
Straight lead for black powder loads.
Wheel weight or similar for low pressure (cowboy loads) pistol and rifle.
Very hard (18 to 22) for rifle hunting loads.
 
Lyman #2 would be a standard hard lead that many loaders would have plenty of load data for. Personally I'd like some thing a little harder but for stocking an alloy you couldn't go wrong with Lyman #2.
 
90% lead, 5 % tin, 5% antimony. I think that is close to Lyman #2.
Wheel wights should be around 96-1-3 give or take I think.
Either one in that ball park would suit me just fine.
 
Wheelweights work well for me.

I also mix range scrap and Linotype 6:1 with OK results but this is because of the product availability.

I'd buy "hardball" at 92-6-2 depending on a reasonable price + shipping.
 
Shipping is going to be a challenge. Hopefully orders will have brass and equipment (lighter) as well as lead. We are planning on free shipping to most of Canada on orders over $300.
 
We are still in the planning stages of adding alloys to the reloading section of our website.
https://www.westernmetal.ca/shooting/reloading-components
This is something that Western Metals is very familiar with we just want to make sure we make the right choices. We have discussed having a pure tin bar available as well as offering lead with antimony.
We will likely have this set up in 2 months.
 
Mikeyman said:
I would like to the option to buy some tin bars.
Click to expand...

This is a good suggestion. Sometimes people can run into pure lead locally but finding proper metals to alloy with it is difficult. Many of the wheelweights that we get off cars are pure lead. Those who have a good supply of wheelweights have likely saved up a bunch of pure lead weights as they didn't want to mess with the alloy in the other weights, so alloy metals in the raw would likely be appealing for those folks. I would anyway.

Antimony, Tin or Pewter bars.
 
Hey Western Metal,

Generally what we're looking for is whatever the highest percentage tin alloy is at the lowest possible cost. Most of use use ww for the bulk of our casting which is an inexpensive source of antimonial lead, and it makes the *ideal* casting alloy provided you can bump up the tin content a percent or two to improve mold fill out.

In this regard Lyman #2 and linotype is always in demand at the right price.

To be fairly blunt, casters are thrifty bastards, it's virtually a necessity to get into DIY bullet making.

We scrounge, we've done our homework, and there are plenty of other metal dealers selling alloys suitable for casting (rotometals, metalex, Canada Metals, etc.) that we could buy from but don't because usually shipping is a pain and pricing on small orders isn't favorable.

Anyone who's been at casting for a while usually had hoarded enough lead for their immediate needs so we're not biting at the bit to buy whatever we can at any price-we wait until it's right.


In short, be competitive. :)

-Mike
 
COPPER !! Yes, I said copper ( Cu ). Not pure copper, but around 1% also Arsenic ( As ) we need around 0.5% for the ability to heat-treat bullets for increased hardness.
Those percentages are in the finished alloy.

So I'd suggest a "finished" bullet alloy similar to the Lyman #2 with the copper and arsenic.

Also an "alloying package" with ingots designed to make better bullets from wheel weights or even straight lead.

A sort of "babbit" of 50% Tin, 20% Lead, 20% Antimony, 8% Copper and 2% Arsenic. Would that work?
 
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