Snider Bullets with pure lead

Dave.S

Dave.S

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Hi I have 50lbs of pure lead,I want to cast bullets to reload for my Snider.Do I have to add tin?I tried casting this aft bullets have flaws like lines and smiles.Where can I get tin if I need it?Dave
 
The marks you mention on the bullets are not because of lack of tin. The heat of the lead is the problem. Either too hot or not hot enough. Most likely not hot enough. I've cast for many calibres including .577 also the rifling in a Snyder should be the same as a P53 Enfield to get the most out of the Pritchett ball, think Minie ball. I would go with pure lead as it worked well in the wars that rifle musket fought in and very accurate with the P53 I had.
 
You can use the imperfect bullets. They don't really need to be flawless unless you are doing serious target shooting.

With wrinkles it's usually more an issue of the mold needing more warm up casts or pre heating on a hotplate or by dipping a corner in the pot for a few minutes. Oil residue in the mold can also cause wrinkles so wash with soap and water or something like acetone or brake cleaner and and a toothbrush.

A little tin does help fill-out and gives sharper features. The best place for that is pewter at junk shops. Look for things marked pewter and that make a crunchy sound when deformed. Only need one part tin in 30 or 40 parts lead.
 
Where are you getting your "pure" lead? Tin is needed to flow into the molds, I asked this very question of a buddy of mine who I spent the day casting, he has done this for many years now. Tin is in most soft lead already as the lead has to be formed in to something. Probably best to try getting your mold hot and testing the bullets, see what they look like. If you are not getting flow in to the molds you can get plumbers solder and add that to the lead to alloy some tin in to it and get better flow. I did not have to do this using catfish weights and lead from stain glass windows, so your lead may work fine as is.

The lead I have now is cable shielding, I want to turn it in to ingots to get some of the impurities out before going further but will test as I go to see how much it flows.

Scored a 5 gallon pail full of dead soft lead :D
 
For Sniders, minie type bullets are supposed to be pure lead (or close to it). These are sub-bore and need to be soft to bump up and fill the rifling. Most current Snider shooters who get serious about accuracy are using 0.60" solid grease groove bullets. Since these are already nearly groove diameter I'm not sure pure lead is the best although that's what most guys I know do use. Due to time problems I once bought a supply of cast 0.60" bullets which seemed to have a bit of tin in them- probably because it helps casting good slugs easily. These gave me the best accuracy I've had yet with the Snider. Must borrow a hardness tester and see what they actually test at.

milsurpo
 
milsurpo said:
For Sniders, minie type bullets are supposed to be pure lead (or close to it). These are sub-bore and need to be soft to bump up and fill the rifling. Most current Snider shooters who get serious about accuracy are using 0.60" solid grease groove bullets. Since these are already nearly groove diameter I'm not sure pure lead is the best although that's what most guys I know do use. Due to time problems I once bought a supply of cast 0.60" bullets which seemed to have a bit of tin in them- probably because it helps casting good slugs easily. These gave me the best accuracy I've had yet with the Snider. Must borrow a hardness tester and see what they actually test at.

milsurpo
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Tin is not going to do anything really to the hardness, keep the antimony out of it and you will still essentially have soft lead with tin for molding.
 
Fox said:
Where are you getting your "pure" lead? Tin is needed to flow into the molds, I asked this very question of a buddy of mine who I spent the day casting, he has done this for many years now. Tin is in most soft lead already as the lead has to be formed in to something. Probably best to try getting your mold hot and testing the bullets, see what they look like. If you are not getting flow in to the molds you can get plumbers solder and add that to the lead to alloy some tin in to it and get better flow. I did not have to do this using catfish weights and lead from stain glass windows, so your lead may work fine as is.

The lead I have now is cable shielding, I want to turn it in to ingots to get some of the impurities out before going further but will test as I go to see how much it flows.

Scored a 5 gallon pail full of dead soft lead :D
Click to expand...

Lead sheathing that used to be used on roofs and walls is about as close to pure as it comes.

You're right about needing "tin" to get the melted metal to fill the voids in a mold, but to much will make obturation of the bullet skirts into the rifling, while it passes down the bore less efficient.

It's needed with high pressure cartridges but not with the 577 Snider, 577/450 and other similar cartridges at the pressures they operate at.

It doesn't take very much ''tin'' to make the metal hard enough for higher pressures.

I've heard of people that cast all of their bullets from Lynotype, without adding it to lead. Not as readily available as it used to be though.

I had a standing order for all of the Lynotype from a couple of local papers several decades back, but they're gone now and the only one left uses modern printing processes.
 
It was my experience that some tin added will help lead to flow - to be a bit more "runny", at the same melt temperature - not so much about making result to be harder. I just looked - Rotometal's Linotype alloy is 4% tin, 12% antinomy and 84% lead. I suspect is that antimony that makes the result so much harder than straight lead, or lead with a small amount of tin?

Someone asked where to get tin - common source in the past was 50/50 solder bars - 50% lead and 50% tin - like used at a radiator shop - is your tin there - do the math and figure out how much pure lead to add to get to the 2% or 4% or whatever tin content that you want? Was from my casting days - should want to know the melt temperature and want to weigh your components that went into the mix - if you wanted to duplicate them in the future, or NOT to duplicate them - depending on results that you got.
 
zuke said:
Easiest place to get tin nowadays is lead free solder. It's 99% tin
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The cheapest source available for ''Tin" is in the PEWTER picture frames/decorator plates and other such knick Knacks at the local second hand shops, such as Salvation Army Thrift Shop, Value Village or even some scrap metal dealers.

It's pretty easy to tell from the pot metal because it's malleable.

If you're looking at cups/plates/goblets/decanters/beer mugs, they will have a Triangle shape and some list the Tin content.

Often the tin content is well over 90%

Last fall, I did the circuit in the small city about 25kliks from home and came back with 30+ pounds of PEWTER to mix with the lead sheathing I picked up from a local scrap dealer that didn't want to deal with it. I gave him a couple of 24 packs of beer he likes in exchange for a couple of hundred pounds of the stuff. There's a bit of roofing tar on it but it burns off.

This doesn't have to be expensive or complicated.

Do a bit of due diligence on your PUTER/smart phone and go for it.

If you happen to get a bit of Zinc in the mix, don't worry about it, unless you're hunting with the bullets.

I have a friend that has been casting his hunting bullets from Zinc for years. He claims it doesn't foul as much and works every bit as well as #2 alloy on the game he shoots. Mostly Deer.
 
There aren't many casting problems that you can't fix by adding more heat.

Wrtinkles and poor fill-out indicate the mold is too cold. Maybe the mold just needs more pours to warm up, or maybe the pot temp is too low to maintain the mold temperature high enough. Either way - more pot heat will help you get past that.

The purer the lead is, the higher the melting temp. is. Tin in the alloy lowers the flowing / melting point and that's why tin helps with fill out. Pure lead can be miserable to cast with, harder to get a good fill and a smaller temperature window to stay within. If you let the mold cool too much, the next pour will not fill out or have wrinkles. Run the pot 800F or higher, preheat the mold, and pour as fast as you can drop solid bullets. Keep going until the mold is hot enough to fill out and then increase cooling time to maintain temperature. You may be able to adjust the pot temp downwards when the mold gets warmed up.
 
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