30:1 lead to tin bullets

[Tommy tornado]

Anybody use the 30:1 lead to tin alloy for bp bullets?  I was curious what results you might have had good or bad.  Thanks for any replies.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Howdy, TT!

I wish I could answer from personal experience.  Since 30:1 is getting close to pure lead, I'll bet it makes a great Black Powder bullet.  I know several bullet supply outfits sell ingots of pure lead, 20:1, as well as 30:1 alloys, so there must be a demand for it.  Since 20:1 is listed as the HARDEST alloy to use with BP bullets, then 30:1 must work well.  I seem to remember that the tin is there to make the casting a bit easier.

I'm sure that others with more experience than I have will get you more complete information.

[REELFOOT REGULATOR]

I have used 30:1 for 500 gr pills out of my sharps, and the acuracy was was very good with swiss powder. However the correct top punch and seater plug must be used with alloy this soft or possible nose deformation could happen with heavily compressed loads. I solved this problem using a compression die before seating the bullet

[Delmonico]

I use 24-1 because both my moulds have to many rejects at 30-1.  Tin is expensive so use as little as possibe to get good castings and you'll do fine. 

[Cactus Cris]

I use nothing but 30:1 for the 44/40 & 45/70.  I use pure lead for rnd ball and the HB 140gr 38 boolit.   I mold big boolits for my 45/70 with it and they come out fine.  The Mav 44 mold is a 6 hole'r & 30:1 works in it too.   

[Delmonico]

I weigh all my 45-70 bullets and reject at 1/4 gr under standard, maybe a little overkill but.  I use the
RCBS-500-BPS it is a semi spitzer.  Also I cast the Lyman 457122 330 gr hp.  Both are a bit harder to cast and 24-1 wgives a much higher rate of good bullets.  24-1 is easier to weigh and mix the alloys tha 25-1, but I'm sure 25-1 would work well, if you were buying alloy.  Just melt equal weights 20-1 and 30-1.

[Bad Flynch]

The least amount of tin that you can get away with should be OK with black powder. They seem to shoot well, even for some as low as 40:1. Remeber that the more tin in the alloy, the more it will likely tin your mold around the sprue plate eventually. Softer bullets need a compression die as already mentioned.

[john boy]

Tommy, various cast ratios are ... What Ever a Specific Rifle Likes!  For C&B ... stick with the pure lead

I have seen recipes used for all the common ratio Bn ratings used in LR BPCR:
1 to 30 tin lead   9
1 to 20 tin lead   10
1 to 10 tin lead   11
WW (clip on)   12
Lead Shot*   13
Lyman # 2   15

[Cactus Cris]

John Boy-  When Bullet Meister was in Az. their mix was 19 hardness.  Don't know what it is now, but they didn't work well in BP toys.  Main reason I started to cast my own 9 yrs. ago for BP.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

C. Cris, you are SO right!  I found out (the hard way, natch) that while Meister makes a fine bullet, it's WAY too hard for BP beyond 25 yds or so!

I ordered 500 of them lubed with SPG before finding out this!  Hey!  They work OK, at least out to 400 yds, with IMR 4198.