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Sources of antimony

2K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  gpa&hisguns 
#1 ·
Other than magnum lead shot, are there any other sources of antimony for bullet casting, in common products? If I could find something locally, I'd rather than go the Rotometals route.
 
#3 ·
O.K. My understanding tin makes lead hard and resist swaging. Biggest source of swaged lead with antimony and NO tin is fired .22 rimfire bullets. Range around? This would be lead and antimony. Exact alloy I don't know but should be common. Scout camps. Mil. reserve ranges. Etc. Lyman used to have good info on mixing these scrap sources for the alloy you want. Tin also makes the lead flow better and fill the mould. As stated, antimony is common in common lead products like type metals, not that type is too common anymore. Luck. Happy Trails.
 
#4 ·
We always used 9 parts lead and 1 part tin worked very good.

Deaconllb
 
#7 ·
you can buy pure antimony but its a bugger to flux in. I did it a couple times and it takes paitients. Better to go to a lead supplier like rotometals ect. They sell it already alloyed in concentrations much higher the type metal. 20 years ago I would have said just use type metal but I don't know about your area but I haven't found type metal localy here for 10 years. So If yo want it you find it in the classifieds on fourms or on ebay.


Tin isn't the answer. It just takes to much of it to do any good and at 10 bucks a lb or more is cost prohibitive. Back in the day elmer keith used a lot of 20 to 1 lead tin for his hard alloy but im sure he got tin cheap and there wasn't readily available wws in large quantity's. Tins benefits or making casting easier because of fillout is a very overrated thing. You can cast perfectly good bullets out of pure lead with no tin antimony or copper in the alloy. Proper heat and proper rhythm is what makes good bullets. Not the percentage of tin.


I think tin is the biggest waste of money (at 10 bucks a lb) a caster can spend. Yup ive used 100s of lbs of it but I can honestly say ive never bought tin. For years I had a guy at the local saw mill that used tin guides on there saws give me the worn pieces. Hed bring over two buckets at a time a couple times a year. Right up till the guys there found out they could get 10 bucks a lb for it. Still the hands down easiest and cheapest way to get hard lead is to get yourself some clip on ww and water drop the bullets as you cast or heat treat them and water drop them in your oven.


I cast bullets to save money and make shooting cheap so personaly I like the cheap way of getting hard lead. If I cast 20 lbs of bullets at 10 to 1 im spending 20 bucks more then I would. Add to that pure lead most cases is more expensive then wheel weight and bucket of water. I guess if you shoot a 100 rounds a month its no big deal but when I hit the range its many times 500 rounds or more and it adds up. Yup you could argue that you got your tin for free so it doesn't cost anything to use but you could also sell it for 10 bucks a lb and buy powder primers and more lead.
 
#8 ·
I've had two 5 gallon buckets full of wheel weights in my garage for 20 years. I will shoot it up when I retire however what has saved that lead for so long was the fact that I had access to all kinds of telephone cable lead which is close to pure. Also my wife"s uncle owned Witt Print shop in Columbia Missouri for years. He gave me a almost 100lbs of linotype. I have been blessed in that regard. Mixing that pure lead 10-2 with linotype makes nice bullets!
 
#9 ·
plain old ww make a great alloy for anything up to 1200 fps. Bit more in a good gun or if you pc coat bullets. My favorite alloy back when I was swimming in type metal was 75percent clip on ww and 25 percent lino or 90-10 if it was monotype. I wish I had bad the type metal I wasted shooting those bullets out of pop gun loads. Ive probably got 2 tons of ww and pure in the barn but only 50 lbs of type metal left. Back in the 90s I bought out a print shot in WI. I got all the type metal they had left for 50 cents a lb. Came back with over 1500 lbs. It had my half ton truck squatting. Its all gone back to the earth it came from. Guess bullet casters are actually recyclers!:tango_face_smile_bi
 
#10 ·
Back in the late 70s and early 80s my old Buddy Butch and I each molded and lube sized enough .358 bullets over the winter to each come away with a 5 gallon bucket full. Then we shot them all up before the next winter. We did that for several years running. We had a 35 gallon drum in Butches garage full of 38/357 cases with split next from one to many times through cycle. 4 or 5 years ago I dumped out a full 5 gallon bucket of spent primers that were all knocked out on my rock chucker single stage press. I had tapped on the side of that bucket to shake it down to make room for more primers for the last time. I might add that 5 gallon bucket of spent primers is heavy....you don't lift it by the wire handle.
 
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