Casting bullets, recipe question

[tanks]

I am contemplating casting bullets. Now, I can get to almost the same BRH as Lyman #2 (14.65 BRH, 5% Tin, 5% Antimony) by using 7% Antimony only (15.04 BRH).

Is Tin really necessary or can I be fine without it? I'll be casting for 180gr .40 S&W (940 fps) and 230 gr .45ACP ( 730 fps).

[Pablo5959]

Stay away from zinc. You want tin. Get that from Roto metal or solder.
What do you have for base metal?
ISO containers from the scrap yard work great for any antimony.
You will be better off with a little softer alloy with pistol loads anyway.

[Fordtrucks]

Yes stay away from ZN it will destroy ur alloy, tin is used so it pours smoother and helps keep the antimony desolved and mixture homogeneous.

But.. Powder coat ur boolits and none of that matters, nor will velocity...at least in pistol calibers. It's pretty easy if looks don't matter to u much. It takes lots more time to make the powder coat perfect, but not necessary as far as I'm concerned, paper doesn't care.

[tanks]

Sorry, I fixed the post above, I had meant Tin not zinc.

I was planning on getting the super hard alloy from Roto Metals (30% antimony and 70% lead) and adding proportionate amount of pure lead bars that I have access to to bring the antimony down to 7% for 15 BRH

So, question stands do I need to add Tin seeing that I will be at 15 BRH.

[Pablo5959]

Without tin the added antimony, lead alloy will be a little brittle. I would add tin.
To tell you the truth. When I started collecting lead I first had about 75# of pure.
So I went with the super hard from Roto metals.
I never used it because I ended up finding wheel weights and bought ISO lead and mixed those with pure.
It is coming in handy for my cast .30 cal thought.

[Fordtrucks]

Tin has nothing to do with hardness, it has to do with other desirable properties of the alloy. Some tin is advantageous, I'm sure there already exist some small amount in ur lead ingots. Again tin can be found in many places quite easily, solder for copper pipes is one.

U can try pouring without adding the tin and see how it goes.
Why do u want such a hard lead alloy? BNH of 12 will fit 90% of all handgun requirements if not 100%. More important is proper barrel fitness, .002 overbore is considered optimum in most cases.

Once again, if u chose to powder coat or are considering powder coating, all this is moot.