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Old March 12, 2012, 01:35 PM   #1
TheBear
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casting tin bullets

An old guy on the range told me hes been casting tin bullets for years (for his 8x57IS and .44lc), he said that he started when he found out that lead is poisenous and he didnt want to poison his farm land where he grew his vegetables. He claimed that tin bullets are much more accurate and "tougher" then lead, having better penetration and so on...
Well i know a little bit about metals, tin is very similar to lead but ive never heard of tin bullets for rifles.

Im just curious, any infos?
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Old March 12, 2012, 02:42 PM   #2
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Tin has a lower melting point, 1/3 less density, more cost. The hardness is about BHN 51. You could probably treat it somewhat like a light-for-size jacketed bullet, though you may want to add a card wad or a poly wad to the base to prevent melting with some powders. The lower density will reduce its ballistic coefficient in equal proportion. It also will need a faster twist to garner an equal gyroscopic stability factor, but most handguns already have more spin than is strictly required, so I wouldn't expect to see much from that and it may tumble more readily in game. Because of its lower mass the tin bullet will have proportionally less momentum than its lead counterpart at any particular velocity. If both hold together and don't distort, that would mean proportionally less penetration. However. lead will expand more easily and the light bullet, for the same powder charge, will be going not quite one quarter faster in most instances, so this may not be what you see on the ground.

Bottom line, if you want to try it, go ahead. It should be noted that plants tend to be pretty good filters, and I've not noticed any big stories about problems with lead in crops, despite all the civil war bullets in some places. The EPA's complaints are likely the biggest concern as long as you don't have kids going through the soil and putting oxidized lead objects in their mouths.
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Last edited by Unclenick; March 12, 2012 at 02:47 PM.
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Old March 12, 2012, 06:39 PM   #3
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Elemental lead is effectively inert in nature. All the hand wringing you hear about is concerning organic lead compounds. They still dig up Minnie Ball bullets from Civil War battlefields that are full weight 150 years later.



A layer of oxide forms that bonds to the lead and seals it from any further corrosion.
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Old March 12, 2012, 11:53 PM   #4
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Those would be some mighty expensive bullets too. With tin somewhere around $18 per pound compared to $1 per pound for lead or $2.50 per pound for decent bullet alloy, tin bullets would be pretty pricey. At that rate, you may as well shoot regular jacketed bullets.
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Old April 10, 2012, 08:32 PM   #5
chris in va
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We'll all be casting tin or zinc pretty soon.
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Old April 11, 2012, 09:17 AM   #6
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Find out where his berm is. If he's been doing it that long you'd have a lifetime's supply of pot sweetener!

At the price of tin, he'd be saving money hand over fist to buy factory. Also considering the weight difference, it's really not a great option. I tried a couple for kicks and the mold that drops 170gr. with my normal alloy for my rifle dropped 92gr. from tin. It would be one heck of a screamer for short range, but I don't think anyone makes a 350gr. .30 caliber mold that I'd need for reasonable weight--not to mention it would make the "cruise missile" look short. I'd be seating the base up against the flash hole in my AK. Something tells me it wouldn't work too well
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