There's a zillion flavors of babbit.

Make or buy a hardness tester. Or just cast a few and see how they shoot.

Personally, I would just use wheelweight and never mind the babbit.

don't use babbit for bullits.

even if you know what alloy it is (there are 6 different lead-tin alloys listed the machinery's handbook) it will contain way too much animony and tin.

If you want hard bullets, from cheap to free material, use wheel weights. You still won't know the exact consistancey but if you melt 50 pounds at a wack and blend them you will get fairly consistant results. Be sure to pick out the shiny ones that float, these are Zinc. Don't worry about the "Sticky backed" ones they are pure lead and will help the mix.

Babbit is better used as an alloy with lead to get a higher brinnel hardness number (BHN) (harder bullet) rather than as a single casting material. Its use to cast bullets would be a real waste of expensive tin. Because of the various content mix in babbit alloys, and the problem identifing just what you have, it is better to mix a small batch of alloy (recording the reciepe) and cast a few to see how they will work for you.

You can probably do well selling your babbitt to guys who rebuild old stationary engines. (I'm sure you've seen the old "flywheel engines" or "hit and miss" engines running at fairs and such.) They're always looking for affordable babbitt. An ad here would get responses: http://enginads.com/

Lorena Babbitt used a knife for a hardness tester. OOOpppppss forget it,it was Lorena Bobbitt.

YUP! And Bobbitt she did!

I agree with Ricochet, babbit is hard to come by for those that need it. If sold, you could get yourself a lot of decent alloy. WW's are readily available and will do what you need. Babbit by itself will cast very light and possibly too hard to obturate properly, even if the size is right.
If you had a large supply of pure, or nearly pure lead, from roof flashing, old plumbung fixtures, x-ray shielding, etc., then small amounts of it added to your mix would be great, but otherwise sell it and use WW's.

Thank you all, as usual I can count on you guys. I have an almost unlimited supply of used roof flashing so will probably try to find the right formula for pure lead and my babbit to give me the desire hardness for my 444 marlin.

Start with 20:1 and see what you get for boolit weight. What mould are you using?
Considered buying a muzzle loader?

Here's some info on different alloys and blends.

Cast Bullet Notes

Rick

versifier, I do cast a 320 grain pure lead 50 cal bullet for both my muzzle loaders. As of now, I do not have a rifle and have never cast a rifle bullet. I do run commercial cast bullets in my sbh 44. I have thought about the Lee 310 gr. gc for the 444. I live in a very low populated area of ne Maine, next to the Canada border, and wheelweights are very hard to come by and shipping costs to this area is high.

I have been through Eastport, though it's a bit of a drive from here in Conway. If you have no luck at the local garages, then do the mix. Shipping is only $7 for up to 75lbs USPS, but that still might not be a practical option for you.
The Lee boolit you are considering is a good one for hunting and general target work, as long as it is sized correctly for the barrel/cylinder you're going to shoot it through. With a revolver, you often have to slug the throats of each chamber in the cylinder to determine their size. If they are much smaller than the barrel's groove diameter you may have problems, but if you have been getting good results with commercial cast that's probably not an issue. You're lucky. You can get a Lee .430 sizing kit to try out, too. As long as you aren't trying to launch them too fast, the liquid alox should do the trick, though you might need more than one coat for best results.

Keezer,
I have the 310gr lee and seat the gas checks with a Lee .430 sizer. I was using them in a Ruger 96/44 and they were a great bullet. Only ever shot a crow and a raccoon with them but we tried them out on a dead cow and they would go through the hip bone when launched at 1575fps.

Where is Eastport? I live near Hartland in New Brunswick along the border.

NBhunter, Eastport is located about thirty miles south of St. Stephen New Brunswick. On the subject of the lee 310 gr gc, I just want to make sure the hardness is sufficient for a velocity of between 1700 and 1900 fps. I haven't slugged the barrel of my 444 but they recommend .431 but lee only offers .430. Will probably try .430 and try to order a .431 if it doesn't work.

Roger,
If you go visit the Cast Boolits forum, you will find a member named Buckshot who can make custom push-thruogh sizers for you for less cost and much faster turn around time than Lee can offer.
You should still slug before ordering any sizer. The softer alloy 20:1 might show the larger sizer unnecessary. Take a pure lead boolit and hit it a moderate blow with a hammer to fatten it up a bit, oil your barrel liberally, then pound it through. Put a few layers of masking tape every couple of inches on the drive rod to keep it from making any contact with the bore. Don't use a hardware store dowel (or any other wooden rod) for the drive rod as they have a bad habit of splintering when hit. Guess how I found out!