Question About Bismuth To Lead

[J.B. Books]

Originally Posted by Joe Wheeler

I was just wondering if since bismuth is softter would it act like lead and have similar performance.

It does not have similar performance because it does not have the same density of lead. What it is known for is better performance on game than steel shot and it's friendly to old barrels.

Because bismuth is less dense it takes a greater volume of it to achieve the same weight as lead. An ounce and a quarter of bismuth has the same volume as 1 3/8+ ounce of lead. That results in more bore scrub which results in higher chamber pressure.

An old rule of thumb was you could take the same volume of bismuth and substitute it for lead and have roughly the same pressure i.e a recipe for 1 1/4 ounce of lead will hold roughly an 1 1/8 ounce of bismuth and you should be good to go. This is the only way I would directly substitute bismuth for lead in a lead reloading recipe. Another thing I have tried is to find a published recipe for a heavier load of bismuth and decrease the weight and powder.

Bismuth works great on game if it is not pushed to super high velocity (its more brittle than lead). You may want to increase the shot size for impact performance on game because bismuth is roughly 80% the density of lead.

When loaded right ducks don't know they were hit with bismuth they just drop.

Good luck, stay safe.