jok3reod

I would imagine one of the moderators will move this over to the metal casting part of IFI.
As aluminum bronze is a common alloy in marine applications (prop shafts) information, and ingots shouldn't be impsible to find.
The only value I can.think of for using this material for pistol ammunition is to defeat body armor, and frankly 119 grain ball will defeat most (IIA) armor. As will aiming for the pelvice, in which case I would recommend something like a silver tipped glasser safty slug. The pelive contains 4 major vessels, and nerve bundles, as well as moving the least on a moving target. The standard body armor defeat drill is two in the chest, two in the pelvice and one in the head.
You might also check out a .50 cal forum as I've heard of folks casting bronze for them. Specifically for "hardened" target applications. As ATF takes a dim veiw on the sale of steel jacketed API rounds.

Thanks for the reply Charles,

I recently had to sell my fn 5.7 after I fell on some hard times, and I'm investing in a much cheaper Baretta 9mm. I would love to be able to cast steel rounds, and simply add a copper jacket. The lowest velocity rounds for the 5.7 were about 2200 fps, and going to a 9mm is a major drop in velocity. The goal of this venture of mine is to hand load a round that can defeat a trauma plate since plates and vests are widely available to the general public now for a fairly low price, and you never know what you may run into in a home defense situation these days. The most durable bullet molds I found were cast from steel, but as my knowledge on the subject is quite limited im not even sure if I could use these with molten steel

Hey everyone,

I've been bullet casting and hand loading for a while mostly lead and sold copper, but now I’m interested in trying to cast aluminum bronze rounds because of its high strength. If anyone has ever worked with aluminum bronze before id really appreciate some information on what a good ratio of aluminum to copper would be to yield the hardest metal. Any information on the smelting and combination of these two metals would also be appreciated.