indoor range lead/pure lead alloy

[John in WI]

I broke down and bought some pure, dead soft lead on Ebay. It's really some pretty stuff! Beautiful shiny stuff. And absolutely soft. Even tapping the ingots edge to edge leave a nice deep dent.

I also have some triple-fluxed indoor range scrap that seems to be quite a lot softer than wheel weight.

The idea was to alloy them about 50/50 to make a good soft alloy for my .38 special. Just a little harder than dead-soft. (hoping to make some SWCHP's and want it soft for good expansion)

I put 1.5# of each in a heavy stainless bowl with a strip of pewter I Sawzalled off of a vase and melted it down on a Colman stove and stirred it up good.

I noticed when I removed it from the mold that the parts that were against the stainless have a strange finish. You know how when it's very cold out, and you breathe on your windshield and it gets that kind of "fractal" ice forming on it? That's what the ingot looks like. It seems soft--I can put a decent gouge in it with my fingernail and it dents easily. It has a slight yellow shine to it.

Does it just get that kind of crystalline look because the ingot was so big, and so it took a long time to cool off?

Sorry if it's a dumb question--I'm a chemist by training, and maybe I'm thinking too much about it! Just that there's got to be a reason for it that I'm not thinking of. Just that the color and finish don't resemble either one of the parents.

[zxcvbob]

My indoor-range lead ingots are soft, but they don't tarnish like pure lead, and they get that "galvanized" large crystal look to the surfaces. The stuff is great for .38 specials (mild or hot) and .45 Colts. It's a little too soft for .357 and .41 Magnums but it'll work.

[John in WI]

Thanks! What I am looking to do with it is to cast some 158gr SWCs from my lee mold, and then use a friend's lathe to bore some hollow points in them. Then use my normal (ie CHEAP) wheel weight lead for a practice load of the same weight and shape.

I'm also interested in trying some "split tips" out of this alloy. I already made some of each with the wheel weight, and I want to do a side by side "redneck ballistics" test with wetpacks.

I was supposed to go out this weekend and test them--but walked in to ankle deep water in my basement after the sump gave out....

[40Super]

She really rained and got windy today here in WI today didn't it?

The indoor range lead probably had some antimony and tin in it from cast bullets in the mix.That is whats giving you the crystyline look to the ingots. I think the antimony and tin solidify quicker than the lead and are attracted to the mold so that is where they are more previlent. My thoughts anyway.

[zxcvbob]

Sorry if it's a dumb question--I'm a chemist by training, and maybe I'm thinking too much about it! Just that there's got to be a reason for it that I'm not thinking of. Just that the color and finish don't resemble either one of the parents.

OK, you have a non-eutectic alloy of lead, tin, antimony, and traces of arsenic and probably copper and zinc. Since it's not eutectic, it doesn't solidify all at once but over a solidus-liquidus range. The antimony probably falls out of solution first as it hardens, or perhaps it's an antimony-tin compound that crystallizes out first.

Don't worry about it. When you melt the ingots it'll all go back into solution. The boolits will be smooth because they cool a lot faster.

[MBTcustom]

Range lead differs from pure only by about .5%-1% trash that covers half the periodic table. I had quite a few samples tested for blackbike as he sells hundreds of pounds of range lead. Its almost pure.

[zxcvbob]

Range lead differs from pure only by about .5%-1% trash that covers half the periodic table. I had quite a few samples tested for blackbike as he sells hundreds of pounds of range lead. Its almost pure.

That 1% trash is significant though. At least the range lead I've collected is noticeably harder than pure lead, melts at a lower temperature, and the ingots stay silver (pure ingots turn blue-gray)

Maybe it depends whether the shooters predominantly shoot .22LR, or jacketed bullets, or cast bullets.

[MBTcustom]

Very true! It would greatly depend on the range that you got the lead from. Most of the ranges I have been to are dominated by factory bullets and my findings reflect that type of range. The 1% trash does effect the mix (none of the samples I tested had that much though) but its not something that you can quantify as the various samples had so little of each component that it would be impossible to reproduce. Still, consider that modern WW alloy is about the same with the addition of about 1.5% antimony. It certainly makes a difference but how much or little depends on the batch.
Momma always said that range lead was like a box of choc-lits; you never know what your gonna get!

[runfiverun]

that gold color is the tin....