First time casting for rifles...hardness question.

[LivewireBlanco]

Ok so the lead I use for my pistol rounds is pure range scrap. Mainly jacketed but some cast boolits are in the range scrap pile. My question is, if I water quench and use a gas check would this hardness be good enough to run a boolit to 1750-1900 fps? I'm wanting to cast for my 30-06, specifically for my Garand and possibly for my M1 Carbine if things go well.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I think you will be fine at those speeds.
If you want to get 'deeper' into it...because your question is one I'm digging into right now, click on the banner below for Castbullet notes at lasc.us for a quick study of alloys, the hardness and the pressures they can handle.

If you have the Lyman castbullet handbook and use their data, there should be pressures listed so you can guesstimate the alloy hardness required for your load.

Of course a Hardness tester would be a valuable tool to have, so you know what your alloy hardness when air cooled, or water dropped.
Good Luck.

[Pb2au]

It is kind of hard to predict how range scrap will behave, but mostly we can assume it is mostly comprised of softer alloys.
So moving forward, I would cast up a handful and water drop them. Give them the highly scientific thumb nail test and see if they harder in comparison to the air cooled variety.
To help harden it a bit, see if you can lay your hands on some other alloy to add in to harden it if need be. Heck, I imagine there might be some folks here who would be agreeable to trading some of your range scrap for some harder alloy.
All that being said, and assuming they do harden up a bit, I would say give it a whirl. At the speeds you are targeting I would guess that it work.
I hope this helps!

[Larry Gibson]

Mainly jacketed but some cast boolits are in the range scrap pile.

As mentioned it is hard to tell what any range alloy is going to like w/o actually seeing it. I've dealt with range scrape for years of several outdoor ranges and indoor ranges. Judging from your description by guess is the alloy will be soft with a higher ratio of antimony in it that tine. The alloy in jacketed bullets is either pure lead or has 1 - 3% antimony. The cast bullets, if mostly commercial cast will most likely be "hard cast" and will have a high amount of antimony in them with a smaller amount of tin.

The alloy you have may cast and even WQ/HT ok but for best results I'd add around 2% tin which usually brings the SbSn content in line for better solution in the lead and a better alloy. It will also HT or WQ as well if not better. Odds are it will prevent antimonal wash (many times confused with "leading") which is a common problem with antimony rich range scrap. That alloy will be just fine AC'd or if pushed to 1800+ fps you might want to simply WQ them.

Larry Gibson

[LivewireBlanco]

Thanks guys! I know my pistol rounds are on the soft side. If I had to guess they would be about 10 bhn tops. I have a small amount of tin that I could use to help out with the alloy if needed as well. Looks like I might need to order me a new mold!

[waco]

Go to the "Lead Alloys" section. There is a great sticky about using cheap art pencils for lead hardness testing. It is a good read and is quit accurate. In my .308 I've have good luck with alloy in the 14-15BHN range in the FPS zone your looking for.