range scrap hardness ?

[xpaholic]

just got through sorting 3 gallon paint cans of range scrap lead. sorted it between jacketed and cast, ready to melt down. my thoughts on sorting this way is that jacketed bullet scrap should be a relatively consistent soft hardness, i don't have a hardness tester yet. the cast scrap, both rifle and pistol, should be harder ? or am I wasting my time doing this? thanks xp

[WILCO]

or am I wasting my time doing this? thanks xp

I don't think your wasting time xp. Worst case scenario is you're keeping the trash out of one of the smelts.

[mdi]

Since BHN doesn't have a lot of influence with my bullet casting, I just mix it all together. I've gone through the "hardness vs pressure" formula, trying super hard alloy (22+) and some of the other alloys/hardness stuff, but I've found that for my shooting (low velocity handgun to hefty .44 Magnum loads, 22 rimfire equivalent .223 with lead, to 7.65x54r in my Mosin Nagant) fit is way more important than BHN. My bullets run roughly 10 BHN and my "range scrap" will go about 12-14 depending on the batch.

[Bent Ramrod]

I separate the jacketed from cast/plated myself. Last I checked, the jacketed core metal is around 8 BHN and the cast/plated go to 10 or 11 BHN. Air cooled in both cases. I use the jacketed cores for grease groove BPCR boolits and the cast/plated for everything else.

[imashooter2]

I've been shooting nothing but range scrap from several different indoor ranges for a long time now. My scrap measures 10 - 14bhn air cooled and 20-24bhn water dropped. This is based on samples pulled from many different buckets collected over a better than 9 year span.

[engineer401]

The range scrap I buy seems to be close to 10. I would expect all the bullets to be mixed together.

[bangerjim]

Do the pencil test! Search on here for testing hardness with artist pencils......SWAG.....but it is better than nothing. I use a Cabine tester. I find range stuff ranges 9-11, so I treat it about the stuff I mix for PC'ing. Just cast it and shoot it for subsonics!


banger

[Bigslug]

It all comes down to your level of patience, and how many different categories you're loading for.

If you're going to sort, I would tend to throw jacketed, shotgun slugs, and rimfire into one pot, and cast into another. In theory, anyway, this would give you a soft, low antimony pile and a hard, high antimony pile.

[xpaholic]

thanks, I think I will keep sorting until I get a hardness tester. I have several hundred pound of both COWW and pure lead ingots to use up before I start with the range scrap. I may try the pencil test, but I think my kids are getting me a hardness tester for fathers day. thanks again xp