Mixture to expand yield?

[bobthewelder]

I have access to all the range lead I want. If I were to mix one ingot of WW and two of three or range lead would this give me a hard enough boolit?

[snuffy]

On what is mostly shot at that indoor range. If it's all J-word bullets, then the cores are pretty near pure, so are .22 bullets. If that's so, then one to three WW to Range Lead will not result in a very hard boolit. IF you have access to any linotype, then a good mix would be 3-17 lino to RL. You might need the addition of some tin to get it to flow well.

[bobthewelder]

Thanks, yes just about everything that goes through this range is jacketed factory ammo or rimfire.

[mroliver77]

Bob,Depending on what you are going to cast for and what loads you will use under them. I have a bunch of indoor scrap that looks like it is mostly from jacketed. It does harden a little when water quenched though. With mine I cane use it straight for .38 target type loads. 2-1 on warmer loads and water quench and 1-1 and WQ for .357 & 45 Ruger Colt loads. 1-1 and WQ for rifle to 1800ish depending on bore condition. Heat treating in the oven with 1-1 will give you super hunting boolits. Use this as a starting point and let us know.

J

[bobthewelder]

Thanks, I will. So 1-1 water quenched then oven hardened should give me a pretty hard load? They are ony going to be used .45 Automatic, standard velocity loads. I found with the 200 SWC from Lasercast that a hot load is very inaccurate out of my gun.

[Leftoverdj]

Figgering WW at 6% antimony, and the range scrap as having some, but not much hardener in it, one part WW to two parts scrap plus 1% tin would work fine in .45 ACP target loads or .38 Special WC. I would not bother with quenching or heat treating, but I would let them age a week or more before loading.

Soft is better than hard in those loadings. Most guns will even shoot the dead soft swaged bullets without leading if everything else is right and the velocity is kept down around 800 fps. The mix I suggest is harder than that and should be good stuff at low pressures and velocities.

Scoff up all that range scrap you can get. May be a time that's all you'll have.

[bobthewelder]

I agree with your last statement for sure. I called every tire shop in town. Not one will give them to me. I may have to hit Wal Mart again when the service manager is gone. Maybe with a 12 pack.

[mroliver77]

Bob,
When I say water quench I mean drop from mold into water. If you want the hardest boolit you can get with WW or WW and soft mixed you need to oven heat then water drop. Again If you are looking to stretch them WW and have a large supply of soft why not thin WW as much as possible then at least water drop from the mold to get as much hardness as you can from your (expensive) antimony. I dont see WW getting any easier to cop on to so I am stretching mine as thin as possible.
J

[mtgrs737]

I would get all the free lead I could now because any lead is better than no lead. You may be able to sell some of it to buy plus metal to alloy with the range lead so that you can use it for faster boolits. The only thing you will have in it is your time, and fuel for the truck and smelter. You are lucky to have access to free lead.