Broken bullet?

[hawkeye1]

Broken Bullet?

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I bought 500 cast 40 caliber 155 grain SWC bullets from a guy at work. They look good and are lubed with Lee Tumbele Lube.

The problem is that when I seated them in the case I had about 4 of them literally break in half at about the case mouth. I asked the guy that cast them and he said I was using too much crimp. OK. I backed the crimp ALL the way out, and seated some more. Again, about 4-5 bullets broke off at the case mouth. Not a crimp problem. Is this bullet too hard? Has anyone ever run into this? I've been casting and reloading for 20 years and have never come across a bullet that broke in half.

Any info would be appreciated.

good shooting

[Scrounger]

I don't think hard is the right word. My first thought is what the heck did he use for alloy? Sounds like it is seriously contaminated to me.

[hawkeye1]

For a little more info. I put one of these bullets on the concrete and smacked it lightly with a hammer. It broke in half from top to bottom! I could not believe it. I did the same thing with one of my own cast bullets and it just dented it.

Inside the bullet that broke it was very crystallized. Also, the bullets that broke when I seated them in the case were crystallized the same way. The broken bullets that broke in the case upon seating broke straight across at the case mouth. This is odd.

The guy that made these does use linotype in his alloy, but how much I do not know. Would using too much linotype make these bullets too brittle? or maybe just cooling too fast? Any ideas?

Thanks for the help

good shooting

[jhrosier]

Hawkeye1,
I have a batch of lino that gives similar results, even when air cooled.
I have not broken any boolits when seating though.
I only use it straight in a rifle with an oversized throat where it gives much better accuracy than softer alloys.
For all other uses, I use one part lino, 2 parts WW, and 2 parts range scrap. Lino is about impossible to find these days and I want my last few hundred pounds to last a while.
Your boolit guy could cut his lino use in half and the boolit would still be plenty hard enough for the .40 S&W.

Jack

[garandsrus]

Hawkeye,

The only time I have ever done this was with pure Linotype... They broke just the way yours did in the boolit seater.

John

[jhalcott]

a lot of "FOUNDRY" alloys can do this. I've never had it happen with Linotype alone but alloys of lino and stereotype or monotype have broken. They ALSO lead the bore terribly! Get a hardness test done on a few to see what you are dealing with. Heat treated WW/lino mixes as hard as 35BHN have NOT broken when launched at over 2700 fps.

[KCSO]

That sounds like either foundry or tempering alloy. The super high tin and anitmony content of that metal is made to replace the tin and antimony cooked out of lino in repeated castings. I would melt down all 500 of those and mix 50 50 with wheel weights.

[hawkeye1]

I have shot a number of these through my Para ordnance P16-40. They do not lead in the least. They shoot OK, but when they break, I have to disassemble my die to get the tip of the bullet out. Thanks for the replies.

[cbrick]

jhalcott nailed it. The guy doing the casting may "think" he has lino but he probably has Foundry type. Lino is 12% antimony and while this is a lot its not enough to cause bullets to break. Foundry type at 23% antimony and Monotype at 19% anitmony will do this. Stereotype at 14% also should not break bullets this easily but is too hard for almost any handgun use.

The suggestion of melting them down and blending with a soft lead is a good one. Here is an article on CB alloys and has recipes for various blends.

Cast Bullet Alloys (http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletAlloy.htm#commonalloys)

The suggestion of tempering or HT lead making it brittle is wrong. HT will not add brittleness to a lead alloy, strength (hardness) yes, brittleness NO. Lead does not behave the same as steel when heat treating. Steel does become more brittle when HT, lead does not.

Hope this helps ya out.

Rick

[hawkeye1]

Thanks for the info. I think I may just melt them down a small amount at a time and mix them with my wheel weights. This has definitely been a learning issue. Thanks again for the replies. you have all been very helpful.

Has anyone else ever had bullets that break?

good shooting