How's this for determining If misc lead is useful

[zomby woof]

I have my lead separated pretty good. I do have a bunch of miscellaneous lead. I made the mistake recently of making a lot of boolits with way to soft lead. The boolit was the LEE 356-125. It leaded badly in 9mm and 38 super (sized accordingly). Tried heat treating, still ng. The boolit weighed 129 grains. I made another batch of known hard lead and they weighed 125 grains. They performed great with no leading. I'm thinking I now have a pretty good baseline. I can melt a pot of lead down and measure a few boolits in the beginning of the session, adjust if needed. Short of having all my lead X-rayed, does this sound like a reasonable path forward?

[GhostHawk]

That is pretty much what I am doing. A little bit of Tin with Range lead seems to work wonders.

[runfiverun]

diameter for a given mold will change with the hardness of the alloy.
if you have a sample of pure lead and a sample of a few other known alloys, you can use them to give you a pretty good basis for guessing at other mixes.
measure the diameter and weigh them and compare them. [if they [the alloys] all have tin and antimony in them you can be pretty close]

[zuke]

For unknown lead I like to add 5-7 lbs when I do a big smelt. That's usually 150 lbs at a time

[lightman]

If you are familiar with a mold, the weight and diameter is a good indicator of hardness. Its not exact, but good enough for what we are doing. The same can be said for a hardness tester.

[williamwaco]

You say "sized appropriately". I wonder? It sounds like too small, too hard or both but you state way too soft. I use BNH 8 in my 9mm regularly with no problem. Factory wad cutters are BNH 5 to 6. They don't lead.

What lube?

I believe you are looking in the wrong place. Your alloy is not the problem. You can make good ammo from BNH 6 to at least BNH 28. If they fit properly and are lubed appropriately.

[zomby woof]

You say "sized appropriately". I wonder? It sounds like too small, too hard or both but you state way too soft. I use BNH 8 in my 9mm regularly with no problem. Factory wad cutters are BNH 5 to 6. They don't lead. What lube? I believe you are looking in the wrong place. Your alloy is not the problem. You can make good ammo from BNH 6 to at least BNH 28. If they fit properly and are lubed appropriately. .001-.002" over groove diameter. The lube is Hi-Tek. Same boolit, same lube but harder alloy no problems. Shot at 130-170 PF.

[leadman]

The hardness can also be checked by the sound it makes on concrete when dropped. The "thud" is usually soft, the "tink" is usually hard. Very scientific I know (lol) but once one starts dropping the ingots an idea of what you have can be determined. May save you some time melting ingots down.
Your method with checking boolit weights also is a decent guideline.

[bangerjim]

You say "sized appropriately". I wonder? It sounds like too small, too hard or both but you state way too soft. I use BNH 8 in my 9mm regularly with no problem. Factory wad cutters are BNH 5 to 6. They don't lead.

What lube?

I believe you are looking in the wrong place. Your alloy is not the problem. You can make good ammo from BNH 6 to at least BNH 28. If they fit properly and are lubed appropriately.


I agree! Fit does not determine hardness. If you are really concerned about hardness, buy a good hardness tester. I have a Cabine Tree and use it all the time. I also have a Lee and never use it because it is a PITA with it's use of a press and that stinking microscope. You can also get by on the uber-cheeeeeeep with artist pencils and the chart listed in a thread on here. It is a SWAG but more telling than casting a few and testing them.

Hardness testing with a tester or a know system such as pencils is much better than the trial and error system of casting a few.

But do what you need to do. Remember, PC'ing eliminates most of the worry about hardness and leading.

banger

[williamwaco]

.001-.002" over groove diameter. The lube is Hi-Tek. Same boolit, same lube but harder alloy no problems. Shot at 130-170 PF.


The ultimate answer: If it works, it is correct.

[Bigslug]

Considering the time we spend on this stuff and the time potentially wasted on screw ups, a good hardness tester is really not that expensive an investment.

The process I've adopted for my scrap smelts is to pour eight bullets from each batch in the smelting pot into a cheap Lee .45 FN mold before I pour my ingots. Four of them I air cool and the other four I water drop, then I hardness test after a few days. This tells me what the alloy is going to do AS A BULLET, rather than testing an air-cooled ingot and guessing. I've never bothered testing the sample slugs for diameter, but maybe I should start. . .

[Whiterabbit]

jeepers, if I can;t identify it but it melts and is in the ballpark of lead, I cast into a handgun caliber, snap a gas check on it, and shoot it from a handgun. Works every time.

Gas checks fix almost anything. It's a very useful crutch.

[Motor]

I've never had any luck in 9mm with any alloy softer than around 13bhn until I started powder coating with it I have shot 12bhn but that's another topic.

I have shot 8bhn without any issues in light 38spl and .357

I size all my 9mms .358" so size is not an issue but and this is probably the key, my 9mm mould is a tumble lube mould. If it was a regular type it probably would be a different story.

But as I stated powder coated they work great at 12bhn so that makes my pistol casting much simpler because now I can cast all my pistol boolits with the same alloy. Oh yeah my 30cal rifle boolits too.

Motor

[Doggonekid]

I agree with whiterabbit & williamwaco. If it works keep doing it. I also agree that a gas check has fix most loads that I had a problem with leading. I have also turned to PC with my pistol loads. That has helped a lot on my boolits that don't have a GC. Besides less leading it is fun to PC my boolits and they look cool! [smilie=w: