Bhn booboo

[sutherpride59]

So I did the unthinkable and I assumed. My father in law gave me a bunch of old lead projectiles he had that were old and oxidized that were mixed with some 30cal but mostly 45-70 boolits for me to cast with.

He couldn't remeber what the BHN was and he never wrote it down so I didn't think anything of it and melted down these ugly suckers to make some pretty new boolits. Well they didn't cast worth a dang so I tested a couple of the ones I hadn't melted yet with my Lee hardness tester and they were darn near pure lead so I figuered ok the 30cal projectiles will probably be harder and if I add a bit more tin they will be good and soft for 45acp and long colt boolits. So I toss an old pewter cup half in there and bam much better boolits, not perfect but shootable for sure.

Well I let them age harden for about 5 days now and tested the boolits I had just cast and well according to the Lee tester they are 11.8Bhn..... a good bit on the soft side. Well if You read the hardness tester test on the LASC site you will know that in this range the Lee will say they are 1.5-2bhn harder than they really are so these are closer to 10.5 bhn if my theory is sound. This is a good bit to soft for 45acp & LC loads isn't it? I'm casting these for a friend and I know he wanted to shoot some full power loads but from what I can tell these would barely be good for low power loads.

i hate to do it but should I throw all 700 of these suckers back in the lead pot with so wheel weights to get them harder or should that soft of an alloy be fine? Looking at the Lee chart there would be too much psi on these boolits.

[sutherpride59]

Also these would probably be loaded over 4.2grn of clays or 4.8grn of IMR 700x

[ShooterAZ]

They are just fine as is, just shoot em'.

[fredj338]

You are worrying too much about bhn, worry more about fit. You can run nearly pure lead in a 45colt or acp, low pressure apps do not need hard alloy. BTW, fine in 45-70 too if not running nuke loads.

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

I believe original .45 Colt bullets were like 20:1, and really soft.
I've shot pure lead bullets out of .45 Colt without any problems.

[runfiverun]

they were 40-1.

your bhn now is about where I run my rifle boolits.

[sutherpride59]

After thinking about it more y'all are right, I was just checking like I said I looked at the bhn to psi chart in the Lee book and most 45 loads were about 5-8,000 psi more than the listed max for that hardness so I figuered it was better to ask and look dumb than reload a bunch of boolits that were gonna lead my barrel to heck and back.

[ShooterAZ]

The thing that will lead your barrel is improper fit. As fredj338 mentioned above, worry more about fit.

[Victor N TN]

I'm a newby at molding for 45-70. But 20 years ago I was molding 45acp, 230 grn RN from a H&G 6 cavity mold A LOT. If my 45 acp bullets were hard enough that my thumbnail would NOT make a groove in it. They were hard enough to run 850 fps out of a Colt Gold Cup. Your thumbnail will shine hard lead. But it won't, (or at least mine won't) cut a groove in it.

Good luck and be careful.

[runfiverun]

here is a little tip.
take that page with that formula on it.
rip it out of the book and burn it.

[Edward]

BHN of 10 will run to 1400fps in my 45/70 with no leading PB or GC and again in my 45colt to 900 FPS (all I need to shoot) but you can speed it up if it pleases you ,again no lead !!!

[Skunk1]

Don't worry about them. Send them down range, check your barrel and you will be happy. I shoot softer than that in my 45.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Some alloys need two weeks to get near their peak hardness, I bought a batch of fairly soft range scrap from a member, makes boolits that measure 9...BUT the boolits will measure 7 on day one, and don't get up to 9 for two weeks, hardness doesn't increase after that. Also I have a batch of decades old COWW, boolits made from those get to 12 bhn in 24 hours, and don't increase after that.

Alloys vary like that.

As you've been told by many, you should be fine, shoot 'em.
IMHO, 10-11 bhn is plenty hard for 45acp and 45colt (book loads).

If you're friend has a Ruger 45 colt and wants to run some at 44 Mag hotness, then I'd heat treat your 11 bhn boolits and hope there is some antimony and/or arsenic in them.

[plainsman456]

Shoot them.

[sutherpride59]

here is a little tip.
take that page with that formula on it.
rip it out of the book and burn it.

Hahahah, I'll have to go back and look I may have misread or misinterpreted the information. I plan on shooting these and seeing how it goes out my 45 with a know good load. I'm sure they will work fine like I said before I didn't really think too much about it i was to focused on the thought of oh **** did I just make a batch of bullets from pure lead and roughly 2% sn. If anything this is probably a pretty close mix to 50/50 WW/PB which is what I've been told rocks in the 45.

[Loudy13]

I am working on about 80 lbs of ingots that I made up that are roughly 9.2-9.5 BHN for my 45 loads, I have shot about 200 test rounds and have no issues. I have seen a few posts about softer lead working great so I may be able to cut this mix even softer. I wish I had started doing this about 8 months ago when I was casting straight WW's for my 45. Those 4k or so rounds were fun to shoot but coulda used a lot less of my WW stock up.

[dkf]

I run 9-11 bhn almost all of my .44mag loads. Same with the vast majority of my other pistol rounds, even some larger bore rifle.

[sutherpride59]

I am working on about 80 lbs of ingots that I made up that are roughly 9.2-9.5 BHN for my 45 loads, I have shot about 200 test rounds and have no issues. I have seen a few posts about softer lead working great so I may be able to cut this mix even softer. I wish I had started doing this about 8 months ago when I was casting straight WW's for my 45. Those 4k or so rounds were fun to shoot but coulda used a lot less of my WW stock up.
Y'all cling to your WW like it's pewter lol. I have a couple tire shops around here that I get them from for free so it's the pure lead I try to be stingy on lol.