Lowest alloy for powder coating.

[gobbles23]

I have a lot of soft pure lead and some range scrap. I'm going to be powder coating these bullets for 9mm. I've read that pure soft wouldn't be a good idea, but was wondering what would work good since I don't have a lot of antimony.

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[Rcmaveric]

I use straight range scraps for my 9mm. I have tried tumble lubed, pan lubed and powder coated. All works well for what I shoot with a BHN of 9ish... side note I have a Lee hardness tester and measure the BHN of range scrap ingots and mark them with a scribe.

[gobbles23]

I'm shooting pistols into a bullet trap so I can recycle the lead, problem is I have a lot of soft lead I want to mix in. I don't have any superhard to up the antimony content of the soft lead.

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[tazman]

I had an issue with soft lead in 9mm after powder coating. The baking process removes nearly all hardness from the lead it may have had from quenching after molding. When I seated the boolits into the case, they were soft enough that the nose(round nose boolit) compressed and deformed enough the rounds would not chamber.
It might have still worked if I had water quenched the boolits after I had powder coated them.
I was using range scrap. I normally water quench from the mold during the casting process. This gives them enough hardness that I normally have no issues with accuracy or leading.
If your alloy is hard enough naturally that it works fine without water quenching, you will probably be ok. The issue is, you state your alloy is pretty soft. Without some sort of hardening process after the baking, you may have issues depending on boolit design.

[MyFlatline]

Have been experimenting with the 45 acp. BHN around 8/9 and powdercoated. Accuracy has been pretty good and no leading

[meotai]

I'm using 10bhn range scrapes & it's working with Smoke's clear pc. I did take me a while & a lot of reading in the castboolits forum to find & try all the tricks to get 9mm to stop leading. I'm happy with my 9mm soft lead load now.

[fredj338]

Depending on what your range scrap is, it is all I need for 1200fps or so, especially with coatings. I also water drop out of the oven, at least on my hardness tester it is showing some BHN gain.

[popper]

I got pure to work in a hot load for 180gr. 40sw by adding Zn, ~1% with a tad of Cu. PC helps but just barely,AC. They will drop shiny, heavy & small so PC should help. Best solution though is to get some superhard, cast into boolits and add as needed. One ingot is ~$20 and will last a long time. 1%Zn/1%Sb/0.3-0.5%Cu works good in the 30/30 @ hunting fps. Should be good for 9mm. It will get harder WD after coating. Adding Zn to the range scrap will help but with a limited supply, you do need some Sb for the soft. Adding R.S. to the pure won't help.

[mdi]

. I've read that pure soft wouldn't be a good idea, Where did you read this? Why would the soft lead be inferior to "hard cast" for powder coating? You are PCing them so leading isn't a problem, and if used for hunting or SD, expansion will be better than "hard cast"...

[reddog81]

Pure lead might not work well in 9mm, but not because the powder coating. If anything powder coating will be more likely to work vs traditional lube.

[gobbles23]

Where did you read this? Why would the soft lead be inferior to "hard cast" for powder coating? You are PCing them so leading isn't a problem, and if used for hunting or SD, expansion will be better than "hard cast"...I have just read other people's comments. I am not sure if I would chance soft lead due to my bases not being coated.

I just loaded up my first bit with the powdercoating and only shot about 20. I had some powder fouling, but no leading.

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[fredj338]

I have just read other people's comments. I am not sure if I would chance soft lead due to my bases not being coated.

I just loaded up my first bit with the powdercoating and only shot about 20. I had some powder fouling, but no leading.

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You do NOT get any leading off an exposed base. All FMJ have exposed bases, no leading.

[adam_mac84]

I am working with WD range scrap. Am not there 100% yet with no leading, but can send 200 down the pipe with about a 5 minute cleanup to follow.

[P Flados]

I would recommend you start with a small batch using your range lead. Save a few for reference. Water drop is a real good idea as is keeping your PC baking time/temp just enough to pass smash testing. Size as big as you can get to work.

See if they lead. Smile if they do not. Say a prayer of thanks if so inclined.

Smile real big if they do not lead even when you try loads at the hot end of your desired power range. Say a prayer of thanks and brag on your blessings if so inclined.

Blend in some pure if you feel like it for a subsequent batch. Compare hardness as best you can. The pencil method is not bad for this type of thing.

See if they lead. Repeat the first round of responses. Add in an occasional happy dance, or other similar gesture if you find that you can use softer than range pickup for a 9 mm.

Note: You may see a little "pessimism" showing through even though I put the best spin on it I could. This is due to the time, effort and money I have spent without getting satisfied with any specific load/technique (yet).

Lead softer than my range scrap (around 8 bhn) does not sound good unless you get real lucky.

The condensed version is: The 9 mm has thick walled cases, most dies were made assuming use of jacketed and most 9 mm loads that will reliably cycle most guns do not have much free space above the powder.

I have been fighting problems in a 9mm Glock for a while. I gave up on the factory barrel, bought an aftermarket version and I am still not happy (yet).

My latest efforts focused on trying to get my loaded bullets to stay just a little bit above groove diameter. To get enough neck tension to keep them secure, expect soft boolits to get squeezed down some. To keep diameter big enough to not lead can be a real challenge. The softer you go, the harder it can be to find a workable solution.

Note that if you start talking about some other caliber, the probability of finding a good use for softer lead may be much better. Of the numerous other handguns I load for, only two need PC instead of the much easier BLL for target loads.

[gobbles23]

I am using a 125gr flat nose bullet mold with no lube grooves, powder coat, and size to .358 with 5.1gn power pistol. So far so good. Being shot using glock 17 and 43. Soon I will have a glock 34

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[P Flados]

I am using a 125gr flat nose bullet mold with no lube grooves, powder coat, and size to .358 with 5.1gn power pistol. So far so good. Being shot using glock 17 and 43. Soon I will have a glock 34

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Sounds like it is time to: Smile. Say a prayer of thanks if so inclined.

The Alliant guide I have only has 110 and 147 gr bullets. Your load looks close to 90% of half way between the loads for these two. Based on a survey of the web, a bunch of people go close to or just above 6.0 grs with a 125 gr bullet.

Were you using range lead, a blend or something else?

[adam_mac84]

I have had to go to 1.050 OAL with my booilt.... no way I could stuff 6 grains in there.. unless it likes being compressed

[gobbles23]

Sounds like it is time to: Smile. Say a prayer of thanks if so inclined.

The Alliant guide I have only has 110 and 147 gr bullets. Your load looks close to 90% of half way between the loads for these two. Based on a survey of the web, a bunch of people go close to or just above 6.0 grs with a 125 gr bullet.

Were you using range lead, a blend or something else?In my Lyman cast handbook I believe it showed 5.2gr I started at 5 and was working up a load at 1.065 OAL

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[6bg6ga]

There are numerous posts that seem to indicate that coating at 400 degrees doesn't affect the hardness. People have compared the hardness before and after and found no differences. I have some bullets that test a straight 5 as tested with a REAL bullet hardness tester. I will coat some and test them.

204130

[6bg6ga]

I had an issue with soft lead in 9mm after powder coating. The baking process removes nearly all hardness from the lead it may have had from quenching after molding. When I seated the boolits into the case, they were soft enough that the nose(round nose boolit) compressed and deformed enough the rounds would not chamber.
It might have still worked if I had water quenched the boolits after I had powder coated them.
I was using range scrap. I normally water quench from the mold during the casting process. This gives them enough hardness that I normally have no issues with accuracy or leading.
If your alloy is hard enough naturally that it works fine without water quenching, you will probably be ok. The issue is, you state your alloy is pretty soft. Without some sort of hardening process after the baking, you may have issues depending on boolit design.

I can easily shoot 1100-1200 fps with straight lead bullets with no leading. Having the coating on the bullets I would assume would be a plus.

[dimaprok]

There are numerous posts that seem to indicate that coating at 400 degrees doesn't affect the hardness. People have compared the hardness before and after and found no differences. I have some bullets that test a straight 5 as tested with a REAL bullet hardness tester. I will coat some and test them.

204130

I don't know about other people, but I found difference in numerous tests, even when I powder coated at 200 degrees (actual temperature reached 275 degrees F when scanned with IR thermometer). This was mystery alloy, my suspicion it was contaminated with zinc, I did my best to flux it with wax and sawdust and scoop up heavy dross. Bullets dropped at 10.7 BNH average after a week the BHN tested average 14.93 from 4 samples, I discarded 5th sample that was way off. After I powder coated I tested bullets on the 2nd day with avg. BHN 13.1, when tested after 1 week it was same BNH number using 5 samples. So I lost almost 2 BNH points after powder coat. In another example I heat treated WW with 2% tin rifle bullets and end up with average 25.8 from 6 samples. After I powder coated and baked at 250 degrees for 30 min (I was using PID controller so it took about 20 minutes to reach 248 degrees and another 10 minutes to make sure it cured. I placed thermocouple probe in the middle of the tray, the temp never went over more than 1 degree) I tested 3 samples and it was BNH 19.3! Same number on 3 samples. So in this case it was dramatic 6.5 points lost!

I would like to see reports of people what they do, unless they are baking at 450 degrees for a long time like 30 minutes and more, I've tried that, it made my PC brittle, it would come off if I scraped it with a knife.

[dimaprok]

I got pure to work in a hot load for 180gr. 40sw by adding Zn, ~1% with a tad of Cu. PC helps but just barely,AC. They will drop shiny, heavy & small so PC should help. Best solution though is to get some superhard, cast into boolits and add as needed. One ingot is ~$20 and will last a long time. 1%Zn/1%Sb/0.3-0.5%Cu works good in the 30/30 @ hunting fps. Should be good for 9mm. It will get harder WD after coating. Adding Zn to the range scrap will help but with a limited supply, you do need some Sb for the soft. Adding R.S. to the pure won't help.

With your 1%Zn/1%Sb/0.3-0.5%Cu alloy, what kind of accuracy are you getting with 30/30? I found that with 300 blackout, I first started casting bullets this summer and I struggled to get good accuracy and by good accuracy I mean at least 1" at 50 yards. I was getting between 2 and 3 inches. After much reading I learned that hardened alloy and gas checked I was able to get about less than half inch group. So I decided to use your method to clean suspected zinc contaminated lead, I sprinkled copper sulfate it sizzled, turned white at this point I crushed against the wall, the powder was greyish, not brown or red as I expected, I repeated the process 4-5 times still no brown/red residue. There was dross being formed that I removed with powder, I fluxed with wax few times after removing the dross, in the end I wasn't sure what was happening, was I removing my tin with copper sulfate?? I didn't think there was much tin in there because I casted earlier with it and fill out was terrible, I sorted probably 30% rejects. I haven't tried casting with new alloy, I decided to add copper only to my pewter tin - that worked, actually surprisingly well, I added roughly 8%, I could have tried more, but I ran out of copper wire.

[6bg6ga]

The ONLY way I will remotely believe that powder coating effect hardness is with proof. Start out will a GOOD hardness tester not a Lee. take hardness of lead samples before casting and after. Hardness of bullets not water dropped and those that were water dropped. Provide hardness tests of same bullets 6 months down the road to see if the hardness of NON water dropped bullets and water dropped hardness has changed or not.

Do the same with the powder coated bullets.

There are some that say that water dropped hardness changes with time. To have an accurate idea one must have untainted lead of a known alloy probably purchased from a vendor that can supply such lead in quantities. There are too many variable with respect to the lead samples to come to a conclusion. The tests like I mentioned need to be accurate with good product with multiple samples to provide respectible result. The I got some lead but some of it was bad but I don't think hardness is as good ideas need to be thrown out and decent data be saved in order to achieve an objective test with decent info as a result.

[dimaprok]

The ONLY way I will remotely believe that powder coating effect hardness is with proof. Start out will a GOOD hardness tester not a Lee. take hardness of lead samples before casting and after. Hardness of bullets not water dropped and those that were water dropped. Provide hardness tests of same bullets 6 months down the road to see if the hardness of NON water dropped bullets and water dropped hardness has changed or not.

Do the same with the powder coated bullets.

There are some that say that water dropped hardness changes with time. To have an accurate idea one must have untainted lead of a known alloy probably purchased from a vendor that can supply such lead in quantities. There are too many variable with respect to the lead samples to come to a conclusion. The tests like I mentioned need to be accurate with good product with multiple samples to provide respectible result. The I got some lead but some of it was bad but I don't think hardness is as good ideas need to be thrown out and decent data be saved in order to achieve an objective test with decent info as a result.

I provided you with data I tested on numerous samples - you provided me with word of mouth. Lee hardness happened to be more accurate than more expensive SAECO and Cabin Tree tester, since I don't have access to lab grade equipment it's what I use. My source of information is respectable and recognized: http://www.lasc.us/Shay-BHN-Tester-Experiment.htm

I think you missed my point. First of all you are adding to the mix another factor called AGE hardening, I know about that and I have data to show it, but for simplicity sake it pretty much levels out after 1 week so I am comparing 1 week samples. I don't need some super duper accurate alloy in large quantity in order to get proper testing done. It doesn't matter. I am using what I have which is WW sweetened with some tin and I casted bunch of bullets going at same rate to get same consistency and using PID to control pot temperature precisely. 2) I used the same batch of bullets from the same casting session, one was powder coated and one was not and compared their hardness. Pretty simple test. It seems to me that you are going by what other people said and you haven't actually done any testing yourself because I am guessing you don't have hardness tester?

There are also youtube videos by TATV Canada who did testing on this subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fbjs-lErL0

[6bg6ga]

If you guessed that I don't have a hardness tester you just guessed wrong I have a Cabine Tree. With respect to trying to use the Lee hardness tester. Have had experience with this unit and that is why I purchased the Cabine Tree unit. We had six people that weren't that experienced with the Lee thus a normal run of the mill group. All six came up with a different hardness and none agreed with each other.

[popper]

dimaprok 50yds ~1700 fps 185gr GC with BLL. I'm not that great a shot but I don't see any 'fliers' there. At least it was below 100F that day. Gray powder is tin, brownish is zinc.
204249

[PBaholic]

I have a lot of soft pure lead and some range scrap. I'm going to be powder coating these bullets for 9mm. I've read that pure soft wouldn't be a good idea, but was wondering what would work good since I don't have a lot of antimony.

The problem with pure soft lead is that it shrinks in the mold too much. You will end up with undersized boolits, and the Powder Coating (PC) isn't enough to make up the difference. If you could mold them the correct size, the pure lead would be perfectly fine, once PC'd as the PC acts as the lubricant for the boolit.

I pour at BHN 10, but could probably get away with 9 or even 8 and then PC with Harbor Freight Red. 20 minutes at 400 degrees, and you will have a perfect boolit.

Your range scrap will work perfectly fine, and you could even mix in a little pure lead without much change. Most range scrap I have gotten comes back at BHN 12 or so. Pure lead is BNH 5. You can estimate hardness mixes using a simple formula. 2 pounds of BHN 12 and 1 pound of BHN 6 will yield 3 pounds of BHN 10 (12 + 12 + 6) = 30, 30 / 3 = 10.

If you have a bathroom scale, a drill press and a micrometer, you can measure the hardness of your alloy.

204286

P.S. This is how Brinell measured hardness, except he used a ball bearing.

[PBaholic]

I just loaded up my first bit with the powdercoating and only shot about 20. I had some powder fouling, but no leading.


Powder fouling?

Do you mean Gun Powder or Powder Coating fouling?

I shoot 200 .45 ACP's a week, and another 100 or so .38's. I see NO fouling. In fact, I've stopped cleaning my guns, unless they start jamming. I get a little carbon build up at the end of the barrel on the outside, but not any type of fouling. I use Harbor Freight Red, and it sticks to the boolit very well. I can hammer my boolits down flat, and the PC stays on them. I size my boolits after PCing them, and even then it doesn't scrape off. The boolits just seem to get squeezed down to size.

Make sure you are baking the PC long enough. I use a little toaster oven, and don't pre-heat it (apparently I'm in the minority about this). I put my boolits in, and wait for the powder to melt and get shiny. Then I bake a additional 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Since I'm doing all this in the basement, and all my materials are always about the same temperature, I actually just set the timer at 25 minutes now.

My boolits turn out almost perfect. I found an empty box of the new Federal lipstick rounds at the range, and filled them with mine. I had the guys at the range going, because they couldn't believe that I actually bought boolits. The cases were Federal, and they looked beautiful. They only flaw was the new rounds Federal makes are small primer, and mine are large. My buddy figured it out only because he knows my sick sense of humor.

[second chance]

PB, what kind of lead for the .45 ACP's? I have 50lbs of pure lead that I bought for airgun bullets that I'm thinking of alloying with Rotometals Super Hard. 2.5lbs Super Hard to 5lbs pure lead that should give me BHN of 15 or 16. I also have 30lbs of 1 to 40 (97.5-lead, and 2.5 tin), also bought for airgun bullets. Considering a .45ACP shoots in the 750 to 800ish FPS, is there an issue with "soft" lead, assuming bullet is proper size for the barrel?

[dimaprok]

If you guessed that I don't have a hardness tester you just guessed wrong I have a Cabine Tree. With respect to trying to use the Lee hardness tester. Have had experience with this unit and that is why I purchased the Cabine Tree unit. We had six people that weren't that experienced with the Lee thus a normal run of the mill group. All six came up with a different hardness and none agreed with each other.

What I found in my testing I get relatively consistent readings. It takes a bit to get used to using Lee, for example I was going to return the kit at first because I couldn't hold the damn microscope tube to hold still to take a reading so I knew I had to construct some sort of support. I took about 4" funnel, cut the spout to point where I could insert the microscope with enough tension to slide up and down and than I cut the square "window" at the side and that resulted in very stable platform that I can adjust for different height of bullets. I use flashlight to shine though the "window" now I can take very accurate readings. I don't have experience with cabin tree tester, but I believe that a huge variables come from learning curve on using lee. My results typically don't deviate much. If you read the article I linked earlier the Lee comes out closest in accuracy to lab test.

[6bg6ga]

What I found in my testing I get relatively consistent readings. It takes a bit to get used to using Lee, for example I was going to return the kit at first because I couldn't hold the damn microscope tube still to take a reading so I knew I had to construct some sort of support. I took about 4" funnel, cut the spout to point where I could insert the microscope with enough tension to slide up and down and than I cut the square "window" at the side and that resulted in very stable platform that I can adjust for different height of bullets. I use flashlight to shine though the "window" now I can take very accurate readings. I don't have experience with cabin tree tester, but I believe that a huge variables come from learning curve on using lee. My results typically don't deviate much. If you read the article I linked earlier the Lee comes out closest in accuracy to lab test.

I've read everything about the Lee, played with the Lee and purchased the Cabine Tree unit that was a heck of a lot more money. I like being able to look at the dial indicator instead to trying to guess with the Lee's paper that you try to match the width of the indent in the lead. I question the test which seemed to show the Lee to be superior. With a Rockwell Hardness tester within 3 feet of my Cabine tree the measurements between the two were almost spot on. To each his own I guess.

[dimaprok]

dimaprok 50yds ~170 fps 185gr GC with BLL. I'm not that great a shot but I don't see any 'fliers' there. At least it was below 100F that day. Gray powder is tin, brownish is zinc.
204249

Hi Popper, thanks for the honest picture. I guess my expectations were higher, but I achieved it by experimenting and by accident when I used traditional lube, gas check and correct seating depth. My only beef is this light bullet (RCBS 115gr) which is perfect for my recreational shooting doesn't always feed reliably in my bolt action rifle. (Ignore the black stickers I used to cover up previously shot target.) Forgot to mention this was with wheel weights and about 2% pewter (tin).

204311

[Oklahoma Rebel]

dimaprok, that was a very good, inventive solution to the problem. if I ever get a tester, I'm gonna have to use that!-Travis

[MyFlatline]

What I found in my testing I get relatively consistent readings. It takes a bit to get used to using Lee, for example I was going to return the kit at first because I couldn't hold the damn microscope tube to hold still to take a reading so I knew I had to construct some sort of support. I took about 4" funnel, cut the spout to point where I could insert the microscope with enough tension to slide up and down and than I cut the square "window" at the side and that resulted in very stable platform that I can adjust for different height of bullets. I use flashlight to shine though the "window" now I can take very accurate readings. I don't have experience with cabin tree tester, but I believe that a huge variables come from learning curve on using lee. My results typically don't deviate much. If you read the article I linked earlier the Lee comes out closest in accuracy to lab test.

I agree on having to make a tube holder, could not hold mine steady to get a true reading. I recently bought the Cabin Tree and the Lee was sold on Ebay. Much easier to read for anyone who wears glasses. I had gone to pencils because I couldn't read the Lee consistently

[dimaprok]

I just realized I can just post a picture lol. I even managed to snap a pic of the measurement with this setup.
204339 204340

[PBaholic]

PB, what kind of lead for the .45 ACP's? I have 50lbs of pure lead that I bought for airgun bullets that I'm thinking of alloying with Rotometals Super Hard. 2.5lbs Super Hard to 5lbs pure lead that should give me BHN of 15 or 16. I also have 30lbs of 1 to 40 (97.5-lead, and 2.5 tin), also bought for airgun bullets. Considering a .45ACP shoots in the 750 to 800ish FPS, is there an issue with "soft" lead, assuming bullet is proper size for the barrel?

I use BHN 10 for all my loads, .38, .357 and .45's, but I Powder Coat so hardness isn't all that important.

BHN 10 isn't really all that soft, it's just everyone 'thinks' they need superhard alloys nowdays, as many boolit makers ship out their product at BHN 16, but they do that to keep their product intact during shipping.

I have tried pure lead (BHN 5 to 6) 230 grain .45's, but they pour small, and that is the only reason I went to a harder alloy.

Your 40:1 should be about BHN 7.5. I haven't made this alloy, so I don't know how well it will cast. Try a test batch, and see how it works.

I've been lucky enough to fine Linotype at considerable quantity at the scrapyard, and use this for my alloy hardening.

You can use simple math to figure out approximately what your mixed alloy will be. 4 pounds of pure lead (BHN 5), with 1 pound of Superhard (BHN 40) will yield 5 pounds of BHN 12 alloy. (5+5+5+5+40=60, 60/5 = 12)

I haven't used Superhard at all. All my experience has been with pure lead, Linotype, Solder and Pewter to make alloys. I use at standard mold, which make nicely sized ingots to work with. These fit perfectly inside a 2x4 wall, and I can stack them up over 2 feet. I keep all my alloys marked with their BHN, and then mix and match to get my desired BHN 10. This has worked really well for me, regardless of what I start with.

[second chance]

PB, I should have mentioned, I plan on using HI-TEK coating as well. This will be my first casting and coating, so I'm hoping for good results. Should I get a throat measurement on the .45 ACP barrel? All my .45 cals are 1911's. I've read that proper "fit" is more important than hardness in most cases. Thank you for your responce

[second chance]

Thank you for that ingot mold suggestion, It hadn't occurred to me that I would need a way to break down the 5lb bars into something more measurable. As well as having a way to empty the pot to possibly change alloys. Every exchange here is a learning experience, even if it's just learning what questions to ask next! HaHa. Thanks again, Terry

[P Flados]

I just realized I can just post a picture lol. I even managed to snap a pic of the measurement with this setup.
204339 204340

The photo of the visible image of dent size just screams Wow!

Good job with your "fix" to using what you bought.

As a young whippersnapper, I remember using a dial calipler and making real precise readings of similar dimensions.

As an old fart, I can say that my ability to measure this kind of stuff "went South for the winter" and never returned.

I have a DYI rig for making dents & I have a spreadsheet to convert results. A 20x magnifier that could give me the above resolution on dent size would be a big improvement.

[PBaholic]

PB, I should have mentioned, I plan on using HI-TEK coating as well. This will be my first casting and coating, so I'm hoping for good results. Should I get a throat measurement on the .45 ACP barrel? All my .45 cals are 1911's. I've read that proper "fit" is more important than hardness in most cases. Thank you for your responce

It will take you a little while to master casting, and coating is different skill.

You need to get something to get your 40:1 a little harder. It should already be about BHN 7.5, which might be a little too soft. If you can find wheel weights, these are fine for .45s, otherwise you will need something to harden your lead. Pewter is another way to add a little hardness. I buy it at Thrift shops around me. Pewter items will be stamped "Pewter" on the bottom.

I wouldn't try too much at once. Get your casting right, and maybe lube with Alox at first. Then graduate to coating. I'm not sure how HI-TEK goes on, as I use Harbor Freight Red Powder paint.

Once you are casting and shooting, yes you can slug your barrel, and make some adjustments, but the standard sizes will be fine to start.

[PBaholic]

Thank you for that ingot mold suggestion, It hadn't occurred to me that I would need a way to break down the 5lb bars into something more measurable. As well as having a way to empty the pot to possibly change alloys. Every exchange here is a learning experience, even if it's just learning what questions to ask next! HaHa. Thanks again, Terry

I use the 2.5 lb ingots, for a couple reasons. They fit easily into my Lee 4-20 pot and they stack up between my 2 x 4 's well:

204472

I use Linotype to mix with my pure lead to get a BHN 10 mix, which is what I pour at. Once I cast, I powder coat with Harbor Freight Red powder paint, and then size.

I use Brinells method to measure hardness, but it requires a drill press, bathroom scale and a micrometer:

204473

Just be prepared for the learning curve. It takes a while to master smelting, pouring, and powder coating.

.38's are a lot more forgiving.....

[popper]

45ACP, 38 are low pressure loads so the 'soft' works. 9, 357 & 40 are not low pressure. Other problem with soft for rifle is trying to prevent swelling of the nose when seating. Just pulled a dozen for the BO that wouldn't chamber. The 30/30 is a Marlin MG - I've never shot 'soft' in it before - they like fat hard boolits. Hopefully I'll get to shoot soft from the BO next week - I shoot it better. PC will 'fatten' the boolits and it does work. The soft stuff drops smaller and SIZES smaller. No spring back of the alloy.

[PBaholic]

45ACP, 38 are low pressure loads so the 'soft' works. 9, 357 & 40 are not low pressure. Other problem with soft for rifle is trying to prevent swelling of the nose when seating. Just pulled a dozen for the BO that wouldn't chamber. The 30/30 is a Marlin MG - I've never shot 'soft' in it before - they like fat hard boolits. Hopefully I'll get to shoot soft from the BO next week - I shoot it better. PC will 'fatten' the boolits and it does work. The soft stuff drops smaller and SIZES smaller. No spring back of the alloy.

I shoot .357's made with my "Soft" BHN 10 Alloy. I PC with Harbor Freight Red, and no hardening. I also like a big bang, so always do max loads.

[MGnoob]

With 9mm id say its more about proper size and coating than hardness.

[Motor]

Different pistols will tolerate different alloy hardness as well. Before I started powder coating I cast all my 9mms 15 BHN. I've cast 38s as low as 8 BHN. I basically cast different alloy hardness to suit whatever I was casting for.

With powder coating I now cast everything 12 BHN. If I wanted to push .357's to magnum type velocity I'd maybe go up a little in hardness.

I do still gas check my 30 caliber super sonic rifle loads but honestly haven't had the chance to test them without the checks yet.

It seems larger bores are more tolerant to softer alloy using powder coating. This is probably true using lube as well.

My latest test was using Lee 440gr .501" cast in the 12-14 BHN hardness powder coated with Harbor freight red and sized .501" WITHOUT GAS CHECK.

According to Lyman Cast Handbook data the load produces over 30,000 psi and 1450 fps. Despite being 3x the pressure Lee's alloy strength chart shows should work, these are working great and since the shake and bake method also coats the base I'm not getting any lead spay in the muzzle brake either like I used to when lubed and shot with only 13gr Unique.

Motor