Hardening soft lead

Until recently, all my lead for casting has come from WW and range scrap. When I was doing it about 1e yrs ago, I used to just melt SO and CO WW together, and cast from that. Never had any issues with that alloy. Now I sort my CO and SO into separate buckets for making ingots of each separately. I also hit a scrap yard and got some lead sheet, cable sheathing, and other soft lead. I made ingot from that already. I don't do black powder or muzzle loader balls. I load and cast for the following handgun and rifle (9mm, 38spl, 357 Mag, 44 Mag, 45ACP, 500 S&W, 223, and 30-30). So I know I'll need to harden the soft stuff up a little for a lot of my uses. I have a couple bags of Rotometals Superhard alloy nuggets, and some of their hardball nuggets. I don't use them for anything, but had them on hand for this purpose. How would I figure the correct amount to add to a 20lb Lee pot of soft? I also have several lbs of Pewter I made in 1-2oz disc ingots. So the tin I have on hand as well. Wanting something around 14-18 BHN. That seems to cover most of what I shoot, shot a lot in that range before through most of my stuff with no issues.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...oy-calculators
Here ya go all the info you need.

I was given nearly 800 pounds of soft lead (Pb) in 50# ingots that kick started me in this casting hobby. I was already a registered member of Castboolits at the time but sitting squarely on the fence.

Before the gift I had no casting equipment, no melting pot, no flux, no gloves, no ingot molds, no propane, no turkey fryer, no casting pot, no molds, no sizer, no lube, no dies, no top punches, and no experience, but I had an INTEREST to learn. I scrounged through several Tire Stores and a Dealership for 300#'s of free CO and SO WW's.

I started by melting a total of 600#'s of alloy in batches consisting of 50#'s of lead and 50#'s of COWW's (50% Pb + 50% Sn) making 3# alloy ingots. Initially casting 45 ACP and 45 Colt boolits with frost and wrinkles was frustrating. I came here and learned. This site taught me mold heat management to prevent wrinkles and frost and that adding a small percentage (2%) of Tin (Sn) eases mold fill-out.

I had a good time searching flea markets and Thrift Stores for Tin. I found it available and cheap (the only alloy component I purchased)!

To my original alloy in 3# ingots I measure and add (by weight) 2% Tin in the pot before casting boolits. My casting alloy today is 12-15 BHN (pencil test) as 49% Pb + 49% COWW's + 2% Tin (percentages by weight), which works very well for me.

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Originally Posted by Namerifrats

Until recently, all my lead for casting has come from WW and range scrap. When I was doing it about 1e yrs ago, I used to just melt SO and CO WW together, and cast from that. Never had any issues with that alloy. Now I sort my CO and SO into separate buckets for making ingots of each separately. I also hit a scrap yard and got some lead sheet, cable sheathing, and other soft lead. I made ingot from that already. I don't do black powder or muzzle loader balls. I load and cast for the following handgun and rifle (9mm, 38spl, 357 Mag, 44 Mag, 45ACP, 500 S&W, 223, and 30-30). So I know I'll need to harden the soft stuff up a little for a lot of my uses. I have a couple bags of Rotometals Superhard alloy nuggets, and some of their hardball nuggets. I don't use them for anything, but hand them on hand for this purpose. How would I figure the correct amount to add to a 20lb Lee pot of soft? I also have several lbs of Pewter I made in 1-2oz disc ingots. So the tin I have on hand as well. Wanting something around 14-18 BHN. That seems to cover most of what I shoot, shot a lot in that range before through most of my stuff with no issues.

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15lbs soft , 3lbs super hard and some pewter to get the tin up 1/3lb ish

Good info! Thanks for the replies!

I have a bunch of pure & alloy it with lino or clip ww or even range scrap. I am generally not looking for specific bhn for general handgun use.
4-1 lead/lino
1-1 range scrap/lead
2-1 lead/clip ww
It works for me in all service calibers with PC & midrange magnums.

Most of my handgun ammo is 900 fps or slower.
Since the data for pure lead swaged bullets goes up to that,
I only put enough WWs or other goodies in the melt so it will cast well, and let it go at that.

For rifle ammo getting up around 2000, I save my goodies for them since they really do need to be harder.