Quick question on hardball.

[supacharged21]

I am new here and about to give casting a shot. My question is about my ingots that I have coming in the mail. I purchased them from Missouri bullets and it is supposed to be close to lyman #2 called magic alloy. It is 18 bhn. I will be casting .45 and 9mm mostly. Is this alloy a good alloy to use straight up for these velocities, or should I stretch it out some with lead?

I went with these ingots for the first few runs of castings, to help me get the feel. I felt I could start blending alloys with scrap etc a little later.

I also purchased a 5lb bar of linotype to experiment with blending from rotometals. Anyways I am waiting to hear some of the input from the experienced guys here. Does it sound like I am on the right track?

Thanks in advance.

[quail4jake]

I would follow the advice Missouri Bullet co. I think 18 bnh is right for.45 ACP class, it's what I use and I have no problem with leading etc. The softer (12 bnh) alloy is used in .38 S&W class boolits and obturates well. I highly recommend their boolits and would follow their advice.

[supacharged21]

Cool thanks man. I did not know they would give info. Glad to know they have good stuff.

[bumpo628]

You can cut that hardball alloy 50/50 with pure to get 1% tin & 3 % antimony. That'll do fine for most pistol calibers.
They tend to make stuff harder than required to survive the post office shipping process.

[Cowboy_Dan]

Something fun I noticed a while back. Take Linotype and cut it 50/50 with pure and you have Hardball alloy. Cut that 50/50 with pure and you have COWW with some extra tin. You can even cut that 50/50 (7 parts pure, 1 part Lino) with pure for most pistol calibers. I've even used that last alloy (sourced from wheel weights, not Lino) in my Tokarev and .44 Magnum rifle with good results. Really stretches out your Linotype.

[LenH]

I like using Hardball as a starting point and depending on the application go from there. The alloy calculator is a handy tool.

[OptimusPanda]

The only alloy I use is a 50/50 mix of range scrap ingots, clip on wheel weights, plus a little pewter for extra tin content. This comes out around 12 bhn. This gets cast into everything from .38 special and .45 auto on up to .357 magnum and the rifles (velocities just shy of 2000 fps). Before I started casting I used to buy cast bullets not unlike those from missouri bullet. They worked just fine, if a bit hard.

[supacharged21]

Awesome thanks for the replies everybody! LenH Is that lead calc located here? I guess like everybody here, I wanted to get the most out of my bullets while keeping the alloy correct to prevent leading. I was planning on powder coating them as well.

[Outpost75]

As a general rule, revolver bullets below 1000 fps don't need harder than 8 BHN

Auto pistol bullets in calibers such as .45 ACP and .32 ACP, .380 ACP under 900 fps don't need more than 8 BHN.

Full charge 9mm, .40 S&W, etc. over 1000 fps need 12 BHN, straight wheelweights, as minimum. This also works for .38 Spl. +P, .357 up to 1100 fps. Above that 50-50 linotype and plumber's lead, 13.5 BHN, is indicated.

[knifemaker]

I have cast and shot many thousands of boolits for 45 acp. I have mixed clip on wheel weights, about 11BHN, with 50% pure lead and never have had a problem with leading or accuracy shooting those loads in about 5 different 45acp pistols. You do not need 18BHN for that 45 acp with a velocity of around 900 fps. If you get any leading, it will be because your boolits are undersize for your barrel grove dia.

[supacharged21]

I checked with a place locally for lead ingots and they wanted 2.50 for 99% pure lead. On the upside they sell a 6% antimony 2%tin 92% lead ingot at 1.86 per lb though.

I might need to turn to a scrap yard I guess.

Is there chance of fouling from those that think 18bhn is too hard?

[RogerDat]

Alloy calculator is a spread sheet application you can download from a sticky at the top of this forum. If you don't have Microsoft office you can download Open Office from Apache which is an open source (free) office document software that can run the calculator.

Put in an amount of the different alloys and it will list the percentage of tin/antimony/lead/ as well as a calculated BHN hardness and total weight. So you can tweak it. Put 5# of one item, and then keep adding a pound at a time of a different alloy until you get what you want for a projected BHN.

I depend on it for turning batches of scrap into a known consistent alloy. This much 60/40 solder and this much printers lead added to this much WW' and I have Lyman #2 alloy. Which is my go-to for rifle bullets. I cut that with plain for pistol, mostly revolver and it works well.