So you want me to cite a science based article but you're not going to believe anything on the internet? I point out specific lines about work softening then you point out a paragraph about age softening as if to prove me wrong when they are two completely different phenomena. How are you measuring hardness? I believe most that use the ball indent require different alloys of known hardness to be tested at the same time and used for comparison. I believe you are confused as to the subject the I'm trying to learn about, work softening and it's effects on the alloys and therefore the overall effect on the terminal performance of a projectile. I don't want to know about age hardening alloys or how hard of lead I should or should not run in my dies. If you want to learn if the work softening of lead exists then do the research and find out for yourself, it's not my job to convince you.
I don't believe for a second that you're making .185" wire out of a .75" billet with only a 2 ton press. Seems like you forgot a zero somewhere.
Runfiverun pointed out that Hornady's target 38's are 'dead soft' while containing upwards of 5% antimony and also pointed out that commercial lead wire contains up to 2% antimony, even though antimony is used as a hardening agent it's also used as a type of lubricant and helps the lead to flow. Granted I just 'read that on them internets' but if an alloy contains more antimony than clip-on wheel weights then shouldn't it be harder than the weights? And yet I've never heard someone refer to clip-on weights as dead soft... The amounts of antimony in commercially swaged bullet cores must have to do with a consistency issue or because of its effects on the alloy itself during forming. It could even be because they might buy recycled lead and when you take all the scrap lead available and mix it all together you come out with about 2% antimony and a trace of tin. But even 2% antimony would make an alloy decently hard, but commercially swaged bullets are notorious for being extremely soft, why is that?
There seems to be a base level of hardness for lead, obviously pure lead is soft at 5BHN, and if you work soften an alloy I don't believe it will get any softer than pure lead but I do believe it will get softer than the cast version of the equivalent alloy.