Given ingots, what first?

[Jlw6636]

I have just got into casting about a month back. The first couple of batches were with lead bought off the web. Fortunately, a coworker gave me some lead ingots that he inherited and did not have a use. About 100lbs give or take. The problem is I don’t know what they were cast from. They appear to have been in a old shed for quite some time. The question is should I throw these ingots into my pot, cast a few then check hardness or melt these down and flux and make new ingots first?

[44magLeo]

Depends on how they look. If they look fairly clean, I would throw them in the pot, flux well, cast. If not then do it the hard way.
Leo

[Rcmaveric]

If they are pretty purplish rainbow its pure and if it has crystaline surface it has antimonyin it. Most may recommend against this, but i hardeness test my ingots and go from there. There aren't exactly the same due to thermal dynamics. But its close enough for my needs. If has a crystaline structure i would toss it on the pot and cast bullet. Then you can hardness test that and mix from there. As long as its abouta 10 BHN thaylt will cover alots of different shooting.

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[modified5]

Put a drop of muratic acid on each one first and make sure it doesn’t bubble first. You want zinc in the pot.

[Conditor22]

Jlw6636 Welcome to CB

I would suggest testing their hardness to get an Idea of what they are
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...s-with-pencils
or, not as scientific. drop an ingot on a cement floor, the purer the lead (softer) the lower the thud. the harder alloy will have a higher pitched ring. if you still have an ingot of a known alloy that could give you a place to start by dropping that first.

If you decided to start casting to save money, forget it. You won't, you'll just shoot more.
Casting boolits (lead bullets) properly is a science, once you know the basics, not a hard science.
There is a lot of good information on CB. The Google search (top right of every forum page) is a gateway to all the knowledge on this forum. IF you can’t find your answer there ask the question (Please be as detailed as possible, pictures help. I would be very surprised if there wasn’t someone on this forum that could answer ANY (firearm related) question you might have)
http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_Contents.htm
1. Boolits need to be cast .0005 to .003 (normally .002) over the slugged diameter of your barrel for accuracy and to avoid leading. If the fit is wrong nothing else will work right.
a. slugging a barrel (it is safer to use a brass rod or a steel rod with a couple of coats of tape to avoid damaging your barrel http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinSlug.htm
b. chamber casting https://www.brownells.com/guntech/ce....htm?lid=10614
or pound casting http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...rifle-chamber)
2. the right alloy needs to be used for the velocity and purpose of the boolit (don’t fall into the trap of going with too hard an alloy

Some alloys harden over time
http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_Chap...Metallurgy.htm

Lead alloy calculator
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/atta...4&d=1341560870
3. velocity the bullet needs to be pushed hard/fast enough to get the proper spin, have the proper velocity to accurately reach the target but not so hard as to be dangerous or strip the lead off in the grooves instead of spinning the boolit..
The boolit needs to be the right weight for the riffling/twist rate of your barrel
Powders range from fast to slow, you need to choose the right powder for your barrel length & application.
Loading manuals list the best powders for certain calibers and boolit weights.
NEVER use any posted noncommercial load data without first checking commercial load data to see if falls in the safe parameter for your firearm!! There are several firearms out there that can handle much higher pressures than others!!
Link to free online load data
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...online-sources

Optimum seating depth (still feeds and seats with the best accuracy) will vary with every gun
I read somewhere that you can hold the boolit in the chamber so it's touching the rifling. slide the biggest rod down the barrel and mark where the end of the barrel is. If there is a big gap between the barrel and the rod, you can use a washer the fits snug around the rod to help with marking.
remove the boolit then chamber an empty piece of brass, use the same rod and measure it again. Do the math, this is your max depth. Back it off a couple thou.
now you have to worry about feeding.

[Jlw6636]

Thanks! Think it may be pure. It does have some purple tone to it.

[bmortell]

ya id check for zinc first if you can, testing hardness now might not matter cause they could have been cooled fast its possible. I don't know what you have or not for hardness testing, fingernail marks up to 8-9 hardness roughly. pure lead ingots look darker than alloys. melted pure lead is purple oil spill looking, alloys look like chrome.

id probably first try and sort them to see if there all the same, compare color, fingernail test, if none fingernail maybe try scratching with something harder like a screwdriver all in effort to see if theres multiple alloys you could sepperate. once you seem to have enough identified as the same kind fill a pot and make bullets to get a more proper hardness test and mark the pot ingot whatever you wanna call it.

[Jlw6636]

Thanks Contidor for all the info. As I have learned since beginning to reload, it is not at all about saving money but for the love of shooting and the hobby. Since starting a little over a year ago, I now load 6 different cartridges and keep diving deeper and deeper into this hobby. I absolutely Love it. Have slugged my barrel and just pulled a batch of 356-125 RN PC pink ladies out the oven to try unsized. However, I may concerned that this batch may be harder than needed. I had to recast some that I reached 24bhn by adding to much Superhard and tin. I think with the ingots, my best bet would probably be clean and flux into fresh ingots before adding to the pot. They are pretty dirty.

[country gent]

A lot of the ingots found in shops and barns were lead normally one is pure lead for plumbing and roofing work. The other predominant Ingots were a babit metal for rebuilding machinery. A lot of the old farm equipment and power units had babit bearings. When worn they would be repoured and fitted back together. A "quick fix was to put a shim under the bearing halves and reassemble. This was a fairly hard blend of lead antimony tin and some other materials. Some was harder than print metals.

[Jlw6636]

Will try to upload some pictures tomorrow hopefully

[lightman]

There are a few things you can do. Try to scratch one of them with your thumbnail If you can make a mark its pretty soft. You can also drop one of them on the concrete. If it thuds its soft and if it rings its harder. Or you could try casting a few bullets. Look for good fillout.

[kevin c]

If you have a piece of lead of known composition and convenient form, you could put a ball bearing between it and an ingot and compress in a vise. Whatever indents more is the softer of the two. Not precise but it could help as a starting point.