shot hardness

[porthos]

what is the appx. hardness of "hard" shot. i can scrape up a hundred + lbs at my local trap club; and i can melt it.

[rking22]

Search the threads, but quick answer is it has little to no tin. Therefore it will not cast well without some blending. Guessing on composition it would be around 95/5/0. I mix reclaim 50:50 with plain lead and add tin to get 96/2/2 from the alloy calculator. The plain lead makes it easier to melt the reclaim shot.

If it is new shot, sell it and buy alloy, I just paid 39$ per bag for new shot. That’s a very good price as well, reclaim is worth about a dollar a pound.

[BK7saum]

By "scrape up", I think he means reclaim it from the downrange fallout area.

[rking22]

My assumption as well, then I remembered a friend got over 75 lbs of mixed 8 and 9 by scraping it off the basement floor of a house they were paid to clean! All from ratted bags that were left behind, no telling!

[shootinfox2]

Lead and Antimony. No tin to speak of. Not really good for Bullets unless mixed with other metals.

[Ozark mike]

Cast balls for muzzleloaders? Maybe too hard i dont know

[John McCorkle]

Cast balls for muzzleloaders? Maybe too hard i dont know

Probably would be a bit hard....you'd have to test it but most shot is cast hard to keep it's spherical shape (thus the antimony) and pattern better.

I wouldn't call it useless though...it's certainly good metal as an additive to other metal for antimony/hardness of someone is looking for that.

Muzzle stuffers typically want as dead soft as they can get....pure being awesome. Pure plus a hint...a sniff of tin being ideal. That'll help roundballs start in tight patch applications, obturate better and deform well on game.

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[fecmech]

You can probably figure the shot you're getting has antimony in the range of 2-3%, add a bit of tin and it will make good bullets. If it is badly oxidized it can be hard to melt.

[Conditor22]

[quilbilly]

Lead and Antimony. No tin to speak of. Not really good for Bullets unless mixed with other metals.

Usually includes some arsenic as well. The above table surprises me. I have found it to be too hard for most of my uses so I use it to alloy with pure lead to make excellent rifle boolits (pistol bolts as well).
My favorite rifle alloy is 60% pure plus about 38% shot then add extra tin.

[Lloyd Smale]

most bird shot is close to pure with a smide of tin and maybe some arsnic. Magnum or chilled shot usually has some atimony in it. i reclaimed LOTS of it and my tester usually mixed shot somewhere between pure and ww. Usually closer to pure. The shot as shot is usually a tad higher in hardenss they what you will recover because most shot makers if not all of the drop the molten shot into water.