Pure lead for centerfire handguns?

[Elkins45]

I'm finding almost no alloyed lead in my recent scrounging expeditions, but I have come across a couple hundred pounds of dead soft lead. I know it's useful for muzzle loaders, but I don't shoot 10 rounds a year from my BP gun.

With reasonably low powder charges and plenty of lube, can pure lead make a decent boolit for 45 or 38 target loads? I'm running out of stuff to alloy them with, but maybe if I mix in a little WW and heat drop them can I possibly make decent low velocity shooters?

Who ever would have thunk that wheel weights would be hard to find?

[Bullshop]

Short answer YES no problem.

[OLPDon]

First off
Welcome to the best information on the web & the Brotherhood of Castboolits.

There are plenty of smoke pole shooter here I smell a trade somewere for you. Just post soft lead to trade. As for the shooting part can be done but with very limited use not for general shooting.
Don

[Shooter6br]

i use pure leas in 45acp and 32 S&W long i keep velocity low

[lylejb]

Water drop hardening works because of the antimony and arsenic in wheel weights. Pure lead, being pure, has none of these.

Magnum shotgun shot also has antimony and arsenic. Actually, quite a bit more arsenic than WW. If you mixed magnum shot with pure, say 25% like 25lb shot +75 lb pure = 100 lb alloy you should be able to get some hardening effect.

An other option is buying WW ingots or linotype in the swapping and selling section, or buying some hard/ superhard alloy from rotometals to mix in.

You could also offer a trade of some of your pure ingots for WW ingots. Plenty of people would take you up on that I think.

While boolit fit is more important than any exact hardness, I Don't think pure would be hard enough. It also depends on the gun. You might be able to get away with it in one gun, and not in the next, no 2 are the same. It's something you would just have to try, and let the gun tell you.

I'm not sure what you have in mind for "mix in a little WW" but if it's less than 25%, it's probably not enough to help.

[243winxb]

2% antimony is needed to heat treat bullets. 22lr lead contains a maximum of 2% to 3% antimony, swaged ,not heat treated and they do fine. The main problem you will have IMO with pure is getting the correct bullet diameter as it drops from the moulds. Undersize bullets do not work Personally, i have not tried pure.

[44man]

Sure pure will work if pressures are kept in the black powder range and a slow initial push is given the boolit. Very hard to do with smokeless.
BP has to fill the case to the boolit and be compressed a little so it burns sort of like a rocket engine, from the bottom up. It may SEEM fast with a quick pressure rise but it is not.
Now a load of Bullseye, etc, has a very fast pressure rise, maybe peaks before the boolit has left the brass. Since you can't download a slow powder for a more gentle start, you are not going to have much luck, with poor accuracy and a leaded gun.
There are a lot of BP shooters that would fall all over the place to get their hands on pure lead. It should not be hard to trade off the soft stuff.
About 50-50 WW's and pure would be as soft as I would go, then oven harden them.

[fredj338]

Getting it to cast good bullets will be the greater challenge. Running pure lead, proper sized & lubed should be good for 900fps+. Adding tin @ 25-1 ratio will make it far more castable & get your vel window upto 1000fps+. I agree w/ 44man, proper powder choice is important.

[Shiloh]

I use range scrap for almost all handgun boolits. No problems. I water drop them to make them as hard as possible, but can still dig a thumbnail into them.

I run less than 1000 fps but have taken them to 1200 out of a .357. No leading.
Boolit fit is king.

Shiloh

[AZ-Stew]

Speer and Hornady both make swaged lead bullets. The alloy is near pure lead. The reason it's soft lead is because that causes less wear on their machinery and uses less power to produce them.

Use a good lube and the load data for their lead bullets found in their handloading manuals and you should do well.

Regards,

Stew

[Rotometals]

This is true, and if you order today on Easter you can save another 10%

Water drop hardening works because of the antimony and arsenic in wheel weights. Pure lead, being pure, has none of these.

Magnum shotgun shot also has antimony and arsenic. Actually, quite a bit more arsenic than WW. If you mixed magnum shot with pure, say 25% like 25lb shot +75 lb pure = 100 lb alloy you should be able to get some hardening effect.

An other option is buying WW ingots or linotype in the swapping and selling section, or buying some hard/ superhard alloy from rotometals to mix in.

You could also offer a trade of some of your pure ingots for WW ingots. Plenty of people would take you up on that I think.

While boolit fit is more important than any exact hardness, I Don't think pure would be hard enough. It also depends on the gun. You might be able to get away with it in one gun, and not in the next, no 2 are the same. It's something you would just have to try, and let the gun tell you.

I'm not sure what you have in mind for "mix in a little WW" but if it's less than 25%, it's probably not enough to help.

[Leftoverdj]

Yeah, lead will work at low pressures and velocities, but it's a lot easier to work with if you add a little tin. A pound of leadfree solder to 50 pounds of scrap is enough. That'll get you good fillout, fewer culls, and slightly increased hardness. It's close to ideal for .38 Special WCs.

[Shiloh]

Yeah, lead will work at low pressures and velocities, but it's a lot easier to work with if you add a little tin. A pound of leadfree solder to 50 pounds of scrap is enough. That'll get you good fillout, fewer culls, and slightly increased hardness. It's close to ideal for .38 Special WCs.

+1

Range scrap or high purity lead can be cast but it means cranking the heat up to get a good fill.
This seems to increase the shrinkage. If the mold is on the skinny side, its a problem of undersize boolits.

A bit of tin gives better fill at a lower temp. Shrinkage is reduced. Been getting good results from range scrap with this method.

Shiloh

[BD]

I've shot lots of .45 acp cast from range scrap, and a fair bit cast from roofing lead with a little tin added. It doesn't take much tin at all, but without it I had a hard time getting decent boolits with the pure roofing lead.
BD

[Elkins45]

This is true, and if you order today on Easter you can save another 10%

Naturally I didn't read this until 12:08am on Monday!

[Butcher45]

Naturally I didn't read this until 12:08am on Monday!

It's still Easter on the west coast.