How to harden straight lead???/

[rmcc]

Hi ALL,

Am new here and new to casting. Have been a dedicated reloader since 1982. Always shot jacketed bullets, until now they have priced me out of them. Borrowed some casting equipment from a friend and am now HOOKED!! Haven't had this much fun and satisfaction in my reloading for a long time. I melted down some # 2 shot and made ingots. How much and what to use to harden this lead.

Thanks, looking forward to hearing from any and all.


Rich

[jsizemore]

Need more info please. Did you use magnum shot? Also what boolits do you plan to cast and what are you expected velocities? Guns you load. More detail will get you more detail in return.

Please go here, www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm and read. Lots of ohs and ahs contained in those pages.

[lurch]

Welcome.

The shot will be more than hard enough all by itself for most applications. It would help if we knew what your intended end use is. I personally would add 1% to 2% Sn to to improve fill out and soften it up by mixing in some pure lead (2 parts Pb to 1 part shot as an initial guesstimate) for general pistol loads. For rifle, I might go 1:1 to start with. Another factor is the type of shot - magnum or chilled. For chilled I'd use a little more that what I listed above. Then too, what you have available will probably dictate what you want to mix up...wheel weights, pipe or flashing...etc. So, come back with what you want to do with it, what you have available and you'll get better answers.

[lurch]

Looking here might get you started to thinking too:

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm