Virgin Lead for 45 ACP 230 grn?

[Mike W1]

Soft lead has worked nicely for my 45acp loads. I have used phone cable lead and that is as soft as it comes. It works for my pistols and a 45acp carbine I made up almost 40 years ago. No leading and good accuracy .
Speeds up to 1000 fps in the carbine. Any faster and the cases blew the primer pockets. Water quenching will not harden pure or nearly pure lead . Water quenching will work with most alloys for lead though,like wheel weights.
n.h.schmidt

Funny, I spliced telephone cable and salvaged a lot of lead. It is NOT pure lead and I suspect most of it's hardness comes from Sb in it. Sleeve lead is softer than sheath and after a year of aging was up around 9 BHN and the sheath aged to around 11 BHN. Never could find anything that gave me a real idea what's in it but it sure ain't pure lead. Sometime I should try a water quench on it and see if it is affected by it. Good rainy day project to keep in mind.

[detroitcharlie]

Near pure caused feeding problems for me. Soft nose hitting feed ramp.

Yup I discover the same for about 10% of the rounds.

[detroitcharlie]

I have had leading problems with pure/almost pure in non mag handguns.

All problems go away with COWWs or 1/2 & 1/2 CO/SO WWs air cooled in non mag or hi pressure loads. In .44 mag at mag velocity or other hi pressure loads water dropped does it fine.

When I go to hot stuff like 454 - 500 full power stuff, I stick some lino in it to make #2, minus a little tin if I can make it 93-94, 5, 2-3. If its monster stuff just water drop.

PB 45s, 38s, 380s, most 9mm, 44spl, moderate 44mag doesn't need more than COWWs! period! Add the GC, good lube & water drop will do everything in handguns except for the very hotest.

I did start to get some leading about 15 rounds in. Also, I realized my powder loads were way too high. I'm def gonna mix in some tin or antimony next go around and cut the powder load by about 10-15%. 4.5 grs of Titrgroup was too much. Another thought... I was using the Federal Magnum large pistol primers. I might trying dialing down to 3.9 grns.

[GoodAlloy]

Oh for heavens sake.

It works fine! Keep your speeds low, keep your powder slow, cast the bullets .452 and use a good lube like BAC.
If you shoot it and it leads, try a different powder (like Unique), if it still leads, try powder coating.

You can find a combination that works in one range session and just keep mashing that button till free gum-balls stop coming out the little chute.

If I can shoot 9BHN at 2200FPS without leading, then you can shoot 6BHN at 700 all day long. Besides, I've done it.
Adding tin or antimony makes it easier to find a combination and gives you a lot more options and you can hot rod things a little more, but it's far from necessary.

Good steel is square on the mark and I would agree 100%. Feeding soft alloy can be a problem on rough feed ramps. But if your ramp is smooth you don't need hard alloy unless you want to run full bore velocity &have shallow rifling. I have seen more problems with skidding than pressure related leading or lube failure in the 45 ACP, 9mm, 40,10mm, revolvers are a different story. Soft is usually much, much better than hard as long as the boolit fits the throats well.

[rintinglen]

Near pure caused feeding problems for me. Soft nose hitting feed ramp.

Me too! I once got about 50 pounds of lead shielding out of an old dentist office. I had problems with my Sig, which had formerly gobbled up my handloads with a Lee TL SWC. Suddenly, It was having Failures to feed with the boolit grabbing on the ramp and slowing things up. Asking a more experienced reloader of my acquaintance for advice, I added a pound of linotype and a bit of tin to my Lee 10 lber, and things got better.

I use pure and tin for a 30-1 mix for serious hollow points. I would not use it for standard boolits.

[Moonie]

Wasn't it 20-1 lead-tin that Elmer considered hard cast and he used that in the 44mag? 20bhn just isn't needed for the 45acp...

[detroitcharlie]

Truly not trying to be a wise guy, but, Pure is about 5 on the hardness scale, if you shoot 10 on the scale it has to be hardened with something, right ?

If you shoot the pure at a low velocity without feeding problems do to nicked deformed bullet ---it may work for you---then again it may not.

I don't think there is a standard answer being everyone may use a little different approach --- to a situation that has the potential to be problematic.

As others have said, try it and see, if you have a problem it may only take a small change to correct it. ( small amount of hardening )

I way over-charged these shells and had magnum primer as well. Not good. Fail.. Fail.. Fail.. Definitely needs a little tin and antimony or gas-checked and reduced charge. Hodgdon Titegroup recommends 4.0-4.5 grns this round. I'd probably go down to 3.9- I'm not sure how much of an impact those magnum primers are having.