Heat Treating 50/50

[MtJerry]

I am trying to maximize my time and make a flexible alloy that will meet more of my personal needs.

I have a good supply of WW and likewise some xray room sheeting lead.

I want to mix this 50/50 to spread the usefulness of my WW which are becoming hard to get. I know that alloy is very useful with most all handgun calibers, but I need an alloy of around 15-20 BHN for some of my rifle loads.

So, can 50/50 alloy be heat treated to get this level of BHN? Is there enough arsenic in them?

Jerry

[Gunfixer]

I am using 50/50 ww/pb water dropped from 38spl @ 900 to 375JDJ @1950 with good results. I too wanted to get "more" from what I had. That is why I am here. I have sent thousands of pure ww boolits downrange in the past, not knowing any better. What is your application? , makes a big difference in what you need as an alloy ( THANKS CAST BOOLITS GANG)

[MtJerry]

As I stated, I want to use the 50/50 for HP 38 special and .357 magnum. I want to use the Heat Treated alloy for rifle calibers such as .357 magnum (faster loads with heavies - 180 to 190) and .35 Remington.

I just need to know if I can heat treat 50/50 to get around 15-20 BHN

[knifemaker]

MTJerry;

I am taking a guess. I use a lot of 50/50 for my pistols and have used it water dropped in a Marlin 94 .44 mag lever action with no leading and plain base 255 gr. Keith boolit at 1750 fps. So it should work for your .357. If you get any leading in the .35 Rem. try 60/40 wheel weight to pure lead and see if that works. You should get close to or at 15 BHN for heat treated 50/50, but i do not think you will reach much harder then that. Cast a small batch and heat treat and test them in your rifles and you might just be happy with the outcome.

[Ole]

Would a 50/50 boolit require higher temps to heat treat?

I did some WW's when I first started casting and IIRC I did them @ 440 degrees for an hour.

Would 50/50 heat treat well at that same temperature?

[KYCaster]

I'm working on my first attempt at HT'ing 50/50.

Using an electric range....one hour soak at 425* on the dial (not measured)...my Cabine Tree tester says 87. That should be ~22-23 BHN, pretty close to what others report.

Jerry

[MtJerry]

Nothing better than a "yep ... I've done that" kind of answer. Thanks KYCaster!

[bobthenailer]

IF you water drop bullets made from 50/50 WW to PB directly from the mould into a 5 gallon bucket of water the hardness will be about 15 to 16 bhn after curing .If you want some harder try 75/25 WW to PB they should be around 20 bhn . ive checked the results with a hardness tester.