Casting for .40 Major from range lead

[gc88]

Hi, I am new to casting, and am about to cast my first set of bullets. the lead I am using is recovered from a range berm. I seperated the jacketed from the hard cast, and only used the hard cast to melt into my ingots.

Is this compound going to be hard enough for USPSA .40 major? The volocity would be from 942 to 980fps with a 175 grain bullet.

Thanks, Guy

[sargenv]

It kind of depends.. I've melted range scrap and gotten wild swings in the BHN.. anywhere from about an 8 up to about a 15. The latter stuff would probably be hard enough, the former, not so much. If you are using all hard cast as your melt, then it will likely be on the harder side and would likely work well.

[waksupi]

I would melt down the rest of the bullets and keep separate for now, you will most likely want to blend the alloys a bit to soften it. A velocity you are talking of shooting, only requires about 8 Bn. First thing we will have to break you of, is the hard cast notion for boolits. That causes more problems than it solves.

Welcome aboard.

[SlowSmokeN]

I am using range lead in my 1911 and XD 9mm. The lead is around 8bhn shooting at a velocity of about 1050fps. In my 1911 my barrel looked like a sewage pipe after 100 shots. After 100 shots in my XD I had no leading. My first lesson as I read so many times on this site is "Fit is King".

I believe if you slug your barrel and have a proper fitting boolit you can melt jacket/cast all together and cast a great boolit.

[Defcon-One]

As usual, I agree with waksupi!

Since you melted them seperately, you have options. Test the Hard Cast ingots and the softer Lead from the Cores. Mix as required. Once you have a small batch that is where you want it, you can duplicate it on a larger scale, as required.

My best guess:

Your Hard Cast Lead will likely be (2% Sn, 6% Sb, 92% Pb) at about 15-16 BHN, way too hard! Your Core Lead will be near pure and much softer, very close to stick-on WW Lead (0.25% Sn, 99.75% Pb) at about 6 BHN.

Just find the magic mix and you'll be good to go. I'd start with a mix of 50% of each by weight which would get you around (1% Sn, 3% Sb, 96% Pb) at about 12 BHN!

I like 2% Tin in my alloy (2% Sn, 3% Sb, 95% Pb), so I'd add a bit of Tin to get there.

Try this:

10 lbs. of Hard Cast ingots
10 lbs. of Core ingots
0.37 lbs. of 50/50 Solder

That should do it, then soften if you want by uping the Core Lead percentage. You won't need it any harder. As SlowSmokeN says, fit matters more than hardness, but it is a balance!

Of course, this is all a guess based on what you have stated above, but nobody will do any better without testing it!

[gc88]

Well it is good to hear it is not going to be to soft, which was my fear. I am trying to do this without buying any lead. My range has plenty of lead on the berm.

Any further tips for a new guy like myself?

[runfiverun]

the hard stuff can cause you problems.
keep what you find separate in the jaxketed pile the copper plated same pile.
22 pile.
stuff you think is commercial pile.
you might be fooled by home made thinking it is commercial lead though.
and an unsure pile.
using these piles and a hardness tester you should be able to blend many batches of alloy that is pretty consistent.
don't worry about it all being exact or all commercial alloy ,close is good.
worry about figuring out your throat shape and getting a boolit that will feed and fit there.

[fredj338]

I run range lead in a couple 40s @ 950fps, runs fine. You can always water drop to get them harder if need be, every gun is diff.

[40Super]

I just cast a bunch with range lead,most of it was hard cast bullets,came out to about the same as Lyman #2. A #2 pencil would just so start to write on it rather than scratch. I water dropped some and it didn't seem to make much difference.

[Ausglock]

G'day.
I run range lead ( hardcast and .22 all mixed together) for a BHN of about 10. It is used for 40S&W Major loads with a Lee 175 TC conventional lube groove.
I size .401 and lube with Jake's Purple Ceresin lube. These get run through a Glock 35 Factory Barrel. Accurate and no leading.

Thanks.